Proseminar: Studying Social Life: Theories and Methods

Semester and Year	FA 2012
Course Number	CORE-GG2022
Section	001
Instructor	David Moore
Days	Tue
Time	6:20 PM - 8:20 PM
Units	4.0
Level	G
Foundation Requirement

Description

For students whose programs include investigations of the social world, this course provides an opportunity to grapple with a variety of theoretical approaches to the study of individuals, groups, organizations, cultures and societies, and to engage several methods for conducting research in those realms. Depending on students’ interests and goals, the theoretical frameworks might include behaviorism (Watson, Skinner), interactionism (GH Mead, Blumer), constructivism (Piaget, Vygotsky, Bruner), conflict theory (Marx, the Frankfurt School), psychodynamics (Freud, Erikson), structuralism (Saussure, Levi-Strauss), and/or postmodernism (Foucault, Baudrillard). The class will explore the different premises, logics and arguments of various schools of thought. Moreover, members will conduct pilot-level research using methods appropriate to their own problematics: e.g., ethnographic observations, interviews, discourse analysis, document study, visual anthropology, psychometric tests, and/or case studies. The course will be a useful preliminary for students expecting to do a research thesis focused on questions about the social world.

Syllabus

CORE-GG2022

Course Type

Graduate Core (CORE-GG)