1. Read the following real-life news release carefully. Please answer the questions below based on the information given to you.

"Berkeley top public in new ‘Times Higher Ed' rankings

UC Berkeley is the No. 1 public university in the world and 13th overall in the new Times Higher Education's (THE) World University Rankings, released today. Cal Tech ranked first, followed by the University of Oxford, Stanford University, the University of Cambridge and MIT.

The rankings are the latest in a string to place Berkeley as the premier public university. Its overall ranking, down from 8th last year, shows the impact of major changes in THE‘s methodology. Other U.S. universities lost ground as well, including UCLA, which went from 12th last year to 16th but is the second-ranked public on the list.

Among the changes: THE doubled the number of institutions included, from 400 to 800. And it replaced Thomson Reuters as the source of its bibliometric data, using Elsevier instead.

THE also expanded its reputation survey, conducting it in nine new languages; Berkeley's score on reputation has declined with changes in the survey method over the last two years, according to Berkeley's Office of Planning and Analysis."

a. According to the information given to you, how can we rule out "quality of the school" as the real cause for UC Berkeley's decline in rankings (13th in 2015, down from 8th in 2014)?

b. Please evaluate changes made in 1) data source; 2) sample size; 3) reputation measure in terms of "reliability" and "validity."

2. What are the three criteria for establishing internal validity/ causation?

3. Evaluate at least two social science research methods: survey research, experiments, large-N quantitative analysis, and small-N case studies/ qualitative research) on internal and external validity. In your answer remember to show your understanding of internal and external validity.

a. What are each method's strengths and weaknesses in establishing internal validity?

b. What are each method's strengths and weaknesses in establishing external validity?

4. What are the building blocks/ essential elements of research that all social science research methods have in common?

5. Let us consider the conceptualization and operationalization of "democracy."

a. Please discuss how "democracy" as a concept can be binary or continuous.

b. Please discuss how conceptualizing democracy as only about executive rotation falls short. What are potential dimensions missing from this conceptualization?

c. Please provide an alternative conceptualization of democracy. Explain the validity of this alternative conceptualization.

d. Please operationalize your conceptualization of democracy. Hints: What are potential indicators/ measures?) In doing so, identify your measures' level of precision (hint: nominal, interval, or ordinal?) and discuss how your operational definition is reliable.

6.

a. What is the dependent variable? How is the dependent variable operationalized?

b. What is the independent variable? How is it operationalized?

c. What is the existing debate surrounding the study of the dependent variable?

d. What is the hypothesis and/ or findings of the study? Remember to think in terms of the relationship between dependent and independent variables?

e. What is the research design: How is the research conducted/ how does it test the hypothesis and substantiate the authors' argument? What is the source of the data and what kind of data? How do the random samples increase internal and external validity?

f. How are findings of "cause" not the same as explanations/ theories of how causal mechanisms link the independent and dependent variables?

7. What are the values of a mixed methods research design? Please give an example of research that employ a mixed methods research design and show how it combines the strengths of different research methods.

8. Please pick two threats to causal inference and explain how they threaten causation through an example.

a. Cherry picking

b. History

c. Reverse causation

d. Self-selection

e. Sample mortality

f. Maturation

g. Simpson's Paradox

h. Regression Fallacy/ regression to the mean/ regression artifact

i. Instrumental/ measurement reliability

j. Ecological fallacy

k. "Closing the gap" paradox

9. Please define the following types of "causes."

a. What is deterministic causation?

b. What is probabilistic causation?

c. What is a structural cause?

10. In qualitative/ small-N comparative case research, what role do case studies play in linking/ showing the relationship between independent and dependent variables? What is an important analytical technique/ tool employed to do so?

11. In large-N quantitative research, what is the difference between "population" and "sample"? What is the essential technique, which ensures that the sample reflects/ is representative of the population?