Quantitative Techniques of Sociological Research

Recommended Prerequisites

Basic mathematical notions.

Teaching Methods

The active methods are privileged, being the expository reduced to the essential, just to explain concepts and provide guidelines. The course is taught in theoretical-practical and practice laboratory lessons.

Practical laboratory lessons are organized on the basis of concrete studies (under projects developed in FEUC and CES). Also a set of slides containing the fundamental topics and a set of solved exercises are presented during all classes. Students have access to an additional set of exercises to solve outside the classroom, although some of these are solved during classes.

Learning Outcomes

Overall objectives

The main objective of the CU is to provide students with the know-how to use quantitative techniques of sociological observation.

Specific objectives

Students should be able: to define the nature of the data produced by each one of the quantitative techniques of observation; to recognize and to put into practice the best technique to use in each quantitative research; to plan and implement the field work; to treat quantitative data for analysis and to implement the basic tools of statistical analysis.

Competencies

Competencies to be developed:

Generic:  (1) capacity to plan quantitative research; (2) understand the statistical process and being able to apply the inferential statistical tools to research problems

Specific: Capacity to design a quantitative research and gather data through survey by questionnaire to samples of population; Know the basic functioning of statistical software; being able to interpret the results derived from a statistical analysis.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

1. The nature of quantitative research: premises and critical issues in survey research

2.Questionnaire planning and construction

 2.1 Conceiving the questionnaire: the planning and adequacy to survey objectives

 2.2 The questions: types, contents and sequence

 2.3 Designing and structuring the questionnaire

3. Attitude scaling

 3.1 Scales as measures

 3.2 Thurstone, Likert and Guttman scales

 3.3 Validation problems

4. Survey Development

 4.1 Pretest of the Questionnaire

 4.2 Precodification

 4.3.Planning survey lauching

5. Basic introduction to statistical inference

  5.1 Population and sample

  5.2 Presentation of the most used distributions

  5.3 Estimator: definition and properties

6. Inference based in one sample

  6.1 Confidence intervals for the mean and proportion

  6.2 Sample size

  6.3 Hypothesis testing: definition and mechanics

  6.4 Hypothesis testing: mean and proportion.

Head Lecturer(s)

Rodrigo Caldeira Almeida Martins

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Periodic or by final exam as given in the course information: 100.0%

Bibliography

COUTINHO, Clara (2014) [2011], Metodologia de investigação em Ciências Sociais e Humanas. Coimbra, Almedina

FERREIRA, Virgínia (1997), "O Inquérito por Questionário na construção de dados sociológicos", in  A. S. Silva e J. M. Pinto (Orgs.), Metodologia das Ciências Sociais. Porto: Afrontamento

FOODY, William (1996), Como perguntar. Oeiras: Celta

IAROSSI, Giuseppe (2011), O poder da concepção em inquéritos por questionário. Fund. Cal. Gulb.

LISBOA, Manuel (2016), Metodologias de Investigação Sociológica. Ed. Húmus

McCLAVE, James T.; BENSON, P. George; SINCICH, Terry (2009) Estatística para administração e economia. São Paulo: Pearson/Prentice-Hall

MOREIRA, João Manuel (2009), Questionários: teoria e prática. Almedina

REIS, Elizabeth, Andrade, Rosa, CALAPEZ, Teresas, MELO, Paulo (2018), Estatística Aplicada - Vol. 2. 6ª Ed., Ed. Silabo

SILVA RIBEIRO, Carlos; PIMENTA Carlos; PIMENTA, Filomena;MURTEIRA, Bento; ANDRADE E SILVA, João (2015) Introdução à Estatística. 3ª ed., Escolar Editora.