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Social Research Techniques

Code: 100480 ECTS Credits: 6
2024/2025
Degree Type Year
2500258 Labour Relations OB 3

Contact

Name:
Juan Rodriguez Soler
Email:
joan.rodriguez.soler@uab.cat

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites to do the course.

The course will be taught from the perspective of the Sustainable Development Goals.


Objectives and Contextualisation

The subject seeks to initiate the students in the realm of social science research, applied to the field of Labour Relations. The main interest of the subject is to introduce the students to the basic concepts and instruments of research in social science. More specifically, the central goal of the course is that the students learn, first of all, to design a research project in the field of labour relations and, in second place, to design and implement a methodological strategy.


Competences

  • Applying quantitative and qualitative social investigation techniques to the labour field.
  • Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
  • Developing research projects in the labour field.
  • Drawing up and formalising reports and documents.
  • Generating innovative and competitive proposals in research and professional activity.
  • Identifying, analysing and solving complex problems and situations from an (economic, historical, legal, psychological, and sociological) interdisciplinary perspective.
  • Producing, developing and assessing occupational and continued training plans in regulated and non regulated fields.
  • Self-motivating by undertaking specific training programs to acquire new knowledge.
  • Working autonomously.
  • Working effectively in teams.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Analysing the obtained data and managing discussion groups.
  2. Carrying out interviews in the investigation processes.
  3. Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
  4. Drawing up and formalising reports and documents.
  5. Generating innovative and competitive proposals in research and professional activity.
  6. Knowing the qualitative and quantitative social investigation techniques applied to the labour field.
  7. Producing, developing and assessing occupational and continued training plans in regulated and non regulated fields.
  8. Reaching a consensus in the industrial relations.
  9. Self-motivating by undertaking specific training programs to acquire new knowledge.
  10. Understanding the research applied to Industrial Relations.
  11. Working autonomously.
  12. Working effectively in teams.

Content

I. Introduction: Research in Social Sciences

1. Social science research: what is it and why it is used?

2. Information sources: type of information, validity, location of documentary sources and systematization of information.

II. The research process and design

3. The formulation of the problem to be investigated: what do we want to search for?

4. The analysis model: the key concepts and the hypotheses

5. The design of the investigation: toward empirical testing

III. Data collection and data analysis techniques

6. Data collection techniques: the interview

7. Data collection techniques: the use of documents

8. Data collection techniques: the discussion group

9. Introduction to texts analysis: the content analysis

 

 


Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Classroom workshops and follow-up sessions 22 0.88 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 10, 11, 12
Theoretical lessons 22 0.88 3, 5, 6, 10
Type: Supervised      
Follow-up sessions 6 0.24 5, 10, 11, 12
Type: Autonomous      
Preparing public presentation of research project 10 0.4 3, 11, 12
Preparing written exam 15 0.6 6, 11
Team work 70 2.8 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12

Given the practical nature of the course, the teaching methodology is an important feature. It combines four types of strategies: lecture sessions in the classroom where the teaching staff will explain the theoretical content; practical sessions in the classroom that allow to apply the concepts acquired; follow-up tutorials; and autonomous work. These different activities are explained in detail in this teaching guide, including the distribution of the total time that the student has to dedicate to the subject.

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Attendance and seminars 15% 1 0.04 1, 2, 4, 6, 9, 10, 11
Exam 35% 2 0.08 3, 4, 5, 6, 10
Research project 50% 2 0.08 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12

The work of the students during the course will be mainly structured around a collective research project. This research project will be followed up and evaluated through three partial deliveries that will be made progressively throughout the course. The project will be presented in an oral defense. The set of these tasks will mean 50% of the final grade.

Additionally, a final written exam will be carried out that will represent 35% of the final grade. The remaining 15% of the evaluation will be achieved by assisting in practical sessions and tasks associated with them. Each of these parts must achieve a minimum degree of sufficiency. In order to obtain the average of the course it is necessary to complete all the activities corresponding to the research project and the activity corresponding to the individual exam.

At the beginning of the semester, a general schedule of the course will be made available to the students. In it, the dates of the evaluable activities will be indicated.

 

I) Group assessment

The group assessment aims to capture the ability to work as a team and develop a research project in each of its phases. This evaluation will consist of the realization of a research project that will be evaluated in a continuous way from three assignments, from the revision by the professors and from the attendance to classroom workshops linked to its realization. An oral presentation of the research project will be made at the end of the course. It represents 50% of the final grade (40% written and follow-up text; 10% oral presentation). Within the framework of this research project, each member of the group will have to develop an individual interview.

Late deliverables will not be accepted. Those deliverables that have not been exceeded may be reevaluated, applying the penalty specified for these activities.

 

II) Individual assessment

The individual assessment will be based on the completion of an individual written exam that aims to capture the degree of the knowledge acquired throughout the theoretical and practical sessions. It represents 35% of the final grade.

 

III) Classroom workshops

Throughout the course there will be several classroom workshops focused on applying the theoretical content of the course. Some of these seminars are proposed as seminars to support group projects. Therefore, topics directly related to some stages of a research project or directly related to research resources and techniques will be covered. It represents 15% of the final grade.

