Lab. Studying Cultural Change with Quantitative Methods

Introduction: Theories of cultural change and methods of analysis
o Topic being covered: Basic modernization theory with elements of cultural backlash theory; differences between individual-level and ecological-level data; and the relevance of individual data to track cultural changes.

Mapping cultural differences across the globe
o Topic being covered: Basic measures of central tendency and dispersion; constructing indexes of progressivism vs. conservatism, and their visualization on a global map.

Cultural change and the issue of time: Age, Period, and Cohort effects
o Topic being covered: Differences between age, period, and cohort effects and their importance in studying cultural change; graphing basic trends; visualizing period × cohort effects.

Testing theories of cultural change with survey methods
o Topic being covered: General modernization theory and insecurity theory; individual-to-individual relations; context-to-individual relations; use of correlations and scatterplots.

Homogeneity or cultural clash? Toward a measure of cultural polarization
o Topic being covered: Problematizing measures of central tendency in cases of societal polarization; measures of bimodality; reflecting on compositions of individual characteristics to explain societal characteristics and polarization.

Developing innovative analyses and arguments: Preparing for the final essay
o Topic being covered: to be determined depending on previous classes and students' interests