SOC 2993 - Research Methods for the Social Sciences

Credits: 4
Hours/Week: Lecture None Lab None
Course Description: This course is one of two intended to prepare students to gather and analyze social and behavioral science data. It will introduce the methods social scientists use to gain knowledge about social relationships, settings, organizations, institutions, and the larger society. The course will cover the role of theory, forms of causal reasoning, modes of observation, units of analysis, operationalization, ethical questions in social research, and the analysis of narrative data.
MnTC Goals
None

Prerequisite(s): ENGL 1020 with a grade of C or higher OR ENGL 1021 with a grade of C or higher.
Corequisite(s): None
Recommendation: SOC 2991 with a grade of C or higher. SOC 1020 or another social or behavioral science course with a grade of C or higher.

Major Content

Construction and interpretation of indexes and scales of social phenomena
Ethical issues in social and behavioral research
Modes of observation in social and behavioral research: experiments and evaluation research, survey research, field research, unobtrusive research
Necessary and sufficient causes for explaining social scientific phenomena
Overview of qualitative data analysis
Overview of quantitative data analysis: quantification of data, univariate and bivariate analysis, comparison of subgroups, multivariate analysis
Principles of conceptualization, operationalization, and measurement of social scientific concepts
Probability and non-probability sampling, populations and sampling frames, sampling designs
Reliability and validity in social research
Social and behavioral scientific paradigms
The language of variables: attributes, independent and dependent, levels of measurement
The role of theory in the social and behavioral scientific research process induction, deduction, and theory construction
The time dimension in social research: cross-sectional and longitudinal studies
Types of explanatory models employed in social and behavioral science nomothetic and idiographic, causality
Units of analysis in social and behavioral science research
Writing for the social sciences

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this course students will be able to:

Demonstrate the processes of conceptualization and operationalization
Describe the construction of indexes and scales, respectively
Design a research study to answer a researchable question about an aspect of social life
Demonstrate writing for the social and behavioral sciences, including such aspects of research proposals and reports as tone, organization, and appropriate use of sources
Describe common sampling procedures
Compare the respective advantages and disadvantages of qualitative and quantitative approaches
Outline how social researchers confront ethical issues in their work
Develop a researchable question about an aspect of social life
Describe the role of theory in the research process
Choose the most appropriate mode of observation for a given research question
Describe the criteria of measurement quality

Competency 1 (1-6)
None
Competency 2 (7-10)
None

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SOC 2993 - Research Methods for the Social Sciences