INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGICAL RESEARCH

REGISTRATION REQUIRED FOR LEC, REC
CROSS LISTED: HSOC-100

We all live in the social world, so it stands to reason that we have “a leg up” when it comes to understanding how the social world works.  To some extent, it’s true.  But it is also the case that, stuck in our own skins as we are, we need some help in seeing “the big picture.”  This gives rise to the idea of systemization in social research: to *methods*.

Methods of social research are the way in which we link certain principles of observation to the ways in which we put together images of the social world.  They are ideas in service to an ever-changing cause, not commandments handed down from some higher power.

Thus as we learn about the logic of comparison, the experimental model, inference from small, finite samples to the characteristics of far larger populations, the role of statistics in social science research, and the advantages and disadvantages of semi-structured observation (both participant and non-participant), we will be less learning a collection of “off-the-shelf” “tricks” than attempting to structure the way we investigated and make sense of the social world.  The perspective of the text will be inclusive and balance; that of the instructor, perhaps a little less so, if comprehensive all the same.

Students will be expected to participate in course activities, to do some assignments, and to take a few short examinations at scheduled times.