Course manual

Social Research Methodology

S_SRM
Academic Year 2021-2022

CONTENTS
1. GENERAL INFORMATION ............................................................................................................................ 2

2. COURSE DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES ..................................................................................................... 2

DESCRIPTION OF COURSE .................................................................................................................................... 2

LEARNING GOALS ................................................................................................................................................ 3

3. COURSE MATERIAL ..................................................................................................................................... 4

4. MODE OF INSTRUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 4

LECTURES (ON CAMPUS) ..................................................................................................................................... 4

SELF-STUDY AND ONLINE CLIPS .......................................................................................................................... 4

5. COMMUNICATION ..................................................................................................................................... 5

6. ASSESSMENT .............................................................................................................................................. 5

OVERVIEW OF THE ASSESSMENTS ........................................................................................................................ 5

CALCULATION OF FINAL GRADE .......................................................................................................................... 5

RE-EXAMINATION (RESIT) ................................................................................................................................... 6

7. LECTURE TIMETABLE .................................................................................................................................. 6

8. MODULES .................................................................................................................................................. 7

OVERVIEW OF THE COURSE CONTENT .................................................................................................................. 7

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 1. GENERAL INFORMATION

Course name Social Research Methodology

Course code S_SRM
Level 100
Academic Year 2021-2022
Period 2
EC & Study load 6 EC (168 hours)
Course coordinator dr. Jasper Muis: [email protected]
Lecturers dr. Jasper Muis: [email protected]
dr. Elena Ponzoni: [email protected]
dr. Mariska van der Horst: [email protected]
Language of instruction English
Target group 1st year BA Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology;
1st year BA Communication Science; 1st year BA Political Sci-
ence: Global Politics.
Required prior knowledge None
Study load allocation Per week Total (7 wks)
! Sessions 3 * 6 wks 18
! Literature study 10 70
! Additional self-study (clips, 10 70
practice questions etc.)
! Assessment and preparation 10
for assessment
! Totaal 168 hours

2. COURSE DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES

DESCRIPTION OF COURSE
This course offers an introduction to social science research. It is intended to facilitate your
awareness of the research process: a researcher’s perspective to the scientific study of social
phenomena goes often hand in hand with a specific research design and appropriate research
strategies, including the use of methods of data collection and tools of analysis. In addition,
the course also provides an overview of different methods of data collection in the social sci-
ences as well as corresponding tools of analysis.
Following Bryman’s Social Research Methods of Clark et al. (2021), the course
makes a distinction between research strategies, research designs and research methods. Stu-
dents will first learn how to develop research questions and/or hypotheses for a given topic.
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By translating a social-scientific problem into a research question, students will gain an un-
derstanding of the limits and potentials of social science research and, more importantly, how
the use of research methods and tools strongly depends on a researcher’s definition of a re-
search problem. There are two basic approaches that define research problems: the interpre-
tivist approach is interested in gaining in-depth insight into individual meanings and motives
and seeks to understand human behaviour, whereas positivist approaches look for social facts
which are external to the individual to explain that behaviour. This course provides a thor-
ough overview of the two strategies and prepares students to judge the usefulness of various
research methods within the qualitative and quantitative approaches in social sciences.
The research question requires developing a research design. This process concerns
all the steps and decisions that are aimed at answering the question. Research designs in-
clude, amongst others, decisions regarding whether or not collecting empirical data based on
experimental design or observations, the time frame of one’s research (longitudinal or cross-
sectional design) and the choice of the research units (case study or the comparison of many
cases). The choice for a specific research design has to fit the objectives one sets out with
answering a certain research question.
Once the research design has been chosen, the next step is to assess which methods of
data collection and tools of analysis are appropriate to successfully answer the research ques-
tion. This step allows for assessing the usefulness of employing questionnaires, conducting
interviews (structured, unstructured, focus groups), studying texts and images (content analy-
sis), and (participatory) observation. Upon assessment of appropriate methods of data collec-
tion, the next step revolves around the use of tools of analysis. After the analysis has been
finalized, insights and findings should be presented in way that corresponds to the research
problem, the use of research method and the employed analytical framework (e.g., in the
form of an empirical article or an ethnographic study). Findings of the research inevitably
lead to asking new questions, which usually leads to re-run the empirical cycle and start the
research process all over again.

