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15.347

Doctoral Seminar in Research Methods I

3-0-9 units · Graduate

Introduces the process of social research, emphasizing the conceptualization of research choices to ensure validity, relevance, and discovery. Includes research design and techniques of data collection as well as issues in the understanding, analysis, and interpretation of data.

Fall 2004

Topics

  • Introduction and the Research Process: Ideas and Evidence
  • What is Theory
  • Research Ethics
  • Logic of Experimentation and Measurement, Validity, and Reliability
  • Quasi-Experiments
  • Elaboration: Causality and Causal Inference
  • Assignment I
  • Units and Levels of Analysis
  • Positivism and Non-Positivism
  • Project Updates
  • Getting it Done: Issues in Doing It
  • Project Presentations

Readings

  • Wherever “S&S” is mentioned below, it refers to: Singleton, R. A., Jr., and Bruce C. Straits. Approaches to Social Research . 3rd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN: 0195105257.
    Listed reading
  • LEC #: 1 · TOPICS: Introduction and the Research Process: Ideas and Evidence · READINGS: Bailyn, Lotte. “Research as a cognitive process.” Quality and Quantity 11 (1977): 97-117.
    Reading assignment
  • S&S, Chapter 4
    Listed reading
  • Ragin, Charles. Constructing Social Research . Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press, 1994, chapter 3. ISBN: 0803990219.
    Listed reading
  • Making Sense of Data Lave, Charles A., and James G. March. “An Introduction to Speculation” and “The Evaluation of Speculations” . Chapters 2 and 3 in An Introduction to Models in the Social Sciences . Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1993. ISBN: 0819183814.
    Listed reading
  • Merton, Robert K. “On Sociological Theories of the Middle Range.” In Social Theory and Social Structure . New York: The Free Press, 1968, pp. 39-53. ISBN: 0029211301.
    Listed reading
  • Hedström, Peter, and Richard Swedberg. “Social Mechanisms: An Introductory Essay.” In Social Mechanisms: An Analytical Approach to Social Theory . Edited by Peter Hedström, and Richard Swedberg. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998, pp. 1-31. ISBN: 0521596874.
    Listed reading
  • Kifner, John. “Scholar Sets Off Gastronomic False Alarm.” New York Times, September 8, 2001.
    Listed reading
  • Milgram, Stanley. “Some conditions of obedience and disobedience to authority.” Human Relations 18 (1965): 57-75.
    Listed reading
  • Scarr, Sandra. “Race and Gender as Psychological Variables: Social and Ethical Issues.” American Psychologist 43 (1988): 56-59.
    Listed reading
  • S&S, Chapter 17
    Listed reading
  • LEC #: 4 · TOPICS: Logic of Experimentation and Measurement, Validity, and Reliability · READINGS: S&S, Chapters 5 and 7
    Reading assignment
  • Zelditch, Morris. “Can you really study an army in a laboratory?” In A Sociological Reader on Complex Organizations . Edited by Amitai Etzioni. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1961, pp. 528-539. ISBN: 0030474612.
    Listed reading
  • Kray, L. J., L. Thompson, and A. Galinsky. “Battle of the sexes: Gender stereotype confirmation and reactance in negotiations.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 80 (2001): 942-958.
    Listed reading
  • Cohen, Bernard. “Tying Concepts to Observations.” Chapter 8 in Developing Sociological Knowledge . 1989. ISBN: 0830411232.
    Listed reading
  • Becker, Howard S. “Concepts.” Chapter 4 in Tricks of the Trade: How to Think About Your Research While You’re Doing It . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998. ISBN: 0226041239.
    Listed reading
  • Project Proposals Judd, Charles M., Eliot R. Smith, and Louise H. Kidder. Research Methods in Social Relations . Orlando: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1991, pp. 101-123. ISBN: 0030311497.
    Listed reading
  • Goldthorpe, John H. “Causation, Statistics & Sociology.” European Sociological Review 17 (2001): 1-20.
    Listed reading
  • Bendersky, Corrine. “Dispute resolution system effectiveness: complementarities and mediators.” Unpublished manuscript, UCLA, 2003.
    Listed reading
  • LEC #: 6 · TOPICS: Elaboration: Causality and Causal Inference · READINGS: Agresti, Alan, and Barbara Finlay. Statistical Methods for the Social Sciences . San Francisco: Dellen Publishing, 1986, pp. 292-305. ISBN: 0023011203 .
    Reading assignment
  • Baron, Reuben M., and David A. Kenny. “The Moderator-Mediator Variable Distinction in Social Psychological Research.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 51 (1986): 1173-1182.
    Listed reading
  • Common Problems and Pitfalls Babbie, Earl R. The Practice of Social Research . Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1997, pp. 92-104. ISBN: 053450468X.
    Listed reading
  • S&S, Chapter 6
    Listed reading
  • Berk, Richard A. “An Introduction to Sample Selection Bias in Sociological Data.” American Sociological Review 48 (1983): 386-398.
