Methods of Social Research

METHODS OF SOCIAL RESEARCH SYA 4300 Spring Semester 2017

LECTURES: M-W-F, Period 8, 3:00-3:50 PM, Turlington 2305 LABS: Section #### – Tuesdays Period 3, 9:35-10:25 AM, Weil Hall 408D, ~ OR ~ Section #### – Tuesdays Period 4, 10:40-11:30 AM, Weil Hall 408D

Instructor: Dr. Stephen Perz, Department of Sociology and Criminology & Law Office: Turlington 3115 Office Phone: +01-352-294-7186 Office Hours: MWF 11:40 AM - 12:40 PM, and by appointment E-mail: [email protected]

Teaching Assistants: TBD

Course Description THIS IS THE COURSE YOU’VE BEEN WAITING FOR – your introduction to the tools that can help you practice good social research. “Methods” introduces the nuts-and-bolts issues of conceptualization and measurement, research design and sampling, quantitative and qualitative analysis, and many topics in between. You will acquire knowledge via lectures and apply it in labs. The nitty-gritty details and the active learning in Methods means you’ll have to spend considerable time working on this course. However, if you give an honest effort, Methods will pay you back many times over, for this course provides you with skills that serve as assets in the job market or foundations for graduate school. What is more, Methods involves practice at critical thinking, which is important for exercising enlightened citizenship rights in a democracy, whatever your career goals.

Prerequisites You MUST have taken SYG 2000, Principles of Sociology (or equivalent), and have at least 60 semester credit hours (i.e., you’re in your junior year). It is recommended that you have already taken a statistics course (i.e., STA 2122).

Required Readings Neuman, W. Lawrence. 2012. The Basics of Social Research: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches, 3nd ed. Boston: Pearson / AB Longman. (Other editions are okay but the page numbers for readings will be different than those provided in the course schedule.) Course packet (Available at Target Copy, 1412 W University Ave., 376-3826) Lecture notes (in PDF from Perz) Other short readings, to be distributed by via e-mail

Student Learning Outcomes in this Course: 1. Understand the advantages and disadvantages of qualitative and quantitative methodological approaches to answering research questions. 2. Gather and interpret qualitative and quantitative data in order to answer research questions. 3. Produce a proposal with a clear research question and detailed description of the methods to be used in order to answer that question. 2

Grades

Item Points Each Number Total Points Percent

In-class Pop Quizzes 10 10100 20.0 Lab Assignments 20 or 40 4 or 5 12024.0 Proposal (& Topic Statement)120 1120 24.0 Exams 50 2100 20.0 Final Exam 60 1 60 12.0

Total N/A N/A 500 100 .0

In-class Pop Quizzes. There will be regular in-class pop quizzes over material from recent classes. The quizzes are intended to motivate everyone to keep up to date on the notes, and attending and participating in classes. The quizzes also provide a means for students to evaluate themselves in preparing for exams. Some quizzes will involve multiple choice questions, while others will involve short answer or short essay questions. The exams will have the same kinds of questions. Some quizzes will be attendance grades; that is, if you are there to take the quiz, you will get full credit regardless of your answers. Other quizzes will be graded based on the answers you give. The point of grading some quizzes is to ensure engaged attendance and to prepare for exams. I have randomly determined which quizzes will be for attendance and which will be graded.

Lab Assignments. During the course of the semester I will give you six (6) homework assignments that draw on lectures and labs. Assignments 1, 2, 5, and 6 involve interpretation of statistical output and are worth 20 points each. Assignments 3 and 4 involve your own data collection as well as interpretation of the findings, and are worth 40 points each. You need to do some combination of assignments worth up to 120 points; either two 20-point and two 40-points assignments, or four 20-point and one 40- point assignment. If you do additional assignments, I will drop the lowest grades. That is, I do not merely add up assignment points until you have 120 points; you need to do well on the assignments you turn in. I encourage everyone to do all six assignments. The assignments are worth 24% of your grade.

Proposal and Topic Statement. To apply what you learn in this class, you are required to develop a social research proposal. To write such a proposal, you will have to identify a social problem for research, review literature, conceptualize your research question, operationalize your concepts, decide what kind of data to collect and how to collect it, state how to you intend to analyze it, and discuss the significance of the proposed research.

