SIW4210 Knowledge Production in Social Sciences - Quantitative Methods Course description

This course focus on quantitative research tools, data collection and analysis. We give particular attention to methodological reflection, comparative analysis, and the links between research questions and research design. The course thus connects with the thesis preparation seminar, the master's thesis design proposal and the master's thesis work process.

On successful completion of the course, the student has the following learning outcomes classified as knowledge:

Knowledge

The student can

• discuss the arguments for and against a natural-science approach to human behavior
• explain a scientific position where the goals are description, prediction and control
• place behavioral analysis in a historical context
• explain the relationship between behavior analysis, evolutionary biology, and social anthropology
• describe the relation between a behavior-analytic approach and key philosophies of science, including positivism, empiricism and contextualism
• account for selection as explanation of behavior at the phylogenetic, ontogenetic and cultural level
• define the concept of category errors and discuss such errors in explaining behavior
• explain a functional account of verbal behavior, including discussing the role of consequences in establishing and maintaining verbal behavior; various elements of a verbal episode; the distinction between the terms communication, language and verbal behavior, and a behavior-analytic understanding of the "meaning" of verbal behavior
• give an account of methodological and radical behaviorism and the distinction between them

In the BSCA specialisation, campus-based lectures and seminars are the main teaching methods. The lectures will partly be based on Interteaching sequences using readings from the curriculum. Texts used for Interteaching are announced in the digital learning platform of the university.Students read selected texts in advance for each day of class, and everyone is expected to participate in class through questions and through joining in discussion. In the BSII specialisation, the main teaching method is digital course sequences, and feedback on details of course content, and supervised discussion groups will be available during pre-determined time periods. Feedback on written assignments is used in both specialisations.

The following required coursework must be approved before the student can take the exam:

• 4 individual written assignments submitted digitally, each with maximum 6000 keystrokes

Individual home examination, 5 hours. Exam questions are in English. Students may submit their exams in Norwegian, Swedish, Danish or English.

All

Grade scale A-F

One internal and one external examiner will assess all exams.

Exams are assessed by an internal and an external examiner. External examiners assess a random sample consisting of approx. 25 per cent of the exams. The grades given for this sample provide a basis for the internal examiner`s assessment. The external examiner will also assess papers where there is doubt about giving a grade of pass.

Åsmund Hermansen