This version of the course guide is provisional until the period for editing the new course guides ends.

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Methodology and Design of Social Research

Code: 101138 ECTS Credits: 6
2025/2026
Degree Type Year
Sociology FB 1

Contact

Name:
Francesc Josep Miguel Quesada
Email:
miguel.quesada@uab.cat

Teachers

Juan Rodriguez Soler
Sara Moreno Colom

Teaching groups languages

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


Prerequisites

No pre-requirements.


Objectives and Contextualisation

It is a subject located in the second semester of the first year and focuses on the initiation of students in the terminology and practices of academic and scientific research. Likewise, the course aims to reflect on what it means to research in the social sciences. These routines and approaches that will be essential to be able to take in the second year the subjects of Quantitative Methods of Social Research and Qualitative Methods of Social Research.

The main interests of the subject are oriented towards the clarification of the basic requirements of the scientific methodology, the understanding of the concepts and basic instruments of the applied research to the analysis of the social reality and the routines and basic instrumental abilities that allow To develop the research activity correctly within the academic world. The central objective of the subject will be oriented, then, to make explicit what are the central elements that allow to do research and to transmit to the students the knowledge that they do that is able to formulate a subject to investigate and to prepare the corresponding research design. In this sense, it is essential to know the main sources of information and scientific documentation, acquire the basic habits of research in the social sciences, and learn a rigorous work style, able to combine the use of collaborative work with personal creativity.


Competences

  • Analysing the problems arising from the implementation of public policies and conflict situations by recognising the complexity of the social phenomena and political decisions affecting democracy, human rights, social justice and sustainable development.
  • Demonstrating a comprehension of the analysis of social phenomena presented in English, as well as observing their strengths and weaknesses.
  • Demonstrating a comprehension of the approaches of the sociological theory in its different aspects, interpretations and historical context.
  • Describing social phenomena in a theoretically relevant way, bearing in mind the complexity of the involved factors, its causes and its effects.
  • Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
  • Developing self-learning strategies.
  • Enumerating the methodology and investigation techniques that support the main hypothesis about social relationships, the positions and practices of individuals in a social structure and the social changes.
  • Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
  • Searching for documentary sources starting from concepts.
  • Students must be capable of assessing the quality of their own work.
  • Students must be capable of managing their own time, planning their own study, managing the relationship with their tutor or adviser, as well as setting and meeting deadlines for a work project.
  • Take sex- or gender-based inequalities into consideration when operating within one's own area of knowledge.
  • Working in teams and networking in different situations.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Clearly distinguishing between facts and value judgements.
  2. Contextualizing them in their time.
  3. Defining the main sociological concepts.
  4. Demonstrating a comprehension of the analysis of social phenomena presented in English, as well as observing their strengths and weaknesses.
  5. Developing critical thinking and reasoning and communicating them effectively both in your own and other languages.
  6. Developing self-learning strategies.
  7. Differentiating their theoretical and methodological assumptions.
  8. Distinguishing between a sociological hypothesis and a value judgement on democracy, human rights, social justice or sustainable development.
  9. Distinguishing the main qualitative methods and techniques.
  10. Expressing their methodological basis.
  11. Identifying their validity or obsolescence in other times.
  12. Identifying these approaches: functionalism, interactionism, action sociologies, etcetera).
  13. Respecting the diversity and plurality of ideas, people and situations.
  14. Searching for documentary sources starting from concepts.
  15. Students must be capable of assessing the quality of their own work.
  16. Students must be capable of managing their own time, planning their own study, managing the relationship with their tutor or adviser, as well as setting and meeting deadlines for a work project.
  17. Take sex- or gender-based inequalities into consideration when operating within one's own area of knowledge.
  18. Working in teams and networking in different situations.

Content

Block I. Basic Concepts

1. Common knowledge and scientific knowledge. Basic aspects of scientific knowledge.
2. Research traditions in sociology.
3. The object of study and the research subjects.
4. The stages of the research process.