Prior to turning in a proposal, you must write a “topic statement” of 600-800 words (i.e., ~2 pages double- spaced in 12 point font). This topic statement should identify your topic, state your research question, and discuss your preliminary ideas about how you propose to research your question. I use this statement to provide you feedback in order to direct and thereby facilitate your proposal work. The topic statement is due to me as listed on the attached course schedule. Send me the topic statement via Turnitin. I’ll reply with your grade and comments. I WILL ACCEPT TOPIC STATEMENTS LATE, BUT YOU LOSE FOUR (4) POINTS PER DAY LATE. The point of this policy is to encourage everyone to submit a topic statement, even if late, in order to get feedback, which is very important for developing the final proposal.

From the topic statement you must develop an original research proposal of ~3000-3500 words of text (i.e., ~10-12 double-spaced pages in 12-point Time New Roman font with 1” margins), plus references and 3 questionnaires and other materials as they apply. The proposal must introduce your topic, review pertinent literature, state your research question, outline the methods to be used, discuss the analyses to be applied to the resulting data, and highlight the implications of the findings. Details, examples and advice are in the course packet. I will accept proposal drafts via e-mail for feedback until the beginning of class as listed on the course schedule and send you comments within seven days. The proposal is due at the beginning of class at our last class meeting as listed on the course schedule. Send me the final proposal via Turnitin. I will reply with a completed gradesheet that will include comments. The topic statement is worth 20 points, and the proposal 100 points, and together they count for 24% of your grade.

Exams. We will have three (3) exams, two during the semester and a final. Prior to each exam, I will hand out a study sheet, and the last lecture period before an exam will be devoted to review. The final exam will highlight material covered since the second exam, and include one question pertaining to material from the entire course. All three exams involve multiple choice items but will highlight short answer and short essay questions. The first two exams are worth 50 points, and the final is worth 60 points. Together they account for 32% of your grade.

Extra Credit. This course offers two extra credit options tagged to your proposal. The first option is to present your proposal in front of the class. For up to 12 points, you can give a 5-7 minute presentation of your proposal. This is voluntary, but it is well worth your while. Oral presentations help you develop your communication skills, and a presentation of your proposal gives you the chance to share your ideas with your colleagues, which is often exciting and enlightening. I will solicit volunteers for proposal presentations as listed on the course schedule (pages 4-7), and volunteers will give their presentations at one or more of the dates after lectures end and before the review session on the last day of classes. Details on grading and advice on presentations are provided in the course packet.

The second option is to attend student proposal presentations. For each session of student presentations you attend, you earn 3 extra credit points. You need to attend the entire period to get extra credit for attendance; I reserve the right to reduce extra credit for latecomers who miss presentations. You can earn a maximum of 12 extra credit points this way. People who present proposals also get 3 points for attending that day. I encourage everyone to attend all sessions with proposal presentations; you will learn substantially from your colleagues.

Assignment of Grades. Based on your performance on the items just described, which sum to 500 possible points (not including the extra credit), I will assign letter grades as shown in the table below. Do not expect me to round up; 349.5 points is still a D+. I will not assign extra work beyond the extra credit options listed above; it is up to you to achieve the grade you seek. I do not use “minus” grades.

Points Percentage Letter Points Percentage Letter 450+ 90.0+A 350-387 70.0-<77.5 C 437.5-449.5 87.5-<90.0 B+337.5-349.567.5-<70.0 D+ 400-437 80.0-<87.5 B300-337 60.0-<67.5 D 387.5-399.5 77.5-<80.0 C+<300 <60.0 E

Course Policies

Attendance. Attendance is not strictly mandatory in the sense that I will not take a roll call for lecture or lab attendance. However, classes will include pop quizzes, and if you are not present and you miss a quiz, your grade will sink. Further, we will have in-class activities that directly bear on the exam content. Lectures will also reinforce your understanding of material from the notes and readings. Labs provide information crucial 4 to doing the assignments. There is no make-up for missed labs, because I do not control when labs are available outside of our scheduled lab time.

