Chapter 1: How Do We Know What's True?

1. Asking and Answering Questions About Politics
   1. Investment
   2. Authority
   3. Logic
   4. Faith
   5. Science
2. The Boundaries and Limits of Science
   1. Tentative Truth
   2. Fact-based versus value-based questions
   3. Recursive behavior
   4. Assessing Objective Reality
   5. Free will versus determinism

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Chapter 2: Using the Scientific Method and Political Science

1. We Are All Scientists
2. Characteristics and Assumptions of the Scientific Approach to Understanding Politics
   1. Characteristics of a Useful Social Science
   2. Assumptions of Social Science
3. The Wheel of Science Describes the Stages in the Research Process

1. The Wheel of Science
2. Stages in the Research Process

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Chapter 3: Formulating Problems and Hypotheses

1. How To Develop a Political Research Question
2. Sources of Research Topics
3. Criteria for Evaluating Potential Political Research Topics
4. Ethical Issues in Political Science Research
   1. Some Specific Ethical Dilemmas
      1. Risk of Harm to Subjects
      2. Voluntary Participation, New Inequalities and Coercion
      3. Covert Research, Invasion of Privacy and Deception
   2. Protecting the People We Study
      1. Institutional Review Boards
      2. Informed Consent and Debriefing
      3. Anonymity and Confidentiality
      4. Ethical Guidelines Set by Professional Organizations
   3. The Freedom to Conduct Research and the Rights of People Under Study
5. Transforming Research Topics into Researchable Questions: Narrowing the Focus

1. Useful Hypotheses: Definition and Functions
2. Characteristics of Useful Hypotheses
   1. A hypothesis should be stated affirmatively, not in the form of a question.
   2. A hypothesis must be testable with empirical evidence.
   3. A hypothesis states how two concepts (variables) are related.
   4. A hypothesis is meaningful and conceptually clear.
   5. Hypotheses should be general and related to a body of knowledge.
   6. Hypotheses should be plausible and make sense.

Elements in Hypotheses: Concepts, Variables, and Units of Analysis
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Chapter 4: Building a Bibliography: Determining What is Known

1. Serious Political Science Research Begins (But Does Not End) with the Library
2. Developing a Strategy for Finding Sources and Keeping a Record
3. Finding Resources

1. Using the Library Catalog to Identify Books
2. Reference Works: Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, Almanacs and Yearbooks
   1. Specialized Dictionaries
   2. Encyclopedias
   3. Almanacs and Yearbooks
3. Finding Articles in Periodicals
4. On-Line Data Bases
5. Locating Unpublished Professional Papers
6. Locating Material on the World Wide Web
7. Letting Others Help with the Work: Bibliographical References

Determining Whether Sources are Relevant

1. Books
2. Scholarly Articles
3. Web Sites
4. Creating a Bibliography: A Matter of Form

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Chapter 5: Reviewing Previous Research

1. Reading and Evaluating Empirical Political Research
2. Reading and Dissecting an Article Reporting Research
3. "Gender and Citizen Participation: Is There a Different Voice"
   1. Abstract
   2. Introduction
   3. Review of Literature
   4. Conceptual Hypotheses
   5. Methods
   6. Initial Findings
   7. Findings
   8. Appendix
   9. References
4. Writing a Review Comparing Research Reports

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Chapter 6: Assessing Relationships: Association or Causality?

1. Looking for Explanations

1. Independent and Dependent Variables; The Direction and Strength of Relationships
2. Association versus Causation
3. Criteria for Causality

Research Design

1. Null Hypothesis
2. Control Variables and Causality
3. Elaborating a Causal Hypothesis

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Chapter 7: Conceptualizing, Operationalizing, and Measuring Variables

1. From Abstract Concept to Concrete Measurement
2. Concepts and Variables
3. Operationalization and Measurement

1. Precision: Levels of Measurement
2. Accuracy of Measurement
3. Validity
4. Reliability
5. Maximizing Validity and Reliability

From Conceptual to Operational Hypotheses

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Chapter 8: Organizing and Managing Data

1. Mounds of Data
   1. Data Analysis Software
   2. The Data Matrix
2. Codebooks

1. Creating Your Own Codebook and SPSS Data File
2. Running a Frequency Distribution to Describe Your Data

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Chapter 9: How to Achieve Maximum Representatives: Sampling

1. Choosing Representative Units of Analysis
2. The Concept and Terminology of Sampling
3. Types of Samples
   1. Probability Sampling
      1. Simple Random Sampling
      2. Systematic Samples
      3. Stratified Sampling
      4. Clustered Sampling
      5. Telephone Samples
   2. Non-probability Sampling
      1. Convenience Sampling
      2. Judgmental Sampling
      3. Quota Sampling
      4. Snowball Sampling
4. Sample Error and Sample Size
   1. Sampling Error
   2. Sample Size

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Chapter 10: Collecting Data Using Surveys

1. Acquiring Survey Data
2. Developing Questions

1. Question Form
   1. Open-Ended Questions
   2. Closed-Ended Questions
   3. Filter and Contingency Questions
2. Focus on Content: Appropriate Question Wording
   1. Biased Questions
   2. Ambiguous Questions
   3. Double Barreled Questions
   4. Negative Questions
   5. Questions that Encourage Socially Desirable Responses
   6. Questions that Assume Respondent Knowledge
   7. Questions of Excessive Length
3. Using Questions from Developed by Others