Block II. The social research process

5. The choice of the topic, the initial question and the exploration.
6. The theoretical framework: state of the art and conceptual framework.
7. The analysis model: Structuring concepts. Formulation of research hypotheses.
8. The analysis design.


Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Exam preparation 18 0.72 2, 3, 4, 6, 5, 1, 9, 8, 7, 10, 12, 11
Lecture sessions 30 1.2 15, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 9, 8, 7, 10, 12, 11, 13
Practical sessions 22 0.88 15, 4, 6, 5, 9, 8, 10, 16, 13, 18
Type: Supervised      
Scheduled group tutorials 6 0.24 15, 14, 4, 6, 5
Type: Autonomous      
Group project 40 1.6 15, 14, 6, 5, 16, 13, 18
Text readings 30 1.2 15, 2, 3, 6, 5, 1, 9, 7, 10, 12, 11, 13

In order for students to learn and think about what it means to investigate in Sociology, the teaching methodology and the formative activities of the subject are located at the very center of the learning process, based on the combination of: (1) expositive sessions, (2) classroom and out-class practices that allow to apply the acquired concepts, (3) tutorial sessions of follow-up and autonomous work. Following are the different activities, with their specific weight within 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
1. Monitoring (Assistance and Participation in scheduled practice sessions at classroom) 10% 0 0 15, 3, 4, 5, 1, 9, 8, 10, 13, 18
2. Written tests that will evaluate the acquisition of concepts and basic instruments related to the applied aspect of analysing social reality 12% + 12% + 12% 2 0.08 2, 3, 5, 1, 9, 8, 7, 10, 12, 11
3. Research project (including 3, both group and individual deliveries) (5% + 5%) + 10% + 34% 2 0.08 17, 15, 14, 4, 6, 5, 1, 9, 8, 10, 16, 13, 18

 

Working groups:
Only working groups of 4 or 5 people will be accepted. Only working groups with people in the same "enrollment group" (matricula) are accepted.
A change of enrollment group can be managed this way: A) it is requested during the first 2 weeks of the course to the Academic Management Service, B) it is approved by the Faculty, and C) it is comunicated by the student to the teaching responsable of the "new" enrollement group.

To pass the subject (CONTINUED EVALUATION: students enrolled in the first call):
It is necessary to fulfill THREE conditions plus the achievement of a minimum grade calculated according to the weight of each type of activity.
1. Conditions for accessing the calculation of the grade.

  • A) Participation in at least 80% of the practical sessions of compulsory seminars according to the calendar of activities (or absence justified by documentation provided up to a maximum of one week after the specific session), and
  • B) obtain a minimum average grade of 4 in each of the 3 partial tests, and
  • C) obtain a minimum average grade of 4 for the entire group research project, and participation in the final public presentation.

2. Calculation of the grade: Obtain a minimum weighted average grade of 5 in the set of the three continuous assessment activities: Monitoring (10%), Tests (36%), Project (54%).

The ZOTERO training activity and the individual contribution activity within the group work will be assessed at teachers' discretionality as possible increases to enable the achievement of certain minimum assessment milestones (4 to make averages, 5 to pass the course, 9 to obtain honors enrollment).

To pass the subject (SYNTHESIS EVALUATION: students enrolled in the second or subsequent call):
This subject does NOT include a single assesment system.
In the case of students who have passed conditions (A) and (C) in previous calls for the subject, and who so communicate at the very beginning of the course, they will be given the option of passing the course by taking a single "synthesis test".

To participate in the compensatory activities (regular course NOT passed in June):
Only the 3 individual written exams and the 3 group project assignments can be "compensated" in a second-chance evaluation.
The participation in practices and attendance activities are not considered recoverable, by their very nature.
In any case, this second-chance will imply a maximum score of 8 in the final grade of the subject.

To appear as "no avaluable" in the official records:
Only those who have not provided sufficient evidence of assessment throughout the course will be graded as "not present": those people who have not attended 50% of all scheduled assessment activities.

