This Quantitative Research Methods in Social Sciences course provides a number of learning opportunities:

First, it allowsstudent to study scientific method via the medium of English; the ability to read, write, and understand scientific English is crucial if you are considering a career in science. The most important scientific findings must be communicated to scientific communities across the world; in order to accomplish this, the English language is used as the international language of science.

Secondly, this course will helps students prepare for any research they may conduct as part of their university degree (e.g., your bachelor’s thesis, which may be written in Czech, or in English).

Thirdly, this course supports learning on CESS compulsory course based on Punch (2005), This course will cover material relevant to the quantitative chapters of the Punch (2005), enables student to take a practical approach to learning to help consolidate knowledge.

Fourthly, a key part of this course will be conducting a short experiment to gain practical experience in designing, conducting and analysing quantitative data. Y

In addition students learn how to write an experimental research report.

Structure of the course:

Session 1: From theory to hypotheses

Reading to do before session 1: Chapters 3 and 4 of Punch (2005) and this handbook (‘Hypothesis Testing’ pages 16-17).

In the first session, the philosophical underpinnings of the scientific research method will be briefly introduced and the logical process of hypothesis testing (hypothetico-deductive method) will be described. Importantly, you will learn what a ‘research question’ is, and what makes a good quality research question. You will also begin to consider how to measure human phenomenon (behaviour, cognition, experience), and armed with this knowledge start to understand how to turn a research question into a specific and testable hypothesis (or prediction). In this session, we will introduce a research topic (personality and personal space) that, in the following week, you will design an experiment to investigate.

Session 2: From design to data

Reading to do before session 2: Chapters 5 and 6 of Punch (2005) and this handbook (‘Experimental design’ pages 9-16; ‘Ethics’ pages 18-20) and "Hall, Proxemic Theory" and "Maisels_personality and personal space" (on SIS)

In the second session, students l learn about the components of experiments, about variables, data, and about different types of quantitative research design. Knowledge learned during the first week, together with preparatory reading, and some guidance from the tutor, enables student to design an experiment to investigate the ‘personality and personal space’. This particular topic was selected because it clearly has both psychological and social elements to it, and the literature, and theory is relatively simple to understand. By the end of the session student produce an experimental protocol that they use use to collect some data during the week, ready for session 3.

Session 3: From data to knowledge

Reading and preparation to do before session 3: Chapter7 of Punch (2005) and this handbook (‘The Need for Dissemination’ pages 20-33; ‘Referencing and References’ pages 34-37). ALSO: data collection according to the protocol from lecture 2.

In the third session students learn to use the data and to start statistical analysis. Lecture on the basics of descriptive and inferential statistics is provided, including different statistical tests .The tutor shows IBM PASW (commonly known as SPSS, the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences).Interpreting findings and preparing research report.

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Compulsory literature:
Punch, Keith (2005): Introduction to social research: quantitative and qualitative approaches. 2nd or 3rd ed. London: SAGE.- chapters 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7.

A course Handbook is provided for this course and is avaiable in a printed version on the first lecture.

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The assessment for this course is a laboratory research report (details below).

As an assessment: student prepares and completes a 1,500 word (reference section and appendices are not included in the word limit) laboratory report on the experiment conducted during the lecture meetings. The report should contain all of the requisite sections and sub-sections, including references, written up as a classic experimental report (guiding information for the preparation of the report is provided in a course Handbook on page 20).

The due date for your report is: 20^th May 2016. Please submit via email to rachel.horsley@nudz.cz by midnight on the due date.

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Course tutors are:

Dr Gabriela Seidlová Málková (gabriela.malkova@fhs.cuni.cz)

Dr Rachel Horsley (rachel.horsley@nudz.cz)