This course offers the applied part to the introductory course on 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? What happens if measurement error occurs? Which research designs exist? Which method is applied best to which settings? When does a research design (not) allow for valid inferences? What is the relationship between theory and empirical research?
These and more questions will be discussed at the example of experimental research, survey research, or regression analysis using observational data. The focus of this course lies in developping a critical point of view regarding the choice of research design.