Ph.D. Network

5th International Research Workshop – “Methods for Ph.D.”

October 2-7, 2011
Akademie Sankelmark, Flensburg (Germany)
University of Southern Denmark, Sønderborg (Denmark)

For the fifth time Ph.D. students in the field of Social Sciences and Economics have the opportunity to broaden their knowledge and experience in research on empirical data, including SOEP. The workshop language will be English. Interested parties from all countries are invited. The workshop is especially for those who need training in the process of choosing a topic, grounding the research idea in theory, as well as in gathering and analyzing data and presenting results in scientific contexts.

The workshop tackles these steps of Ph.D. research projects:

• gathering data through (un)structured interviews and analyzing standardized survey data (e.g., SOEP),
• using the computer for content analysis and as a statistical tool,
• writing a report and making presentations.

These steps will strengthen the cooperation in empirical research to boost and streamline ones project. For more information about the programme, see:

http://hermes.hsu-hh.de/doctoralstudy/irws/programme/

It is possible to obtain credits for the workshop under the European Credit Transfer System.

The workshop fee is 390 Euro. This includes all lectures, meals, and accommodations during the workshop (October 2-7, 2011). For more information about the registration procedure, see:

http://hermes.hsu-hh.de/doctoralstudy/irws/registration/

Organizers of the Workshop are: Helmut-Schmidt University – University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg, University of Flensburg, the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) at the DIW Berlin, University of Southern Denmark Campus Soenderborg, Leuphana University Lüneburg, University of Hamburg – Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences and Faculty of Education Psychology and Human Movement.

Workshopfolder as PDF

Institution: see Organisers & Acknowledgements

Program of study: International Research Workshop

Lecturer: Miriam Wilhelm

Date:

03.10.2011, 14:00 – 17:30
04.10.2011, 14:00 – 17:30

Room: n.s.

Max. number of participants: 25

Semester periods per week: n.s.

Credit Points: 5 CP for participating in the whole IRWS

Language of instruction: English/German (depending on participants)

Contents:

In this course participants will learn to design, conduct and publish case studies. After the course participants:

• are knowledgeable about which type of research question are most appropriate for a case study approach,
• will be able to differentiate between different types of case studies,
• are familiar with the sampling logic,
• are knowledge about the typical pitfalls of conducting cases studies,
• are knowledgeable in writing up case studies for publications and addressing, typical critiques from reviewers.

The course will mainly be based on discussions of basic readings on case studies and “best practice“ examples that are provided on the learning platform in advance by the lecturer. In addition, participants will have the chance to discuss their own research design in class.

You have to register for the 5th International Research Workshop to participate in this course.

Institution: see Organisers & Acknowledgements

Program of study: International Research Workshop

Lecturer: Rafael Rucha (Leuphana University Lüneburg)

Date: 05.10.2011, 09:00 – 17:30

Room: n.s.

Max. number of participants: 25

Semester periods per week: n.s.

Credit Points: 5 CP for participating in the whole IRWS

Language of instruction: English/German (depending on participants)

Contents:

1. Potential Outcome Approach and the Fundamental Evaluation Problem
2. Parameters of Interest and Selection Bias
3. Propensity Score Matching
3.a. Assumptions
3.b. Propensity Score Estimation
3.c. Matching Algorithms
3.d. Evaluation of Matching
3.e. Effect Estimation
4. Further Topics:
4.a. Matching Combined with Other Methods
4.b. Sensitivity Analysis
4.c. Outlook

You have to register for the 5th International Research Workshop to participate in this course.

Institution: see Organisers & Acknowledgements

Program of study: International Research Workshop

Lecturer: Reinhard Schunck (Bielefeld University)

Date:

03.10.2011, 14:00 – 17:30
04.10.2011, 14:00 – 17:30
06.10.2011, 14:00 – 17:30

Room: n.s.

Max. number of participants: 25

Semester periods per week: n.s.

Credit Points: 5 CP for participating in the whole IRWS

Language of instruction: English/German (depending on participants)

Contents: n.s.

You have to register for the 5th International Research Workshop to participate in this course.

Institution: see Organisers & Acknowledgements

Program of study: International Research Workshop

Lecturer: Ralph Kattenbach (University of Hamburg) and Sandra Brunsbach (Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf)

Date:

03.10.2011, 09:00 – 12:30
04.10.2011, 09:00 – 12:30

Room: n.s.

Max. number of participants: 20

Semester periods per week: n.s.

Credit Points: 5 CP for participating in the whole IRWS

Language of instruction: English/German (depending on participants)

Contents:

The workshop will provide you with useful information regarding the processes of constructing and conducting a qualitative project and analyzing the resulting data. The whole process, ranging from theoretical considerations, conception, and the development of a guideline to sampling, data preparation and data evaluation will be discussed according to the needs of the participants. Useful hints for the practical implementation will be given for all stages of the research process. Additionally, individual and group exercises will help you designing and conducting interviews.

You have to register for the 5th International Research Workshop to participate in this course.

Institution: see Organisers & Acknowledgements

Program of study: International Research Workshop

Lecturer: Wenzel Matiaske (HSU Hamburg)

Date:

03.10.2011, 09:00 – 12:30
04.10.2011, 09:00 – 12:30
06.10.2011, 09:00 – 12:30
07.10.2011, 09:00 – 12:30

Room: n.s.

