Introduction to the Workshop on Social, Political and Welfare Values Prof. Steven Saxonberg Goal of the Course • Learn how to apply basic statistical analysis to analyze attitudes. • Gain practical experience using existing international databases. Course Description • Continuation of the course on Social, Political and Welfare Values held last fall. • Not a requirement to have taken the fall course, but advantage, because we discussed texts that use the methodologies used in this workshop. • Rather than “merely” reading what other authors have written about attitudes as in the previous course, you will now have the chance to learn by doing by developing their own analyses of attitudes with real data bases. • We recommend that you think of a theme for their papers from the beginning of the course, so you can work with the same database and similar variables throughout the course. Theory • We want you to think about what attitudes people have • Why do they have these attitudes • How can we measure people’s attitudes Grading • Grading will be based on attendance at the computer labs and a final paper. Computer Labs • At each computer lab you will work in groups and do various exercises to practice what they have learned from the lectures. • You must have done all the exercises before being allowed to write the final paper. • It is only acceptable to miss a lab if one has a note from a doctor. • So you be evaluated throughout the course. The lab exercises • You will not hand in the exercises • We will go around at the labs and check them and help you • BUT you will use these exercises as the basis for your course paper • You can print out the powerpoint presentations from the lab to remember how to do each step • They will be on-line before the lab, so you can print them out and take them to the lab Final Papers • The final papers will be due at midnight on Thursday, April 30. • Students taking the course for 12 credits (SPP 454) must write their papers alone or in groups of 2. In addition, these students from SPP454 must compare at least two countries. • Students taking the course for 8 credits (SPP 456) can write their papers in groups of 3 to 4. Requirements for the Final Papers • around 3,000 words (5 pages plus tables) • Should deal with political, social or welfare attitudes, including: • gender relations, • racism, • post-modern values, • the environment, • democracy, • equality, • trust in government, etc. More on the Papers • include a discussion of what previous social scientists have written on the topic. (Discussion of the discourse) • can start with course literature from last fall’s course, • can also use books from the library or scientific articles from the library’s electronic journals. • good to use such search engines as J-store • you must discuss scientific texts. References to such internet sites as Wikipedia are not acceptable. • must have at least one hypothesis that will be tested. • The hypothesis must come from previous scientific texts • You must reach a conclusion as to whether the statistical evidence supports or refutes the hypothesis. Learning the scientific style • This course should help you to write a paper even papers not using statistics • You will gain experience with writing about a theoretical discourse • You will gain experience about testing hypotheses. • You will gain experience in how to present something in print.