STV4030C ¨C Survey Data Analysis and Design in Political Science

Course content

This course introduces students to the analysis of existing survey data, as well as to the science and practice of designing surveys. The first half of the course covers key aspects of survey design, including definition of a population, sampling of respondents, design of survey questions, response alternatives, the overall survey structure, survey-embedded experiments, and research ethics. The course¡¯s second half covers the use and analysis of existing comparative, national, and local surveys to answer research questions. Students will become familiar with the most prominent existing surveys in political science, ranging from population-based surveys such as the European Social Survey (ESS) or expert surveys such as Varieties of Democracy (V-DEM), and be set up to use these rich data sources in their master theses.

There are several advantages for students using existing surveys. For instance, question batteries included in major survey data collections are often validated scales from established literatures, their samples are typically more representative than primary surveys, and using existing datasets is less costly than collecting primary survey data. The course will provide an overview of existing survey datasets and how to access, manage, and effectively analyze these datasets for answering research questions.

The course is practically oriented in that students learn to analyze existing survey data and design their own surveys with concrete tasks throughout the course that will amount to a portfolio. These tasks will be assisted in the course¡¯s seminars. The course also covers analytical approaches which are specifically relevant for survey research, including power analysis, weighting of survey responses, and factor analysis. At the same time, the lectures emphasize learning and applying general insights from the large research field on how design decisions affect empirical results.

The course is of immediate relevance for students planning to use primary or secondary survey data in their master thesis. The course should be generally useful for most students given the increasing use of surveys and questionnaires in settings where political scientists make a living (the examples include public administration, journalism, non-governmental organizations, political parties, and public opinion).

Learning outcome

After having completed the course, the students have acquired the following knowledge, skills and general competencies:

Knowledge

Students learn

• about existing