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Intermediate Quantitative Social Research

Overview

  • Credit value: 30 credits at Level 7
  • Tutor: to be confirmed
  • Assessment: a 4000-word project (50%) and a three-hour examination (50%)

Module description

This module introduces you to quantitative research methods, through hands-on experience using R computer software. You are introduced to survey methodology and experimental research designs and conduct your own projects using quantitative data.

The first five weeks of the intermediate course will be spent refreshing the material covered in the introductory course, such as sampling, descriptive statistics, inferential statistics and OLS regression. The course will then move on to consider more advanced techniques such as logistic regression, time series analysis, the study of panel data and multi-level modelling (the precise combination will vary from year to year).

Entry onto this module is restricted to students who successfully complete a short test of basic maths and statistics skills.

Learning objectives

By the end of this module, you will:

  • be aware of a wide range of research resources available to social scientists
  • be able to perform quantitative analyses on a variety of data in an intelligent and thoughtful manner
  • have hands-on experience of the R computer package
  • be able to pick and apply research techniques that are suitable for the analysis of your own research problems
  • be able to interpret and critique published research
  • be able to write up and present the findings of quantitative analysis
  • be aware of debates around the applicability of quantitative and qualitative methods.