Scope and Methods

Welcome to the course website for Political Science 242: Introduction to Political Science - Scope and Methods. The course is divided into three sections: epistemology, methodology, and theory. In the first section we will be examining the nature of political science and asking ourselves, "How do we know what we think we know?" Next, we will be looking at some of the quantitative methods that political scientists use to support their hypotheses. This methodology part of the class will use some basic statistical interpretation and application. Finally, in the theory section we will look at a variety of conceptual tools that political scientists use to make sense of politics.

A quantitative research report is a significant part of this course. You will be using Stata 8.0, a leading statistical software program used by many top graduate schools and professional organizations, to analyze data relevant to your own unique hypothesis.

Syllabus (pdf)

Key Terms

Epistemology Section

Methodology Section

Theory Section