The Essentials of Political Analysis / Edition 6

by Philip H. Pollock, Barry Clayton Edwards

Overview

Pollock provides a political science textbook on research methods and data analysis, emphasizing hypothetical and actual examples, and the interpretation of graphic displays of variables and relationships. While still focusing on phenomena from US politics, this second edition adds examples from comparative politics and international relations. For further application, Pollock's SPSS Companion to Political Analysis workbook gets students working with real political science data to apply important concepts in the text and provide an introduction to SPSS, the statistics program most used by today's political scientists. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781506379616
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	08/20/2019
Edition description:	Sixth Edition
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Philip H. Pollock III is a professor of political science at the University of Central Florida. He has taught courses in research methods at the undergraduate and graduate levels for more than thirty years. His main research interests are American public opinion, voting behavior, techniques of quantitative analysis, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. His recent research has been on the effectiveness of Internet-based instruction. Pollock’s research has appeared in the American Journal of Political Science, Social Science Quarterly, and the British Journal of Political Science. Recent scholarly publications include articles in Political Research Quarterly, the Journal of Political Science Education, and PS: Political Science and Politics.


Barry C. Edwards writes textbooks and works for Fair Trial Analysis, LLC, a company that conducts research on juries and jurors for civil and criminal litigation. He received his B.A. from Stanford University, a J.D. from New York University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Georgia. He taught survey design and analysis, research methods, and prelaw courses at the University of Central Florida and continues to teach occasional courses for the University of Georgia. His political science interests include American politics, public law, and research methods. He founded the Political Science Data Group and created the Poli Sci Data.com website. His research has been published in American Politics Research, Congress & the Presidency, Election Law Journal, Emory Law Journal, Georgia Bar Journal, Harvard Negotiation Law Review, Journal of Politics, NYU Journal of Legislation and Public Policy, Political Research Quarterly, Presidential Studies Quarterly, Public Management Review, State Politics and Policy Quarterly, and UCLA Criminal Justice Law Review.

Table of Contents

	Tables and Figures	xi
	Preface	xv
	Introduction	1
	What This Book Is (and Is Not) About	2
	Facts and Values in Perspective	3
	The Scientific Approach	3
	Conclusion	5
1.	The Measurement of Concepts	6
	Questions	6
Stage 1	How to Define a Concept	8
	Clarifying a Concept	8
	A Template for Writing a Conceptual Definition	10
Stage 2	Operational Definitions	12
	Validity and Reliability	13
	Approaches to Evaluating Accuracy	15
Stage 3	Variables	18
	Levels of Measurement	19
	Clearing up Confusion over Levels of Measurement	22
	Summary	23
	Key Terms	23
	Exercises	23
2.	Explanations and Hypotheses	26
	Questions	26
Stage 1	From Variable to Explanation	28
Stage 2	From Explanation to Hypothesis	31
Stage 3	From Hypothesis to Test	35
	The True Experiment	36
	The Natural Experiment	39
	The Controlled Comparison	40
	Summary	44
	Key Terms	45
	Exercises	45
3.	Describing Variables and Making Comparisons	48
	Questions	48
	Describing Variables	49
	Summary Guidelines of Description	56
	Making Comparisons	58
	Cross-tabulations	58
	Mean Comparisons	62
	Graphing Relationships and Describing Patterns	63
	Summary	69
	Key Terms	70
	Exercises	71
4.	The "How Else?" Question: Making Controlled Comparisons	73
	Questions	73
	Three Scenarios: X[right arrow]Y, Controlling for Z	75
	Spurious Relationships	75
	Enhancement Relationships	77
	Specification Relationships	78
	Making Controlled Comparisons	82
	Cross-tabulation Analysis	82
	The Rule of Direction for Nominal Variables	85
	Mean Comparison Analysis	87
	Summary	92
	Key Terms	93
	Exercises	93
5.	Sampling and Inference	95
	Questions	95
	Random Sampling	96
	How Sample Size Affects Random Sampling Error	100
	Variation Revisited: The Standard Deviation	101
	The Normal Distribution	104
	How the Standard Deviation Affects Random Sampling Error	106
	Inference Using the Normal Distribution	107
	Inference Using the Student's t-Distribution	111
	What About Sample Proportions?	115
	Summary	117
	Key Terms	119
	Exercises	119
6.	Tests of Significance and Measures of Association	121
	Questions	121
	Statistical Significance	122
	Comparing Two Sample Means	124
	Comparing Two Sample Proportions	128
	The Chi-square Test of Significance	130
	Measures of Association	135
	The PRE Approach	136
	Lambda Revisited: The Problem and a Remedy	139
	Summary	141
	Key Terms	142
	Exercises	142
7.	Correlation and Regression	144
	Questions	144
	Correlation	145
	Bi-Variate Regression	147
	R-Square	153
	Dummy Variable Regression	155
	Multiple Regression	158
	Interaction Effects in Multiple Regression	160
	A Problem to Look Out For: Multicollinearity	163
	Summary	165
	Key Terms	165
	Exercises	166
8.	Thinking Empirically, Thinking Probabilistically	169
	Thinking Empirically	170
	Thinking Probabilistically	171
	Notes	173
	Index	181

Editorial Reviews

The recent edition of The Essentials of Political Analysis provides a strong foundation in statistics for political science students. The integration between the main textbook and its companion is excellent. The instructor resources present effective teaching tools that complement the book seamlessly.”

Tijen Demirel-Pegg

Pollock and Edwards explain the nuts-and-bolts of research design and data analysis in a clear and concise style. The Essential of Political Analysis is an intuitive introduction to complex material, replete with examples from the political science literature that add relevance to statistical concepts. This text offers students an excellent balance between the technical and the practical.”

Francis Neely

A great resource to get students up and running on statistical analysis in politics. I recommend this book to all my colleagues. The accompanying workbook for R is also excellent.”

Sarah E. Croco

An excellent textbook to use for scope and methods and undergraduate statistics courses.

Maurice Mangum

Overall, this is the best political science research methods book I’ve seen. It is brief yet covers the methodological basics of quantitative research design from concept development to difference of means, chi-square, and linear regression. It is detailed, yet comprehensible. Best of all, the companion text offers quality datasets and walk-throughs of SPSS that bring every concept here to life. Combined, The Essentials of Political Analysis and An SPSS Companion to Political Analysis form the backbone of our undergraduate research methods teaching.”

William Field

“With its carefully organized material, hands-on running examples, and accessible writing style, The Essentials of Political Analysis introduces readers to the foundational principles of research in Political Science in a natural and fluid fashion. It effectively conveys to students the idea that the methods we use in Political Science research are crucial in providing answers to real world political and social questions. The chapters on inference in particular are extremely well executed.”

Renato Corbetta

Straightforward with good resources.

Youssef Chouhoud

This is a thorough and understandable introduction to research methods that can easily be adapted to your classroom preferences and needs.

Scott Leibertz

A great book that introduces students to the basic elements of research, data, and data analysis. Students don't necessarily need to start the class with a working knowledge of statistics to be successful.

Brian Crisher

Foundations of statistics for poli sci major in plain language with easy to comprehend exercises.

Volodymyr Guptan

An approachable and lucidly written text that provides students with the essential knowledge and tools for conducting empirical political science research.

Yi Yang

A well-written undergraduate methods textbook that even the most apprehensive student can understand.

Nadine Gibson

An excellent introduction on how to carry out social scientific research. Highly recommended for undergraduate courses on research design and the basics of statistical analysis.

David Dreyer