    Listed reading
  • Lieberson, Stanley. “Selectivity.” Chapter 2 in Making it Count . Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1985. ISBN: 0520053508.
    Listed reading
  • Kolata, Gina. “Hormone Studies: What Went Wrong?” New York Times , April 22, 2003.
    Listed reading
  • King, Gary, Robert O. Keohane, and Sidney Verba. “Understanding What to Avoid.” Chapter 5 in Designing Social Inquiry . Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994. ISBN: 0691034710.
    Listed reading
  • Optional: Rousseau, Denise. “Issues of Level in Organizational Research.” Research in Organizational Behavior 7 (1985): 1-37.
    Listed reading
  • Making a Contribution Popper, Karl R. “A Survey of Some Fundamental Problems.” Chapter 1 in The Logic of Scientific Discovery . New York: Science Editions, Inc., 1961.
    Listed reading
  • Dougherty, Deborah. “Building Grounded Theory: Some Principles and Practices.” In The Blackwell Companion to Organizations . Edited by J. A. C. Baum. Blackwell Publishers, 2002, pp. 849-867. ISBN: 0631216944.
    Listed reading
  • McGrath, Joseph E., Janie R. Kelly, and Jean E. Rhodes. “A feminist perspective on research methodology: Some metatheoretical issues, contrasts, and choices.” Chapter 2 in Gender Issues in Contemporary Society . Edited by S. Oskamp, and M. Costanzo. Sage, 1993. ISBN: 0803952295.
    Listed reading
  • McGrath, Joseph E., Joanne Martin, and Richard A. Kulka. “Some quasi-rules for making judgment calls in research.” Chapter 4 in Judgment Calls in Research . Edited by J. E. McGrath, J. Martin, and R. A. Kulka. Sage, 1982. ISBN: 0803918747.
    Listed reading
  • Wagner, David G., and Joseph Berger. “Do Sociological Theories Grow?” American Journal of Sociology 90 (1985): 697-728.
    Listed reading
  • Visitor Stinchcombe, Arthur L., and Richard Ofshe. “On Journal Editing as a Probabilistic Process.” The American Sociologist 4 (1969): 116-117.
    Listed reading
  • Stinchcombe, Arthur L. “On Getting ‘Hung-Up’ and Other Assorted Illnesses.” In Stratification and Organization . Edited by A. L. Stinchcombe. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986, pp. 271-281. ISBN: 0521325889.
    Listed reading
  • Becker, Howard S. “Persona and Authority.” Chapter 2 in Writing for Social Scientists . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986. ISBN: 0226041085.
    Listed reading
  • Buchanan, David, et. al. “Getting in, getting on, getting out, and getting back.” In Doing Research in Organizations . Edited by A. Bryman. Routledge, 1988, pp. 53-67. ISBN: 0415002583.
    Listed reading
  • King, Gary, Robert O. Keohane, and Sidney Verba. Designing Social Inquiry . Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994. A useful book on some tricky issues in research design.
    Listed reading
  • Miller, D. C. Handbook of Research Design and Social Measurement . 4th ed. New York: Longman, 1983. A useful compendium of information on research, including methods of data collection, statistics, available scales and measures, sources of funding, publication outlets, etc.
    Listed reading
  • Loether, H. J., and D. G. McTavish. Descriptive Statistics for Sociologists: An Introduction . Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1974. A wonderful book that goes into the logic of describing data, with one variable, two variables, and three or more variables. Gives lucid descriptions of the various measures available and when and how they should be used.
    Listed reading
  • Abelson, R. P. Statistics as Principled Argument . Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1995. An unusual book that does not go into statistical techniques but gives a wonderful way of understanding the logic of statistical testing and its use in the research process.
    Listed reading
  • Robinson, J. P., P. R. Shaver, L. S. Wrightman, and F. M. Andrews. Measures of Personality and Social Psychological Attitudes . San Diego: Academic Press, 1991. A classic compendium of scales and measures used in these areas, including some review essays. There are also earlier volumes by the same first author on political attitudes and occupational attitudes and characteristics, but they are fairly old.
    Listed reading
  • Miles, M. B., and A. M. Huberman. Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook . 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 1994. A classic and often used source for qualitative analysis.
    Listed reading
  • See also Bickman, L. J., and D. J. Rog, eds. Handbook of Applied Social Research Methods . Thousand Oaks: Sage, 1998. A useful compendium of articles of all kinds of research methods.
    Listed reading
  • Singleton, R. A., Jr., and Bruce C. Straits. Approaches to Social Research . 3rd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN: 0195105257. (S&S)
    Listed reading

Prerequisites & course information

Subject meets with 21A.809 Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Spring) 3-0-9 units

Sources