9 Unsupervised Scale Measurement II: Categorical Indicators

Topics: Item response theory for data with binary and/or ordinal indicators.

Required reading:

• Chapter 12, Pragmatic Social Measurement

Further reading:

Theory

• Bartholomew et al. (2008), Ch 8 & 9

Applications

• Shawn Treier and Simon Jackman, “Democracy as a Latent Variable” American Journal of Political Science. Volume 52, Issue 1. January 2008. Pages 201-217
• Shawn Treier, D. Sunshine Hillygus, “The Nature of Political Ideology in the Contemporary Electorate”, Public Opinion Quarterly, Volume 73, Issue 4, Winter 2009, Pages 679–703
• Treier, S. (2010). Where Does the President Stand? Measuring Presidential Ideology. Political Analysis, 18(1), 124-136.

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9.1 Seminar: Mock Exam

For this week, you will complete a mock exam, which will be released in that week. Model solutions will be released after the seminar, along with additional questions to deepen your understanding of this week’s materials.

References

Bartholomew, David J, Fiona Steele, Jane Galbraith, and Irini Moustaki. 2008. Analysis of Multivariate Social Science Data. Chapman; Hall/CRC.