Sociology 19 Principles of Social Research

Since we will be creating a learning community for the purposes of achieving the curricular goals for this course, it is important for all of us to get to know each other. You can find out about me by following the link in the right margin, under Site Information.

So that you have an opportunity to get to know each other, I would like you to post a one paragraph mini-biography as a comment to this page. (The comments will be visible to other students but not to visitors. Do not put any identifying information, such as your email or phone number in your post.) If you post your comment before Wednesday, September 10, you'll earn one participation point.

Principles of Social Research will introduce you to the major strategies of empirical research in Sociology. We consider the conceptual foundations of research, with a special focus on measurement and sampling. We will also look at some examples of the most common modes of research, including surveys, field studies, experiments, content analysis and evaluation studies.

It is the goal of this course to familiarize you with the basic concepts and major issues in contemporary social research, in order to prepare you to be an effective consumer of research, or to begin your training as a social researcher.