Social Science Methods Graduate Courses

This page lists some courses offered by various departments which may be appropriate for social science graduate students. We hope that this will be helpful for students with interests in particular methodologies not offered in their home departments. There are many quantitatively oriented courses here, as well as some qualitative courses. Students should check with their supervisory chairs or graduate coordinator about the appropriateness of these courses for their curricula.

Students should also look at the opportunities available at the ICPSR Summer Program in Ann Arbor.

Faculty who wish to add courses or suggest changes to the description of their courses may email Michael Martinez. Links to course websites will be especially helpful. Thanks to my colleagues in the interdepartmental workgroup for exchanging information about their course offerings.

Political Science Department

Spring 2003

POS 6737 - Political Data Analysis (3) This is a core seminar for all Political Science doctoral students. This course provides an introduction to the theory and practice of quantitative data analysis techniques. This course is offered every spring; the current instructor is Renée Johnson.

POS 6747 - Maximum Likelihood and the Linear Model. This course provides statistical methods for evaluating social science phenomena. The major topics to be discussed include: linear algebra, probability and distribution theory, statistical inference and hypothesis testing, the general linear regression model, the restricted general linear regression model, heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation, stochastic regressors, and other disturbance related regressions, multicollinearity, limited dependent variables, and generalized linear models. This course is currently offered by Jeff Gill.

POS 6933 (3) Qualitative Methods (3) This course is taught by Leslie Anderson. This is a course on qualitative methods for conducting social science research, with a strong emphasis on political research. The methods covered include in-depth interviews with elite and non-elite subjects, archival research, content analysis that creates quantitative data bases from information texts, and focus groups. Students read materials on each method of collecting data and receive class visits from scholars who use some of these methods in their own research. The bulk of the work load for the course consists of students conducting several of these forms of research themselves, during the semester of the course. Students complete one group research project and one individual research project, each using different data collection techniques.

Fall 2003

POS 6736 - Conduct of Inquiry. (3) This is a core seminar for all Masters and Doctoral Political Science students. It is an introduction to research design that familiarizes students with a variety of research techniques and data collection methods. We offer two sections; one is currently offered by Leslie Anderson and the other is currently offered by Michael Martinez.

PUP 6006 - Policy Evaluation. An examination of methodologies appropriate to the analysis of public policies. This course is offered by Wayne Francis.

PUP 6009 - Public Policy Analysis. This course provides students with an introduction to the tools used to analyze policies and a discussion of the political elements that affect this analysis. The goal is to ensure that students understand the basic economic principles used to evaluate different public policy proposals. However, as this is a political science course, other principal goals are to highlight the weaknesses of some of these economic assumptions, discover how politics may alter these otherwise sound assumptions, and examine the political environment in which policies are analyzed and adopted. This course is offered by Renée Johnson.

Spring 2004

POS 6757 - Survey Research (3) Methods of survey research in context of field investigation. Formulation of research hypotheses; construction of measuring instruments, collection, analysis of data. The current instructor is Ken Wald.

Later

POS 6933 (3) Bayesian Methods for Social Sciences. (3) This course will introduce the basic principles of Bayesian statistics to graduate students in the social science and related fields without requiring an extensive background in mathematical statistics. Our examples will be drawn from sociology, political science, economics, marketing, psychology, public policy, and anthropology. This course is taught by Jeff Gill.

POS 6208 - Empirical Political Research. This seminar is intended to equip students with the skills to conduct empirical research projects on social and political subjects. The skills emphasized include criticism/evaluation of research, problem and hypothesis formulation, concept development, measurement, data analysis and computer-based statistical analysis. The culmination of the course will be an original empirical research paper on some aspect of social or political behavior that interests you. This course was last offered by Ken Wald.

Sociology Department

Fall

SYA 6305--Methods in Social Research I (3) Survey of quantitative and qualitative methods of social research, design, data collection. This course is offered every fall; the current instructor is Monika Ardelt. This course is ordinarily limited to first year sociology graduate students.

Spring 2003

SYA 6306--Methods in Social Research II (3) Prereq: SYA 6305. Evaluation and completion of topics and projects from SYA 6305. This course is offered every spring; the current instructor is Monika Ardelt. This course is ordinarily limited to first year sociology graduate students.

Fall 2003

SYA 6315--Qualitative Research Methods (3) Fieldwork, observation, participant observation, and other qualitative data collection, and analysis techniques. (Broad)

Spring 2004

SYA 6407 Quantitative Research Methods. (3) Prereq: STA 6126. Application of selected quantitative methods to sociological research problems; extensive practice in application of the methods. (Peek or Henretta)
OR
SYA 6135 Demographic Processes and Methods (Peek)

Later

SYA 6407--Quantitative Research Methods
SYD 6135--Demographic Processes and Methods (3) Advanced review of methods and materials of demographic analysis. This course will likely be offered in the Spring of '03 and will be taught by Chuck Peek.

SY? ???? - Program Evaluation (3) This course will likely be offered Fall '02 and will be taught by Jodi Lane. It is not currently listed in the catalog and we are attempting to get it reinstated.