Faculty agreements regarding the Policy about students with language difficulties:
The answers to the exams can be given in Catalan, Spanish or English (the Faculty's working languages), regardless of the language in which the exams are made.
The use of electronic devices is not allowed to take the exams, except in (1) justified ERASMUS cases previously agreed with the teaching staff, or (2) PIUNE adaptations.

Level of permitted use of AI in the subject (Prohibited use):
In this subject, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies is not permitted in any of its phases. Any work that includes AI-generated fragments will beconsidered a lack of academic honesty and may result in a partial or total penalty in the grade of the activity, or greater sanctions in serious cases.

About plagiarism in academic work or written tests:
We kindly remind you that, at the time of signing up your enrollment, you committed yourself inthe following sense: "I DECLARE that the Autonomous University of Barcelona has informed me that (...) Plagiarism is the act of publicizing, publishing or reproducing awork or part of it in the name of an author other than the authentic one, which implies an appropriation of the ideas created by another person without explicit recognition of their origin. This appropriation involves an injury to the intellectual property right of this person that I am not authorized to do in any case whatsoever the circumstance: exams, work, practices ... Therefore, I COMMITTEE to respect the provisions related to rights of intellectual property in relation to the teaching and / or research activity carried out by the UAB in the studies I am studying."
In the event that any kind of plagiarism will be detected, the evaluation of the test, exam, individual or group assignement will be "zero" or NOT PASS, for anyone involved in the incident(even the "source" of plagiarism).


Bibliography

A list of compulsory readings corresponding to theoretical contents, practical sessionsand group projecto will be published at Campus Virtual webspace.

Bàsica
Blanco, C. (2010). La vigilancia epistemológica en Ciencias Sociales: un compromiso ineludible. En Reflexiones desde la sociología del conocimiento de Pierre Bourdieu. Primer simposio internacional interdisciplinario Aduanas del Conocimiento. La traducción y la constitución de las disciplinas entre el Centenario y el Bicentenario. Córdoba, 8 al 12 de diciembre 2010.
Corbetta, P. (2010). Metodología y técnicas de investigación social. Madrid: McGraw Hill.
Quivy, R., & Campenhoudt, L. V. (2017). Manual de investigación en ciencias sociales. Ciudad de México: Limusa : Grupo Noriega Editores.
Sautu, R.; Boniolo, P.; Dalle, P. & Elbert, R. (2005). Recomendaciones para la redacción del marco teórico, los objetivos y la propuesta metodológica de proyectos de investigación en ciencias sociales. En Sautu et Al. (2005) Manual de metodología. Buenos Aires: CLACSO, Colección Campus Virtual. < http://bibliotecavirtual.clacso.org.ar/ar/libros/campus/metodo/metodo.html >

Complementària
Sautu, R. (2003) Todo es teoria: Objetivos y métodos de investigación. Buenos Aires: Ed. Lumiere. <https://www.trabajosocial.unlp.edu.ar/uploads/docs/todo_es_teoria__objetivos_y_metodos_en_investigacion__sautu_ruth.pdf>


Software

Document processor: LibreOffice Writer, or MicroSoft-Word.
Visual support for presentations: LibreOffice Impress, or MicroSoft-PowerPoint.
Reference manager: ZOTERO.
Conceptual maps design: <https://app.diagrams.net/>, LibreOffice Impress, o MicroSoft-PowerPoint.
[ get the software open and free from <https://ca.libreoffice.org/> and <https://www.zotero.org/download/>]


Groups and Languages

Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2025. You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject.

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(PAUL) Classroom practices 1 Catalan second semester morning-mixed
(PAUL) Classroom practices 2 Catalan second semester morning-mixed
(PAUL) Classroom practices 51 Catalan second semester afternoon
(TE) Theory 1 Catalan second semester morning-mixed
(TE) Theory 2 Catalan second semester morning-mixed
(TE) Theory 51 Catalan second semester afternoon