Political Science Scope and Methods Observation Measurement and

Political Science Scope and Methods Observation, Measurement, and Political Implications II

Finishing up… l This week: Measurement, part 2 l Concerns ¡ Interviews ¡ Verbal Reports of Decision-making ¡ Verbal Reports of Behavior l Examples ¡ Butterfly Ballot ¡ SATs ¡ Your Projects

Interviews l Systematic Observation ¡ Access ¡ Data collection l Example: Fenno ¡ Problems?

Verbal Reports: Decision-Making and Behaviors l Decision-Making ¡ Nisbett and Wilson ¡ Implications for research, l Reports of Behavior ¡ Sensitive questions ¡ Faulty memory ¡ Solutions? l Example: Vote over-reporting

Example 1: Butterfly Ballot

Butterfly Ballot l Ballot ¡ Too Confusion many votes for Buchanan?

Strategy of Analysis l Simple ¡ Could votes vs. vote for Buchanan graph be misleading ¡ Palm Beach is a large county ¡ Cases; limited to Florida ¡ Vote for Buchanan small (<1%)

Strategy of Analysis (continued) l Look at allcounties in the U. S. ¡ l Are votes for Buchanan coming from Gore voters? ¡ l Look to other counties; compare Palm Beach to Broward and Miami-Dade Overvotes ¡ l Expected vote: Palm Beach is an outlier Compare Gore/Buchannanvotes to Gore/Bush Absentee Ballots ¡ �� Natural experiment

SATs l What do they measure? ¡ ¡ Ability vs. aptitude Questions of validity l l l Berkeley study SAT preparation works: Kaplan Implications: University of Michigan Lawsuit

More Examples l Your Projects