Quantitative Research Methods for Information Systems and Management (Info 271B) Introduction to Social Research

Administrative Stuff: Coye Cheshire Office 305A Office 305A Office Hours Tues and Thurs 4-5:30pm Office Hours Tues and Thurs 4-5:30pm Course Website:

Course Design Part lecture, part skills development Usually one major topic per week Usually one major topic per week Some time devoted to working with statistical software packages (labs) Some time devoted to working with statistical software packages (labs) Two major course sections Research Methodology (weeks 1-5) Research Methodology (weeks 1-5) Quantitative Methods (weeks 6-15) Quantitative Methods (weeks 6-15)

Course Readings Bernard, Russell H. Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. Hamilton, Lawrence. Statistics with STATA 9.

Statistical Software All course examples will use STATA You can purchase a STATA license ($95) through the grad plan:

Software and Computers Bring your laptop to class if applicable. We will devote class time in many sessions to working with statistical software. I encourage you to sit with anyone who has a statistical software package when we begin to use it in class.

Course Assignments and Grading Four “lab assigments” (40%) Always started in class, due following week Always started in class, due following week Some are individual assignments, others are group assignments. Some are individual assignments, others are group assignments. Final Exam (50%) Will cover major topics in class Will cover major topics in class Will allow you to use the dataset of your choice. Will allow you to use the dataset of your choice. Challenging, but will be a take-home exam Challenging, but will be a take-home exam Participation (10%)

Overall Course Goals You will have good knowledge of common research methods used in quantitative research (surveys, experiments) You will understand basic univariate statistics, bivariate statistics, and linear regression You will be able to use a general purpose statistical package to conduct statistical analyses

Course Topics Part I: Research Methods Defining and justifying research problems for quantitative studies Theory and Measurement Sampling, Survey Data Collection, Questionnaires Experimental design Choosing methods to match research problems

Course Topics (continued) Part II: Quantitative Methods Working with structured data (recoding, error checking) Univariate statistics Probability and normal distributions T-tests, Chi-Square, and Analysis of variance (ANOVA) Linear Regression, Logistic Regression

Introduction to Social Research, the Research Design Process and Common Terminology

Definition of ‘Science’ “an objective, logical, and systematic method of analysis of phenomena, devised to permit the accumulation of reliable knowledge” (Lastrucci 1963:6)

Complications with Observation in Social Science

Rise of “Positivist” Social Science August Comte ( )  Experience is the foundation of knowledge  Quality of recorded observation is the key to knowledge

Logical Empiricism Again, knowledge is based on experience– but metaphysical explanations of phenomena are incompatible with science. We should only attempt to answer “answerable” questions.

Quantitative and Qualitative Perspectives "There's no such thing as qualitative data. Everything is either 1 or 0“ Fred Kerlinger Fred Kerlinger "All research ultimately has a qualitative grounding“ Donald Campbell Donald Campbell

For Thursday… Catch up to reading in Bernard (Chapters 1 and 2) We will begin with an intro to foundational concepts in social research methods and begin to look at the ‘structure’ of arguments.