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Research Methodology syllabus

MSC 5217 units · 110 topicsAcademic year 2083/84
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1The Nature and Context of Social Research (6 LH)

  1. 1.1
    Research foundations
    1. 1.1.1
      Concept of research
    2. 1.1.2
      Types of research
    3. 1.1.3
      Nature of research
    4. 1.1.4
      Purpose of research
  2. 1.2
    Scientific research
    1. 1.2.1
      Scientific research process
    2. 1.2.2
      Features of scientific research
    3. 1.2.3
      Difficulties of applying scientific methods to social science research
  3. 1.3
    Management research
    1. 1.3.1
      Concept of management research
    2. 1.3.2
      Types of management research
    3. 1.3.3
      Importance of research for decision making
  4. 1.4
    Ethical issues in management research

2Literature Review (4 LH)

  1. 2.1
    Literature review foundations
    1. 2.1.1
      Concept of literature review
    2. 2.1.2
      Purpose of literature review
    3. 2.1.3
      Functions of literature review
    4. 2.1.4
      Phases in literature review
  2. 2.2
    Finding and assessing literature
    1. 2.2.1
      Searching the literature
    2. 2.2.2
      Obtaining the literature
    3. 2.2.3
      Evaluating the literature
    4. 2.2.4
      Internet literature search
  3. 2.3
    Format and guidelines for conducting a literature review
  4. 2.4
    Meta-analysis

3Problem Definition, Theoretical Framework and Hypothesis Formulation (8 LH)

  1. 3.1
    Problem definition
    1. 3.1.1
      Concept of problem definition
    2. 3.1.2
      Steps in problem formulation
  2. 3.2
    Research questions
    1. 3.2.1
      Concept of research questions
    2. 3.2.2
      Types of research questions
  3. 3.3
    Theoretical framework
    1. 3.3.1
      Concept of a theoretical framework
    2. 3.3.2
      Need for a theoretical framework in research
  4. 3.4
    Research and theory
    1. 3.4.1
      Deduction
    2. 3.4.2
      Induction
    3. 3.4.3
      Contribution of research to theory building
    4. 3.4.4
      Contribution of research to practice
  5. 3.5
    Hypothesis formulation
    1. 3.5.1
      Concept of a hypothesis
    2. 3.5.2
      Functions of a hypothesis
    3. 3.5.3
      Descriptive hypothesis
    4. 3.5.4
      Relational hypothesis
    5. 3.5.5
      Directional hypothesis
    6. 3.5.6
      Explanatory hypothesis
    7. 3.5.7
      Null hypothesis
    8. 3.5.8
      Criteria of a good hypothesis

4Quantitative and Qualitative Research Designs (9 LH)

  1. 4.1
    Research design foundations
    1. 4.1.1
      Definition of research design
    2. 4.1.2
      Elements of a research design
  2. 4.2
    Research design classifications
    1. 4.2.1
      Exploratory design
    2. 4.2.2
      Descriptive design
    3. 4.2.3
      Developmental design
    4. 4.2.4
      Case study design
    5. 4.2.5
      Causal-comparative design
    6. 4.2.6
      Experimental design
  3. 4.3
    Common sources of error in research design
  4. 4.4
    Qualitative research
    1. 4.4.1
      Concept of qualitative research
    2. 4.4.2
      Basic assumptions of qualitative research
    3. 4.4.3
      Types of qualitative research
    4. 4.4.4
      Features of qualitative research
  5. 4.5
    Differences between quantitative and qualitative research

5Measurement, Scaling and Sampling (6 LH)

  1. 5.1
    Variables
    1. 5.1.1
      Concept of a variable
    2. 5.1.2
      Types of variables
  2. 5.2
    Scales of measurement
  3. 5.3
    Attitude measurement
    1. 5.3.1
      Attitude measurement
    2. 5.3.2
      Scale construction
    3. 5.3.3
      Attitude scales commonly used in social science research
  4. 5.4
    Quality of measurement
    1. 5.4.1
      Validity of measurement
    2. 5.4.2
      Reliability of measurement
    3. 5.4.3
      Sources of measurement problems
  5. 5.5
    Sampling foundations
    1. 5.5.1
      Concept of sampling
    2. 5.5.2
      Sampling process
    3. 5.5.3
      Population and sampling
  6. 5.6
    Sampling types and errors
    1. 5.6.1
      Probability sampling
    2. 5.6.2
      Non-probability sampling
    3. 5.6.3
      Sampling errors
    4. 5.6.4
      Non-sampling errors

6Data Collection and Analysis (8 LH)

  1. 6.1
    Research data
    1. 6.1.1
      Data and its types
    2. 6.1.2
      Sources of primary data
    3. 6.1.3
      Sources of secondary data
    4. 6.1.4
      Considerations for data collection
  2. 6.2
    Questionnaires
    1. 6.2.1
      Questionnaire principles
    2. 6.2.2
      Questionnaire components
    3. 6.2.3
      Types of questionnaires
  3. 6.3
    Research interviews
    1. 6.3.1
      Types of research interviews
    2. 6.3.2
      Research interview process
  4. 6.4
    Qualitative data sources
    1. 6.4.1
      Observation
    2. 6.4.2
      Participant observation
    3. 6.4.3
      Focus groups
  5. 6.5
    Use of the Internet for data collection
  6. 6.6
    Data processing and presentation
    1. 6.6.1
      Data processing
    2. 6.6.2
      Presenting data in graphs
    3. 6.6.3
      Presenting data in tables
  7. 6.7
    Statistical analysis
    1. 6.7.1
      Descriptive statistics
    2. 6.7.2
      Inferential statistics
    3. 6.7.3
      Hypothesis testing
  8. 6.8
    Qualitative data analysis
    1. 6.8.1
      Content analysis
    2. 6.8.2
      Thematic analysis
    3. 6.8.3
      Narrative analysis

7Writing Proposals and Research Reports (7 LH)

  1. 7.1
    Research proposals
    1. 7.1.1
      Functions of research proposals
    2. 7.1.2
      Solicited proposals
    3. 7.1.3
      Unsolicited proposals
    4. 7.1.4
      Structure of academic research proposals
    5. 7.1.5
      Contents of academic research proposals
    6. 7.1.6
      Structure of funded research proposals
    7. 7.1.7
      Contents of funded research proposals
  2. 7.2
    Research reports
    1. 7.2.1
      Concept of a research report
    2. 7.2.2
      Research report process
    3. 7.2.3
      Types of research reports
    4. 7.2.4
      Procedure for writing a research report
    5. 7.2.5
      Components of a research report
    6. 7.2.6
      Body of a research report
  3. 7.3
    Academic writing
    1. 7.3.1
      Conventions of academic writing
    2. 7.3.2
      Pre-writing concerns
  4. 7.4
    Documenting sources
    1. 7.4.1
      APA citation style
    2. 7.4.2
      APA referencing style
  5. 7.5
    Evaluation of research reports
  6. 7.6
    Essentials of a good research report