Business
Administration 3008: RESEARCH DESIGN
Spring 2003
Wednesdays: 1 to
3:45pm in 280 Mervis Hall
Instructor: Dr. Irene Frieze
Office: 3329 Sennott Square. 412-624-4336.
e-mail: frieze@pitt.edu
Overview. This course provides students with practical
experience in using one or more social science methods of research by
designing, administering, analyzing, and writing up data on a topic of their
choice. Topics addressed will include
discussion of hypothesis development, study design, sampling, written and
telephone surveys, field observation, and experimentation. Students will also learn how to code data
and develop a computer database for testing their hypothesis. Many students find this course helpful for
pre-testing and doing pilot studies for their dissertation. Grading will be based on written and oral
assignments (70%) and class attendance and participation (30%).
Required
Text:
Babbie, E. (2001). The practice
of social research. (Ninth Edition). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
ISBN: 0-534-57474-2
Course
Requirements:
1. Regular class attendance and participation. (30% grade)
2. Design, administer, analyze and orally present an exploratory or descriptive study. (20% grade). Due February 26.
3. Design a study to test a hypothesis. Present this plan to the class (10%).
4. Write
a research proposal. (10% grade). Due March 26.
5. Run
and write up the proposed study to test a simple hypothesis. (30%
grade). Due April 23, 4 pm.
…………………….
Tentative Lecture Topics and Reading
Assignments
January 8. Course overview. Everyday observation and formal research.
Readings:
Babbie. Chapter 1. Human
inquiry and science.
January 15 - 22. Use of theory in research. Independent and dependent variables and the research question. Stages of research. Exploration, description, and hypothesis testing. Methods used for exploratory research.
Readings:
Babbie.
Chapter 2. Paradigms, theory, and research.
Chapter 3. The idea of
causation in social research.
Chapter
4. Research design.
January 29 - February 5. Conceptualizing and operationalizing the research question. Discussion of research questions to be tested by class members. Matching of research methods to research questions. Design of the initial exploratory study to be done for the first paper.
Readings:
Babbie. Chapter 5. Conceptualization,
operationalization, and measurement.
February 12. Begin oral reports in class on exploratory study results. Exploratory report must be done by February
26.
February 12-February 19. Using standardized scales.
Readings:
Babbie. Chapter 6. Indexes, scales, and typologies.
Appendix D. GSS Household
Enumeration Questionnaire.
February 26. Who should be tested? Defining the study population. Sampling procedures.
Readings:
Babbie. Chapter 7. The logic of
sampling.
March 12 - 19. Methods of formal data collection. Discussion of student research project ideas for explanatory study.
Readings:
Babbie. Chapter
8.
Experiments.
Chapter 9. Survey
research.
Chapter 10. Qualitative Field research.
Chapter 11. Unobtrusive
research.
Chapter 12. Evaluation
research.
Babbie. Appendix
C. The research report.
March
26. Research
proposals due in class.
March 26. Ethical issues in research. Providing feedback to study participants. Reviews by Institutional Review Board.
Readings:
Babbie. Chapter 18. The ethics and politics of social research.
April 2.
Turning observations or interviews into numbers. Quantifying data.
Readings:
Babbie. Chapter 13. Qualitative data analysis
Chapter 14. Quantifying data.
Chapter 15. Elementary quantitative analyses
Chapter 17. Social statistics
Appendix
I. A
learner's guide to SPSS 8.0
April
9 - 16. Comparison of research
methods. Discussion of research
questions tested by the class members.
Discussion of alternatives to methods used. Using research for formulating policy. Development of theory.
Readings-
Babbie. Chapter 19. The uses of social research.
Chapter 16. The elaboration model
Fiske,
D. & Fogg, L. (1990). But the
reviewers are making different criticisms of my paper! American Psychologist,
45, 591-598.
April 23. Final paper, a test of a
hypotheses, due April 23, by 4 pm in 3329 Sennott Square.
…………………………….
Supplemental
Readings
Anderson, J. C. & Gerbing, D. W.
