Student anxiety runs high given the seemingly intimidating nature of the methods course. Philip Pollock's first order of business is to get math-phobic students comfortable learning and using the tools of political analysis. Brief and accessible, his text walks students through the basics—measuring concepts, formulating and testing hypotheses, describing variables—and uses key terms, chapter-opening objectives, more than eighty tables and figures, and class-tested chapter exercises to promote skill application and aid student review.
Fully up-to-date with new exercises and data, this third edition includes a new chapter devoted to measuring and describing variables, as well as fresh coverage of multiple regression and research design.
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The Essentials of Political Analysis, 3rd Edition Table of Contents Introduction 5. Sampling and Inference 6. Foundations of Statistical Inference 8. Correlation and Linear Regression 9. Logistic Regression Testimonials "In a remarkably brief and accessible book, Philip Pollock brings students to a relatively high level of analytic skill and sophistication. He does this with clear exposition, engaging substantive examples, the ability to develop the intuition behind the concepts and techniques he presents, and a commitment to educating students about the fundamentals of inference and multivariate analysis. This is an essential book for undergraduate quantitative methods courses." - Walter Stone, University of California, Davis"Pollock's book works well in an introductory course on quantitative analysis offered to political science majors. I have used it for several years. My students find it accessible, and I appreciate the examples he provides from the political science literature." - Francis Neely, San Francisco State University"The Essentials of Political Analysis is an excellent text. Pollock's engaging writing style is great at keeping the attention of students, and its brevity is not intimidating for undergraduates. The text is particularly useful, because of the ease with which I can use it in conjunction with the workbook. I tend to recommend this book to all of my colleagues teaching undergraduate research methods." - Brian F. Schaffner, University of Massachusetts, AmherstBio(s)
Philip H. Pollock III, University of Central Florida Philip H. Pollock III is professor of political science at the University of Central Florida. He has taught courses in research methods at the undergraduate and graduate levels for nearly 30 years. His main research interests are American public opinion, voting behavior, techniques of quantitative analysis, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. His recent research has been on the effectiveness of Internet-based instruction. Pollock’s research has appeared in the American Journal of Political Science, Social Science Quarterly, and British Journal of Political Science. Recent scholarly publications include articles in Political Research Quarterly, the Journal of Political Science Education, and PS: Political Science and Politics. Ancillaries A solutions manual to all of the book's exercises is available to adopters. |