Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Fall 2006
3.606 Green Hall
Professor Kimberly Kempf-Leonard
972-883-4969
kleonard@utdallas.edu
2.120 Green Hall
Office hours: Tuesdays & Wednesdays 3-3:50, and by appointment
No Pre-requisites. Any graduate student in the School of Economics, Political & Policy Sciences is welcome to enroll
and encouraged to take the class early in their graduate studies. Students from other UTD graduate programs who are
interested in social science research methods are also welcome.
Course Description
This course on research design is the first in a series of graduate courses offered in the School of Social Sciences to
teach graduate students about methodology used in the social sciences. The task of the methodologist is to explain
what the investigator is doing and to determine whether the procedures will lead the investigator to the kinds of
statements he or she wants to make. This course explains strategies for devising social science studies, compares the
relative benefits of various designs, and identifies the tools necessary actually to conduct studies that will yield data
worthy of analysis, publication, tenure, and promotion! This material will be valuable not only for students who will
conduct research and administrators who must evaluate the research of others, but also for those who, in the course of
daily lives, wonder how and why people behave and organizations develop as they do.
Bryman, Allan. 2004 Social Research Methods, 2nd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (ISBN 0-19-
926446-5; www.sagepub.co.uk)
[first edition is fine too: 2001. (ISBN: 0-19-874204-5)]
Course Structure
The outline of course topics and reading assignments are listed below. The course will be a combination of lecture,
discussion, and activities. During most weeks, I will begin the session by presenting techniques, issues, and concerns
that I consider most important on the methodological topics for that week. We will then have an open discussion and
Come prepared to discuss concerns for the social scientist about epistemology and
researcher objectivity. What lessons might be learned from the article on dieting
research?
Assignment 1 due today: Decide on a social science topic that you intend to investigate this
semester. Choose a topic of interest to you and about which you will be able to locate
related refereed journal articles because this topic will become the focus of many
assignments and lead to the research proposal that contributes heavily to your course
grade. Identify five articles from refereed journals that describe some sort of research on
this topic, provide me with a bibliography listing these articles and the authors’ abstracts.
It will be important that you have access to the complete article.
Come prepared to share the research problem you will propose to study. You should
propose to study a relationship that is explanatory, predictive, or evaluative. No
exploratory, descriptive, or comparison proposals will be allowed.
Assignment 2 due today: Turn in draft of the hypothesis you anticipate to propose. Write a
paragraph describing why this is a good example of a hypothesis. Be certain to identify
important concepts and the causal relationship specified in the hypothesis.
Come prepared to talk about how your topic might be investigated through an
experimental design and what difficulties would need to be overcome.
Assignment 3 due today: Construct a table that provides an overview of the articles you are
reviewing. This table should identify the research subjects and how they were identified.
You will also need to distinguish the independent and dependent variables, and how they
were operationalized. I will provide you with a template for this assignment, or you may
devise your own.
Come prepared to discuss various units of analysis you could propose to examine and
what a potential case study for your topic look like.
13: Nov. 7 Methods of Quantitative & Qualitative Data Collection II: Obtrusive Asking.
Read: Bryman, Ch. 5: Structured Interviewing
Bryman Ch. 6: Self-Completion Questionnaires
Bryman Ch. 7: Asking Questions
14: Nov. 14 Methods of Quantitative & Qualitative Data Collection III: Field research
Read: Bryman Ch. 14: Ethnography & Participant Observation
Bryman Ch. 15: Interviewing in qualitative research
Bryman Ch. 16: Focus Groups
Assignment 4 due today: Write a short paper in which you describe two different data collection
methods you could use to measure critical concepts and examine the relationship of
interest about your topic. Describe the data collection instrument you would use to
measure key variables, and justify your decisions.
Grades
Half of the course grade will be based on the final research proposal, due Nov. 27, which should also become part of
your portfolio. The other half of your course grade will be based on assignments that lead up to the research proposal,
including the following assignments and exercises:
1. 5-8 journal articles on topic of your choosing (due Sept. 5)
2. hypothesis for research proposal (due Sept. 26)
3. Summary table of subjects and variables (due Oct. 3)
4. triangulation of methods (due Nov. 14)
Progress and achievement. The course activities and assignments are designed to provide a foundation in research
design and multidisciplinary methods for graduate students in the social sciences. Activities and assignments will
require different levels of attention, time, and skill; in part, because students enroll in the course with various
backgrounds, knowledge, and biases about social science methodology. I hope every student meets with me to
discuss his or her interests in methodology, progress in the course, and most certainly if problems arise.
Colleagial interaction. Especially given our different substantive and methodological interests, it is important that class
participants be open-minded and respectful of one another. In addition to being courteous and responsible, it is
important for learning that students attend class, so repeated absence or tardiness, regardless of the reason, will not
be considered favorably. Moreover, except in unusual circumstances, late submissions and make up assignments will
not be allowed. Written work is expected to be turned into the professor on the assigned date. Electronic copies are
discouraged.
The word methodology is used in various ways within the social sciences. As such, and especially in the orientation of
this course, it is worth considering that among the many design strategies, methods of data collection, and analytical
techniques, there are standards and “rules of thumb,” but also exceptions and lack of consensus. The more of each
that you understand and appreciate, the better the methodologist you’ll become. I list below a few favorite quotes that
help to convey the message I intend.
The world lies waiting for the curious to observe, manipulate, make judgments about, and understand. The
fundamental question is how this will be done….Learning which questions to ask and which tools to use is essentially
the business of research methods.
-R.A. Singleton et al. (1993), Approaches to Social Research, p. 3
Methodology … [has] developed as a bent of mind rather than as a system of organized principles and procedures.
The methodologist is a scholar who is above all analytical in his approach to his subject matter. He tells other scholars
what they have done, or might do, rather than what they should do. He tells them what order of finding has emerged
from their research, not what kind of result is or is not preferable. This kind of analytical approach requires self-
awareness on the one hand, and tolerance, on the other. The methodologist knows that the same goal can be reached
by alternative roads.
-P. Lazarsfeld & M. Rosenberg (1955) The Language of Social Research, p 4.
Riddle: When it comes to reading the report of an empirical study, what is the difference between a layman, a
researcher, and a methodologist? Answer: The layman reads the text and skips the tables; the researcher reads the
Avoid the fallacy fallacy. When a theorist or methodologist tells you you cannot do something, do it anyway. Breaking
rules can be fun!
-T. Hirschi, 21 (2) Social Problems, pp.171-2.
“abstracted empiricism” helps insure “that we do not learn too much about man and society”
-C.W. Mills (1959) The Sociological Imagination, p. 75
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