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WEEK5: POLITICAL RESEARCH

Explore key concepts in political research including validity vs. reliability, democracy measurements, and political dissatisfaction, along with group work hypothesis testing methods and essay writing tips.

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WEEK5: POLITICAL RESEARCH

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  1. WEEK5: POLITICAL RESEARCH

  2. Office Hours • On Thursdays • From 1.30pm to 2.30pm • Or e-mail: Baris.Gulmez.2009@live.rhul.ac.uk

  3. Validity vs. Reliability (Case I) • Xenophobia against Pakistani immigrants in the UK? • - Are X’s research findings valid? Why?

  4. Validity vs. Reliability (Case II) • American civil servants’ attitudes towards internet censorship. -Are Y’s findings reliable? Why? - Why did Z receive different answers, in your opinion?

  5. CONCEPTUALIZATION AND OPERATIONALIZATION In evaluating information about the social world about any particular topic X, it is helpful to keep 2 questions in mind: 1. "What is meant by X in this research?" (conceptual definition) 2. "How was X measured?" (operational definition)

  6. Case 3: measuring democracy • consider the UK, France, Tunisia, and Iran as democratic. • Do you agree with their measurement of democracy? Would you use additional indicators to measure democracy?

  7. Case 4: political dissatisfaction • the level of political dissatisfaction in the world. • Do you agree with their argument? Why?

  8. Group Work  Your Hypothesis: • Poorer countries are more likely to experience political violence • Select a country(ies) • Suggest different research methods to test whether your hypothesis is true or not. • Explain how your team will conduct the research (how long the research will take, the budget etc…)

  9. Essay Structure (Introduction and Conclusion!) • Proper introduction: define the keywords in the essay question and provides the essay outline. • Be concise  • Proper Conclusion summarizes and highlights your main argument/answer. • Be convincing 

  10. Essay writing • show your knowledge of the academic world: Refer to many academic articles and books! • show your familiarity with world politics: give a lot of real-world examples • Avoid long and ambiguous sentences!

  11. Quality of your essay • A good essay is critical and analytical (rather than descriptive): • questioning, evaluating, making judgements, finding connections and categorising (rather than simply summarizing what you read and heard) • Show that you are aware of the counter-arguments and try to refute them. • Acknowledge the limitations of your own argument.

  12. Referencing • Avoid plagiarism (intellectual theft) • Always give the name of the author, the year of publication, and the number of page. e.g. “Charts and graphs illustrate the results of the research.” (Bogdan and Biklen 1998:4). or According to Bogdan and Biklen (1998:4), “Charts and graphs illustrate the results of the research.”

  13. Bibliography • Article • Levy, J. S. and Thompson, W. R. (2005) ‘Hegemonic Threats and Great-Power Balancing in Europe, 1495-1999’, Security Studies 14 (1): 1-33.

  14. Next Week 

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