LEARNING GOALS
This course is part of the Academic Core, and aims to offer 1st year undergraduate students
of various social science degree programs of the Faculty of Social Sciences (FSW) an intro-
duction to the process of social scientific research.

Knowledge and understanding. After completion of this course, students have acquired
knowledge and understanding of:
(1) the distinction between research strategy, research design and research method;
(2) the different data collection methods and analysis techniques of social science research;
(3) the main principles of ethical review in social scientific research.

Application. Students are able to:

(4) distinguish between the different perspectives on gathering knowledge about the social

world, and establish a relationship between each perspective and its implications for social
scientific research;
(5) follow the steps required in translating a research question into research design, data col-
lection into analysis design, and to identify all considerations that need to be made.
(6) Make a distinction between various methods of data collection and data analysis, and as-
sess the usefulness of these methods depending on how a research question and problem
statement is defined.

3. COURSE MATERIAL

The material of this course consists of:

• Lecture material and complementary readings on Canvas (digitally available).
• Tom Clark, Liam Foster, Luke Sloan, en Alan Bryman (2021). Bryman’s Social Re-
search Methods (sixth edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN: 978-0-19-
879605-3.
A selection of chapters from this textbook has been made. For more information on this se-
lection, please see selection 8 below (“Overview of the Modules”).
An earlier version of the textbook is also in circulation (second-hand). It is also possible to
use the fifth edition, but please note that we will refer to the new chapter numbers and the
new page numbers: Alan Bryman. 2015. Social Research Methods (fifth revised edition). Ox-
ford: Oxford University Press. ISBN: 978-0-19-968945-3.

4. MODE OF INSTRUCTION

LECTURES (ON CAMPUS)
The lecture times can be found in the timetable (see section 7: Lecture timetable). Consult
Canvas for an overview of when which modules are discussed during the lectures. There you
can also find more information about what is expected of you regarding the preparation for
the lecture. During the lectures we discuss and apply this material by means of, for example,
a discussion, a short exercise or assignment, etc. During the lectures there is also an oppor-
tunity to ask questions about the material. Attendance at the lecture is optional (not compul-
sory) but is strongly recommended. The lectures will be online recorded and can be listened
to later.

SELF-STUDY AND ONLINE CLIPS

In addition to the lectures, this course requires a lot of self-study. Each course week consists
of a number of modules – see Canvas. Additional study material will sometimes be available
for some (parts of) modules, such as practice questions, interview clips and knowledge clips.
Such practice questions and online clips remain available throughout the course and are not
time-bound.

 5. COMMUNICATION

Announcements will be posted on Canvas. Therefore, students should make sure to regularly
view Canvas for updates. There will be a discussion page available on Canvas so students
(and lecturers) can post questions or comments that are relevant to the course material. Stu-
dents are cordially invited to actively participate in the discussions on this page. The online
discussion board will be regularly checked by lecturers.
Since questions regarding the course material can be posted on this Canvas page, stu-
dents are discouraged from sending e-mails to the lecturers. Lecturers will only respond to e-
mail in exceptional cases and when individual circumstances are not covered or discussed in
this course outline, the announcement and discussion pages on Canvas.

6. ASSESSMENT

OVERVIEW OF THE ASSESSMENTS
The assessment of this course is based upon a midterm and a final exam, which are taken
digitally via Testvision. The midterm exam will consist of 32 multiple choice questions and
the final exam will consist of 30 multiple choice questions and 2 open questions. A mock
exam will be made available on Canvas.

