Employing Single-Case Design to Evaluate Voter Turnout

Author

Harley Lang, St. Cloud State UniversityFollow

Date of Award

12-2016

Culminating Project Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Applied Behavior Analysis: M.S.

Department

Community Psychology, Counseling and Family Therapy

College

School of Health and Human Services

First Advisor

Benjamin N. Witts

Second Advisor

Kimberly A. Schulze

Third Advisor

Michele Traub

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Keywords and Subject Headings

behavior analysis, single-case design, levels of analysis, aggregated responding, voting, election turnout

Abstract

Behavior analytic researchers have used single-case designs to evaluate variables at multiple levels of analysis. In this thesis, three analyses of voter turnout were conducted with single-case design. The first analysis used a multiple-baseline design to evaluate the effect of compulsory voting on voter turnout in parliamentary elections. The second analysis used scatterplots to evaluate the effect of the density of registered voters to polling stations on turnout within constituencies in parliamentary elections. The final analysis used a repeated A-B design to evaluate the effect of the duration of party control on popular vote for nations in which two parties receive the majority of votes. The discussion addresses the future use of these experimental tools with aggregated behaviors produced by groups. Further, the findings are linked to current understandings of behavior principles, which reveal several avenues for future behavior analytic research with political phenomenon and policy.

Comments/Acknowledgements

As this project came to an end, I was found myself frequently distracted by the page count. “How could I have ever produced over 500 pages of content? This is crazy.” Having reflected, maybe it isn’t. My past and current environment aligned to bring this about. To that end, I consider myself just a participant of this marvelous adventure. And like any good adventure, there were many people who helped along the way. Special thanks is owed to Dr. Marxer and Dr. Nohlen—thank you for your efforts in publishing electoral data and helping me out of a data rut. I also had the fortune of having wonderful colleagues at Semiahmoo Behavior Analysts Inc., who were always interested in hearing how this project was developing—and some offered to share their time for IOA. My thesis committee and the Applied Behavior Analysis department as a whole at St. Cloud State University were truly amazing in supporting me with this project. Thank you, Dr. Witts, for your encouragement, sound advice, careful direction, and the many re-reads of this behemoth. At home, I cherish my many friends and family members for all they have done. Angelina Henshaw, your ever-present influence, keen interest, untiring support, and input every-step of the way is forever valued. To my parents—Sean and Susan Lang—thank you for every bit you did to provide me with this opportunity, and for always supporting my curiosity and drive to learn. This project is a product of my environment; in turn, I hope this project can be useful in shaping the environments of others. This project is dedicated to people everywhere.

Recommended Citation

Lang, Harley, "Employing Single-Case Design to Evaluate Voter Turnout" (2016). Culminating Projects in Community Psychology, Counseling and Family Therapy. 31.
https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/cpcf_etds/31