Introduction to Research Methods in Political Science: The POWERMUTT* Project (for use with SPSS) *Politically-Oriented Web-Enhanced Research Methods for Undergraduates — Topics & Tools Resources for introductory research methods courses in political science and related disciplines Getting Started Topics Tools Codebooks Downloads Other Resources Home Site Map Introduction Note to Instructors Course Syllabus Using POWERMUTT (MS Word) Author's Home Page Political Science As a Social Science Research Design Levels of Measurement Displaying Categorical Data Varieties of Data More About Measurement Contingency Table Analysis Control Variables Discriptive Statistics Standard Scores and the Normal Distribution Comparing Means Regression and Correlation Logitudinal Analysis of Survey Data Getting Started Data: Weight Cases Data: Select Cases Data: Sort Cases Transform: Recode Transform: Compute Analyze: Frequencies Analyze: Descriptives Analyze: Explore Analyze: Crosstabs Analyze: Reliability Analysis Analyze: T-tests Analyze: Compare Means Analyze: Correlate Analyze: Regression Graphs: Chart Editor Graphs: Pie/Bar Chart Graphs: Histogram Graphs: Boxplot Graphs: Line Chart Graphs: scatterplot American National Election Study 2004 Subset American National Election Study 2008 Subset American National Election Study 2000-2004 Panel Study Subset General Social Survey Cumulative (1972-2010) Subset U.S. Senate U.S. States Countries Data and Topic Downloads SSRIC Links to Other Instructional Sites

SITE MAP

Note: An earlier (2011) version of POWERMUTT is at http://www.csupomona.edu/~jlkorey/POWERMUTT2011. I will try to keep it posted through June 2013.

The POWERMUTT Project is a cross between an introductory political science research methods textbook and an online resource for teaching and learning such methods.   It includes:

• Topics.  Each topic is equivalent to a short  chapter in a traditional textbook.
• Tools.  These are brief step-by-step tutorials for carrying out specific techniques.  At present, the Tools described are some of those found in IBM® SPSS® Statistics (Version 18), a leading software package for statistical analysis.
• Datasets and codebooks.  Data, and codebooks describing them, on public opinion, the American states, the U.S. Congress, and the countries of the world.
• Links to other sites providing additional information about research methods.

Compared to traditional textbooks, POWERMUTT offers several important advantages, including:

• Flexibility.  Your instructor may have decided to adopt the entire POWERMUTT site as the main course "textbook," or to use just a small portion of the site's resources as supplementary material.
• Interactivity.  Want to see exactly how a table or graph was generated?  With POWERMUTT PUPs (Pop Up Protocols), the answer is just a click away.  Just as close is additional information on other resources within POWERMUTT or elsewhere on the Web.
• Affordability.  In fact, it's free!  However, your instructor may ask you to purchase hard copy of all or part of POWERMUTT for a nominal cost at your campus copy center.  While most of the materials in the project are for reference, some, especially the Topics, need to be studied carefully.  A highlighter will really mess up your monitor.  You can save even more money by directly downloading the Topics and printing them at home. 

Ready to begin?  Go to the Site Map or choose from the menu at the top of the page. 

Last updated April 28, 2013 .
© 2003---2013  John L. Korey.  Licensed under a   Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.