Texts and Journal References Books: The following books are available at the Huntley Bookstore or on Amazon.com.

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1 Claremont Graduate University Department of Politics & Policy PP 484: Experimental and Qualitative Methods Contact Information Course Instructor: Professor Jennifer Merolla Office: Harper Hall 214, CGU Campus Phone: Office hours: Wednesdays, 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Teaching Assistant: Artour Aslanian Office hours: Thursdays, 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Course Schedule Semester: Fall 2013 Meeting day, time: Tuesdays, 4:00-6:50 Course Location: McManus 35 Course Description The purpose of this course is to introduce you to experimental and qualitative methods and their application in social science research. One goal is to provide general knowledge about the benefits and limitations of each approach. Another is to help you critically assess experimental and qualitative designs. Finally, and most importantly, the course should provide you with the tools that are necessary to apply experimental or qualitative methods to your own research. While there are no formal prerequisites, it is recommended that you have taken PP 481, or an equivalent introductory statistics class. The first part of the course reviews basic issues of research design, causality, and ethics. These are issues that cut across experimental and qualitative methods. The next section of the course focuses on qualitative methods. After reviewing some debates in qualitative research, we will cover specific types of qualitative methods such as case studies, interviews, focus groups, fieldwork, participant observation, and content analysis. The second half of the course focuses on experimental methods. We will begin by discussing validity and different types of experimental designs, and then move on to learn about programming an online experiment and analysis of experimental data. This course fulfills one of the specialized tools requirements for students in the Department of Politics and Policy. If you are a student in another school, please check with your advisor for whether they will accept this class as part of your program. Background Preparations (Prerequisites) There are no prerequisites for this course. Texts and Journal References Books: The following books are available at the Huntley Bookstore or on Amazon.com.

2 Brady, Henry E., and David Collier Rethinking Social Inquiry: Diverse Tools, Shared Standards, 2 nd Edition. New York, NY: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. George, Alexander L. and Andrew Bennett Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social Sciences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Gerber, Alan S., and Donald Green Field Experiments: Design, Analysis and Interpretation. W.W. Norton and Company. King, Gary, Robert Keohane and Sidney Verba Designing Social Inquiry. Princeton University Press. Morton, Rebecca B. and Kenneth C. Williams Experimental Political Science and the Study of Causality: From Nature to the Lab. Cambridge University Press. Mosley, Layna, Ed Interview Research in Political Science. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press. Journal articles and other book chapters are listed in the list of weekly readings section. Unless otherwise stated, journal articles can be accessed through the library website. Chapters from other books will be available in the resources section of the Sakai class website. Course Learning Outcomes: By the end of this course, students will be able to: 1. Understand different types of experimental and qualitative designs and their respective strengths and limitations. 2. Think critically about experimental and qualitative designs. 3. Weigh the ethics involved in research involving human subjects and fill out a human subjects protocol. 4. Develop both qualitative and experimental designs. 5. Field a qualitative and experimental study. 6. Program an experiment using an online platform (Qualtrics). 7. Analyze qualitative and experimental data. Course Requirements & Assignments: Homework-50% We will have weekly homework assignments. The assignment listed in a given week will be due by 4:00 p.m. on the following Monday. This will give people time to read each other s assignments before the next class. Each day an assignment is late (which starts at 4:05 on Monday), you lose 1/3 of a grade. Qualitative Paper-25% You are required to submit a qualitative research paper. The paper should use one of the qualitative methodologies learned in Part II of the course. The paper should not exceed 20 double spaced pages (excluding appendices), and you will present the paper to the class. Group Experiment Project/Paper-25% You will write up a paper from a group experiment project and present the project to the class. The paper should not exceed 25 pages double-spaced. This does not include appendices (which should contain the experimental instrumentation). Groups will present their paper on the last day of class.

3 Attendance Students are expected to attend all classes. Students who are unable to attend class must seek permission for an excused absence from the course instructor. Unapproved absences or late attendance for two or more classes may result in a lower grade or an incomplete for the course. If a student has to miss a class, he or she should arrange to get notes from a fellow student and is strongly encouraged to meet with the professor or teaching assistant to obtain the missed material. Scientific and Professional Ethics The work you do in this course must be your own. Feel free to build on, react to, criticize, and analyze the ideas of others but, when you do, make it known whose ideas you are working with. You must explicitly acknowledge when your work builds on someone else's ideas, including ideas of classmates, professors, and authors you read. If you ever have questions about drawing the line between others' work and your own, ask the course professor who will give you guidance. Any violations of academic integrity will be reported to the provost. Grading Letter Grade Grade Point Description Learning Outcome A 4.0 Complete mastery of course material and additional insight beyond course material Insightful B 3.0 Complete mastery of course material Proficient Gaps in mastery of the course material; not at C 2.0 level expected by the program Developing U 0.0 Unsatisfactory Ineffective Expectations and Logistics The format of the class will vary depending on the topics in a given week. Some weeks will be mixed with lecture and discussion. Other weeks may have a combination of presentations, group activities, and discussion. It is expected that you will have completed and thought carefully about the reading before attending class. It is incumbent on every participant in the class (instructor and students alike) to maintain an environment conducive to learning. We should always remember that people bring differences with them into the classroom and that these differences should be respected. It is imperative that each of us maintain civility and professionalism when asking questions and making comments. Since this is a seminar, participants should be talking to each other, rather than to computer screens. Typing away on a computer can be distracting to the conversation, so try to keep it to a minimum. It is fine to take notes on a computer or tablet if the instructor is lecturing, but note taking is not generally necessary during the discussion portion of class. It is expected that you are not using the computer for other activities during class (e.g. checking your face book page).

