Principles of Social Science Research: How to Generate Knowledge
Year 1, Term I (0.5 credit units)
Overview
The course’s main objective is to introduce students to social science
research. To do so we will focus on how we use facts and observations to
make statements about the world and the forces which appear to account for
human interactions. What will become quickly evident is that academic
discourse and scientific debate is more involved and cumbersome than
everyday reasoning. Students will learn how to assess the quality of an
empirical argument and to identify common weaknesses in real research
articles. Students will be familiar with basic concepts such as internal and
external validity and will also learn why experiments are such a relevant step
in the history of sciences. Students will have also gained first practical
experiences with carrying small research projects.
Topics
1. Introduction: Three big questions we consider
• Does smoking cause cancer?
• Why did crime rates drop dramatically in the late 1990s?
• Does economic development cause democratization?
2. Basic concepts
• What is a good research question
• How do we measure concepts
3. Spotting weakness (1): What can wrong in research
• The importance of internal & external validity
4. Spotting weakness (2): What can wrong in research
• Common mistakes in social science research
• Omitted variable bias
• Self selection
5. Spotting weakness (3): What can wrong in research
• Endogeneity/simultaneity and measurement error
• What is a good research question and when is it feasible
6. Why is randomization is the holy grail?
• Controlling the environment
7. Conducting experiments
• What can the social sciences learn from experiments
• How can we field our own experiments
8. Do your own experiment!
• Run your own and first experiment in a small group answering a
question you pick
9. What is too much?
• Ethical boundaries to research
• What is too much and when are we going too far
10. Day-to-day work of social scientist
• What happens when we can’t answer questions with experimental
design
• Observational study designs