Developing a Research Project

The Elements of
Research Design
Three Purposes of Research

 Exploration
– Generally not sufficient for dissertation project
 Description
– This can be the goal if significant new facts or
relationships are identified
– Usually need to at least speculate on explanation
 Explanation
– Central goal of most political science research
Getting a Project Started

 Identifya topic or area of interest

 Key transition is from topic to question
– Identify puzzle in literature
– Should be able to state question in 1-2 sentences
– Clearly define the purpose of the project
 Once you have a question, you need
hypotheses about the answer
From Theory to Hypotheses

 Once you have a question, turn to various

methods of theory development
 Deduction – formal theory, computational
models
 Induction – building by analogy
 Theory building often involves both methods
Choose a Unit of Analysis

 Level of aggregation at which your hypotheses

can be observed
 Individuals (citizens, leaders, etc.)
 Groups (parties, social movements)
 Organizations/Institutions (states,
bureaucracies, firms)
Units of Analysis and Threats to
Inference

 Ecological Fallacy
– Cannot infer individual behavior from collective
outcomes
 Reductionism
– Cannot infer collective outcomes from individual
behavior
Choose a Method of Research
 Experiments
 Surveys
 Case Studies
– Field Research
– Archival Research
 Aggregate Data Analysis
– Existing or Field Collection
 Use Multiple Methods Whenever Possible
Select Observations

 What is the population to which you want to

generalize?
 How can you reach that population to draw a
sample?
 If random sampling is impossible or
inappropriate, how do you select cases to
avoid bias?
Operationalize Variables

 Translate theoretical concepts into observable

information that can be gathered on units of
analysis
 How valid are your measures?

 How reliable are your measures?

Collect the Data

 Be clear and systematic about the type of data

collected
 Keep clear files and records of all data
collected
 If using quantitative data, keep “do files” for all
data construction and analysis.
Analyze the Data

 Make analysis techniques transparent

 To the greatest extent possible, make analyses
easily replicable.
 Think about presenting results in the most
meaningful way possible.
 Clear and meaningful results are more
persuasive and more widely read.
Connect Analyses Back to Puzzle
and Hypotheses

 Always draw readers back from analyses to

their implications for hypotheses and your
original puzzle
 What does it all mean?
 Try to get back to those one or two core
sentences
What is a Good Dissertation?

 Theory development
– Is this alone enough for a dissertation?
 Theory Testing
– This is the goal of most projects
– Is it ESSENTIAL for a dissertation?
 Policy Evaluation
– Is this any different from theory testing?
What is a Good Dissertation?

 Historical Evaluative/Descriptive
– When does this constitute a contribution to social
science?
 Literature Assessing
– A viable strategy for dissertations?
– When does this constitute a contribution to social
science?
What is a Good Dissertation?

 Nomothetic vs. Ideographic Explanation

 Is one mode of explanation preferable to the
other?
 Is one mode of explanation inherently more
“scientific?”
 Can ideographic work be political science?