 

IV) Suspended and "not assessable"

Both in group work and in the individual test, it is necessary a 3 out of 10 to be able to average between the two evaluations.

For the individual written exam, students can access a recovery exam. The format of this exam will be decided by the teaching staff of the subject.

Students will be assessable as long as they have carried out a set of activities whose weight is equivalent to a minimum of 2/3 of the total grade for the subject. If the value of the activities carried out does not reach this threshold, the teacher of the subject may consider the student as not assessable.

 

V) Copy and/or Plagiarism

In case of any irregularity of this type, the evaluated activity will be assessed with a 0 (see Article 116. Item 10. Of the Academic Regulations of the UAB "In case the student makes any irregularity that could lead to a significant variation of the grade of an evaluation act, willbe rated with 0 this evaluation act, regardless of the disciplinary process that can be instructed, in case there are several irregularities in the evaluation acts of the same subject, the final grade of this subject will be 0.", available at http://www.uab.cat/doc/TR_Normativa_Academica_Plans_Nous).

The students who copy or try to copy on an exam will have a 0 in the subject and will lose the right to re-evaluation. The students who present a practice in which there is evidence of plagiarism or who cannot justify the arguments of their practice will receive a 0 and receive a warning. In case of repetition of the behaviour, the students will fail the subject (0) and will lose the right to re-evaluation.

 

 VI) Single assessment

The single assessment will be composed of three assessment activities: the completion of a research project, the presentation of this project in a short video, and an individual written exam. It is necessary to contact the teaching staff for more information about the assessment activities. For the research project, at least two follow-up tutorials are recommended (one at the beginning of the course and one of student’s choice). The assessment activities are listed below.

Title: Individual research project

Weight: 40%.

Re-evaluation: The same recovery system will be applied as for continuous assessment.

 

Title: Short video of the research project

Weight: 15%

Re-evaluation: The same recovery system as for continuous assessment will be applied.

 

Title: Individual written exam

Weight: 45%

Re-evaluation: The same recovery system as for continuous assessment will be applied.

 

The same criterion of non-assessable as for continuous assessment will be applied.


Bibliography

Compulsory references

QUIVY, Raymond; CAMPENHOUDT, Luc Van (2001). Manual de Recerca en Ciències Socials. Barcelona: Herder (also available in Spanish: Manual de investigación en ciencias sociales. México: LIMUSA, 1993.)

VERD, Joan Miquel; LOZARES, Carlos (2016). Introducción a la investigación cualitativa: fases, métodos y técnicas Madrid: Síntesis.

 

Recommmended references

BELL, Judith (2002). Cómo hacer tu primer trabajo de investigación. Guía para investigadores en educación y en ciencias sociales. Barcelona: Gedisa. (also available in ebook, 2005)

BRAUN, Virginia; CLARKE, Victoria (2006). “Using thematic analysis in psychology”, Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3:2, 77-101. http://dx.doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa

CEA D’ANCONA, Mª Ángeles (1996). Metodología cuantitativa. Estrategias y técnicas de investigación social. Madrid: Síntesis.

COLECTIVO IOÉ (2010) ¿Para qué sirve el grupo de discusión? “Una revisión crítica del uso de técnicas grupales en los estudios sobre migraciones”, Empiria, Revista de Metodología de Ciencias Sociales, 19, 73-99. https://doi.org/10.5944/empiria.19.2010.2015

CORBETTA, Pergiorgio (2007). Metodología y técnicas de investigación social. Madrid: McGraw Hill.

DANE, Francis C. (1997). Mètodes de Recerca. Barcelona: Proa-UOC.

DENZIN, Norman K.; LINCOLN, Yvonna S. (coords.) (2012).Manual de investigación cualitativa. Barcelona: Gedisa.

GARCIA FERRANDO, Manuel; IBAÑEZ, Jesús; ALVIRA, Francisco (2015). El análisis de la realidad social. Métodos y técnicas de investigación. Madrid: Alianza.

GILLI, Gian Antonio (1976). Como se investiga. Barcelona: Avance.

GIDDENS, Anthony (2007). “Trabajando en sociología: métodos de investigación” In: Sociología. Madrid: Alianza.

KÖHLER, Holm-Deltev; MARTÍN ARTILES, Antonio (2010). “La metodología de la sociología de las relaciones laborales”. In: Manual de Sociología del trabajo y de las relaciones laborales. Madrid: Delta.

RUIZ OLABUÉNAGA, José I.; ARÍSTEGI, Iratxe; MELGOSA, Leire (1998). Cómo elaborar un proyecto de investigación social. Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto.

TAYLOR, Steve J.; BOGDAN, Robert (1992). Introducción a los métodos cualitativos de investigación. Buenos Aires: Paidós.

VALLES, Miguel S. (1997). Técnicas cualitativas de investigación social. Reflexión metodológica y práctica profesional. Madrid: Síntesis.


Software

The subject does not require any specific software.


Language list

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(PAUL) Classroom practices 1 Catalan second semester morning-mixed
(PAUL) Classroom practices 51 Catalan second semester afternoon
(TE) Theory 1 Catalan second semester morning-mixed
(TE) Theory 51 Catalan second semester afternoon