This course focuses on some of the most fundamental tasks of political science: describing and explaining political participation, attitudes, and behaviors. Whereas description delves into questions of electoral sociology – who turns out in elections, supports or opposes redistribution or immigration, or votes for populist parties – explanation targets theoretically meaningful questions about causes to advance our understanding of why people hold certain views and vote the way they do.
In this course, we will not only approach these questions by engaging with theoretical perspectives and existing empirical evidence. Instead, we will also grapple with these questions through hands-on applied research. To this end, the course offers an applied introduction to the statistical programming software R in the context of political behavior research. R is a free and open software environment that is widely used for data analysis and data visualization in the social sciences and beyond. Participants will learn central features of the programming language and will receive targeted training in data wrangling, data visualization, and (generalized) linear regression modeling. Through technical exercises and applied research essays, they will apply these skills to address substantive questions from various strands of political behavior research. Prior quantitative methods training at the level of Statistik I + II (or equivalent) is strongly recommended.
The language of instruction is English. Research essays (Prüfungsleistung) may be submitted in either English or German.
Studienleistungen: Technical exercises
Prüfungsleistung: 3 Applied Research Essays (1,500 words/approx. 5 pages each)
- Lehrende/r: Denis Cohen