This course offers a
hands-on approach to quantitative and statistical methods commonly employed in
political and social science research. It is designed to provide you with the
methodological foundations necessary for understanding and conducting
quantitative research in political and social sciences and giving you the tools
to critically read and structure a quantitative research paper in its various
components.

In the introductory
part of the course, we will cover the essentials of epistemology, the key steps
to set up a quantitative research paper and the types of research design. You
will explore how political and social scientists use the scientific method to address
their questions, while diving into the nuances of the demarcation problem— the
distinction between the so-called "hard" and "soft"
sciences in conducting research.

The main part of the
course delves into the essential elements of statistics and its practical
application in data analysis, the key components of a solid research design. We
will explore concepts of descriptive and inferential statistics, learning ways
to summarize and organize data with measures of central tendency and dispersion
and then being able to infer about populations basing on a sample by means of
hypothesis testing, analysis of variance techniques and regression
analysis.  In this module, we will explore strategies for analysing
large datasets and interpreting the statistical outputs commonly encountered in
political and social science literature. With a solid theoretical foundation
and real-world examples, you will learn how to select appropriate datasets and
apply relevant statistical methods to tackle specific research questions.  By the end of the course, you will be able to design
research, read and interpret statistics, choose the right elementary methods to
address your research questions, and draw meaningful conclusions from your
statistical tests.