Surveys, Sampling & Interviews

Exploratory Data Analysis in Social Science Research

November 14, 2023
Kamya Yadav
by Kamya Yadav. Causal inference has become the dominant endeavor for many political scientists, often at the expense of good research questions and theory building. Returning to descriptive inference – the process of describing the world as it exists – can help formulate research questions worth asking and theory that is grounded in reality. Exploratory data analysis is one method of conducting descriptive inference. It can help social science researchers find empirical patterns and puzzles that motivate their research questions, test correlations between variables, and engage with the existing literature on a topic. In this blog post, I walk through results from exploratory data analysis I conducted for my dissertation project on political ambition of women.

María Martín López

Data Science Fellow
Psychology

María Martín López is a PhD student in the Cognition area within the Department of Psychology. Her research relates to cognitive computational and quantitative models of individual differences in behaviors, thoughts, and emotions. She is particularly interested in how we can create and leverage novel algorithms to understand, measure, and predict processes relating to externalizing psychopathology (e.g. impulsivity, aggression, substance use). She answers these questions using a range of computational and quantitive models including AI, NLP, SEM, time series analysis, multi-level...

FSRDC 2023 Annual Meeting and Research Conference

October 2, 2023
Renee Starowicz, Ph.D.
by Renee Starowicz. Renee Starowicz, Co-Executive Director of the Berkeley Federal Statistical Research Data Center, provides an overview of the takeaways from the 2023 Annual Federal Statistical Research Data Center Business Meeting and Annual Conference. She provides a brief overview of the Berkeley FSRDC. Then, she describes the priorities for collaboration across national directors to improve outreach to diverse researchers and transparency. Additionally, she points out the other key topics of conversation at this year’s meeting.

Michael Ruiz

IUSE Research Team
Psychology

Michael earned his B.A.in Psychology from UC Berkeley and currently works as the manager of Professor Okonofua's Equity, Diversity, and Empathy Navigation Sciences Lab in the UC Berkeley Psychology department.

Suraj Nair

Data Science Fellow
School of Information

I am a PhD Student at the School of Information. My research interests lie at the intersection of development economics and machine learning, with a focus on the use of large scale digital data and new computational tools to study pressing issues in global development.

Claudia von Vacano, Ph.D.

Consulting Drop-In Hours: By appointment only

Consulting Areas: Python, R,Digital Humanities, Mixed Methods, Natural Language Processing, Qualitative methods, Social Network Analysis, Surveys, Sampling & Interviews, Text Analysis,MaxQDA, Qualtrics

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

Jailynne Estevez

Consultant
Info & Data Science MIDS

Jailynne Estevez is a Data Analyst and a prospective Masters in Information and Data Science candidate at UC Berkeley. With a bachelor's in Public Policy, she brings a diverse skill set to her pursuits, demonstrating aptitude in data analysis and programming.

Kamya Yadav

Data Science Fellow
Political Science

Kamya is a third year PhD student in the Department of Political Science. Using multimethod research, she studies gender, representation, and political parties in India to understand the barriers and pathways to women's political participation and representation. She has a BA in Politics from Princeton University.

Enrique Valencia López

Data Science Fellow
Graduate School of Education

Enrique Valencia López is a PhD student in the Policy, Politics and Leadership cluster at the Graduate School of Education.His research interests relate to three broad areas: the stratification of education by gender, immigration status and ethnicity; the measurement of teacher working conditions and well-being; and education in Latin America.

Before coming to Berkeley, Enrique worked for Mexico’s National Institute for Educational Evaluation and Assessment (INEE) in both the Policy and Indicators area. During that time, he co-authored Mexico’s first report on the educational...

Wadzanai Makomva

Discovery Graduate Fellow
School of Information

Wadzanai is a graduate student at the School of Information and she is a part of the MIMS program. She has a vested interest in the integration between data science, technology and developmental surveillance techniques. She has prior experience working as a quantitative analyst in project management consulting within a professional services firm, public health, and most recently in sustainable construction materials. Wadzanai is particularly interested in increasing access of STEM subjects and fields to under-privileged women of color in the African continent, particularly her home...