Social Sciences - Master's level (all)

Building on the analytical and theoretical background of the previous course in our MA methods sequence (\Multivariate Analyses”), this course on \Advanced Quantitative Methods” introduces interested graduate students to strategies and tools of how to develop statistical models that are tailored to answer their particular research questions.

This lecture gives an overview of selected theoretical concepts and the main research findings in the field of Comparative Government, specifically focusing on the role of political institutions and their impact for political decision-making at all stages in the political process. The course introduces a number of core themes in the comparative study of political institutions, such as electoral institutions and their effects on turnout, voting behaviour and party strategies. In addition, the lecture focuses on the impact of different institutional designs on patterns of party competition, government formation and coalition governance. In a third step, we discuss the effects of political institutions and of personal characteristics of legislators on various aspects of decision-making within parliaments and governments.

The main goal of this lecture is to present an advanced introduction to theoretical approaches, key concepts, and substantive issues in comparative political behavior. Building on a multi-level perspective, it will provide an overview of key concepts and theories in the analysis of micro-level processes of political behavior that are embedded in and feed into macro-level processes. Capitalizing on this analytical perspective, the lecture will also address major changes in the relationship between societal and political processes and institutions.

IPE

In this course, we will discuss contemporary scholarly research on International Political Economy. The course examines how domestic and international politics drive trade, investment, financial, and immigration policies and outcomes. It emphasizes the theoretical core, and some current debates, in the field but also aims to expose students to some nuts and bolts of each policy area and the chief methods by which scholars acquire knowledge of the subject. We will pick up some knowledge of historical and contemporary examples wherever possible, but presenting historical material systematically is not the focus of the course. The course is intended to stimulate students to form original ideas for promising research projects in the area of international relations and political economy.

The security of individuals and states depends profoundly on international politics. Beyond the realm of security, structures and actors of “global governance” have been proliferating for many years. They influence crucial public policies in diverse ways. This lecture surveys academic debates on key topics of international politics, including: the sources of war, peace, and terrorism, the emergence and operation of international organizations and transnational civil society, and the making of key international policy outcomes including respect for human rights and climate policies.

Around the world liberal democracy has been facing challenges for several years. For example, some political leaders who call into question key principles of liberal democracy. As public support is considered an important factor of the persistence of democracy, this seminar will address citizen attitudes toward the political system. This seminar will address key conceptual, theoretical, and methodological issues in the analysis of citizen attitudes toward the political system. Students will review the latest empirical studies in the field and prepare research papers in which they analyze specific questions using available data sets.

This course is a continuation of the intro into Game Theory and surveys key applications of game theory with a particular emphasis on the link of theories, methods and empirics. Emphasis will be placed on prominent applications of those concepts in political science, in both comparative and international politics. Topics covered include electoral competition, delegation, political agency, governmental veto players, authoritarian politics, manipulation, war and crisis bargaining. While the focus is on understanding applied work, previous training in game theory is required. Students will build upon their previous game theory training to become informed consumers of scholarship utilizing the methodology and begin to learn how to apply game-theoretic logic to their own work. The course is partly taught from lecture notes, at other times students present a research paper and stimulate discussion in class.

This seminar discusses seminal and current work on state repression, security and peace. It introduces on why and how states violate human rights. It focuses on how governments organize and implement repression and how they aim to justify or obfuscate state violence, particularly in the context of democratic institutions and international human rights norms. The discussion also discusses peace as a more heterogenous concept than the absence of war. Over the course of the seminar you will develop your own research question on one of the topics discussed in the seminar and carrying out your own research. Additionally, you are expected to read all required materials, provide feedback on other student’s work and lead one class discussion.

This tutorial accompanies the course “Advanced Quantitative Methods” in the M.A. program in Political Science.

The course provides a broad overview over methods of longitudinal data analysis, with a focus on the analysis of panel data. Compared to cross-sectional data, panel data can allow to improve causal inference. The first objective of this course is to understand why and under which conditions this is the case. In the next step, we will discuss a variety of different modeling approaches to panel data (fixed effects, random effects, first difference) and learn how to decide between these models. The lecture also provides an overview over event history models. It is highly recommended to participate in the parallel exercises to this lecture, in which the presented models are applied to real data sets.

Information for Mannheim Master in Data Science students:
Please be aware that there are only 3 places reserved for students of the Mannheim Master in Data Science. You can register via the portal until 31.01.2020. Places will be allocated randomly after this deadline. Please check on February 1, 2020 to see if you are (still) registered.

This advanced seminar will explore recent social science research that seeks to explain variation in career opportunities within organizations and career mobility between organizations. We will consider a variety of research questions: what kinds of changes do we observe in career paths over time? How much of the change can be attributed to the variation in experience between different cohorts of workers? How much of the change in career patterns is due to organizational change within firms? How does matching between labor demand and supply work in different occupational settings? What are the underlying mechanisms that channel mobility within and between organizations? To what extent are skills transferable from one job to the next? How do new occupations and professions emerge and establish themselves? To address these and further questions, we will rely both on recent theoretical advances and on empirical studies in various settings.

tba

This seminar covers several current debates in family sociology & social demography, such as the multiple equilibrium framework, that tries to explain both the phase of marital and fertility decline and the subsequent recovery during recent years. We will further delve into the complex mutual relationship between family structure & social inequality. We discuss how increases in income inequality may lead to increases in single motherhood, particularly among less educated women. At the same time, we consider how single motherhood decreases intergenerational economic mobility by affecting children's material resources and the parenting they experience. The seminar also covers the recent interest in multigenerational relationships which is reflected in the increasing coverage of grandparental effects in social stratification research but also by the fast-growing literature on the social demography of grandparenthood (When do people become grandparents? How involved are they in the lives of their grandchildren?). Other topics: sequence analysis in social demography (introduction to the method and some recent applications), caregiving within the family (caring for frail parents, children, grandchildren; family-work conflicts).

In sum, this seminar introduces you to a selection of current debates in research literature and hopefully helps you to develop some research ideas which could be further pursued in the subsequent research seminar.    

During the seminar the students will have an opportunity to address several controversies found in migration and integration literature. One is related to immigrants’ (self-)selection. Are immigrants positively or negatively selected towards succeeding in the host country? Does selection of immigrants matter for their integration outcomes as well as integration prospects of their offspring? The second refers to immigrants’ aspirations. Do immigrants always have higher aspirations regarding educational and occupational attainment? The third concerns the link between immigrants’ education and labour market outcomes. Do highly-educated immigrants have better labour market prospects than lower-educated? In the end of the seminar, the participants are expected to select yet another controversy and discuss it either in a theoretical or empirical seminar paper.

A growing interest in causal identification and mechanisms testing in the social sciences has provided a surge in empirical research using the experimental method. As a result, the experimental methodology has become a common tool not just of psychologists and behavioral economists but also of sociologists and political scientists enabling them to test (bounded) rational choice theories and to isolate and study the causes, dynamics and effects of social phenomena. For example, important sociological concepts such as trust and trustworthiness, cooperation in social dilemma and social norms have been examined via using survey, field, lab-in-the-field and laboratory experiments.
The main objective of this seminar is to introduce students to the range of experimental methods, classical work as well as recent trends and best practices of experimental social science research. In addition, the seminar aims to teach students how to design and analyze an experiment aimed at answering a self-developed research question. Each student is expected to actively participate in classes by presenting and discussing papers selected by the instructor and to develop an experimental design of her/his own or in collaboration with one other student of the seminar.

The growing complexity of human mobility and the integration of immigrants into host societies has created an increased need for reliable and timely data to inform policy development and humanitarian assistance. Data from traditional sources (e.g., national population censuses, sample surveys, and administrative sources) on migration and immigration are limited in quantity and quality, and new alternatives have recently emerged. Some of these new types of “Big Data” are particularly promising for the study of migration-related phenomena. These include mobile phone call logs, Internet activity (e.g., Google searches, tracking of online media content use), geo-referenced social media activity, and other passively collected (mobile) data. This course is shared between the University of Maryland and the University of Mannheim, and students will virtually attend the same class/lecture and then collaborate via online tools. Students from the two partnering universities will form international teams to collaboratively work on the collection and analysis of Big Data to answer immigration-related research questions.

Spring Semester 2020 Prof. Dr. Christof Wolf

University of Mannheim Tel. (0621) 1246-196, -149
School of Social Sciences christof.wolf@gesis.org

M.A. Sociology, Sociological Research Fields
Seminar: Social stratification, social inequality and social mobility
Friday 10.15 – 13.30 for dates, see below!

Venue: XXXX

Content: Social stratification and inequality are universal characteristics of human societies. But the extent of inequality, the relevant dimensions of inequality and their interconnectedness vary across societies and through time. The course covers core aspects of social stratification and inequality in modern societies.
Objectives: In this course you will learn how social stratification, social inequality and social mobility shape Western societies. You will be introduced to the main dimensions of social inequality and processes by which social inequality is (re-)produced but also transformed. Through your course work, your presentation and your term paper you will gain experience in writing scientific texts and presenting scientific results.
Prerequisites: Knowledge of basic concepts and theoretical models in sociology, in particular in the field of social stratification and social inequality, is beneficial. In addition sound methodological competencies are advantageous.
Organization: During each session topics will be introduced by the instructor and then specific aspects will be highlighted in presentations by students (see dates below). Topics for presentations can be arranged with the instructor either before the start of the course via e-mail or at the first session.
It is assumed that all participants read the literature marked by an asterisk (*), actively follow the course, engage in discussions and do a presentation. The term paper should not exceed 5,000 words and should be delivered electronically via e-mail preferably in pfd-format to the instructor.

Deadline for delivery of the term paper is midnight July 6, 2020.

Dates and topics

Introduction
14/02 Social stratification and social inequality (Wehler 2013)
Introduction to topic and organization of the course

Education
21/02 Education 1: Empirical findings, theoretical reflections
(* Autorengruppe Bildungsberichterstattung 2016: Chap. B and I;
* OECD 2016: Indicator A1 and A4; Becker 2011)
06/03 Education 2: Transitions in the educational system and to work (* Hillmert 2008; Erikson/Rudolphi 2010)
Transitions 1: From elementary to secondary school (Wohlkinger/Ditton 2012)
Transitions 2a: From school to vocational training (Kleinert/Jacob 2012)
Transitions 2b: From school to academic training (Lörz 2012)
Transitions 3: From vocational training to work (Konietzka 2002)

Income and assets
13/03 Income and assets – poverty and wealth
Development of income distribution (* Becker 2012)
Educational effects on earnings (Anger et al. 2010: Chap. 3; Wolter/Schiener 2009)
“Working Poor”: the poverty of working population (Lohmann 2010)

Conception of social inequality
27/03 Classes, strata, lifestyles and milieus
Social classes and strata (* Sørensen 1994)
Horizont inequalities (* Engels 2006)
03/04 Lifestyles and social milieus (* Otte 2012; Sullivan 2012)

Social mobility and status attainment
08/05 Social mobility: Evidence for Germany (* Müller/Pollack 2004)
Social mobility: European perspectives (* Breen/Luijkx 2004)
22/05 The process of status attainment (* Yaish/Andersen 2012)
Final discussion
 
References

Anger, Christina, Axel Plünnecke and Jörg Schmidt. 2010. Bildungsrenditen in Deutschland – Einflussfaktoren, politische Optionen und volkswirtschaftliche Effekte. Köln: Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft. www.iwkoeln.de/_storage/asset/63672/storage/master/file/357995/download/25.pdf
Autorengruppe Bildungsberichterstattung (Ed.). 2016. Bildung in Deutschland 2016. Ein indikatorengestützter Bericht mit einer Analyse zu Bildung und Migration. Bielefeld: Bertelsmann Verlag. http://www.bildungsbericht.de/de/bildungsberichte-seit-2006/bildungsbericht-2016/pdf-bildungsbericht-2016/bildungsbericht-2016.
Becker, Irene. 2012. Personelle Einkommensverteilung. Pp. 597-632 in: Forschungsverbund Sozioökonomische Berichterstattung (Ed.): Berichterstattung zur sozioökonomischen Entwicklung in Deutschland. Teilhabe im Umbruch. Zweiter Bericht. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag.
Becker, Rolf. 2011. Entstehung und Reproduktion dauerhafter Bildungsgleichheiten. Pp. 87-138 in: R. Becker (Ed.). Lehrbuch der Bildungssoziologie. 2nd Edition. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.
Breen, Richard and Ruud Luijkx. 2004. Social mobility in Europe between 1970 and 2000. Pp.. 37-75 in: R. Breen (Ed.): Social Mobility in Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Engels, Dietrich. 2006. Lebenslagen und soziale Exklusion. Thesen zur Reformulierung des Lebenslagenkonzepts für die Sozialberichterstattung. Sozialer Fortschritt, 5/2006, 109-117.
Erikson, Robert and Frida Rudolphi. 2010. Change in social selection to upper secondary school - primary and secondary effects in Sweden. European Sociological Review, 26(3), 291-305.
Hillmert, Steffen. 2008. Soziale Ungleichheit im Bildungsverlauf: zum Verhältnis von Bildungsinstitutionen und Entscheidungen. Pp 75-102 in: R. Becker (Ed). Bildung als Privileg. Erklärungen und Befunde zu den Ursachen der Bildungsungleichheit. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.
Kleinert, Corinna and Marita Jacob. 2012. Strukturwandel des Übergangs in eine berufliche Ausbildung. Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie 52 (Special Issue), 211-233.
Konietzka, Dirk. 2002. Die soziale Differenzierung der Übergangsmuster in den Beruf. Die “zweite Schwelle” im Vergleich der Berufseinstiegskohorten 1976-1995. Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie 54:645-673.
Lohmann, Henning. 2010. Armut von Erwerbstätigen im europäischen Vergleich. Erwerbseinkommen und Umverteilung. Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie 62:1-30.
Lörz, Markus. 2012. Mechanismen sozialer Ungleichheit beim Übergang ins Studium: Prozesse der Status- und Kulturreproduktion. Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie 52 (Special Issue):302-324.
Müller, Walter and Reinhard Pollak. 2004. Social mobility in West Germany: The long arms of history discovered? Pp. 77-114 in: R. Breen (ed.). Social Mobility in Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
OECD. 2016. Education at a Glance 2016. OECD indicators. Paris: OECD Publishing.
Otte, Gunnar. 2012. Die Erklärungskraft von Lebensstil- und klassischen Sozialstrukturkonzepten. Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie 51 (Special Issue):361-398.
Sørensen, Aage. 1994. The basic concepts of stratification research: Class, Status, and Power. Pp. 229-241 in: D. B. Grusky (Ed.), Social Stratification. Class, Race, and Gender in Sociological Perspective. Boulder: Westview.
Sullivan, Alice. 2012. The Intergenerational Transmission of Lifestyles. Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie 51 (Special Issue):196-222.
Wohlkinger, Florian and Hartmut Ditton. 2012. Entscheiden die Schüler mit? Der Einfluss von Eltern, Lehrern und Kindern auf den Übergang nach der Grundschule. Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie 52 (Special Issue):44-63.
Wolter, Felix and Jürgen Schiener. 2009. Einkommenseffekte beruflicher Weiterbildung. Empirische Analysen auf Basis des Mikrozensus-Panels. Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie 61:90-117.
Wehler, Hans-Ulrich. 2013. Die neue Umverteilung. Soziale Ungleichheit in Deutschland. München: C.H. Beck.
Yaish, Meir and Robert Andersen. 2012. Social mobility in 20 modern societies: The role of economic and political context. Social Science Research 41:527-238.

Empirical social scientists are often confronted with a variety of data sources and formats that extend beyond structured and handleable survey data. With the emergence of Big Data, especially data from web sources play an increasingly important role in scientific research. However, the potential of new data sources comes with the need for comprehensive computational skills in order to deal with loads of potentially unstructured information. Against this background, the first part of this course provides an introduction to web scraping and APIs for gathering data from the web and then discusses how to store and manage (big) data from diverse sources efficiently. The second part of the course demonstrates techniques for exploring and finding patterns in (non-standard) data, with a focus on data visualization. Tools for reproducible research will be introduced to facilitate transparent and collaborative programming. The course focuses on R as the primary computing environment, with excursus into SQL and Big Data processing tools.

Prerequisites: Some basic experience with programming in R or Python is helpful, but not strictly necessary. Students without any R knowledge are encouraged to work through one or more R tutorials prior or during the first weeks of the course. Some resources can be found here:

https://www.rstudio.com/online-learning/#R
https://rstudio.cloud/learn/primers
http://www.statmethods.net/
https://swirlstats.com/

During recent years interventions using diary methods became increasingly popular within several fields of psychology, including health psychology and organizatinal psychology. These interventions use „intensive longitudinal designs“ to apply the treatment and to assess the data and build on daily-survey approaches that aim at „capturing life as it is lived” (Bolger, Davis, Rafaeli, 2003, p. 579). Frequent assessments typically implemented in daily-survey approaches allow for modeling change in affect, attitude, and behavior over time.

In this course we will discuss the nature of diary interventions, the research options they offer, as well as potential problems and challenges.

This seminar will provide an introduction how to use R, a powerful programming language that is often used for statistical analyses, simulations, and cognitive modeling. The seminar first will provide a thorough introduction covering the core functionality such as objects, functions, data management, and plotting.
 
The last sessions of the seminar will address how to perform specific statistical analyses in R such as:
* Generalized linear mixed models with lme4 (also known as hierarchical
models)
* Simple structural equation models
* Basic set-up of Monte-Carlo simulations
* Simple cognitive modeling (e.g., signal detection or multinomial processing trees)
 
It is planned that participants practice R in homework assignments and work on small group projects such as analyzing own data, replicating a paper, or running a small simulation.

Inhalt:
Option A oder Option B? Schuldig oder unschuldig? Richtig oder falsch? Menschen müssen tagtäglich viele verschiedene Urteile fällen und Entscheidungen treffen. In diesem Seminar sollen aktuelle kognitionspsychologische Theorien, Modelle und Befunde aus der Urteils- und Entscheidungsforschung behandelt werden. Dabei erwerben die Teilnehmerinnen und Teilnehmer unter anderem einen Überblick zu folgenden Themen: Soziale Urteilstheorie, Urteilsheuristiken und Urteilsfehler, Häufigkeits- und Wahrscheinlichkeitsurteile, Wahrheitsurteile, Moralurteile, Entscheidungen unter Unsicherheit, Entscheidungsstrategien sowie intuitive und unbewusste Entscheidungen. Im Fokus des Seminars stehen dabei aktuelle Publikationen zur Urteils- und Entscheidungsforschung, die im Rahmen von Referaten vorgestellt werden sollen und anschließend gemeinsam kritisch diskutiert werden sollen. Aufbauend auf diesen kritischen Überlegungen sollen neue Ideen für zukünftige Untersuchungen generiert werden.

Erworben werden kann:
Leistungsnachweis gemäß der Prüfungsordnung für den Studiengang M.Sc. Psychologie.

Anmeldung:
Über das Studierendenportal

Sprechstunde:
Nach Vereinbarung

Menschliche Kognitionen finden innerhalb unseres Geistes statt – oder etwa nicht? In vielen Fällen bedienen sich Menschen ihrer Körper, (technischer) Hilfsmittel oder anderer Menschen, um ihr kognitives System zu entlasten oder die Leistungsfähigkeit ihres kognitiven Systems zu erhöhen. Derartige externe Kognitionen stehen im Mittelpunkt dieses Seminars. Auf Basis aktueller Fachliteratur diskutieren wir beispielsweise wann und unter welchen Bedingungen externe Kognitionen stattfinden, wie externe Kognitionen durch neue Technologien verändert und beeinflusst werden, sowie welche Auswirkungen externe Kognitionen auf das Kognitive System haben.

Voraussetzungen: 
keine
 
Erworben werden kann:
Leistungsnachweis gemäß der Prüfungsordnung für den Studiengang M. Sc. Psychologie.
 
Sprechstunde:
Nach Vereinbarung

Im Seminar werden theoretische Ansätze und empirische Forschungsergebnisse der Medienpsychologie sowohl zu klassischen Informations- und Unterhaltungsmedien als auch zu Internetportalen oder zum Social Web im Rahmen empirischer Projektstudien vertieft. Nach einer Einführung leiten die Studierenden in Arbeitsgruppen zu einer selbst gewählten Fragestellung nach Sichtung des Forschungsstandes Hypothesen her und begründen diese. Zu Überprüfung der Hypothesen wird für jedes Projekt ein experimentelles Untesuchungsdesign entwickelt und mit dem Umfragetool UniPark (EFS Survery) als Online-Experiment umgesetzt und durchgeführt. Die erhobenen Daten werden statistisch (SPSS. R) ausgewertet und im Lichte der formulierten Hypothesen interpretiert. In der abschließenden Sitzung werden in Analogie zu einer Fachkonferenz die Ergebnisse präsentiert und gemeinsam diskutiert.

Anmeldung:
über das Portal

Kontakt:
mangold@hdm-stuttgart.de

Themenübersicht:
1. Pharmakologie der ZNS Wirkung
2. Klassifikationsvorschläge für NPPharmaka
3. Spezielle NPPharm (Wirkmechanismus, Wirksamkeit, Risiken, unerwünschte Nebenwirkungen)
   - Antipsychotika
   - Antidepressiva
   - Anxiolytika
   - Antidementiva
   - Stimulantia
   - Parkinson Pharmaka
   - Analgetika
4. Placebo? Methodologische und therapeutische Implikationen
5. Psychotherapie versus Pharmakotherapie?
6. Gesundheitsmarkt und Ökonomie der NPPharm