Late Work. I will not accept late assignments or proposals unless you can provide written documentation and I accept the justification. If you know you will miss class the day something is due, it is your responsibility to turn it in before the deadline.

Exams. I encourage you to study in groups for exams. If you miss an exam, you must contact me within 24 hours and provide me written documentation justifying your absence in order to take a makeup exam. You must make up the exam as soon after as possible. If you know you are going to miss an exam, talk to me before the exam date to take the exam early.

University Policies and Services

Honesty: As a result of completing the registration form at the University of Florida, every student has signed the following statement: "I understand that the University of Florida expects its students to be honest in all their academic work. I agree to adhere to this commitment to academic honesty and understand that my failure to comply with this commitment may result in disciplinary action up to and including expulsion from the University."

Turn in your own, original work! For this course I will be employing the software Turnitin which scans all work submitted to me by students for unoriginal in order to detect plagiarism. This software works VERY well because it scans billions of websites as well as previous assignments to compare content. I will make decisions about plagiarism based on data from Turnitin. I reserve the right to give no credit for work determined by Turnitin to have plagiarized. FOR YOUR SAKE, TURN IN YOUR OWN WORK.

Accommodation for students with disabilities: Students requesting classroom accommodation must first register with the Dean of Students Office. The Dean of Students Office will provide documentation to the student who must then provide this documentation to the Instructor when requesting accommodation.

UF Counseling Services: Resources are available on-campus for students having personal problems or lacking a clear career and academic goals which interfere with their academic performance. These resources include: 1. University Counseling Center, 392-1575, www.counsel.ufl.edu, personal and career counseling; 2. Student Mental Health, Student Health Care Center, 392-1575, www.health.ufl.edu/shcc, personal counseling; 3. Center for Sexual Assault/Abuse, Student Health Care Center, 392-1161, sexual counseling; 4. Career Resource Center, Reitz Union, 392-1601, www.crc.ufl.edu, career development assistance and counseling. 5

*TENTATIVE* COURSE SCHEDULE METHODS OF SOCIAL RESEARCH

Meeting Date Topic(s) Readings, Assignments, Due Dates, etc.

Wed, 4 Jan Introduction, Syllabus NO READINGS

Fri, 6 Jan Why Social Research? Neuman, pp. 1-10

Mon, 9 Jan Approaches to Social Research Neuman, pp. 10-15

Tues, 10 Jan Labs 1-2: Intro, GSS Course packet

Wed, 11 Jan Research Design, Part 1 Neuman, pp. 15-23

Fri, 13 Jan Social Theory and Research, Part 1 Neuman, pp. 25-38

Mon, 16 Jan NO CLASS – MLK DAY NO READINGS

Tues, 17 Jan Lab 3: Intro to SPSS, part 1 Course packet

Wed, 18 Jan Social Theory and Research, Part 2 Neuman, pp. 38-50

Fri, 20 Jan Design 2: Qualitative Design Issues Neuman, pp. 88-94

Mon, 23 Jan Design 3: Quantitative Design Issues Neuman, pp. 94-106

Tues, 24 Jan Lab 4: Intro to SPSS, part 2 Course packet

Wed, 25 Jan Research Proposals Part 1: Lecture Notes, Course Packet, pp. 35-46 Introduction and Topic Statements Neuman, pp. 72-88, 91, 106-111

Fri, 27 Jan Measurement 1: Conceptualization & Neuman, pp. 112-120 Operationalization

Mon, 30 Jan Measurement 2: Neuman, pp. 121-127 Reliability and Validity

Tues, 31 Jan NO LAB NO READINGS

Wed, 1 Feb Measurement 3: Quantitative Neuman, pp. 127-143

Fri, 3 Feb Review for Exam #1 NO READINGS

Mon, 6 Feb EXAM #1 NO READINGS

Tues, 7 Feb Lab 5: Distributions Course packet, Assignment #1 Assignment #1 Assigned 6

