Updated Fall 2008 schedule

Now that I've been assigned my TA-ship for the Fall, I have a better idea of my schedule.  Though I haven't technically changed my registration yet, I think I'm going to drop the Factor Analysis class I'm currently registered for and take another survey methods class instead.  It will probably be more useful to me in terms of my research and also that way I can make the case for more survey methods stuff on my quantitative methods second field comprehensive exam (which will make me stress less about it - especially if I end up taking it in January).

As you can see, sadly I do not have a very stacked schedule like I do this semester.  Only one true day off, though Monday and Wednesday only have 50 minute lectures for the class I am TA-ing.  I tend to be lazy on my day off and not get up til afternoon.  The fact that I will have to be up and on campus by 11 on Mondays and Wednesdays will force me to be productive, which is good.  I can sleep in on Thursdays.

Monday:

• 11-11:50am GVPT 475 (lecture for class I am TAing) - The Presidency and the Executive Branch: Prerequisite: GVPT170 and GVPT241. Junior standing. For GVPT majors
  only.
  
  An examination of the U.S. presidency in historical and contemporary
  perspective: nomination and electoral politics and the president's
  place in policy-making, administration, and public opinion.
  
  
  
  

Tuesday:

• 1:00-3:00pm office hours for GVPT 475 (this is determined by me, but right now this is probably the best place to put this).

• 3:00-5:40pm SURV 632 - Social and Cognitive Foundations of Survey Measurement:
  Major sources of survey error-such as reporting errors and nonresponse
  bias-from the perspective of social and cognitive psychology and
  related disciplines. Topics: psychology of memory and its bearing on
  classical survey issues (e.g., underreporting and telescoping); models
  of language use and their implications for the interpretation and
  misinterpretation of survey questions; and studies of attitudes,
  attitude change, and their possible application to increasing response
  rates and improving the measurement of opinions. Theories and findings
  from the social and behavioral sciences will be explored.   

• 6:30-9:30pm GVPT 743 - Contemporary political theory:
  Theorists from Nietzsche (1884-1900) to the present will be covered
  with a focus on the apparent failure of the Enlightenment to usher in
  an age of peace and reason.
   
  
   

Wednesday:

• 11-11:50am GVPT 475 (lecture for class I am TAing)

Thursday:

• nothing 

Friday:

• 10-12:50pm GVPT 475 discussion sections

• 1-4pm SURV630 -
  Questionnaire Design:  The stages of questionnaire design; developmental interviewing,
  question writing, question evaluation, pretesting, and questionnaire
  ordering and formatting. Reviews of the literature on questionnaire
  construction, the experimental literature on question effects, and
  the psychological literature on information processing. Examination of
  the diverse challenges posed by self versus proxy reporting and special
  attention is paid to the relationship between mode of administration and
  questionnaire design.