SOCI 2012 - Introduction to Social Research

Which youth crime prevention programs work? Is job market situation for university graduates in Australia improving or worsening? Why do some international students succeed in Australian universities, while others experience great difficulties? Are local media in Adelaide focusing more on the street crime than on the corporate crime? What is currently known about factors that lead to a happy and lasting intimate relationship? This course will introduce you to the ways in which social researchers seek to answer such questions. You will learn how to formulate feasible research questions. You will be introduced to a variety of research methods that can be used to answer such questions. The course will demonstrate that each method has its strengths and weaknesses and that the best research is usually produced by a combination of methods. The course will give you the basic tools to be an informed and critical user of social science research. You will learn how find the most up-to-date and highest quality studies on the topic of your interest. You will also apply the methodological reasoning acquired in the course to review the current research literature on a topic of your own interest. Finally, you will learn how to write well-structured analytical papers.