08829 - Social Research Methodology

Learning outcomes

The aim of the course is to provide students with the necessary skills to carry out quantitative research in the social sciences.

At the end of the course, the students:

- have the necessary knowledge and skills to plan and carry out a social research;

- know the criteria to solve the methodological and technical problems they can meet during the research;

- know the various research techniques either the statistical quantitative or the qualitative ones

Course contents

The topics are the following:

• Method and techniques in social sciences
• Data collection techniques; data analysis techniques
• Univariate analysis
• Bivariate analysis

  The second part is focused on conducting and analysing qualitative interviews in the social sciences. We will examine four stages:

• Defining the aim and scope of the research.
• Devising a questionnaire.
• Carrying out the interviews.
• Analysing the data.

The course is organized in lectures and seminars, as detailed in the following program. Lectures (28 hours in remote on MS TEAMS) aim to introduce students to the core tenets of the discipline. Seminars aim to provide occasions for in-depth discussions of class materials and exercises. The division into lessons and seminars is specified in the program that follows. For the seminar section, students will be divided into X groups according to their preferences and according to rules concerning the current pandemic emergency: one group will do the seminar in classroom (16 hours) and one group will do the seminar remotely on MS TEAMS (16 hours). Therefore, a total of 44 classroom hours are scheduled for each student.

Students are required to carefully read the assigned material before the session and - in the case of seminars - active participation through presentations of existing scholarship and case studies will also be expected.

Regardless of the health-related conditions and the specific organization of the course, students will be able to follow the lessons of the entire course remotely on MS TEAMS.

Students should already be well-versed in sociological science methodology and basic elements of statistics. As to the basic elements of statistics, at the very least a careful reading of the following text is required: P. Corbetta, G. Gasperoni and M. Pisati, Statistica per la ricerca sociale, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2001 (chapters 1-3) or P. Corbetta, Metodologia e tecniche della ricerca sociale, Seconda edizione, Il Mulino, 2014, chapters 3, 13).

 

Readings/Bibliography

Regularly attending students (Students will be classified as “regularly attending students” if they attend at least 70% of lessons and participate in class activities):

P. Corbetta, Metodologia e tecniche della ricerca sociale. Seconda edizione, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2014, chapters 5, 6.1, 6.3, 8.

M.C. Pitrone, Sondaggi e interviste, Milano, Franco Angeli, 2009, chapters 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9.

Slides presented and discussed during the lessons and available in the section "Materiale didattico" of the professor’s Unibo website.

Non-attending students:

P. Corbetta, Metodologia e tecniche della ricerca sociale. Seconda edizione, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2014, chapters: 5, 6.1, 6.3, 8, 13, 14 (no 14.5).

M.C. Pitrone, Sondaggi e interviste, Milano, Franco Angeli, 2009, chapters: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.

Slides presented and discussed during the lessons and available in the section "Materiale didattico" of the professor’s Unibo website.

Teaching methods

Face-to-face lessons (16 hours) and seminars (12 hours).

Students are expected to read in advance the recommended readings for each session.

Assessment methods

The exam varies according to whether students attend and participate (or not). Attendance and participation status only has implications for exam mode.

In other words, students may choose to regularly attend the course, and then decide to take the exam as non-attending students. On the contrary, students who intend to take the exam as regularly attending students are required to participate in lectures and seminars as specified below.

The students who attend the course can participate in a procedure of evaluation during the course period.

Regularly attending students

The exam is split into two parts.

The first part will be concluded at the end of the course, during the seminar session. The student will have to produce a questionnaire. The student will analyze data applying theoretical and methodological knowledge acquired during the course. The student will present and discuss his/her main arguments and findings to colleagues during the final seminar.

The grade achieved in this part of the exam will count as 1/3 of the entire exam. The grade will be valid until the end of the current academic year (September 2021).

The second part of the exam will consist in closed-ended questions based on the theoretical part of the course (and counts as the remaining 2/3 of the overall exam). The student will have to take this second part within the final exam session scheduled for September 2021. If a regularly attending student does not take the second part of the exam within the abovementioned deadline, his/her grade achieved in the first part will be automatically cancelled, and will have to take the exam as a non-attending student.

Non-attending students

The exam is administered in exclusively written form and consists in closed-ended questions and excercises.

 

For all students

The only valid mark is the one achieved in the most recent attempt to pass the exam.

A candidate who doesn't participate in an exam for which he/she has registered cannot participate in the following exam session.

Each student is personally responsible for his/her registration in the exam session on AlmaEsami. Registration closes 5 days before the exam. It is not possible to sign up for the exam after registration has terminated.

Teaching tools

Pc, Laboratorio, MS Teams, Powerpoint slides 

Office hours

See the website of Valerio Vanelli