AS 102 SEMINAR QUESTIONS

Module 1

Week 1: With examples from natural and social sciences, explain what do we mean by research.

Week 2: Account for the historical overview of research in social sciences and explain the
purposes of social science research.

Week 3: Explain the meaning and significance of a research design. Choose one research problem
of your choice and explain how would you execute a research design.

Week 4: Differentiate between quantitative and qualitative research methodologies in social

science research.

Week 5: What is the nature of the subject matter of social science research? Give examples to
substantiate your arguments.

Module 2

Week 6: What is a theory? Explain the contribution of inductive and deductive approaches to
theory construction and testing.

Week 7: The British philosopher Karl Popper states, “for theories to be valid, they must be
falsifiable”. With concrete examples discuss the validity of this statement.

Week 8: Theory provides a conceptual model for empirical research and empirical research in turn
contributes to theory. Explain.

Week 9: Choose any social science research topic of your choice, formulate a research problem
and explain step by step how will you carry out a research process.

Week 10: Define research ethics. Use examples from social science research to explain why is
research ethics important.

Module 3

Week 11: With examples discuss the merits of studying research methods and techniques.

Week 12: What is the difference between experimental and non-experimental methods? Explain
three key components of experimental method.

Week 13: How do social researchers construct and administer questionnaires?

Week 14: What is observation in social research? Discuss the types and techniques of
observation.

Week 15: Focus groups allow social researchers to do more than simply collect the factual data
generated by the discussion because they also allow the collection of data associated
with the focus group itself. Discuss