Human Development Research Design

Undergraduate / Graduate

The purpose of this course is to expose CHD majors in college to a broad range of methods in social sciences with a focus on human development research. The faculty in Comparative Human Development is engaged in interdisciplinary research encompassing anthropology, biology, psychology, sociology, and applied statistics. The types of data and methods used by faculty span the gamut of possible methodologies for addressing novel and important research questions. In this course, students will study how appropriate research methods are chosen and employed in influential research and will gain hands-on experience with data collection and data analysis. In general, the class will meet as a whole on Mondays and will have lab/discussion sections on Wednesdays. The lab/discussion sections are designed to review the key concepts, practice through applying some of the methods, and prepare students for the assignments. Students in each section will be assigned to small groups. Some of the assignments are group-based while others are individual-based.