Experimental Sociology
Course content
Do employers discriminate against mothers when hiring? Will forced relocation of individuals through ‘Ghetto’ laws lead to better outcomes for those relocated? Do we swipe right or left based on the politics of a potential date? Can banning Instagram actually weaken censorship efforts of authoritarian regimes?
Our contemporary world presents many complex societal challenges and questions that sociologist and practitioners try to tackle. Interviews and observational methods are limited when these questions concern theorized mechanisms and causal relations. Therefore, sociologists were among the first social scientists to apply experimental methods to these problems. This course dives into the world of experimental sociology from its foundation to latest empirical evidence.
The course introduces students to the experimental method, its strengths and weaknesses, and its applications in sociology and related disciplines. We will review methodological developments that freed the method from the laboratory, such as survey and field experiments, and discuss how we can use the experimental logic even when intervening ourselves is not feasible or ethical. As we learn different experimental designs, we will study how their application to varied sociological questions has contributed to knowledge in many subfields of the discipline: including sociology of culture, the environment, and discrimination.
After successful participation, students will be comfortable reading current social science research using experimental methods, evaluate its strengths and weaknesses, and be able to identify potential research questions in sociology that can be answered using experiments. To this end, the course will include group work, debates, presentations, and guest speakers to create an engaging and interactive environment.
This course is also offered to full-degree students enrolled at the Faculty of Social Science, UCPH
- Bachelor and Master Programmes in Psychology
- Bachelor and Master Programmes in Anthropology
- Master programme in Global Development
- Master programme in Political Science
-
Master Programmes in Social Data Science
Course package:
- Welfare, inequality, and mobility
- Knowledge, organisation, and policy
- Culture, lifestyle, and everyday life
The course is open to:
- Exchange and Guest students from abroad
- Credit students from Danish Universities
After successful participation in the class, students will be able to:
Knowledge
- Account for sociological topics and issues that have benefited from experimental research to date
- Identify different experimental approaches and the sociological problems they are suited to answer
- Understand the advantages of applying different experimental approaches to study sociological questions
Skills
- Comprehend and evaluate experimental designs from different social science areas
- Critically assess the strengths and weaknesses of given experimental designs in contrast to non
- experimental designs
Competencies
- Independently formulate research designs that leverage the potential of the experimental method
- Specialize in cutting-edge experimental methodologies
- Lectures
- Class discussions
- Student presentations
Course material will primarily include peer-reviewed journal articles, supplemented by relevant scholarly monographs, journalistic articles, and podcasts where applicable.
- Continuous feedback during the course of the semester
- Structured feedback to student presentations
When registered you will be signed up for exam.
- Full-degree students – sign up at Selfservice on KUnet
- Exchange and guest students from abroad – sign up through Mobility Online and Selfservice
- Credit students from Danish universities - sign up through this website
- ECTS
- 7,5 ECTS
- Type of assessment
-
Written assignment
- Type of assessment details
- The students are required to formulate their own exam questions
based on pre-defined guidelines provided by the teacher. Students
will receive the exam guidelines for formulating exam questions
during the ongoing semester. The teacher is required to provide at
least two exemplary exam questions that adhere to the guidelines.
The exam can be written individually or in groups of max. 4 students.
Length of the exam is 10 pages + 5 pages pr. extra group member. - Aid
-
The Department of Sociology prohibits the use of generative AI software and large language models (AI/LLMs), such as ChatGPT, for generating novel and creative content in written exams. However, students may use AI/LLMs to enhance the presentation of their own original work, such as text editing, argument validation, or improving statistical programming code. Students must disclose in an appendix if and how AI/LLMs were used; this appendix will not count toward the page limit of the exam. This policy is in place to ensure that students’ written exams accurately reflect their own knowledge and understanding of the material. All students are required to include an AI declaration in their exam submissions regardless of whether they have used generative AI software or not. This declaration should be placed as the last page of the exam submission. Please note that the AI statement is not included in the calculation of the overall length of your assignment. The template for the AI statement can be found in the Digital Exam system and on the Study Pages on KUnet under “Written exam”. Exams that do not declare if and how AI/LLMs were used will be administratively rejected and counted as one exam attempt.
- Marking scale
- 7-point grading scale
- Censorship form
- No external censorship
- Re-exam
-
Students have to write a new essay using the guidelines provided by the teacher.
NOTE!
This is an elective course. We can only guarantee that the exam can be taken during the 3 immediate exam periods after the course has ended.
Criteria for exam assessment
Please see the learning outcome
- Category
- Hours
- Lectures
- 42
- Preparation
- 104
- Exam Preparation
- 60
- English
- 206
Kursusinformation
- Language
- English
- Course number
- ASOA16296U
- ECTS
- 7,5 ECTS
- Programme level
- Bachelor
Full Degree Master
- Duration
-
1 semester
- Placement
- Spring
- Schedulegroup
-
.
- Studyboard
- Department of Sociology, Study Council
Contracting department
- Department of Sociology
- Department of Anthropology
- Department of Psychology
- Department of Political Science
- Social Data Science
Contracting faculty
- Faculty of Social Sciences
Course Coordinator
- Friedolin Merhout (8-6a7169766c73797844777367326f7932686f)
Teacher
Fridolin Merhout fmerhout.@soc.ku.dk
Diana-Roxana Galos drg@soc.ku.dk
Timetable
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Courseinformation of students