Statistics and Research Methods

Meets for one-half semester and yields half-course credit.

Participatory Action Research (PAR), with its inherent emphasis on equalizing power relationships between the researcher and the researched, emphasizes the importance of respecting the situated knowledge of research participants. It is largely based in Paulo Freire's pedagogical framework for liberatory education which seeks to help marginalized peoples to empower themselves through research and knowledge production for the purposes of political action.

Instructor: Tara Brown

Prepares students to (1) thoroughly understand the rigorous conduct of research methods of public policy, with a particular emphasis on program evaluation and to (2) be sophisticated consumers of empirical of public policy research. A variety of class formats will be used throughout the semester including lectures, discussions, and seminars, depending upon the topic and readings.

Instructor: Susan Parish

Meets for one-half semester and yields half-course credit.

The goal of this course is to provide an introduction to research design and social scientific logic as applied to policy problems. The course is intended to provide social policy students with conceptual understandings of how contemporary social scientific research is developed and, as well, practical tools to enable students to evaluate data and analyses of policy issues. Course readings and assignments will include theoretical material about approaches to causal hypothesis testing and research design, as well as case-based discussions and projects that focus on particular social policy issues.

Instructor: Leonard Saxe

Building on the courses in Applied Regression Analysis, Econometrics, Research Methods, and concentration course work, this full semester course provides students in-depth and hands-on experience using large national data sets to conduct policy analyses. The course will guide students through each step of the process of developing and carrying out a research project.

Instructor: Tatjana Meschede

Prerequisite: Open only to Ph.D. students who have completion of, or current enrollment in, a graduate-level statistics course.

Provides a basic foundation in social science research methods. Focuses on skills needed to understand and initiate policy-oriented social research. Theoretical as well as practical issues involved in the interpretation and conduct of social research are considered. The perspective is multidisciplinary and emphasizes investigations of substantive health, education, and social welfare problems. Students have the opportunity to review and redesign research in their own area of interest.

Instructor: Christopher Tompkins and Jennifer Perloff

Open to Ph.D. students only.

Acquaints students with the theory and practice of qualitative research. Readings and discussions focus on epistemological and theoretical foundations of qualitative research, how to conduct qualitative research, and its relevance for social policy. Provides students with experience in direct observation, participant observation, and interviewing, as well as in writing field notes, memoing, and transcribing. Qualitative research from study design to analysis and presentation is approached as an iterative and interconnected process. Ethical issues are addressed, with emphasis on requirements for institutional review board applications for projects involving qualitative research methods. Students planning to go on to HS 411b typically prepare an IRB application for a project of their own design.

Instructor: Nina Kammerer

An applied course in multiple regression analysis. Emphasis placed on the assumptions underlying the regression model, how to test for violations, and corrections that can be made when violations are found.

Instructor: Stephen Fournier

Prerequisite: HS 404b.

Focuses on applications of regression analysis and extensions to areas where the standard assumptions do not hold. Introduces applications of logit and its extensions, probit, corrections for censoring and sample selection bias, and simultaneous equations. Each student designs and carries out a research project.

Instructor: Stephen Fournier and Barry Friedman

Prerequisite: HS 404b or equivalent.

Focuses on processes and techniques of survey research methods. Special attention is devoted to different modes of questionnaire design, development, and administration. Implementation issues considered include interviewing strategies and other data collection procedures, field supervision, code book development, and documentation data management. Data analysis issues include scale and index construction, reliability and validity assessments, and general analysis strategies.

Instructor: Leonard Saxe

Prerequisite: Completion of a graduate-level research methods course.

Provides participants with an understanding of the basic concepts of evaluation research and their application to a diverse set of social policy problems. Emphasizes methodological issues and their application to social interventions and the delivery of human service programs. Exemplars of the application of evaluation research strategies are drawn from specific social intervention problems in social services, mental health, education, criminal justice, and healthcare. Students also have a chance to design their own evaluation study.

Instructor: Leonard Saxe

Prerequisites: HS 404b and HS 405a.

Builds on the econometrics course to further develop students' skills in using multivariate statistical techniques, particularly for time-series and longitudinal data. Based on examples from human service and health care research. Students read/critique papers using each technique studied and learn to apply it in computer lab.

Instructor: Dominic Hodgkin

Prerequisite: HS 404b and HS 405a. Open only to Ph.D. students.

Designed to provide students with a series of formal exercises simulating the major steps in the dissertation process. Students gain competency in manipulating data from a large, complex data set; summarizing the methodology of findings from previous studies; and synthesizing and communicating the results of data analysis--placing study objectives and results in the context of prior research.

Instructor: Grant Ritter

Prerequisite: HS 403b or permission of instructor. Open only to Ph.D. students.

Provides students with experience conducting qualitative research, with an emphasis on data analysis and presentation. Readings and discussions address study design, sampling, credibility, triangulation, note-taking, data storage, computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software, ethical issues, and the analysis and writing process. A series of exercises focuses on data analysis, including identifying themes, coding, and memoing. Each student completes a qualitative project, using data s/he collects or has permission to use, and presents work in progress.

Instructor: Nina Kammerer

Meets for one-half semester and yields half-course credit.

Provides students an opportunity to explore the ethical dimensions of social-science research. Ethical considerations are an integral part of social science research because such research often involves the use of human participants from vulnerable populations. Although social science researchers are expected to have an understanding of the ethical issues associated with their discipline, few have the opportunity to develop this knowledge. In this course students examine different topics associated with research design, data collection, data interpretation, and publication of study findings.

Instructor: Sharon Reif

Meets for one-half semester and yields half-course credit.

Addresses the application of the technique of cost-effectiveness analysis to evaluate health and other types of programs in the United States and in developing countries. Presents the theoretical foundations and applications of cost-effectiveness analysis. Uses interactive discussions and computer exercises where students learn to perform cost-effectiveness analyses and apply the technique to a problem of their choice.

Instructor: Donald Shepard

Meets for one-half semester and yields half-course credit.

Provides students with the preliminary tools to conduct and critique case studies. Begins with an examination of the appropriateness, strengths, and weaknesses of this method. Threats to internal and external validity are examined along with techniques to properly collect and document data from multiple sources. Techniques are reviewed for case selection, data analysis, and study presentation. The final class is spent critiquing actual case studies.

Instructor: Jeffrey Prottas

Prerequisite: HS 422f or permission of the instructor. Meets for one-half semester and yields half-course credit.

Provides students with advanced techniques to conduct or critically review cost-effective studies, both in the United States and internationally. Students learn how to present a research question, design a study, obtain and analyze relevant data, and analyze results.

Instructor: Donald Shepard

Prerequisites: Open only to Ph.D. students who have completed HS 401b and one semester of graduate-level statistics. Meets for one-half semester and yields half-course credit.

The goal of this course is to provide doctoral students in social policy with an understanding of the basic principles of survey research design, their application, and analysis. Survey research is increasingly important as a tool in social policy analysis and the course prepares students to design/manage survey research and to use the results of others’ surveys.

Instructor: Leonard Saxe