TEMPLATE FOR THE POLI 301 PROJECT ON POLITICAL VALUES AND ATTITUDES
See Chapter 11 of the text for detailed descriptions of each section.
The entire paper should be double spaced. Your paper should contain:
ABSTRACT: A 4- or 5-sentence abstract on the first page (include also your name and the title of your paper). (5)
INTRODUCTION: An introduction to research topic and research question. (10)
Your introduction should include a solid statement of your research question and the reason why your topic is important or relevant. What are the real world implications concerning your topic? This should be about 1-2 pages.
A THEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW: A thematic literature review (10)
Include a literature review to help you frame your study. You must include at least 6 scholarly, peer-reviewed works in the literature review. DO NOT INCLUDE YOUR ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHIES HERE. This should be between 2-3 pages.
THEORY AND HYPOTHESES (5)
Use this section to present the theory you have developed to explain why your two independent variables should be related to your dependent variable. Be sure to make your theory as encompassing as possible by arguing ‘both sides’. Next, list your research hypotheses. Be sure to include the null hypothesis for each independent variable as well. Stay true to your original hypotheses, even if you didn’t get the results you were looking for. This should be about 2 pages.
METHODS (10)
Here you state how you are going to answer your question. Discussion of “operationalization”. In separate paragraphs, state: 1) how you will answer your research question through a mixed methods design (quantitative analysis with the Dataprac data and qualitative analysis through interviews at UMBC); 2) how your variables were measured in the Dataprac (most of this information will be in your concept measurement table – include the table and discussion of it in this section); and 3) include something about the interviews at UMBC (make reference to Appendix A (which will come at the end of the paper) here, which will contain your interview schedule). This should be about 1-2 pages.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION (45)
Probably the best way to present this section is to separate the quantitative analysis from the qualitative analysis. The entire section should be about 8 pages.
For the quantitative analysis:
1) Present descriptive statistics about your two IVs and one DV and discuss the amount of variation in each variable. About 1 page.
2) Present your data analysis: What manipulations did you perform? First, talk about the bivariate analyses: difference or means tests or correlation coefficients for each pairing of the IV and DV. THEN, write regression equations (2 single and 1 multiple) to put the two independent variables together with your dependent variable (See Chapter 11 for this) and discuss your findings. About 1-2 pages.
3) Discuss your data analysis: Did the results from the bivariate or multivariate analyses yield any associations between the two IVs and DV? What the data reveal? Were you able to reject any of the null hypotheses based on the data analysis? Why or why not? What do you think is going on? About 2-3 pages.
For the qualitative analysis:
4) Perform content analysis on your interviews. Don’t include the names of the people you interviewed, but include a little information about what they said. What codes, categories, and themes emerged from your content analysis? Did the themes confirm your expectations? Did they make you think differently about your theory? About 2-3 pages.
CONCLUSIONS (15)
Your conclusion should cover the following points:
1) Were you able to support your hypotheses with either the quantitative or qualitative analyses? Why not? What do you think is going on? (Ex-post theorizing). If you didn’t get the results you are looking for, you probably have one of three problems: a) the sample we used was not appropriate; b) the questions in the survey were not adequate; or c) the theory was incorrect. Did any of the information you found – either through the literature review or through the data analysis (both quantitative and qualitative) change how you thought about your research question?
2) Where do you see room for improvement? What would you have changed in the survey? What other groups of people would you target if you could?
3) And finally, what implications do your findings have in a general sense? WHAT IS THE GENERALIZATION OF YOUR STUDY? In other words, why was your question important?
This section should be 1-2 pages.
Appendices
Appendix A: Interview schedule
Works cited page: include a bibliography to list the sources you included anywhere in your paper (THIS IS NOT THE ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY).
Please be sure your paper is as complete and professional as possible. There will be at least a 5-point deduction for papers that have many typos or are written poorly.