The latvian academy of culture

Requirements for the Acquisition of the Credit Points: Participation at seminars, an examination.

Literature:

1. 
   Dzīves apstākļi Latvijā, - 1996.
   
2. 
   Claessen,D., Milkoffer, P. Famielensoziologie, - Athenäum Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag GMBh&Co, Frankfurt am Main: 1973
   
3. 
   Семья как объект философского и социологического исследования. Москва: Наука, 1974
   
4. 
   Смелзер, Н. Социология. Москва: Феникс, 1994.
   
5. 
   Васильева, Э. Семья и ее функции. Москва: Статистика, 1975.
   
6. 
   Проблемы родительства и планирования семьи. Москва: Институт социологии АН СССР, 1992.
   

The Name of the Course: Empirical Social Research

The Scope of the Course: 64 academic hours. (44 hours of lectures, 20 hours of seminars).

4 credit points. The form of assessment: a test and an examination.

The Author of the Course: Lecturer Anda Laķe, Mag. Art.

Preconditions for the Acquisition of the Course: Ability to read texts in foreign languages.

The Contents of the Course: The course gives and overview about the organization and process of empirical research. It deals with the methods applied in the research and their specific features.

The objective of the course is to develop the practical skills of the students in application of the methodology of sociology and to develop the research tools.

Thematic Planning:

Theme	Week	Type of classes and hours
The relations of a theory and empiricism in sociological research. The analysis of the notions “theoretical” and “empirical”. The functions of empirical sociological research. Separate problems of the theories of society, the unity of sociological research and practice. The choice of the problem, its evaluation and professional ethics.	1., 2., 3.	L4,S2
The logistic scheme of the process of sociological research.	4., 5., 6.	L4,S2
The planning and phases of research. The formation of selection. The analysis of the research situation.	7., 8.	L2.,S2
Structurizing of the sphere of researchable objects: the dimensional analysis of a social problem. The notion of a feature. The classification and typology of the features. Theory and hypotheses. The logistic structure of comments, explanation and prognosis. The creation and operationalization of notions. The creation of indicators.	9., 10., 11.	L4,S2
The notions of “validity” and “suitability” in social measurements.	12.	L2
The methods of empirical sociological research. Typology. The choice and correspondence of a method for the researchable problem.	13.	L2
The analysis of contents (the analysis of categorial evaluation and contents analysis).	14.	L2
Survey, the history and the specific features of its application. The types of survey. The description of the situation of a survey. The teaching about questions. The basic division of questions: closed and open questions. The catalogue of closed questions. The “translation” of research questions into a survey question. E. Noelle’s 12 postulates, which should be considered in the formulation of a question in a survey.	15., 16., 17.	L4,S2
An oral standardized interview. An oral non-standardized interview (thorough).	18.	L2
A written opinion poll (by post).	19.	L2
Group discussion.	20.	L2
Questionnaire; its quality, creation, language, the formulation of questions. The type of a questionnaire. The teaching about the formulation of questions. Answers. Coding. The dramatic aspects of the questionnaire. Introductions, process, phases. The “funnel” technique, the rhythm of questions – answers, etc. Psychology of the questionnaire.	21., 22.	L2,S2
Observation and its types.	23., 24., 25.	L4,S2
The analysis of empirical contents, its types.	26., 27.	L2,S2
Sociometry.	28., 29.	L2,S2
Data analysis. Preparation of an accounting report.	30., 31.	L2,S2
Practical application of the data of empirical sociological research in social planning.	32.	L2