Research Skills and Methods in Political Science (M1045)

15 credits, Level 4

Spring teaching

On this module, you’ll explore fundamental issues scholars face when studying the political world. You’ll examine how different approaches influence the conclusions scholars reach and learn to identify and measure important relationships between political phenomena.

You’ll cover:

  • what ‘studying politics’ really means
  • key terms like epistemology, behaviouralism, quantitative methods
  • how to use these terms to improve your arguments.

You’ll discuss the ways to build knowledge and gather evidence by:

  • testing ideas using data
  • learning about and using quantitative methods
  • discussing the pros and cons of using these methods to understand real-world politics.

Lastly, you’ll analyse interpretations of political affairs:

  • collecting evidence to support your case or answer a question
  • carrying out interviews, focus groups and simple participation
  • evaluating these methods and linking them to quantitative approaches.

By the end of the module, you’ll understand how political scholars conduct research. Practical exercises in seminars and workshops will help you apply the concepts and methods.

Teaching

50%: Lecture
23%: Practical (Workshop)
27%: Seminar

Assessment

100%: Written assessment (Essay, Report)

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 150 hours of work. This breaks down into about 22 hours of contact time and about 128 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We鈥檙e planning to run these modules in the academic year 2025/26. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We鈥檒l make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.

Courses

This module is offered on the following courses: