Quantitative Methods for the Social Sciences

Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: The nuts and bolts of empirical social science 2.1 What is empirical research in the social sciences? 2.2 Qualitative and quantitative research 2.3 Theories, concepts, variables and hypotheses 2.3.1 Theories 2.3.2 Concepts 2.3.3. Variables 2.3.4 Hypotheses 2.4 The quantitative research process Chapter 3: A short introduction to survey research 3.1 What is survey research? 3.2 A short history of survey research 3.3 The importance of survey research in the social sciences and beyond 3.4 Overview of some of the most widely-used surveys in the social sciences 3.4.1 The Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) 3.4.2 World Value Survey (WVS) 3.4.3 The European Social Survey (ESS) 3.5 Different types of surveys 3.5.1 Cross-sectional surveys 3.5.2 Longitudinal surveys Chapter 4: Constructing a survey 4.1 Question design 4.2 Ordering of questions 4.3 Number of questions 4.4 Getting the questions right 4.5 Social desirability 4.6 Open-ended and closed-ended questions 4.7 Types of closed-ended survey questions 4.7.1 Scales 4.7.2 Dichotomous survey questions 4.7.3 Multiple choice questions 4.7.4 Numerical continuous questions 4.7.5 Categorical survey questions 4.7.6 Rank order questions 4.7.7 Matrix table questions 4.8 Different variables 4.9 Coding of different variables in a dataset 4.9.1 Coding of nominal variables4.10 Drafting a questionnaire: General information 4.10.1 Drafting a questionnaire A step-by-step approach 4.11 Sample questionnaire 4.12 Background information about the questionnaire Chapter 5: Conducting a survey 5.1 Population and sample 5.2 Representative, random, and biased samples 5.3 Sampling errors 5.4 Non-random sampling techniques 5.5 Different types of surveys 5.6 Which type of survey should researchers use? 5.7 Pre-tests 5.7.1 What is a pre-test? 5.7.2 How to conduct a pre-test Chapter 6: Univariate statistics 6.1 SPSS and Stata 6.2 Putting data into an SPSS spreadsheet 6.3 Putting data into a Stata spreadsheet 6.4 Frequency tables 6.4.1 Constructing a frequency table in SPSS 6.4.2 Constructing a frequency table in Stata 6.5 The measures of central tendency - mean, median, mode, and range 6.6 Displaying data graphically - pie charts, boxplots, and histograms 6.6.1 Pie charts 6.6.2 Doing a pie chart in SPSS 6.6.3 Doing a pie chart in Stata 6.7 Boxplots 6.7.1 Doing a boxplot in SPSS 6.7.2 Doing a boxplot in Stata 6.8 Histograms 6.8.1 Doing a histogram in SPSS 6.8.2 Doing a histogram in Stata 6.9 Deviation, variance, standard deviation, standard error, sampling error, and confidence interval 6.9.1 Calculating the confidence interval in SPSS 6.9.2 Calculating the confidence interval in Stata Chapter 7: Bivariate statistics with categorical variables 7.1 Independent samples t-test 7.1.1 Doing an independent samples t-test in SPSS 7.1.2 Interpreting an independent samples t-test SPSS output 7.1.3 Reading an SPSS independent samples t-test output column by column7.1.4 Doing an independent samples t-test in Stata 7.1.5 Interpreting an independent samples t-test Stata output 7.1.6 Reporting the output of an independent samples t-test 7.2 F-test or one way anova 7.2.1 Doing an f-test in SPSS 7.2.2 Interpreting an SPSS anova output 7.2.3 Doing a post-hoc or multiple comparison test in SPSS 7.2.4 Doing an f-test in Stata 7.2.5 Interpreting an f-test in Stata 7.2.6 Doing a post-hoc or multiple comparison test with unequal variance in Stata 7.2.7 Reporting the results of an f-test 7.3 Cross-tabulation table and chi-square test 7.3.1 Cross-tabulation table 7.3.2 Chi-square test 7.3.3 Doing a chi-square test in SPSS 7.3.4 Interpreting a SPSS chi-square test 7.3.5 Doing a chi-square test in Stata 7.3.6 Reporting a chi-square test result Chapter 8: Bivariate relationships featuring two continuous variables 8.1 What is a bivariate relationship between two continuous variables? 8.1.1 Positive and negative relationships 8.2 Scatterplots 8.2.1 Positive relationships displayed in a scatterplo... Mehr