Sociology 350 - Sociological Research

Course Schedule

Weeks 1-3 | Weeks 4-6 | Weeks 7-9 | Weeks 10-12 | Weeks 13-14

Week One

Day 1 -
- Course Orientation/ Distribute Syllabus/ Myth versus Science
- Myth versus Science; Crude Beginnings
Day 2 -
- Review of Definition of Social Sciences
- Over-generalization, Selective Observation, Illogical Reasoning, and Mystification
Lab #1 - Interpreting Correlations and Partial-Order Correlations - How to read them r_xy and p values
Readings:
- Babbie, Chapter One, "Human Inquiry and Science," pp. 3-28

Week Two

Day 3 -
- Understanding Correlations/Conceptually and Mathematically
- Hypothesis Construction and Tautology correlations Click here for handout
- Short Paper #1 Handout
Day 4 -
- Understanding Correlations/Conceptually and Mathematically
- Scatterplots of positive and negative correlations
Lab #2 - Constructing and Interpreting Contingency Tables with Control Variables
Readings:
- Gould, Chapter Two, "American Polygeny and Craniometry before Darwin," pp. 62-104
- Gould, Chapter Three, "Measuring Heads" pp. 105-129

Week Three

Day 5 -
- Interpreting Correlations
  a)
  b)
  c) No Association
  d) Spurious
- Short Paper #1 Due - February 11^th
Day 6 -
- Spurious Relationships Click here for handout
- Review contingency tables
Lab #3 - Converting ASCII (Raw) Data to SPSS Data
Readings:
- Babbie, Chapter Four, "Research Design," pp. 86-117 -- Understanding the Difference Between a Correlation and a Cause

Weeks 1-3 | Weeks 4-6 | Weeks 7-9 | Weeks 10-12 | Weeks 13-14

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