International Data Resource Center (IDRC)

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Instructional Resources

This page was created to help instructors introduce quantitative analyses into the classroom. The resources listed here will help students explore international phenomena in a social science setting. Below you will find a list of suggested research topics and associated datasets, ICPSR learning packages, and a link to ICPSR's Online Learning Center.

Suggested Research Topics and Associated Datasets for Undergraduates

The topics provided here are meant to help students begin the process of quantitative data exploration. ICPSR datasets that are relevant to each topic have also been identified.

Conflict

Economic

Electoral Systems and Political Behavior

Environment

Health

Human Dimension

Public Opinion

International Organizations

ICPSR Learning Packages

ICPSR learning packages are modules created by various scholars to enhance quantitative analysis in particular issue areas. Instructions regarding use of these packages are available through download.

  • Asher, Herbert A., Bradley M. Richardson, and Herbert F. Weisberg, Political Participation: An International Social Science Council (ISSC) Workbook in Comparative Analysis (ICPSR 8350)

    This instructional collection presents subsets of data from existing national election studies that allow students to perform cross-national analyses of political participation. Data are provided for the following eight countries: Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Canada, and Germany.

  • Banks, Arthur, Cross-National Data Analysis Learning Package (ICPSR 5701)

    This study contains cross-sectional data on the economic, political, and population characteristics of 108 independent nations in the period 1961-1970. Also included are limited longitudinal data for 60 nations in the period 1919-1970. The dataset was developed to introduce students to cross-national political data analyses.

  • Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, ICPSR Instructional Subset: American Leadership Opinion and United States Foreign Policy, 1975 (ICPSR 7519)

    This study contains data on the attitudes of American national leaders toward American foreign policy in 1975. The study derives from surveys on the attitudes of the American public and national leaders toward foreign policy conducted by Louis Harris and Associates, commissioned by the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations in November 1974.

  • Harvey, Andrew S., et al., Time Budget Research: An International Social Science Council (ISSC) Workbook in Comparative Analysis (ICPSR 8542)

    This data collection and its corresponding workbook were designed as an instructional tool to familiarize students with the method of time budget research and to provide an opportunity to conduct analysis with the time budget data on a cross-national basis. The workbook contains exercises to facilitate analyses of the data, and serves as a guide for selecting techniques and measures to be employed in such analyses. The data allow students to examine topics such as the weekend/weekday concept, the status of women, and the family as a unit.

  • Herz, Thomas A., Social Mobility, [1973-1976]: An International Social Science Council (ISSC) Workbook in Comparative Analysis (ICPSR 8682)

    This dataset was constructed to serve as a teaching tool on research methodology in the comparative analysis of social mobility. It consists of a subset of variables taken from a cross-national survey conducted during 1973-76 in the United States and seven west European nations: Austria, Great Britain, West Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, and Finland.

  • Krend, Jeffrey, Reconstruction of Oliver Benson's "Simple Diplomatic Game" (ICPSR 5907)

    This data collection contains a revised version of the Simple Diplomatic Game, one of the first all-computer simulations in the international relations field developed by Oliver Benson in 1959. It represents an early attempt to articulate a number of "loose" assumptions about international behavior into a set of computer instructions such that high-speed computing equipment can be used to simulate a variety of international crises situations.

  • Krend, Jeffrey, War-Peace Module (ICPSR 5908)

    This study contains a user-oriented computer module that focuses on 1,951 situations, decisions, and events relative to seven issue areas that emerged from the interactions of ten nations: China, Egypt, France, West Germany, East Germany, the Soviet Union, Israel, Syria, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The module was developed to explicate a number of propositions about war and peace between nations and to combine these propositions into an operating model of an international relations system.

  • Litchfield, R. Burr, and Howard P. Chudacoff, Comparative Cities Teaching Package (ICPSR 7698)

    Comparative Cities is a teaching package designed to introduce students to analysis of manuscript schedules of the nineteenth century census for social, urban, family, and demographic history. The files are designed for use with SPSS. It was initially developed at Brown University with assistance of a project grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The file is organized to illustrate contrasts among cities at different stages of industrialization and the demographic transition in Europe and America.

  • McGowan, Patrick, and Michael O'Leary, Comparative Foreign Policy Learning Package (ICPSR 5703)

    This study contains data on national attributes and international interactions for 114 nations in the 1960s. Containing data originally collected by the International Relations Program at Syracuse University, this learning package was developed to provide an introduction to comparative foreign policy analyses and a discussion of how to employ rigorous techniques to develop ideas about the causes and consequences of foreign policy.

  • Rabier, Jacques-Rene, and Ronald Inglehart, ICPSR Instructional Subset: Women and Men in Italy, Denmark, and Britain, 1975 (ICPSR 7574)

    To commemorate the International Women's Year, this instructional subset focused attention upon a wide range of topics relevant to the status of women. The subset was drawn from the first international survey of its kind on the subject, EUROBAROMETER 3: EUROPEAN MEN AND WOMEN, MAY 1975 (ICPSR 7416), conducted in May 1975 by Jacques-Rene Rabier, special advisor to the Commission of European Communities, and Ronald Inglehart of the Institute for Social Research, the University of Michigan.

  • Rokkan, Stein, et al.,Centre-Periphery Structures in Europe [1880-1978]: An International Social Science Council (ISSC) Workbook in Comparative Analysis (ICPSR 7571)

    The dataset was constructed at the request of the Standing Committee on Comparative Research of the International Social Science Council to serve as a teaching tool on research methodology in the social sciences. Its purpose is to introduce students to international comparative studies by offering them the opportunity to investigate the structures of territories in modern Western Europe.

  • Saerlvik, Bo, Social Determinants of Voting in Sweden, 1964 (ICPSR 7339)

    This dataset was created primarily for teaching purposes, enabling students to replicate original analyses but also to explore the usefulness of alternative modes of analysis or to test alternative hypotheses. The data were collected from a representative sample of the Swedish electorate at the time of the 1964 Riksdag election in Sweden. Variables ascertained the respondents' voting behavior, party affiliation, and interest in politics.

  • Taylor, Charles Lewis, and Raymond Tanter, Computer-Aided International Relations (CAIR) Teaching Package, 1965 (ICPSR 5705)

    This teaching package contains data on the national characteristics of 136 nations with populations of one million or more in 1965 and smaller countries that had become members of the United Nations by 1968 in the period 1965-1968. Data are provided for the political, economic, and demographic characteristics of each nation.

 

  

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