SOC107 Methods of sociological research

Faculty of Social Studies
Spring 2015
Extent and Intensity
1/1/0. 6 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
Mgr. Petr Fučík, PhD. (lecturer)
prof. PhDr. Ladislav Rabušic, CSc. (lecturer)
Mgr. Zdeněk Staszek (seminar tutor)
Guaranteed by
prof. PhDr. Ladislav Rabušic, CSc.
Department of Sociology – Faculty of Social Studies
Contact Person: Ing. Soňa Enenkelová
Supplier department: Department of Sociology – Faculty of Social Studies
Timetable
Wed 9:45–11:15 P31 Posluchárna A. I. Bláhy
Prerequisites
This course is the final of methodological courses in sociology. Only students who have passed the previous ones (SOC108-Data Analysis included) can be enrolled.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
there are 20 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
Course objectives
The course will give its students the knowledge about the process of sociological research and thus will enable them to carry out their own one.
In the first part, it focuses on the standardized way of quantitative measurement of complex social phenomena (e.g. anomie, value systems, political participation, social capital, social cohesion).
In the second part, basic descriptions of unobtrusive quantitative methods are provided and qualitative research methods are introduced.
At the end of this course, the students will become sophisticated experts on sociological research methods and they will be able to reflect relevance of sociological statements from the methodological point of view. They will, therefore, be able to conduct social research by themselves using variety of research methods, especially quantitative ones.
Qualitative research methods are only briefly introduced in this course. The students will find much deeper introduction to them in a special course on qualitative methods during their MA studies.
Syllabus
  • Topics:
  • 1. Sophisticated questionnaire I (Hot to measure attitudes, value preferences)
  • 2. Sophisticated questionnaire II. (Postmaterialism, Opinion leadership, Schwartz value portraits
  • 3. Sophisicated questionnaire III (How to measure social class and prestige of occupations; ISCO, SIOPS, ISEI; measurement of political orientation
  • 4. Sophisticated questionnaire IV (How to measure social capital; sociometrie; semantic differential; response rate
  • 5. Basics of field research
  • 6. Unobtrusive methods of sociological research I: analysis of documents, content analysis
  • 7. Unobtrusive methods of sociological research II: statistics as a source of information, secondary analysis
  • 8. International comparative research
  • 9. Evaluation research
  • 10. Ethics and politics of social research
  • 11. Research N = 1
  • 12. Sociological methods in a nutshell - summary
Literature
  • BABBIE, Earl R. The practice of social research. 9th ed. Belmont: Wadsworth, 2001, 1 sv. (rů. ISBN 0-534-57474-2. info
  • MERTENS, Donna M. Research and evaluation in education and psychology : integrating diversity with quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, 2005, xxiii, 507. ISBN 0761928057. info
  • DISMAN, Miroslav. Jak se vyrábí sociologická znalost : příručka pro uživatele. Praha: Karolinum, 1993, 374 stran. ISBN 8070668229. info
  • KERLINGER, Fred N. Základy výzkumu chování : pedagogický a psychologický výzkum. Translated by Vladimír Smékal - Eva Klobouková - L. Kolaříková - M. Kučer. Vydání I. Praha: Academia, 1972, 705 stran. URL info
  • Krech, D., Crutchfield, R. S., Ballachey, E. I.: Človek v spoločnosti. SAV, Bratislava 1968. Povaha a meranie postojov, str. 167-200
  • STRAUSS, Anselm and Juliet CORBINOVÁ. Základy kvalitativního výzkumu : postupy a techniky metody zakotvené teorie. Vyd. 1. Boskovice: Albert, 1999, 196 s. ISBN 80-85834-60-X. info
  • STRAUSS, Anselm L. and Juliet M. CORBIN. Basics of qualitative research : techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, 1998, xiii, 312. ISBN 0803959400. info
Teaching methods
Teaching methods include lectures, class discussions over the home reading assignments, team discussions over assigned term paper, team writing of the term paper, class discussion over the evaluation of the term paper with the examples of good and bad practices.
Assessment methods
The course is finished by a exam. Students have to qualify for it: Conditions are: (1) active participation during class discussions;(2)submission of team term paper and its positive evaluation (getting marks A-E). Those who get A or B have their final exam mark increased by one degree. Those who get F must re-write the term paper. The course is finished by a written exam. It takes place in the PC room and students answer a set of ten questions.
Language of instruction
Czech
Follow-Up Courses
Further Comments
The course is taught annually.
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 1999, Spring 2000, Spring 2001, Spring 2002, Spring 2003, Spring 2004, Spring 2005, Spring 2006, Spring 2007, Spring 2008, Spring 2009, Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2015, recent)
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