RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Course Title Research Methodology
Class MA, CPIS, SIS
Course Instructor Dr Rajan Kumar
Credits 4
Instruction Method Lectures/ Seminar
Evaluation Method Research Paper/Presentation/Tests (Mid-term test 25 %, Research Paper and assignments 25 %, Final test-50%)
Course Duration Winter Semester ( Total 26 Lectures)
This is an introductory course on research methodology. Keeping in mind the interdisciplinary nature of Social Sciences and the variegated background of the students in this School, this course introduces students to the basic methods being used in history, political science, sociology and economics. This course has been designed to provide a prologue to integrating philosophy, theory and empirics. For the analysis of data, this course studies and evaluates qualitative as well as quantitative research designs in a comparative framework. In the qualitative section, it discusses historical, case study and post-modern methods. In the quantitative section, it studies the statistical methods of analysis. It deals with probability, hypothesis testing, confidence interval, linear and multiple regressions. A prior knowledge of statistics or statistical software is not essential as it begins from the basics of statistical methods. After a background in various methods and tools, this course focuses on comparative methods of analysis. A comparison of merits and lacunae of various methods will be analyzed.
Towards the end of the course, each participant will be required to submit a 10 page term- paper on research design adopting any single or a combination of methods.
(Two Lectures: Exact dates to be decided after consulting all the students …)
An Introduction to Research and Research Manual
- Writing a Term Paper, Synopsis and Research Proposal
- Structure of a paragraph and a research paper
1. SIS Research Manual, May 2006
(Three Lectures)
An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science and Theory in Social Sciences
· Science and Scientific Method
· Paradigm
· Theory
· Constructing a theory
· Integration of Theory and Empirical Data
· Logical Positivism
· Debate on Objectivity vs. subjectivity, facts and interpretation and hermeneutics
· Post-modern Approaches
- Kuhn, Thomas (1970), The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, University of Chicago Press
- Popper, Karl (1959), The Logic of Scientific Discovery,
- Lakatos, Imre (1970), “Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes” in I. Lakatos and R. Musgrave, eds., Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge,
- Foucault, Michael (1969), The Archaeology of Knowledge, Published by Routledge, 1972
(Three Lectures)
Historical Methods of Inquiry
· History
· Historiography
· Historicism
· Process Tracing
· Linear and non-linear explanations in history
1. Carr, E. H. (1967) What is History, Vintage
2. Bloc, Marc (1964), Historian’s Craft, Vintage
3. Sarkar, Sumit (2005), “Post-Modernism and Writing of Indian History”, Beyond Nationalist Frames-Relocating Postmodernism, Hindutva, History, Permanent Black, Delhi
4. Collingwood (1994), The Idea of History: With Lectures 1926-1928, OUP,
(Revised Edition)
(Two Lectures)
Case Study Method
· Case Study
· Selecting a case
· Advantages and Disadvantages of Case Study
· Case Study vs. Large-N analysis
· Comparative Case Study
- Geertz, Clifford (1973), “Thick Description: Towards an Interpretive Theory of Culture”, (NY: Basic Books), Chapter 1
- Srivastava, Vinay, (2005) Methodology and Fieldwork, OUP, Chapter 1-4
(Two Lectures)
Models of Designing Research
· Model 1- Research Question- Review of Literature- Theory- Explanation and argument-Hypothesis-Data collection- Data analysis and Hypothesis testing- Findings
· Model 2- Research Problem- Review of Literature- Case Selection - Field Work for Data- Context Analysis- Findings
1. King, Gary, Robert O. Keohane and Sidney Verba, (1994), Designing Social Inquiry: Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research, Princeton , (Ch 1-3)
2. Srivastava, Vinay, (2005) Methodology and Fieldwork, OUP
Basic Statistical Tools to Analyze the Data
(Two Lectures)
Mean, Median, Mode, Standard Deviation
Wonnacot and Wonnacot (1990), Introductory Statistics, Wiley, New York
Kumar, Rajan (2008) “Uses of Statistics in Social Sciences”, Correspondence Course Material for MA Sociology, Punjabi University , Patiala
Kumar, Rajan (2008), “Measures of Central Tendency”, Correspondence Course Material for MA Sociology, Punjabi University , Patiala
(Two Lectures)
Probability Distribution and Confidence Interval
Wonnacot and Wonnacot (1990), Introductory Statistics, Wiley, New York
(Two Lectures)
Hypothesis, Hypothesis Testing
Wonnacot and Wonnacot (1990), Introductory Statistics, Wiley, New York
Pollock, The Essentials of Political Analysis ( Ch. 1-3)
Kumar, Rajan (2008), “Hypothesis”, Correspondence Course Material for MA Sociology, Punjabi University , Patiala
(MID-TERM TEST–Towards MARCH End . This will be a 3 hours class room test consisting of short and long questions. This will constitute 25 percent of the total grade)
(Two Lectures)
Regression
Wonnacot and Wonnacot (1990), Introductory Statistics, Wiley, New York
(One Lecture)
Correlation
Wonnacot and Wonnacot (1990), Introductory Statistics, Wiley, New York
(One Lecture)
Use of Statistical Softwares
SPSS and STATA
(Four Lectures)
The Comparative Approach and Methodology
· We will study J. S. Mill’s ‘method of agreement’ and ‘method of difference’ as used in Comparative Politics and compare that with that of Weber, Durkhiem and Marx’s comparative approaches. An important component of this approach is to select relevant cases that should be compared. Significance of comparative methodology in theory building will also be discusses in this section.
Sica, Alan (ed.) (2006), Comparative Methods in the Social Sciences, SAGE Benchmarks in Social Research Methods Series
Atul Kohli, et al, “The Role of Theory in Comparative Politics: A Symposium”, World Politics, 48, October 1995
Charles C. Ragin, The Comparative Method: Moving Beyond Qualitative and Quantitative Strategies, (Ch.
John P. Frendreis, “Explanation of Variation and Detection of Co-Variation: The Purpose and Logic of Comparative Analysis”, Comparative Political Studies, 16, 2, July 1983
David D. Latin, “Comparative Politics: The State of the Subdiscipline”, Paper presented at American Political Science Association, 2000
Michael Coppedge, “Theory Building
(Final Lecture)
Designing Research Proposal and Writing Synopsis
Important Dates to Remember
Mid Term Examination: Last week of March (25 percent of the total grade)
Research Paper: Last date for the submission of the research paper is May 1st. (Research paper and assignments will constitute 25 percent of the total grade)
Final examination: First Week of May (50 percent of the total grade).
Additional General References
Stephen Van Evera (1997), Guide to Methods for Students of Political Science, Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London
Agresty, A. and Barbara Finlay (1999), Statistical Methods for the Social Sciences, Third Edition, Prentice Hall
Bhargava, Rajeev (1992), Individualism in Social Science, OUP
Special Instructions:
· Participants are advised to be extremely careful about plagiarism. It is a moral as well as legal offence. For clarification, see the university rules or consult your instructor.
· Assignments submitted after the due date will not be entertained.
· A master copy of all the assigned readings is available at the Sanjay Photostat Shop, SIS Basement. You may get a copy from there.
· Feel free to contact me for any academic problems. I will appreciate a prior appointment. You may contact me on 9868056552 or rajan75jnu@yahoo.co.in or walk in to 307, SIS.
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