This course offers the applied part to the lecture “Introduction to Empirical Social Research”. The course is designed to assist students in deepening their knowledge and skills acquired in the lecture.

In this course, students will learn the essentials of social research and discuss a selection of both qualitative and quantitative methods frequently used in empirical social research. Several strengths and weaknesses of these quantitative and qualitative research technologies will be discussed. Inter alia, the course will answer the following questions: How can we measure (unobservable) social phenomena? Which method can be applied best to which settings? When does a method (not) allow for valid inferences? What is the relationship between theory and empirical research?

The aim of this course is to impart basic knowledge of empirical social research. During the course, students carry out many small activities, which help to understand the essentials of empirical social research.

After successfully participating at this course, students will have an overview of different empirical research methods in social sciences and understand the strengths and weaknesses of each approach. This course also aims to foster critical thinking such that students learn to evaluate empirical research and their validity. After passing the course, students will have gained the necessary skills to act both as informed “consumers” of empirical articles and as “producers” of small-scale research projects.

Students will acquire the skills needed to

• distinguish different empirical research methods used in social research,
• understand the scope of quantitative and qualitative research methods, and
• evaluate the methodological approach of contemporary research articles.  

Students are required to attend the first constitutive session of the seminar (02.04.2020 16:00-18:00). Students are allowed to miss at most one of the six sessions of the applied part.

In the practical part of the course (starting with the session on 02.04.2020 16:00-18:00), students will go through the first steps of a research process. To that purpose, they will design their own small-scale research project.

Each session, students will report on the progress of their research project and receive feedback from their peers as well as the lecturer.

Throughout the course, students collect points on three evaluation criteria:

· Active Participation (30 Points): Students are required to repeatedly report on the progress of their project. The lecturer prepares concrete tasks for students (some of which require work after class) and students have to present their results at the beginning or the end of each session. Active participation also involves commenting on others’ research projects and engaging in the general discussion.

· Final Presentation (30 Points) of the research project.

· Written Reflection (40 Points): In your final essay you will need to a) summarize every step of your small research project and b) reflect on shortcomings and challenges to your project (detailed instructions will be provided in our last session on 14.05.2020.

The final presentation and the written reflection are to be held/submitted in groups of 3-4 students. Each student needs to upload the identical version of the written assignments on Learn@WU and all group members receive the evaluation. Students are sorted to groups in the first session on a ‘semi-voluntary’ basis. Active participation is an individual evaluation criterion.

At the end of this course, points are converted to grades based on the following scale: 0-50: Nicht Genügend; 50.1-62.5 Genügend; 62.6-75 Befriedigend; 75.1-87.5 Gut; 87.6-100 Sehr Gut.