Qualitative Methods

Conceptual Mirrors: Reflecting on LLMs' Interpretations of Ideas

April 23, 2024
María Martín López
by María Martín López. As large language models begin to engrain themselves in our daily lives we must leverage cognitive psychology to explore the understanding that these algorithms have of our world and the people they interact with. LLMs give us new insights into how conceptual representations are formed given the limitations of data modalities they have access to. Is language enough for these models to conceptualize the world? If so, what conceptualizations do they have of us?

Transparency in Experimental Political Science Research

April 9, 2024
Kamya Yadav
by Kamya Yadav. With the increase in studies with experiments in political science research, there are concerns about research transparency, particularly around reporting results from studies that contradict or do not find evidence for proposed theories (commonly called “null results”). To encourage publication of results with null results, political scientists have turned to pre-registering their experiments, be it online survey experiments or large-scale experiments conducted in the field. What does pre-registration look like and how can it help during data analysis and publication?

Hilary Faxon, Ph.D.

Data Science Fellow
Environmental Science, Policy, and Management
Dr. Faxon is an ethnographer who uses social media and critical remote sensing to understand and reimagine social justice in technology, environment, and development in the Global South. She is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Social Science at the University of Montana.

Introduction to Propensity Score Matching with MatchIt

April 1, 2024
Alex Ramiller
by Alex Ramiller. When working with observational (i.e. non-experimental) data, it is often challenging to establish the existence of causal relationships between interventions and outcomes. Propensity Score Matching (PSM) provides a powerful tool for causal inference with observational data, enabling the creation of comparable groups that allow us to directly measure the impact of an intervention. This blog post introduces MatchIt – a software package that provides all of the necessary tools for conducting Propensity Score Matching in R – and provides step-by-step instructions on how to conduct and evaluate matches.

Computational Social Science in a Social World: Challenges and Opportunities

March 26, 2024
José Aveldanes
by José Aveldanes. The rise of AI, Machine Learning, and Data Science are harbingers of the need for a significant shift in social science research. Computational Social Science enables us to go beyond traditional methods such as Ordinary Least Squares, which face challenges in addressing complexities of social phenomena, particularly in modeling nonlinear relationships and managing high-dimensionality data. This paradigmatic shift requires that we embrace these new tools to understand social life and necessitates understanding methodological and ethical challenges, including bias and representation. The integration of these technologies into social science research calls for a collaborative approach among social scientists, technologists, and policymakers to navigate the associated risk and possibilities of these new tools.

Nimita Gaggar

Consulting Drop-In Hours: By appointment only

Consulting Areas: Python, R, Qualitative methods, R Programming, Other, RStudio

Quick-tip: the fastest way to speak to a consultant is to first submit a request and then ...

Jane Angar

Consulting Drop-In Hours: Wed 9am-11am

Consulting Areas: R, Stata, LaTeX, Data Manipulation and Cleaning, Data Visualization, Qualitative methods, R Programming, Regression Analysis, Means Tests, Excel, Git or Github, Qualtrics, RStudio, Stata, Jupiter Notebook

Quick-tip: the fastest way to speak to a consultant is to first ...

Elijah Mercer

Consulting Drop-In Hours: Mon 3pm-5pm

Consulting Areas: Python, R, Data Sources, Mixed Methods, Qualitative methods, Surveys, Sampling & Interviews, Excel, Qualtrics

Quick-tip: the fastest way to speak to a consultant is to first submit a request and then ...

Creating the Ultimate Sweet

January 30, 2024
Emma Turtelboom
by Emma Turtelboom. What is the best Halloween candy? In this blog post, we will identify attributes of popular sweets and create a model to understand how these attributes influence the popularity of the sweet. We’ll discuss alternative model approaches and potential drawbacks, as well as caveats to interpreting the predictions of our model.

Addison Pickrell

IUSE Undergraduate Advisory Board
Mathematics
Sociology

Addison is an aspiring mathematician and social scientist (Class of '27). He loves collecting books he'll never read, is an open-source and open-access advocate, and an aspiring community organizer and systems disrupter. Ask me about community-based participatory action research (CBPAR), critical pedagogy, applied mathematics, and social science.