Toetsing Date + time Location Content be examined / remarks

Midterm Friday 26 Nov -IN-2B42 / 2B56 All material from course weeks 1–3
(30%) 15:30-17:30 -IN-2B43 / 2B55
-DigiTenT (block 4)
17:30-18:00 DigiTenT (block 4) Extra time, permission is required from the
FSS examination board.
Final exam Friday 17 Dec DigiTenT (blocks 1,3,4) All course material
(70%) 18:45-20:45
20:45-21:12 DigiTenT (block 4) Extra time, permission is required from the
FSS examination board.
Resit exam To be announced To be announced All course material
(100%)

CALCULATION OF FINAL GRADE

The midterm and the final exam amount for 30% and 70% of the final grade, respectively.
The final grade of the course will thus be determined as follows:

Final mark = (midterm * 0,3) + (final exam * 0,7)

Successful completion of this course requires that students obtain at least 5.5 for the final
grade. There is no required minimum for the two partial grades; both the midterm and exam
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grades are rounded to one decimal when calculating the final grades.
Final grades between 5 and 6 are rounded numbers. Final grades between 5.001... and
5.499... will be rounded to 5.0. The grades from 5.5 to 5.9 will be rounded to 6. All other
final grades are rounded to whole and half points. An example: the grades 9.3 and 9.7 are
both rounded to the final grade 9.5.

RE-EXAMINATION (RESIT)
The resit consists of a resit exam that 100% determines the final mark of the course. It is not
possible to resit the midterm and the examination separately. It is also possible to do the resit
exam when you have passed the course after the first examinations. However, in that case the
grade of the resit will count as the final grade, unless you do not show up and thus receive a
“NS” (no show) for the resit.
The exact date of the resit is not yet known; it is to be announced via Canvas as soon
as possible.

7. LECTURE TIMETABLE

This timetable provides the overall picture. You will find more information under “Modules”
in Canvas.
Date Time Location Lecturer Activity Module

Week 1
1 Tue 2 Nov 13:30 - 15:00 MF-FG2 Muis Lecture M1 & M2
2 Thu 4 Nov 13:30 - 15:00 MF-FG2 Muis Lecture M3
Week 2
3 Tue 9 Nov 13:30 - 15:00 MF-FG2 Ponzoni Lecture M5
4 Thu 11 Nov 13:30 - 15:00 MF-FG2 Muis Lecture M4 & M6
Week 3
5 Tue 16 Nov 13:30 - 15:00 MF-FG2 Van der Horst Lecture M7 & M8
6 Thu 18 Nov 13:30 - 15:00 MF-FG2 Van der Horst Lecture M9
Week 4
7 Tue 23 Nov 13:30 - 15:00 MF-FG2 Muis Lecture M10 & M11
8 Thu 25 Nov 13:30 - 15:00 MF-FG2 Muis Lecture M12
Fri 26 Nov 15:30 - 17:30 see Midterm M1 - M9
assessment exam
Week 5
9 Tue 30 Nov 13:30 - 15:00 MF-FG2 Ponzoni Lecture M13 & M14
10 Thu 2 Dec 13:30 - 15:00 MF-FG2 Ponzoni Lecture M15
Week 6
11 Tue 7 Dec 13:30 - 15:00 MF-FG2 Ponzoni Lecture M16
12 Thu 9 Dec 13:30 - 15:00 MF-FG2 Muis Lecture M17 & M18
Week 7
Fri 17 Dec 18:45 - 20:45 DigiTenT Final exam All modules

 8. MODULES

OVERVIEW OF THE COURSE CONTENT

The course content is divided into different topics (modules), which usually coincide with a
certain chapter from the textbook. The chapter numbers in the overview below refer to: Tom
Clark et al. (2021), Bryman’s Social Research Methods (6th edition).

Module Content Readings When?

1. The process of research - Introduction: what is scientific research? Ch. 1: The nature and process Week
- Steps in the research process: the empir- of social research. 1
ical cycle.
- Defining good research questions. Ch. 4: Planning a research
- Role of theory in research: deduction project and formulating re-
and induction. search questions. From this
chapter only the section
“Formulating suitable re-
search questions” (pp.74-78).
2. Research strategies: - Epistemology and ontology. Ch. 2: Social research strate- Week
understanding and ex- - Distinguishing qualitative and quantita- gies. 1
plaining tive research strategies
3. Research design (part - Criteria for assessing the quality of a Ch. 3: Research designs. Week
1): quality criteria study: reliability, replicability, validity. 1
- Research designs: experimental, cross-
sectional, longitudinal design, case study,
comparative design.