4 Please respect your fellow classmates be on time, don t be disruptive, turn off your cell phones, and really listen to them. In any given week, I will ask a subset of students to circulate their homework assignment with the class via the forum on Sakai. The goal will be to discuss the particular assignments at the start of class. Late assignments will lose 1/3 of a grade each day they are late, unless there is a documented emergency. I will post information for the course on the Sakai page. Please check it often. Any student with a documented disability (physical, learning, or psychological) needing academic accommodations should speak with me in the first few weeks of the course so we can make proper arrangements for course assignments. Important Dates Qualitative Paper Due: November 12th Qualitative Paper Presentations: these will be spread out each week starting November 12th. Group Experiment Presentation: December 10th Group Experiment Paper Due: December 17th Detailed Schedule Part I. Research Design, Causality and Ethics September 3rd: Intro and Organizational Meeting King, Keohane and Verba, Chapter 1 Morton and Williams, Chapter 1 Assignment: Write a research question/puzzle and discuss how it would be a contribution to the scholarly literature. Discuss some preliminary hypotheses. (1-3 double-spaced pages) September 10 th : Causality King, Keohane and Verba, Chapter 2 and 3 Morton and Williams, Chapter 2 and 3 Gerber and Green, Chapter 1 and 2 (similar to Morton and Williams but a slightly different treatment) Assignment: Refine your hypotheses and discuss how you might test them using a qualitative and an experimental design. What are the strengths and limitations of each approach? (3-5 double-spaced pages) September 17 th : Ethics in Research Guest Speaker: Lara Steele, IRB Analyst Morton and Williams, Section IV Mosley book, Chapter 2 (Brooks), Chapter 3 (MacLean), Chapter 8 (Reno) Milgram, Stanley Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View. New York: Harper and Row. Chapters 1 and 2. Go through slide show on

5 Assignment: Do IRB training: Submit certificate. Discuss the role of human subjects in your qualitative and experimental design ideas. Discuss how you would ensure the protection of human subjects in these designs (3-5 double spaced pages). Part II. Qualitative Methods September 24th: Debates over Qualitative Methods King, Keohane and Verba, Chapters 4-6 Brady and Collier, 2 (page 57-63, earlier pages are a nice summary of KKV), Chapter 3, 5-6, 8-9 Assignment: Write a thought piece summarizing the key points in KKV and Brady and Collier. Which do you find more persuasive and why? (4-6 double spaced pages). October 1st: Case Studies and Process Tracing Guest Speaker: Nick Weller George and Bennett, Chapters 4-6, 8-9 Seawright, Jason, and John Gerring Case Selection Techniques in Case Study Research: A Menu of Qualitative and Quantitative Options. Political Research Quarterly 61: Brady and Collier, Chapters TBD from Weller book Recommended Lijphart, A "Comparative Politics and the Comparative Method." American Political Science Review 65: Assignment: Process tracing exercise (see assignment section in Sakai for details). October 8 th : Interviews Mosley, Layna, Ed Interview Research in Political Science. Cornell University Press: Ithaca and London, Intro-Chapter 1 (review Chapters 2 and 3), Chapters 4-6, Chapter 9, read either Chapter 10, 11, or 12 Assignment: Propose an interview protocol for your research topic. The protocol should address the sample, how you will recruit participants, the location of the study, as well as the questions that will be asked and why. (3-5 double-spaced pages) October 15th: Participant Observation, Field Work Strategies, and Focus Groups Guest Speaker: Melissa Rogers Wedeen, Lisa "Reflections on Ethnographic Work in Political Science." Annual Review of Political Science 13: Fenno, Richard F., Jr Home Style: House Members in their Districts. Introduction, (pp. xi-xvi), Chapter 5 (pp ), and Skim Appendix (pp ). Krueger, Richard A. and Mary Anne Casey Focus Groups: A Practical Guide for Applied Research, 4 th Edition. Sage Publications. Chapters 1-3, Chapter 4 optional. Gamson, William A Talking Politics. Chapter 1 (pp. 1-12), Chapter 2 (pp ), Chapter 4 (pp ). Skim Appendix A (pp ).

