Předměty

Poslední úprava: Dr. rer. pol. Michal Parízek, M.Sc., Ph.D. (30.08.2021)

The purpose of this course is to introduce the students of international relations and security studies to political research methods, and specifically to their quantitative branch. Somewhat less formally, students will learn how to create or collect quantitative political data and how to use them to solve practical and/or theoretical political problems. Quantitative data -- information about political phenomena captured and summarized in numbers -- is available literally on every corner, waiting just to be collected and analyzed. In this class, students get the chance to learn how to do it. Being familiar with quantitative methods enables one to make policy decisions on the basis of a solid analysis of hard(er) empirical evidence, and to conduct systematic inquiry into the nature of international political and security phenomena. Last but not least, knowing quantitative methods enables one not be fooled by others when they try to support their arguments with lousy but seemingly sophisticated (because quantitative) analysis. The class does not assume any prior knowledge of statistics or mathematics, essentially beyond elementary school. It does assume, however, a good deal of motivation on the part of students, as the learning curve may be somewhat steeper for some of the students. The powerful (yet free) statistical package called R will be used in the class, in combination with the interface RStudio. Students are well advised to attend all classes and to keep up with the assigned readings as the material covered is highly cumulative.

Poslední úprava: Dr. rer. pol. Michal Parízek, M.Sc., Ph.D. (30.08.2021)

The specific objectives of the course are:

to help students understand and appreciate the most important components of research design
to help students understand the key principles of causal inference and the way statistics can help them in it
to help students understand and use the key tools of descriptive statistics
to help students understand and use basic tools of inferential statistics, including linear regression analysis
to help students appreciate the possibilities stats give them for their own future careers (or academic research)

Poslední úprava: Dr. rer. pol. Michal Parízek, M.Sc., Ph.D. (30.08.2021)

Successful completion of this course requires first and foremost active interest in the subject matter. On the formal level, this means you should:

if possible, regularly attend the classes (this is recommended but not formally required)
read carefully the required textbook readings and do the quizzes based on these readings (always available on the course Moodle site, altogether 20%)
do all the problem sets that help you understand and familiarize yourself with the material covered in each of the classes (always available on the course Moodle site, altogether 20%)
take the mid-term test (20% of grade)
take the final test or deliver a short report on own data analysis (40% of the grade)
obtain more than 50% of the points from the final review or own data analysis (i.e. more than 20 points out of the 40 points available)
actively participate in the discussion fora on Moodle (up to 5% bonification)

The following grading scheme is applied:

100-91: A
90-81: B
80-71: C
70-61: D
60-51: E
50 or less: F (fail)

Please note that as much as 40% of the grade is based on your regular assignments during the semester. This means your final grade will build up over the entire course in a very cumulative manner. Having said that, doing well on the mid-term test and on the final test or own final data analysis is equally important.

At the end of the course, students have a choice between taking a final test or conducting own data analysis and writing a short report on that. In general, taking the final test is likely to require somewhat lower time of preparation. However, I recommend that students who would like to continue using and applying quantitative methods conduct the data analysis. In other words, if students feel that they might want to employ quantitative approaches also in the future - be it for their theses or later on in their professional careers - I highly recommend that they prepare the data analysis rather than 'just' taking the test.

The grading scheme is designed so that everyone who regularly prepares himself/herself for the classes will have no problem passing. The relatively benevolent grading scheme notwithstanding, please note that this course does require continuous work. If one loses track of what is happening in the course, it may be extremely difficult to catch up. So students should understand that continuous work on the assignments and the readings is a necessary condition for the success in this course. %On the other hand, if one is able to do well on the weekly homework, one is more than likely to score very well also on the tests.

Poslední úprava: Dr. rer. pol. Michal Parízek, M.Sc., Ph.D. (13.09.2021)

Core textbok

Kenneth J. Meier, Jeffrey L. Brudney, and John Bohte, Applied Statistics for Public and Nonprofit Administration, 8th ed. (Wadsworth, 2010)

Additional readings

Alan Bryman, Social Research Methods (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012).
Andy Field, Jeremy Miles, and Zoë Field, Discovering Statistics Using R (London: Sage, 2012).
Gary King, Robert O. Keohane, and Sidney Verba, Designing Social Inquiry: Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994).
Michael S. Lewis-Beck, Applied Regression: An Introduction (SAGE Publications, Inc, 1980).
Rein Taagepera, Making Social Sciences More Scientific: The Need for Predictive Models (Oxford University Press, USA, 2008).
John Verzani, Simple R: Using R for Introductory Statistics, 2002.

Poslední úprava: Dr. rer. pol. Michal Parízek, M.Sc., Ph.D. (24.09.2021)

The course consists of weekly lectures/seminars. Attendance is highly recommended, although strictly speaking this is not a formal requirement.

Course online sessions take place at https://cesnet.zoom.us/j/92726480217 (Meeting ID: 927 2648 0217).

Poslední úprava: Dr. rer. pol. Michal Parízek, M.Sc., Ph.D. (30.08.2021)

Introduction and motivation; (quantitative) research as seeking answers to the right questions
Research design, inference, and causality
Data, data, data: measurement theory, measuring things, levels of measurement
Data, data, data in practice
Key descriptive statistics: measures of central tendency and measures of dispersion
Probability; standard normal distribution, binomial distribution
Statistical inference and hypothesis testing
T-test (testing the difference between two groups) and experiments
Categorical and ordinal variables analysis: Cross-tabs and chi-square; measures of association
Bivariate regression, principles, assumptions, and fit
Multiple regression
Model specification, interactions, and what's next