Introduction

This module presents the scientific method and creates a framework for integrating all of the things you will learn in this class. This introduction will fit all the concepts you learn into one cohesive picture.

This introduction will also introduce this online resource so that you can take full advantage of it and use it effectively.

After completing all the modules of this course, you will be able to:

• Ask interesting questions about politics and the social world.
• Evaluate arguments about political phenomena using data and quantitative methods
• And think critically about the claims that other people make about their data

In other words, you’ll be able to use the scientific method to learn about the world around us.

The Scientific Method

The figure below shows the general steps of the scientific method—the steps that Political Science scholars follow to better understand our political world.