MASS POLITICAL BEHAVIOR - RESOURCES

Graduate Studies

The program in Mass Political Behavior is pleased to be able to offer graduate students a wealth of opportunities for learning and research. We believe that these opportunities will provide all of our students an optimal environment in which to learn about behavior, and will prepare and equip them for placement in a competitive employment environment. These following are among the resources available to Political Science graduate students engaged in the sub-field of mass political behavior:

Cooperative Congressional and Presidential Election Studies (CCES/CPES): Each electoral cycle, our department partners with approximately 29 other leading universities in a project that enables students to design elaborate survey experiments using large, nationally representative samples of US citizens. Of the 30 university research teams, ours is one of the only ones that includes widespread Ph.D. student participation. This presents a nearly unique opportunity for coauthorship and data collection for use on student dissertations. More details about the CCES/CPES can be found at http://web.mit.edu/polisci/portl/cces/index.html.

Colloquium on American Politics and Society (CAPS): The CAPS series is designed to bring a number of scholars in American politics to the department each year, half of whom specialize in the study of political behavior. These speakers are freely available to graduate students—both to discuss their own careers and, more importantly, to provide research and career advice to students. Additionally, they give talks during which they discuss their recent and ongoing research projects.
 

Human Subjects Pool: The Department of Psychology operates a Human Subjects Pool, or undergraduate students who are required to participate in laboratory experiments to fulfill their psychology course requirements. While such subjects are primarily for the benefit of Psychology professors and graduate students, through special arrangement they may also be available to graduate students in Political Science—particularly those students whose work makes use of experimental techniques. Interested users are referred to: www.pitt.edu/~cslewis/sspool/apply.htm for additional information on the use of the pool.
 

Institute for Social Research: Students in Political Behavior are expected to master a wide array of statistical and analytical techniques, many of which can be acquired in the department. To supplement departmental offerings, we regularly provide stipends to graduate students to enable them to attend one of two summer programs offered by the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI)—a) the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) Summer Program in Quantitative Methods of Social Research; and b) the Summer Institute on Survey Research Techniques. At these programs, students learn advanced statistical and empirical techniques and sophisticated survey research methodologies.

Political Behavior: The University of Pittsburgh is the home of the journal Political Behavior, which is also the official journal of the American Political Science Association section on Elections, Public Opinion, and Voting Behavior. Since 2002, Professor Jon Hurwitz has been the co-Editor of the journal, which publishes cutting edge research on a wide array of topics in behavior. Each year, one graduate student in the subfield is selected to serve as the Editorial Assistant for the journal.

Survey Research Center, University (of Pittsburgh) Center for Social and Urban Research (UCSUR): The professional staff at the Survey Research Center implements numerous types of survey research projects, including both telephone and internet surveys. The SRC uses highly sophisticated survey techniques, including the most advanced methodologies of Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) available. Faculty with research grants often contract with UCSUR to implement surveys, and frequently use graduate students to assist with such projects.

Revised: September 14, 2007