GVPT420

Prerequisite: GVPT201. Restriction: Must be in Government & Politics program; or must be in Government & Politics: International Relations program. Introduction to concepts and practices used for measuring political behavior. Political analysis is an increasingly quantitative field. It is crucial for students of political behavior to learn how to define concepts in concrete ways, examine different methods of measuring concepts, learn how to test the quality of chosen measures, learn how to construct richer measures out of multiple questions, and finally how to examine the relationship between multiple measures of similar concepts. Common pitfalls, errors, bias, and ethics will be examined along the way.