SRM R10

SRM R10
(PGDM-RM 2010-12 : Term-II)

XIM
Bhubaneswar

SOCIAL RESEARCH METHODS
DR. P. MISHRA

COURSE OUTLINE

Course Objectives

The course provides an opportunity to the participants to expose themselves to the various theoretical, methodological and empirical aspects of Social Science Research. It helps them develop skills to identify research topics, formulate research plans and use suitable tools and techniques in social research. Thus, the course tries to develop skills to conduct independent research work and also understand and critically appreciate research articles published in different journals.

Course Content

The course is visualized in three parts.

The first part relates to ‘conceptualization’ with emphasis on some theoretical concepts like science and scientific approach to research, unique features of social science, types of research, measurement of variables, etc. The students are required to relate these theoretical aspects to the second part which is known as operationalisation.

The second part of the course deals with instrument designing, use of various qualitative and quantitative techniques for data collection and analysis, interpreting and reporting the results. In qualitative techniques focus will be on different participatory methods like Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and other tools & techniques which are used in poverty assessment, planning, monitoring, evaluation, impact assessment, etc. along with understanding the competitive advantage of the local economy. Quantitative data collection methods will be discussed and demonstrated. Analysis of the data will be done by using various statistical tools. Students will learn how to interpret and report the results.

The third part constitutes a field study (group work) and writing a research report in which various tools will be used for data analysis including the participatory techniques.

The participants, in groups, are required to identify a research topic relating to the rural society/economy and conduct a study on the same. During the field trip, the groups will collect data from the house-holds in the villages with the help of a questionnaire & participatory methods. They will take the help of the course instructor for identifying a suitable research topic and formulating a questionnaire. After the field trip and collection of data, reports will be prepared by the groups and the same will be presented in the class for discussion. After the presentation of the report and feedback, a final report will be submitted by the groups towards the end of the term. (The groups will be formed by the instructor for the field trip.)

The following are the topics that are intended to be covered in this course and the sessions allotted for each topic:

Topics to be covered
Sessions
I. Conceptualization

- Scientific approach to research & Social Scientific Enquiry

- Types of Research Concepts, constructs and variables

- Scale of measurement – some basic Concepts, Reliability & Validity

II. Operationalisation I

a) Tools and Techniques

- Research Problems, Hypothesis & Research Design

- Sampling Techniques and their uses

Questionnaire Construction and operationalisation of variables

- Participatory Tools and Techniques: Demonstration
and explanation of the exercises in the class room. 03

(A few exercises on participatory techniques will be discussed in the class which

will be used in the field since it will not be possible to use many due

to time constraint.)

Data collection and Participatory Exercises in the villages

Data collection will be done during a field trip which will be conducted after the mid- term examination. The participants will identify a topic and collect data from the rural areas using both traditional and participatory methods during their field trip. Different statistical tools will be used to analyze the data collected from the villages.

b) Operationalisation – II Sessions

Tools for Data Analysis, and presentation & discussion of results

i) Tabulation & diagrammatic representation of data 02

(This will include participatory

tools

ii) Explanation, uses and applications of univariate and

bivariate tools ( includes two variable regression)

iii) Explanation and uses of multivariate tools. (The dependence

and interdependence methods)

(There is a large number of multivariate statistical tools available for

data analysis, but only a few are included in this course since it is practically

not possible to use many).

The following multivariate tools will be explained, and uses & applications

will be discussed.

Multiple Regression, Exploratory Factor Analysis (Data Reduction Method)

and Cluster Analysis (Classificatory Method).

The data collected from the field will be used in the above statistical tools.

In case some more data is required the groups will collect those in the

nearby places.

For processing and analyzing the data the students will be using of Excel

and SPSS.

III. The groups will prepare a research report on their topic incorporating

the data analysis and conclusions, present it in the class for discussion

and submit a final report at the end of the term.

Reference

There are many books on Social Research Methods in the XIM Library. However, two books, viz. Foundations of Behavioural Research by F.N. Kerlinger, and The Practice of Social Research by E.R.Babbie are quite handy for the first part of the course, i.e., Conceptualization.

For the second and third parts, any good book on Social Research Methods or Statistics will be helpful. Students are advised to refer to Basic Econometrics by D.N.Gujarati or Introduction to Econometrics by Christopher Dougherty for regression analysis.

For the multivariate analysis Business Research Methods by Cooper and Schindler and/or Multivariate Data Analysis by Hair, Anderson, Tatham and Black may be referred to.

References will be given during the sessions. Materials collected from several sources relating to different topics and relevant references will also be given during the sessions to help the participants in understanding the basics of the concepts & tools to be used. The following books(some of them mentioned earlier) may be referred to by the participants for the present course.

1. Foundations of Behavioral Research by F.N. Kerlinger
2. The Practice of Social Research by E.R.Babbie
3. Business Research Methods by Cooper and Schindler
4. Social Research Methods by C.R.Kothari
5. Basic Econometrics by D.N.Gujarati
6. Introduction to Econometrics by Christopher Dougherty
7. Business Statistics by Ken Black
8. Scientific Social Surveys and Research by P.V.Young
9. Applying Regressiion and Correlation By J Miles & M Shevlin
10. Multivariate Data Analysis by Hair, Anderson,Tatham and Black

Evaluation

a) Mid-Term Test 25 %
b) Presentations of exercises 15 %
c) Final Report (including Participatory exercises)

& presentation 20 %

d) End-Term Test 40 %

Attendance in the class and discussions with participants will be correction features.

Good Luck!

Created By: Hemanta Ranjan Deo on 09/09/2010 at 11:00 AM
Category: PGPRM - I Doctype: Document

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