(1988). Structural equation modeling in
practice: Review and recommended
two-step approach. Psychological
Bulletin, 103, 411-423.
Baron, R. M. & Kenny, D. A.
(1986). The moderator-mediator variable
distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and
statistical considerations. Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1173-1182
Bartunek,
J. M., Bobko, P., & Venkatraman, N. V. (1993). Toward innovation and diversity in management research
methods. Academy of Management
Journal., 36, 1362-1373.
Bernstein, I. H. & Teng, G. (1989). Factoring items and factoring scales are different: Spurious evidence for multidimensionality due to item categorization. Psychological Bulletin, 105, 467-477.
Beyer,
J. M., Chanove, R. G., & Fox, W. B.
(1995). The review process and
the fates of manuscripts submitted to AMJ.
Academy of Management Journal, 38, 1219-1260.
Chow, S. L. (1988). Significance test or effect size? Psychological Bulletin, 103,
105-110.
Cohen,
J. (1990). Things I have learned (so
far). American Psychologist, 45,
1304-1312.
Cohen,
J. (1992). Statistical power
analysis. Current Directions in
Psychological Science, 1, 98-101.
Cohen,
J. (1994). The earth is round (p<.05).
American Psychologist, 49, 997-1003.
Converse,
J. M. & Presser, S. (1986). Survey
questions: Handcrafting the standardized questionnaire. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Cortina,
J. M., & Dunlap, W. P. (1997). On the logic and purpose of significance
testing. Psychological Methods, 2,
161-172.
DeVellis,
R. F. (1991). Scale development:
Theories and applications.
Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Dillman,
D. A. (1978). Mail and telephone
surveys: The total design method.
New York: Wiley
Dillman,
D. A. (1991). The design and
administration of mail surveys. Annual
Review of Sociology, 17, 225-249.
Fiske,
D. W. & Fogg, L. (1990). But the
reviewers are making different criticisms of my paper! American Psychologist, 45,
591-598.
Floyd,
S. W., Schroeder, D. M., & Finn, D. M.
(1994). "Only if I'm first
author": Conflict over credit in
management scholarship. Academy of
Management Journal, 37, 734-747.
Freedland,
K. E. & Carney, R. M. (1992). Data
management and accountability in behavioral and biomedical research. American Psychologist, 47,
640-645.
Gatsonis, C. & Sampson, A. R. (1989). Multiple correlation: Exact power and sample size calculations. Psychological Bulletin, 106, 516-524.
Hippler,
H., Schwartz, N., & Sudman, S. (Eds.). (1987). Social information
processing and survey methodology.
New York: Springer-Veriag.
Kalton,
G. (1983). Introduction to survey
sampling. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Labaw, P. (1985). Advanced questionnaire design. Cambridge, MA: Abt Books.
Langley, A. (1999). Strategies for theorizing from process data. Academy of Management Review, 24, 691-712.
Maxwell, S. E., Cole, D. A., Arvey, R. D., & Salas, E. (1991). A comparison of methods for increasing power in randomized between-subjects designs. Psychological Bulletin, 110, 328-337.
Murphy, K. R. & Pardaffy, V. A. (1989). Bias in behaviorally anchored rating scales: Global or scale-specific? Journal of Applied Psychology, 74, 343-346.
Rasmussen, J. L. (1989). Analysis of likert-scale data: A reinterpretation of Gregoire and Driver. Psychological Bulletin, 105, 167-170.
Sternberg, R. J., & Gordeeva, T. (1996). The anatomy of impact: What makes an article influential? Psychological Science, 7, 69-75.
Tsang, E. E. K., & Kwan, K. (1999). Replication and theory development in organizational science: A critical realist perspective. Academy of Management Review, 24, 759-780.
Wedell, D. H. & Parducci, A. (1988). The category effect in social judgment: Experimental ratings of happiness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55, 341-356.
Wilcox,
R. R. (1992). Why can methods for
comparing means have relatively low power, and what can you do to correct the
problem? Current Directions in
Psychological Science, 1,101-105.