This course teaches the basics of public opinion surveys. We start with the theoretical foundations of the formation of (public) opinion formation and ideology, then turn to the practical lessons of developing and implementing own surveys with a focus on causal inference via survey experiments. Finally, we give practical insights into the analysis of (complex) survey data.

In contrast to Proseminar I, Proseminar II places more emphasis on content and the research topic per se. In order to elaborate these topics, the research design of social science work will be dealt with in depth.

Teaching of formal requirements of scientific work (philosophy of science with a focus on the social sciences); literature reviews and the basics of conducting independent research on short as well as simple topics; basics of conceptualizing research designs for politically relevant questions and hypotheses.