A review of methodological problems in assessing data relating to social life. Topics to be covered include: posing a sociological problem, gaining access to data, measuring, establishing correlation and causal connection among data, and relating data to theoretical context.

We seem to have available to us more and more information about individuals, groups, and whole societies, but this does not always lead us to cite facts more accurately or hold more justifiable opinions. This course provides students with skills to evaluate claims about social life by examining whether they are based on good evidence, sound reasoning, and ethical practices. It does so by surveying the ways that professional social researchers ask and answer empirical questions. Students will learn the basic principles and practices that guide good empirical research, how to decide whether others have followed them, and how to follow them themselves. By the end of the course students will have acquired skills that will make them more responsible consumers of social science and debates about social trends and public policy.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills