Social Science Approaches to the Study of Chinese Society Part 1

The course aims to make learners informed consumers of research in social sciences. This course introduces the concepts, standards and principles of social sciences research to non-experts. The course will prepare learners to critically assess and evaluate evidence regarding important social phenomena. This course reviews the history and evolution of social science. It also explains the discovery process in modern social science research. Finally, it demonstrates how social science is different from other fields. This article explains the basic principles, methodologies, and goals of major social science disciplines. This overview provides a summary of major social science questions, both for China and overall. It explains the difficulties social scientists have in drawing causality from their research and gives an overview of some of the solutions. The explanation is not technical and doesn't involve maths. Statistical and quantitative methods will not be covered. Learn how to be an informed and critical consumer of social sciences research by exploring the major questions that social scientists face.