Assembling the Survey Instrument

1. Introductions and Instructions
2. Question Order
3. Format
4. Pretesting

Administering the Survey

1. Face to face Interviews
2. Telephone Interviews
3. Self-Administered Questionnaires

Secondary Analysis of Survey Data

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Chapter 11: Collecting and Organizing Data from Published Sources

1. Previously Collected Data
2. Some General Strategies for Locating, Evaluating, and Collecting Published Data
   1. Locating Published Data
   2. Evaluating the Usefulness of Published Data
3. Collecting and Organizing Published Data for Analysis
4. Published Data with Geographic Regions or Organizations as Units of Analysis

1. Some Sources of Published Data that Describe Collectivities
   1. Characteristics of Government and Event Data for Nations
   2. Data on the United States and Its Geographical Subdivisions
   3. Data that Describe Political Organizations
2. Some Cautions in Using Published Data Describing Collectivities

1. Missing Data
2. Ecological Fallacy

Published Data When Units of Analysis are People

1. Some Sources of Published Data that Describe Political Elites in the United States
   1. Political Candidates
   2. Members of Congress
   3. Members of the Judiciary
   4. Presidents and Members of the Executive Branch
2. Elites Outside of the United States

Media Messages as Units of Analysis: Content Analysis

1. Three Examples of Content Analyses
   1. Elite Discourse During the Cold War
   2. Cops, Suspects, and Race on "Reality" Television Programs
   3. Characteristics of Countries with Elaborate Parliamentary Web Sites
2. The Process of Content Analysis

1. Specification of the Research Question and the Population
2. Taking a Sample of Units of Observation and Recording Units
3. Defining Variables and Categories of Content
4. Developing an Instrument for Recording Data

Cautions Concerning Reliability and Validity

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Chapter 12: Studying only a Few Cases: Intensive Approaches

1. Extensive and Intensive Approaches
2. Case Studies
3. Experimentation
   1. Logic of Experiments
   2. Internal versus External Validity
   3. Other Types of Experiments
   4. Quasi-Experiments
   5. Reminders About Ethics in Experiments>
4. Q-Technique
   1. An Overview of Q-Technique
   2. An Illustration: Using Q-Technique to Distinguish Conceptions of Representation
   3. Criticisms and Advantages of Q-Technique
5. Focus Groups

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Chapter 13: How to Describe and Summarize a Single Variable

1. Why Statistics
2. How Many Variables at What Level of Measurement?
3. Variables Measured at the Nominal and Ordinal Level
   1. Frequency Distribution
   2. Measures of Central Tendency and Dispersion
   3. Mode, Median, Range, and Percentile
4. Variables Measured at the Interval and Ratio Level

1. The Mean
2. Standard Deviation
3. The Standard Deviation and the Normal Curve
4. The Standard Deviation and Probability Sampling
5. Standard or z-scores

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Chapter 14: Constructing and Interpreting Bivariate Tables

1. Tables Tell Us a Lot
2. Characteristics and Construction of Bivariate Tables
   1. Evaluating the Direction and Strength of Relationships
   2. Measures of Association
      1. Lambda
      2. Gamma
   3. Statistical Significance
3. Alternative Means for Organizing Percentage Tables

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Chapter 15: Graphing and Describing Linear Bivariate Relationships

1. Relationships Between two Interval/Ratio Variables
   1. The Scatterplot
   2. Outliers
2. Interpreting a Scatterplot by Using a Regression Line
   1. Some Concerns About Regression Analysis
   2. Correlation-A Measure of Association
   3. Regression Analysis Results in SPSS

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Chapter 16: Analyzing More Than Two Variables

1. Sorting Out Multiple Influences
2. Nominal and Ordinal Level Data

1. Adding a Control Variable to the Test of a Bivariate Relationship
   1. Effects of Control Variables on Original Relationships
   2. Direct Effect of the Control Variable on the Dependent Variable
   3. Combined Effect of Control and Independent Variables on the Dependent Variable
2. Condensing Tables to Simplify Interpretation

Interval and Ratio Level Data

1. An Example of Multiple Linear Regression
2. Measure of AssociationMultiple Correlation Coefficient

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Chapter 17: Determining the Statistical Significance of Results

1. Sample versus Population Relationships
2. The Framework of Statistical Significance
   1. Type I versus Type II Errors
   2. Statistical Significance versus Substantive Significance
   3. Accepted Benchmarks for Statistical Significance
3. Tests of Statistical Significance

1. Chi Square
2. t-test and F-test
3. Statistical Significance for Regression Analysis

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Chapter 18: Reporting the Results of Empirical Political Research: Pulling It All Together

1. The Work is Not Finished Until You Communicate Your Results
2. Forms of Reporting Empirical Political Research
3. Organization and Presentation of the Elements of a Research Report
4. Writing: Style and Form
5. Presenting Quantitative Results
   1. Creating Effective Tables
   2. Creating Effective Graphs and Visual Representations of Findings
6. Ethical Considerations in Reporting Research

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