Syllabus
1) Intro a. Goals and organization of the course, assesment etc. b. Methodologies and methods – why we should care (examples)
2) Types of arguments a. Descriptive b. Causal c. Normative d. Prescriptive e. Predictive
3) Concepts and Measures a. Concepts b. Strategies of concept formation c. Measures
4) Analyses a. Internal and external validity b. Sample size and representativness c. Sampling d. Reliability and validity
5) Researching causal relationships a. Structural explanations b. Motivational explanations c. Interactive explanations d. Theory Building
6) Causal analyses a. Causality b. Causal hypotheses c. Types of causal analyses
7) Experiments a. With and without confounding b. Varieties of experiments
8) Large N observational research a. Cross-sectional design b. Time series design c. Regression discontinuity design
9) Case studies a. Case selection rules b. Within case studies c. Brief comparison with Large N studies
10) Selected problems of causal inference a. Confounders (how to deal with the problem) b. Thinking about your reseach design in advance c. Combining large N studies and qualitative studies
11) Logic of Inquiry vs. logic of presentation a. Reading and rewieving b. Data gathering c. Writing d. Speaking
12) MA thesis project - presentations TEST!