Introduction to empirical social research. Design and implementation of a sample survey. Methods of data collection, questionnaire construction and measurement scales. Descriptive statistics and graphical representations. Practical examples and applications in excel. Basic concepts of text analysis. Basics of Wordstat software.
To be able to do empirical social research. To be able to develop a sample survey and to implement a questionnaire for data collection. To be able to provide a synthetic description of data through quantitative analyses, by correctly interpreting the studied phenomena. To be able to analyze a text with simple instruments.
Prerequisites
None
Teaching Methods
Face-to-face lectures, data labs, webinars, students’ seminars.
Further information
None
Type of Assessment
Written exam (mandatory) and a presentation in class based on a project developed individually (non-mandatory). The score of the presentation may vary between 0 and 3 points of the final score.
The written exam consists of a series of questions (open questions or brief exercises), which require a brief answer concerning the arguments of the course, or the construction or interpretation of graphs and tables.
Course program
Introduction to empirical social research. Design and implementation of a sample survey. Methods of data collection (face-to-face, telephone, on-line survey): characteristics and differences. The questionnaire: characteristics of the questionnaire and methods for its construction. Measurement scales. Descriptive statistics: frequency tables, central tendency and variability measures, bivariate frequency tables, correlation and least square regression line. Graphical representations. Practical examples and applications in excel. Basic concepts of text analysis. Basics of Wordstat software.