Wed, 8 Feb Ethics in Social Research Neuman, pp. 52-64

Fri, 10 Feb Politics and Social Research Lecture Notes, Paul & Smith article

Mon, 13 Feb Sampling 1: Non-Probability Neuman pp. 145-151

Tues, 14 Feb Lab 6: Sampling Course packet, Assignment #2 ASSIGNMENT #1 DUE Assignment #2 Assigned

Wed, 15 Feb Sampling 2: Probability Neuman pp. 151-170

Fri, 17 Feb Surveys 1: Questionnaires Neuman pp. 171-194

Mon, 20 Feb Surveys 2: Survey Types Neuman pp. 194-197

Tues, 21 Feb NO LAB NO READINGS ASSIGNMENT #2 DUE

Wed, 22 Feb Surveys 3: Survey Interviews Neuman pp. 197-205

Fri, 24 Feb Field Research 1: Neuman pp. 289-302 Preparation, Access, Relations TOPIC STATEMENT DUE

Mon, 27 Feb Field Research 2: Neuman pp. 302-319 Observations, Interviews, Recording

Tues, 28 Feb Lab 7: Field Research Course packet, Assignment #3 Assignment #3 Assigned

Wed, 1 Mar Experiments 1: Basics Neuman pp. 207-218, 232-235

Fri, 3 Mar Experiments 2: Neuman pp. 218-232 Variations and Problems

Mon, 6 Mar NO CLASSES – SPRING BREAK NO READINGS

Tues, 7 Mar NO CLASSES – SPRING BREAK NO READINGS

Wed, 8 Mar NO CLASSES – SPRING BREAK NO READINGS

Fri, 10 Mar NO CLASSES – SPRING BREAK NO READINGS

Mon, 13 Mar Review for Exam #2 NO READINGS

Tues, 14 Mar NO LAB NO READINGS 7

Wed, 15 Mar EXAM #2 NO READINGS

Fri, 17 Mar Research Proposals 2 Lecture Notes, Course Packet Neuman pp. 372-388

Mon, 20 Mar Non-reactive Research 1: Neuman, pp. 237-249 Content Analysis

Tues, 21 Mar Lab 8: Content Analysis Course packet, Assignment #4 ASSIGNMENT #3 DUE Assignment #4 Assigned

Wed, 22 Mar Non-reactive Research 2: Neuman, pp. 249-260 Secondary Data Analysis

Fri, 24 Mar Non-reactive Research 3: Neuman, pp. 321-349 Historical-Comparative Analysis

Mon, 27 Mar Qualitative Analysis 1: Neuman, pp. 351-360, 369-371 Data Management

Tues, 28 Mar Lab 9: Bivariate Analysis Course packet, Assignment #5 Assignment #5 Assigned

Wed, 29 Mar Qualitative Analysis 2: Neuman, pp. 360-369 Analytical Techniques

Fri, 31 Mar Quantitative Analysis 2: Lecture Notes, QTA1 and QTA2 Descriptive Statistics Neuman, pp. 261-283

Mon, 3 Apr Quantitative Analysis 3: Neuman, pp. 283-287 Inferential Statistics PRESENTATION SIGN-UP DUE (Optional)

Tues, 4 Apr Lab 10: Multivariate analysis Course packet, Assignment #6 ASSIGNMENT #4 DUE ASSIGNMENT #5 DUE Assignment #6 Assigned

Wed, 5 Apr NO CLASS – WORK ON PROPOSALS NO READINGS PROPOSAL DRAFTS DUE (Optional)

Fri, 7 Apr NO CLASS – WORK ON PROPOSALS NO READINGS

Mon, 10 Apr Proposal Presentations (Optional) NO READINGS 8

Tues, 11 Apr NO LAB NO READINGS ASSIGNMENT #6 DUE

Wed, 12 Apr Proposal Presentations (Optional) NO READINGS

Fri, 14 Apr Proposal Presentations (Optional) NO READINGS

Mon, 17 Apr Proposal Presentations (Optional) NO READINGS

Tues, 18 Apr NO LAB NO READINGS

Wed, 19 Apr Review for Final Exam FINAL PROPOSAL DUE

Thur, 27 Apr FINAL EXAM, 7:30-9:30 AM (27A) NO READINGS