Professor Pamela Oliver Department of Sociology

Sociology 357 Summer 2004 Syllabus

Summer 2004
SOCIOLOGY 357
METHODS OF SOCIAL RESEARCH
8:55 - 11:30 a.m. Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs July 12 - Aug 5
6228 Social Science July 12-15, 6112 Social Science July 19 - Aug 5

Instructor

Pamela Oliver 7101 Social Science 262-6829 Oliver@ssc.wisc.edu

Course web site: http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~oliver/SOC357/SOC357.HTM (you can navigate to the course page from my home page)

Office Hours: Immediately after class every day, and after a lunch break afternoons when you are doing something that is likely to need assistance. (On the day you turn a major assignment in, I will head home to spend the afternoon grading.) Ask me, and I will announce in class on a daily basis. I am readily available by email. This is an excellent way to get a quick question answered or to tell me about a problem. However, I get dozens of emails daily, and will not be able to engage in lengthy email discussions or debates with you.

Introduction

This is a basic course in how to do social science research and how to evaluate the research of others. It assumes no background in research methods or statistics. It provides a general overview of the ways sociologists collect information about social phenomena with a special emphasis on what can be done to yield information that is trustworthy and useful for our theoretical understanding of social life. If you have had any other research methods courses you will probably find this course to be too elementary and should discuss alternatives with me.

My goals in this course are: (1) to introduce you to the elements of research design so that you will have a good foundation for future learning, (2) to teach you how to read a research report with a critical eye, so that you can know how trustworthy its information is, (3) to convince you that research is not an esoteric or arcane activity that can be performed only by slightly eccentric professors, but rather a relatively straightforward, systematic set of procedures by which you can get answers to questions you have, (4) to let you experience some of the limitations and problems of doing research into human behavior, and (5) to show you that doing research can be fun, in the same way that learning about the world was fun for you before they spoiled it by making you do it in school.

There will be several blocks of lectures, but most of the class will be organized around discussions and workshops. Your active involvement will make this class better for you and others. This is a writing intensive course with a heavy workload. Each class session in the summer term is the equivalent of a week in a regular semester. You should not be planning any absences in a term this short. If you know you have to miss two classes or more, you should drop the class. You will need to do two to four hours of work outside of class most days, and will need blocks of time on the weekends for the long papers. It will be extremely difficult if not impossible to do this course while also trying to do any other time-consuming activity. If you become ill or some other crisis arises after the term is underway, please communicate with me as soon as possible.

Books and Supplies

You will need to buy a Workbook packet which will be sold at a location announced in class. This includes detailed instructions and examples for all methods projects, additional articles, and other important materials. Announcement will be made in class when the packet is ready for purchase. Bring the workbook to class every day, and the Golden reader when discussion of an article is on the agenda (or has been postponed from a previous class). It is also helpful to bring the methods text when it is the assigned reading of the day.

The following books have been ordered at University Bookstore and the Underground Textbook Exchange.

Royce Singleton, Jr. and others, Approaches to Social Research. Third Edition. A text in research methods. It is relatively sophisticated and explains the logic and significance of many important methodological practices.

Patricia Golden. The Research Experience. A collection of sociological research reports coupled with behind-the-scenes discussions of what really happened in the research. These articles are getting very old and dated, but they are still excellent learning tools, and I hope you will bear with them, because there is so far nothing available to replace them. You will learn a lot about the 1960s.

(Recommended, not required): Paul C. Stern and Linda Kalof. Evaluating Social Science Research. Second Edition. An excellent self-teaching guide to reading research reports. Also provides another treatment of basic methods concepts.

You will also need paper or cards in the 3x5" size. This is the smallest size note card, and is also a standard size note pad. You will need 16 of these, one for each class session. You may also make them yourself, or recycle cards that have been written on one side.

Requirements and Grading

The largest share of your grade is based on three major data collection projects and an article analysis. The data collection projects are a structured field observation, a field experiment, and a simple questionnaire; these are worth 20% each (for a total of 60%). These are explained in the workbook. An objective final exam on methodological concepts is worth 20%. Study questions will be distributed during the term. There will be frequent homework assignments which will be worth a total of 18%. The last 2% is based on giving daily feedback on the class sessions.

Homework is counted but not graded; if you do it you get credit. If you do 90% or more of the homework, you will receive an A; if you do 50% or less, you will receive an F; totals between these extremes will receive intermediate grades. HOMEWORK MUST BE SUBMITTED ON TIME TO RECEIVE FULL CREDIT. Homework submitted by the next class session will be given half credit; after that it will not be accepted at all. Missing class is not an excuse for late homework. The only exception is illness or other circumstances beyond your control (or a religious holiday), which you should explain in writing when you submit the late homework. If you cannot figure out the answer to a particular question after reading an article, just say so and, if possible, say what your best guess is. You will still get credit. Although homework is rarely assigned from it, the Singleton text contains a great deal of material which you are required to know for the graded exercises and the final exam. Notations on the exercises indicate which chapters of the reading are most relevant.

Daily Reactions are submitted at the end of each class on a 3x5 card with your name, the date, and at least one sentence of reaction to that day's class, indicating what you learned, or something you liked or did not like, found interesting or controversial, found clear or too simplistic, or found confusing and in need of further (or better) explanation; you may also submit comments on the course in general. You can submit a "reaction" only if you were actually in class. Grading system will be the same as for homework. I read these after each class, but do not normally return them or comment on them.

Managing the Summer Term Workload

Each class period is the equivalent of one week in a normal term. On many days, the class will be divided into two sections on two different topics. We will take a short break about half way through each class. I have given a great deal of thought to how to reorganize this course so it can be done in four weeks, allowing you enough time to write your papers and me enough time to grade them. The trick is to move quickly at the beginning and be working simultaneously on different projects at the same time, especially in the first two weeks. The reading is front-loaded. We will have time in the last week to return to the concepts with which we began the course, as part of preparing for the final exam.

For each of the three exercises, you have control over how long the data collection takes by your choice of sample and method. It is possible to collect the data for each exercise in two hours or less, if you make the right choices. One key is to plan thoroughly before collecting the data, and another is not to spend too much time changing your mind about what to do. I am prepared to help advise you to keep on the path of the possible rather than the impossible so you can get this work done and still sleep each night.

For the reading, you do not need to study it intensively before class, just read through it once so you can be ready to learn from class. Homework focuses on identifying variables and measures in articles. Do your best on this, but do not waste a lot of time struggling with it – just make a guess if you really do not know. Homework is counted for effort but not graded for correctness. Textbook reading gives you more depth on methodological concepts and information relevant to doing your exercises. Exam will focus on methodological concepts and will emphasize material discussed in class, not minor trivia from the readings.

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Questions or Comments? Email Oliver -at- ssc -dot- wisc -dot- edu. Last updated December 25, 2004 © University of Wisconsin.