Max. number of participants: 20

Semester periods per week: n.s.

Credit Points: 5 CP for participating in the whole IRWS

Language of instruction: English/German (depending on participants)

Contents:

Starting with a basic level introduction to R and its concepts the course will cover typical problems arising in research using statistical tools. Focus will be on the tool R itself, not on the underlying statistics. Nevertheless procedures for descriptive statistics, regression, and multivariate analysis methods will be given in the examples. Following a ‘natural’ workflow for statisticians the course will cover reading (and cleaning) data, generating graphs and reports, defining functions for repetitive work and keeping research reproducible.

You have to register for the 5th International Research Workshop to participate in this course.

Institution: see Organisers & Acknowledgements

Program of study: International Research Workshop

Lecturer: Volker Müller-Benedict (University of Flensburg) and Katja Spanier (Hannover Medical School)

Date: 05.10.2011, 09:00 – 17:30

Room: n.s.

Max. number of participants: 20

Semester periods per week: n.s.

Credit Points: 5 CP for participating in the whole IRWS

Language of instruction: German

Contents:

Structural equation modeling (SEM) is a statistical methodology that takes a confirmatory approach to the analysis of a strucutral theory bearing on some phenomenon. Typically, the structural relations can be modeled pictorially to enable a clearer conceptualization of the theory under study. The course introduces into the basic concepts of SEM and into the program package AMOS, which is widely used to graph and to analyze strucutral models. Data of different social areas will be used as examples.

Preconditions: Basic knowledge of SPSS

You have to register for the 5th International Research Workshop to participate in this course.

Institution: see Organisers & Acknowledgements

Program of study: International Research Workshop

Lecturer: Anja Iseke (University of Paderborn)

Date: 05.10.2011, 09:00 – 17:30

Room: n.s.

Max. number of participants: 25

Semester periods per week: n.s.

Credit Points: 5 CP for participating in the whole IRWS

Language of instruction: English/German (depending on participants)

Contents:

This course will familiarize students with basic concepts in social network analysis. Topics include handling network data, introduction to network analysis software (UCINET and Netdraw), centrality and prestige in networks, subgroup analysis, and roles and positions. This is an applied course that will require students to test and analyze social networks of employees in a high-tech organization.

You have to register for the 5th International Research Workshop to participate in this course.

Institution: see Organisers & Acknowledgements

Program of study: International Research Workshop

Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Juergen H. P. Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik (GESIS)
Prof. Dr. Dagmar Krebs (University of Gießen)
Dr. Natalja Menold (GESIS)

Date:

03.10.2011, 09:00 – 12:30
04.10.2011, 09:00 – 12:30
06.10.2011, 09:00 – 12:30
07.10.2011, 09:00 – 12:30

Room: n.s.

Max. number of participants: n.s.

Semester periods per week: n.s.

Credit Points: 5 CP for participating in the whole IRWS

Language of instruction: English/German (depending on participants)

Contents:

The lectures deal with the basic principles which have been established in the best practice of questionnaire design. The theoretical background and current state of research will be demonstrated on examples and practical exercises.

1. Cognitive process and cognitive pretests: Monday

For the beginning the cognitive process in survey responding, including comprehension, retrieval, judgement and formatting response will be presented. For each of these phases the demands for questionnaire design related to the questions about attitudes, opinions and behavior will be explicated. It will be shown, how cognitive pretest techniques (think aloud, probing, confidence rating, paraphrasing) can help to detect the problems in questionnaires, which were related to the cognitive burden of the respondents.

2. Context effects and question wording: Tuesday

This section deals with the impact of situational context given in questionnaires on judgements/answers. Regarding the principles of question wording topics such as to phrase the questions, usage of terms and problems with hypothetical, suggestive, negative and double-barreled questions were attended. For each of the principles examples of problems and their solutions will be given.

3. Constructing of optimal answer formats: Thursday

Constructing of optimal answer formats due the reliability and validity of questions includes topics such as number of scale points, midpoint, usage of unipolare and bipolare scales, labels of scale points, ascending and descending sequences. Related topics are handling of open and closed questions and usage of non-opinion filters. The problems and their solutions are demonstrated with help of examples and exercises.

4. Collection of sociodemographic data: Friday

The fourth part of this lesson demonstrate how to harmonise demographic and socio-economic variables in cross-national comparative survey research. Demographic and socio-economic variables describe the context in which a person is acting. In cross-national comparable research standardised instruments or indices exist only for a very small group of variables. Aside from these instruments there are rules for developing further measurement instruments for measuring socio-demographic variables in cross-national research.

You have to register for the 5th International Research Workshop to participate in this course.

Institution: see Organisers & Acknowledgements

Program of study: International Research Workshop

Lecturer: Heiko Grunenberg (Leuphana University Lüneburg)

Date:

06.10.2011, 14:00 – 17:30

Room: n.s.

Max. number of participants: 20

Semester periods per week: n.s.

Credit Points: 5 CP for participating in the whole IRWS

Language of instruction: English/German (depending on participants)

Contents:

This workshop is directly affiliated to the course “Case Study Research”. We want to see, how the ideas and approaches of “Case Study Research” could be transacted with a software of qualitative research like MAXqda.

It is not necessary to have deep knowledge about MAXqda, but please have a look at http://www.maxqda.com to understand the basic steps of computer assisted qualitative research.

You have to register for the 5th International Research Workshop to participate in this course.