Economics Department

Fall 2001

ECO 7415 Statistical Methods in Economics. Walter Beckert. Mathematical statistics & basic econometrics for 1^st year Ph.D. students

Spring 2002

ECO 7424 Econometric Models and Methods. Walter Beckert. Econometrics for 1^st year Ph.D. students MW 3-4

ECO 7938 Best Empirical Practices in Economics. Larry Kenny. Learning how to recognize and do good empirical analysis, develops STATA skills. 1^st year Ph.D. students. MW 5-6 2^nd half of semester

Fall 2002

ECO 7426 Econometric Methods 1. Chunrong Ai. limited dependent variables; time series analysis - for 2^nd year Ph.D. students

Spring 2003

ECO 7427 Econometric Methods 2 . Walter Beckert. simulation methods for 2^nd year Ph.D. students

Department of Educational Psychology

Spring 2002

EDF 6403--Quantitative foundations of educational research (6 hours): measurement including reliability, validity, scores and norms, scale construction; design of studies a la Campbell and Stanley; data analysis, including Pearson product moment correlations, t tests, ANOVA (one and two factors), multiple comparisons; use of SPSS. Fall and Spring.

EDF 6481--Quantitative methods in educational research (4 hours): t tests, analysis of variance, i multiple comparisons, design of experiments, power calculations; use of SAS. Spring.

EDF 7405--Advanced quantitative foundations of educational research (4 hours): correlation and regression analysis, sample size determination by power and estimation accuracy; use of SAS. Fall, Spring and Summer, on a rotating basis.

EDF 7432--Advanced psychometric theory (3 hours): special topics in psychometrics; usually includes factor analysis and generalizability theory. Spring.

EDF 7932--Multivariate analysis in educational research (3 hours); methods for testing ./ hypotheses about means in multivariate studies, maximum likelihood for missing data, multiple imputation, multivariate analysis of ordinal items. Spring.

Fall 2002

EDF 6471--Survey design and analysis in educational research (3 hours): development of questionnaires and methods for psychometric and statistical analysis of survey data. Fall.

EDF 7412--Structural equation modeling (3 hours): simultaneous equation models, exploratory t/ft/⁷" and confirmatory factor analysis, latent variable simultaneous equation models, factor analysis of ordinal items, multiple group analyses; uses of SAS and LISREL. Fall

Later

EDF 6436--Theory of Measurement (4 hours): theory and practice of educational and psychological measurement. Spring.

EDF 7435--Rating Scale Design and Analysis in Educational Research (3 hours): development and psychometric analysis of rating scales.

EDF 7439--Item Response Theory (3 hours): item response theory and its application in educational and psychological research.

EDF 7474--Multilevel modeling (3 hours); multilevel models for analyzing clustered and repeated measures data; use of SAS and HLM. Summer

Marketing Department

Fall 2002

MAR 7636 Research Methods. Alan Sawyer (sawyerag@dale.cba.ufl.edu) This course is designed to introduce you to issues in research design and philosophy of science as they apply to marketing and consumer behavior research and to social science research in general. It concerns how to plan, design, conduct, and interpret experimental and observational research in marketing and consumer behavior. The content of the research discussed in this course need not be restricted, and students are encouraged to apply the course material to their areas of research interest. This course is very appropriate for any behaviorally-oriented researchers in such other fields of inquiry as accounting, organizational behavior, psychology, or whatever.

MAR 7626 Multivariate Statistical Methods in Marketing. Review of application of multivariate methods including multiple regression; factor discriminant and cluster analysis; and conjoint measurement to summarize and analyze marketing data. This course is currently offered by Stephen Shugan.

Department of Advertising

Spring 2002

MMC 6426 Qualitative Research. Theory and application in social science and communication. Qualitative data analysis, evaluation, ethical considerations, and writing. This course is currently taught by Deborah Triese.

Other

MMC 6??? Content Analysis. Class objective: Learn the basics of content analysis as a research method and receive experience in actually carrying out a group research project using the method. To be offered by Linda Kaid.

Statistics Department

Courses appropriate for social science grad students

Spring 2003

STA 6126 Stat. Methods for the Social Sciences I
STA 6127 Stat. Methods for the Social Sciences II
STA 5503 Categorical Data Methods
STA 5701 Applied Multivariate Methods

Summer 2002

We expect to offer two or three 1-hour module courses (taught for 2 weeks) in summer A under STA 6934 (Special topics), topics TBD.

Fall 2003

STA 6126 Stat. Methods for the Social Sciences I
STA 5507 Applied Nonparametric Methods
Other courses to be determined

Others

STA 5701: Applied Multivariate Methods (Spring in odd number years)

STA 5823: Stochastic Process Methods

Many advanced courses designed for statistics graduate students are possible for social science students who have taken a year of statistical theory (e.g., STA 5325 and 5328 or else STA 6326-6327 which 1st-year stat graduate students take). These include courses in time series, categorical data analysis, nonparametrics, multivariate, Bayesian inference, stochastic processes, Monte Carlo methods, generalized linear models, design, sample surveys.