Quantitative Methods

EPOP members typically employ both qualitative and quantitative methods in their research. Recently funded projects have relied on interviews, content analysis of election manifestos and discourse analysis as well as normative legal theory.

The focus on political behaviour, however, has attracted many scholars employing quantitative methods and for this reason EPOP is the primary research group for social scientists in the School of Social and Political Studies who are interested in quantitative methods.  Members typically focus on political behaviour (why people vote, how they reach the voting decisions that they do) and social attitudes, including national identity, left-right orientations, partisan identification, trust and efficacy.  Much of this relies on the analysis of large cross-national public opinion datasets, but other research focuses on the quantitative coding of government documents and election manifestos.  Quantitative methods bring their own joys and challenges and for this reason this section of the EPOP site provides valuable information about three topics of interest to those using quantitative methods:

1. Quantitative methods training
   This includes information about training in particular statistical techniques and statistical software available both in the Edinburgh, the rest of the UK, and beyond, as well as Edinburgh-based support for quantitative researchers.
2. Quantitative data sources for EPOP-related research
   This includes links to datasets typically employed by EPOP researchers.
3. Resources, events and opportunities relevant to quantitative methods
   This includes lists of forthcoming quantitative conferences, seminars, job listings, as well as information about the Edinburgh Quantitative Social Scientists network (EQuSS).