SOCIOLOGY 3392--INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH METHODS II

SOCIOLOGY 5394–SEMINAR IN SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH METHODS

Spring, 2004

Dr. Alden E. Roberts

Office: 63 Holden Hall

Office Hours:1:00-2:00 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday and by appointment

E-Mail:

Telephone/Voice Mail:742-2401 Extension 230

Books:A.CONTEMPOARARY SOCIAL RESEARCH METHODS: A TEXT USING MICOSOFT, Third Edition, (Stark and Roberts)

B.A MICROCASE WORKBOOK FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH, Third Edition, (Corbett and Roberts)

COURSE OUTLINE {Chapters refer to both books}

PART I: RESEARCH AND THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD

Class PreviewJanuary 15th

The Scientific Approach to Knowledge I (Chapter 1)January 20th

The Scientific Approach to Knowledge 11 January 22nd

Graduate Student Questionnaires and Introduction to SPSSJanuary 27th

Conceptual (through Operational Definitions) (Chapter 2)January 29th

More on Concepts (Chapters 5)February 3rd

Basic Elements of Research and Formulation of a Research ProblemFebruary 5th

TEST ONEFebruary 10th

PART II: EXPERIMENTS

Hand back Test 1 and Meet with Graduate Students February 12th

Experiments (Chapters 6 and 10)February 17th

Pre-Experiments and Quasi-ExperimentsFebruary 19th

Student Presentations of ExperimentsFebruary 24th

TEST TWOFebruary 26th

PART III: OBSERVATION, SAMPLING AND MEASUREMENT

Hand back Test 2 and Meet with Graduate StudentsMarch 2nd

Participant Observation and Field Research (Chapter 9)March 4th

Sampling (Chapter 4)March 9th

Student Presentations of Participant ObservationsMarch 11th

Measurement (Chapter 3)March 23rd

TEST THREEMarch 25th

PART IV: QUESTIONNAIRE CONSTRUCTION AND SURVEY RESEARCH

Hand back Test 3 and Participant Observations and Meet with Graduate Students March 30th

QuestionnairesApril 1st

Survey Research (Chapter 7)April 6th

Unobtrusive Measures (Chapter 11)April 8th

TEST FOURApril 13th

PART V: DATA PROCESSING, INDEX CONSTRUCTION AND ETHICS

Hand back Test 4 and Meet with Graduate StudentsApril 15th

Student Presentations of their Survey Research ResultsApril20th

Index Construction and Scaling Methods (Chapter 8)April 22nd

Ethics of Social Science ResearchApril 27th

Final Discussion of Research Methods IApril 29th

FINAL TEST: Tuesday, May 11th at 7:30 a.m.

GRADING: There are 600 possible points in the course. There are five regular tests worth 100 possible points each. There are also several required research assignments worth a total of 100 points. There will be one percentage point deducted from your final score for all unexcused absences after three. As an example, if you have seven absences and a final score of 73%, four percentage points will be deducted so you will end up with 69% or a D. Excellent attendance and class participation will be taken into account in the event your grade is on a "borderline".

Grading is one the ten point percentage grading scale:

A=90% to 100% (540 to 600 points)

B=80% to 89% (480 to 539 points)

C=70% to 79% (420 to 479 points)

D=60% to 69% (360 to 419 points)

F=59% and below (359 and fewer points)

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*Any student who, because of a disabling condition, may require some special arrangements in order to meet course requirements should contact the instructor as soon as possible so that the necessary accommodations can be made.