4.Research design (part - Criteria and research designs (follow- Ch. 3: Research designs (con- Week
2): designs up). tinued). 2
- Experimental design.
5. The nature of qualitati- - Steps in qualitative research designs. Ch. 16: The nature of qualita- Week
ve research - Important aspects of qualitative re- tive research. Everything ex- 2
search. cept: “16.6 Research quality
- Theory and qualitative research and qualitative research” (pp.
- Sensitizing concepts 362-369), “16.7 The critique of
qualitative research” (pp. 369-
371) and “16.8 From Theory
to Practice”(pp. 371-372).
6. The nature of quantita- - Steps in quantitative research designs. Ch.7: The nature of quantita- Week
tive research - Theory and hypotheses: causal models. tive research. Everything ex- 2
- Operationalization (measurement of cept: “7.7 The critique of
concepts) quantitative research” (pp.
- Reliability and validity of measurement 159-161).
instruments.

7. Sampling in quantitati- - Sampling in quantitative research. Ch. 8: Sampling in quantitative Week
ve research - Introduction to survey research research. Everything except: 3
“Tips and skills 8.3: generaliz-
7

 ing from a random sample to
the population” (pp. 174).
8. Survey-research - Surveying as a research method. Ch. 9: Structured interviewing. Week
- Structured interviews and question- 3
naires as tools of measurement. Ch. 10: Self-administered
questionnaires.
9. Survey-research (conti- - Surveying as a research method (contin- Ch. 9: Structured interviewing Week
nued) ued). (continued). 3
- Formulating good survey questions and
answer categories. Ch. 10: Self-administered
questionnaires (continued).

Ch. 11: Asking questions.

10. Non-reactive data - Structured observation of behavior as a Ch. 12: Structured observati- Week
collection: structured research method. on. 4
observation
11. Non-reactive data - Research method: content analysis. Ch. 13: Content analysis. Week
collection: content analy- - Documents and "texts" as sources for 4
sis data collection.
- Codebooks as tools of measurement.

12. The use of existing - Secondary analysis and use of existing Ch. 14: Using existing data. Week
data data. 4
- Meta analysis.
- The use of official statistics.
- The use of “big data”.

13. The nature of qualita- - Important aspects of qualitative re- Ch. 16: The nature of qualita- Week
tive research (continued) search. tive research (continued). 5
- Criteria for assessing the quality of quali- Including this section: “16.6
tative research. Research quality and qualita-
tive research” (pp. 362-369).

14. The selection of cases - How to decide on context and partici- Ch. 17: Sampling in qualitative Week
and conducting qualitati- pants in qualitative research. research. 5
ve interviews - What is ‘purposive sampling’?
- Conducting individual interviews in qual- Ch. 19: Interviewing in qualita-
itative research. tive research.

15. Ethnography and par- - Ethnography and participant observa- Ch. 18: Ethnography and par- Week
ticipant observation tion as qualitative research methods. ticipant observation. 5

16. Focus groups and - Interviewing groups: the focus group Ch. 20: Focus groups. Week
qualitative data-analysis method 6
- Introduction to qualitative data analysis Ch. 23: Qualitative data analy-
sis. Everything except: “23.8
Synthetising qualitative stud-
ies” (pp.545-547) en “23.9
8

 Computer-assited qualitative
data analysis software” (pp.
547-551).
17. Ethical and political - Ethical issues in research. Ch. 6: Ethics and politics in Week
issues in research - A researcher’s conduct with participants, social research. 6
clients, and colleagues.
- Rules for scientists; misconduct, plagia- Ch. 5: Reviewing the litera-
rism. ture. From this chapter only
this section: “5.6 Avoiding
plagiarism” (pp. 103-104).

18. Bridging the quali- - Combining qualitative and quantitative Ch. 24: Mixed methods re- Week
quanti divide in social research ('mixed methods'). search. Everything except: 6
research - Reflection on differences and similarities “24.4 Types of mixed methods
between qualitative and quantitative research” (pp. 567-571) and
research. “24.5 Conducting mixed
- Wrap up and concluding remarks methods research” (pp.571-
574).

Ch. 7: The nature of quantita-
tive research: “7.7 The cri-
tique of quantitative re-
search” (pp. 159-161).

Ch. 16: The nature of qualita-
tive research: “16.7 The cri-
tique of qualitative research”
(pp. 369-371).