Final exam on Monday May 21 at 8 am in Thompson 106. We encounter the results of social science research almost daily. There are studies on virtually every subject poverty, homelessness, nutrition, educational achievement, and so on. Journalists are quick to report the latest study on hot issues like crime.
Politicians use research to justify their support for, or opposition to, various laws and policies.
You may have appealed to it yourself in arguments with friends. In this course we will study the basics of evaluating and conducting social science research. We will also do some research ourselves, by collecting data, analyzing it, and interpreting the results. We will encounter two broad kinds of research, quantitative and qualitative . While we do not have enough time in this course to delve deeply into either, we will get a basic feel for them their respective strengths and weaknesses, when one is more appropriate than the other, and how we might combine them.