Sociological Analysis (226-DL-20)
Instructors
Karrie A Snyder
847/467-0517
1808 Chicago, Room 106
Dr. Snyder is a qualitative researcher and specializes in the areas of health, family, gender, youth studies and education.
Meeting Info
Online: TBA
Overview of class
This course is an introduction to research methods from a sociological point of view. It aims to show how sociologists (and related social scientists) do research. We will examine fundamental concepts in research design (from sampling to bias), many different types of methods (from experiments to surveys), research ethics, and the benefits and limitations of various methodological approaches. In this hands-on course, we will learn about various methods, research ethics, and the fundamentals of research design by interacting with scholarly articles and practice and by looking at how social science research factors in our everyday lives (from social media posts to stories on the nightly news). A capstone project includes development of a full research proposal.
This course is conducted completely online. A technology fee will be added to tuition.
Registration Requirements
This course is limited to School of Professional Studies students only. Undergraduate students in other schools at Northwestern are not permitted to enroll in this course.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this course, you will be able to:
Explain the methods and methodological approaches social scientists use to conduct research.
Illustrate how the principles of ethical research relate to research practice and scenarios.
Critique the appropriateness of research methods and quality of findings for peer-reviewed social science research articles.
Develop a research design proposal to conduct an original social science study.
Class Materials (Required)
No course materials need to be purchased for this course. All course materials are available through Course Reserves through Canvas or are publicly available online.
Dr. Snyder has written an OER (Open Educational Resource) for this course - Discovering Your Sociological Imagination: An Introduction to Sociological Research (2022). This will be the primary reference for this class. Chapters (PDFs) will be uploaded in advance of a weekly module.
Class Attributes
Asynchronous:Remote class-no scheduled mtg time