Prof Eileen Munro OLD 2.33 and Dr Berkay Ozcan OLD 2.32

This course is compulsory on the BSc in Social Policy, BSc in Social Policy and Criminology, BSc in Social Policy and Economics, BSc in Social Policy and Sociology and BSc in Social Policy with Government. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit and to General Course students.

The course aims to give students a comprehensive introduction to methods of social research in social policy.

The design and analysis of social policy research. The nature of social measurement. The concept of statistical inference. Data collection by means of social survey, depth interviews, participant observation and documentary methods. Descriptive and inferential statistics, including bivariate and multivariate techniques. Analysis of data particularly from surveys. The use of computers in data analysis. Ethics and politics of Social Policy Research. Strengths and weaknesses of commonly used research methods. Methods of analysing qualitative data. Case studies and experimental designs.

The course combines two elements:

SA201.2 Research Methods for Social Policy: Professor E Munro & Dr I Shutes

Lectures: 11 x SA201.2. Classes: 10 x SA201.2.

Weeks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 (MT).

SA201.1 Data Analysis for Social Policy: Dr B.OZCAN

Lectures: 10 x SA201.1. Classes: 10 x SA201.1.

Weeks  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 (LT); and one revision class (ST).

For the Research Methods class, students submit an essay by the end of the MT from a list of questions relating to their work on the summative project.

For the Data Analysis class, students will use a computer to analyse data, and will be expected to produce summaries and interpretations of their results. Each week of the course, students will be assigned a formative homework assignment.

Alan Bryman (2012) Social Research Methods, 4th edition Oxford University Press; Alan Acock (2016) A Gentle Introduction to Stata, 5th edition Stata Press; Charles Wheelan (2014) Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data W&W Norton & Company, Inc.

Exam (50%, duration: 3 hours) in the main exam period.
Project (50%, 5000 words) in the ST.

This assignment integrates learning from both sections of the course and the final product should illustrate the whole research process albeit on a small scale. In the Michaelmas Term, you will learn about the research process from having an area of interest, focusing on a specific research question relating to the gender wage gap, and collecting evidence to help you answer that question. In the classes, you will work in small groups to prepare a semi-structured survey instrument that you will each then administer to 4 adults in your life. There will be variation in the specific research question chosen by each small group in relation to the broader issue of the gender wage gap but the instrument will also contain some closed questions common to all the instruments. This will produce both qualitative data and quantitative data. The assignment will include the analysis and discussion of both sets of data.