Political Science Research Methods

by Janet Buttolph Johnson, H.T. Reynolds

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Don’t let an introduction to research methods be your students’ least favorite (and most intimidating) political science course. Relevant, timely, insightful, comprehensive, and always mindful of their student audience, the authors have revamped their popular text so that the sixth edition is friendlier and more intuitive than ever―the perfect gateway to understanding not just the "how" but also the "why" behind research into politics.

Covering the discipline’s major methods, the authors lead students step-by-step through the logic of research design. "Building block" chapters on hypothesis formation and testing, variables, and measurement are right up front; the introduction to research design, sampling, and literature reviews now come with more explanation as to why a researcher would pursue different kinds of methods; the stats chapters begin with a common-sense primer that walks students through foundational ideas and practices. Throughout the text, updated examples of contemporary research problems keep readers engaged.

Each chapter has bolded key terms that are also listed in a glossary at the end of each chapter and the end of the text. "Helpful hints" feature boxes give students nuts-and-bolts reminders they can refer to when they conduct their own research or assess the work of others.

NEW TO THIS EDITION

Genres: Political Science, Politics, Nonfiction, Textbooks, Research, Research Methods, Academic

640 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[Briana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only needed the first 180 pages of the book, so that's all I read. It's not exactly riveting, but the authors provide a solid overview of basic concepts with helpful examples. The section on Internet searches is obviously dated, but everything else was pretty useful.

[Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Truly, 3.5. It was helpful and had good definitions. I liked how they used a series of articles as reference points throughout the book. Read for an Empirical Research Design class in an MPA program.

[Brett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Textbook is not as dry as you might guess form the oh-so-exciting title, but nonetheless, it is no easy read. For an undergrad English major like me, a book like this is intimidating as hell, but I found out by the end that there really wasn't much I couldn't understand itn it, despite the Greek letters and equations.

It's important to not get frustrated, take it slow and let yourself ask others to help you out when you run into concepts that are not intuitive for you, but the authors do a good job of demystifying some of the more arcane bits. Not recommended for a rollicking good time on a Saturday night, and certainly doesn't qualify as the feel-good book of the year, but it does get the job done for what it sets out to do. One warning: there are many errors in the graphs/illustrations in my copy of this. Hopefully they will be corrected in future editions, but if something doesn't look right to you in a graph, it is probably because it is not right.

[Andrew]

A page turner

[Zällie]

cannot say I enjoyed that, folks. cannot say it.