Prospectus

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Research Methods 2

Course
2020-2021

Admission requirements

Mandatory course for students enrolled in the bachelor’s programme Security Studies.

Description

In this course we move on from developing a research proposal to learning more about the data collection and analysis possibilities in social science research. You will be provided with thorough theoretical and practical knowledge on how to conduct research by examining a variety of data collection methods and of the principal methods of analysing social scientific data. Specifically, you will be learning about surveys, discourse analysis and interviewing. Furthermore, you will be introduced to the statistical software programme SPSS, and to the qualitative software programme Atlas.ti to help you analyse quantitative and qualitative data.

This course is divided up into lectures and course labs. The lectures will provide the theoretical knowledge on the data collection methods while the course labs will focus more on gaining practical skills on how to analyse the collected data. At the end of this course you are able to conduct your research, analyse your data and learn how the results are disseminated in a social scientific manner.

Course objectives

After this course students are able to:

  • Use two qualitative approaches (document analysis, qualitative interview) and one quantitative approach (survey);

  • Determine which research method, or methods, are best suited for the research question you aimed to answer;

  • Gather documents, interview data, and survey data that are needed to answer your research question;

  • Analyse quantitative and qualitative data using statistical software (SPSS and Atlas.ti);

  • Report your findings with clarity and precision;

  • Know how to act according to the principles of intellectual integrity and ethical scholarship.

Timetable

On the right side of programme front page of the E-guide you will find links to the website and timetables, uSis and Brightspace.

Mode of instruction

7 plenary lectures
4 course labs in smaller groups

Attendance of the course labs is mandatory. If you miss more than 1 course lab you fail the course and won’t obtain a final grade.

Total study load of 140 hours

  • Contact hours: 33

  • Self-study hours (including working on the research papers): 107

Assessment method

Qualitative research paper

  • 50% of final grade

  • Grade must be 5.50 or higher to pass the course

  • Resit of a fail is possible.

  • Resit will take the same form

Quantitative research paper

  • 50% of final grade

  • Grade must be 5.50 or higher to pass the course

  • Resit of a fail is possible.

  • Resit will take the same form

Please note; students are only eligible for a resit if they participated in the first deadline and did not submit a ‘pro-forma’ entry.

Transitional Arrangement
Passed partial grades obtained in year 2019-2020 remain valid during year 2020-2021.

Reading list

The study material will be listed on Brightspace. The main book that will be used in this course is:

Bryman, A. (2016). Social research methods, 5th edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN: 978-0-19-968945-3.

Registration

Register for every course and workgroup via uSis.
Registration in uSis is possible from four weeks before the start of the course. Some courses and workgroups have a limited number of participants, so register on time (before the course starts). In uSis you can access your personal schedule and view your results.

Leiden University uses Brightspace as its online learning management system. Important information about the course is posted here.
After enrolment for the course in uSis you are also enrolled in the Brightspace environment of this course.

Contact

dr. Pauline Aarten p.g.m.aarten@fgga.leidenuniv.nl

Remarks