6 Recommended Geertz, C. The Interpretation of Cultures. New York, NY: Basic Books, chapters 1 and 15. Samuels, D "Concurrent Elections, Discordant Results." Comparative Politics, Vol. 33, No. 1 (October 2000) Assignment: There will be a set of focus group transcripts posted to Sakai. Write up the results of these transcripts (3-5 double spaced pages). October 22 nd : Archival Data, Documents and Content Analysis Bowen, Glenn Document Analysis as a Qualitative Research Method. Qualitative Research Journal 9: Druckman, James N., Martin J. Kifer, and Michael Parkin Campaign Communications in U.S. Congressional Elections. American Political Science Review 103: Haynes, Chris and Karthick Ramakrishnan. Vying for Conservative Hearts and Minds. Working Paper. Hopkins, Daniel J. and Gary King A Method of Automated Nonparametric Content Analysis for Social Science. American Journal of Political Science 54(1): Grimmer, Justin and Brandon M. Stewart Text as Data: The Promise and Pitfalls of Automatic Content Analysis for Political Texts. Political Analysis Assignment: Content Analysis Exercise (see assignment section in Sakai for details) Part II. Experimental Research October 29 th : Design and Validity Morton and Williams, Section II, Chapter 5 (recommended, Chapter 4 and 6) and Section III Assignment: Propose a lab experiment to test your hypotheses (3-5 double spaced pages). Everyone should post this assignment to the forum. November 5 th : Lab Experiments Guest: Josh Tasoff Battaglini, M., R.B Morton, and T.R. Palfrey The Swing Voter s Curse in the Laboratory. Review of Economic Studies 77: Lau, Richard R., and David P. Redlawsk Advantages and Disadvantages of Cognitive Heuristics in Political Decision Making. American Journal of Political Science 45: Kam, Cindy D Implicit Attitudes, Explicit Choices: When Subliminal Priming Predicts Candidate Preference. Political Behavior 29(3): Merolla, Jennifer L and Elizabeth J. Zecheister Terrorist Threat, Leadership and the Vote: Evidence from Three Experiments. Political Behavior 31(4): Tomz, Michael and RobertVan Houweling Candidate Positioning and Voter Choice. American Political Science Review 102(3): Assignment: Choose a group lab experiment. Refine study instruments. Fill out IRB protocol. November 12 th : Choosing Samples/Programming in Qualtrics/Using MTurk

7 Sears, David College Sophmores in the Laboratory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 51 (3): Kam, Cindy D., Jennifer R. Wilking, and Elizabeth J. Zechmeister Beyond the Narrow Database: Another Convenience Sample for Experimental Research. Political Behavior 29: Henry, P.J College Sophomores in the Laboratory Redux: Influences of Narrow Database on Social Psychology s view of the Nature of Prejudice. Psychological Inquiry 19(2): Kam, Cindy D. and James N. Druckman Students as Experimental Participants: A Defense of the Narrow Data Base, in James N. Druckman, Donald P. Green, James H. Kuklinski, and Arthur Lupia, eds., Handbook of Experimental Political Science. Berinsky, Adam J., Gregory A. Huber, and Gabriel S. Lenz Evaluating Online Labor Markets for Experimental Research: Amazon.com s Mechanical Turk. Political Analysis 20: Assignment: Program the group lab experiment in qualtrics (and run tests). November 19 th : Basic Analysis of Experiments and Reporting Results Gerber and Green, Chapters 3 and 4, 13 Assignment: Analysis assignment (more details on Sakai). Field study on MTurk. November 26 th : Field Experiments Gerber, Alan S., and Donald P. Green The Effects of Canvassing, Direct Mail, and Telephone Contact on Voter Turnout: A Field Experiment. American Political Science Review 94: Wantchekon, Leonard Clientalism and Voting Behavior: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Benin. World Politics 55(3): Gerber and Green, Chapters 5, 6, 12 Assignment: Propose a Field Experiment (3-5 pages double spaced). December 3rd: More Advanced Issues/Analysis of Experiments Gerber and Green, Chapters 7, 9, 10 Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 51: Horiuchi, Yusaku, Kosuke Imai, and Naoko Taniguchi Designing and Analyzing Randomized Experiments: Application to a Japanese Survey Experiment. American Journal of Political Science 51 (3): December 10 th : Group Presentations

Room: Office Hours: T 9:00-12:00. Seminar: Comparative Qualitative and Mixed Methods

CPO 6096 Michael Bernhard Spring 2014 Office: 313 Anderson Room: Office Hours: T 9:00-12:00 Time: R 8:30-11:30 bernhard at UFL dot edu Seminar: Comparative Qualitative and Mixed Methods AUDIENCE: Prerequisites: