Sociology Demography Courses

205. Family and Social Change. (4)

Lecture, three hours. Examination of sources of change in family and household organization, with major focus on relationships among economic institutions, family structure, and content of family life. Consideration of concepts, theories, and data about kinship. S/U or letter grading.

M206. Understanding Fertility: Theories and Methods. (4)

(Same as Community Health Sciences M222.) Lecture, three hours. Preparation: one formal or social demography course. Requisite: Biostatistics 100A. Application of demographic theories and methods to describe fertility trends and differentials and social and proximate determinants of fertility, with emphasis on understanding key proximate determinants. For advanced students interested in population, demography of health, and social demography. Letter grading.

208A-208B. Social Network Methods. (4-4)

Lecture, three hours; laboratory, one hour. Requisites: courses 210A, 210B. Techniques for measuring characteristics of networks and positions in networks. Centrality of positions, centralization and density of networks, structural equivalence, cliques. Readings of exemplars of network research. Computer programs. S/U or letter grading.

210A-210B. Intermediate Statistical Methods I, II. (4-4)

Lecture, three hours; discussion, two hours. Requisite: course M18. Intermediate statistical methods using computers: probability theory, sampling distributions, hypothesis testing, interval estimation, multiple regression and correlation, experimental design, analysis of variance and covariance, contingency tables, sampling theory. S/U or letter grading.

210C. Intermediate Statistical Methods III. (4)

Lecture, four hours. Requisite: course 210B. Survey of advanced statistical methods used in social research, with focus on problems for which classical linear regression model is inappropriate, including categorical data, structural equations, longitudinal data, incomplete and erroneous data, and complex samples. S/U or letter grading

212A-212B. Survey Data Analysis. (4-4)

(Not the same as courses 212A-212B prior to Fall Quarter 1998.) Lecture, three hours. Requisites: courses 210A, 210B. Analysis and interpretation of primarily nonexperimental quantitative data, focusing on sample survey and census data. Extensive practice at utilizing statistical methods encountered in previous courses, culminating in term paper in style of American Sociological Review or similar journal article. Topics include simple tabular analysis, log-linear analysis, ordinary least squares regression, robust regression, binomial and multinomial logistic regression, and scale construction. Logic of analysis and problems of statistical inference, including diagnostic procedures and methods for handling complex sample survey designs. In Progress and letter grading.

M213A. Introduction to Demographic Methods. (4)

(Formerly numbered 213A.) (Same as Biostatistics M208 and Community Health Sciences M208.) Lecture, four hours. Preparation: one introductory statistics course. Introduction to methods of demographic analysis. Topics include demographic rates, standardization, decomposition of differences, life tables, survival analysis, cohort analysis, birth interval analysis, models of population growth, stable populations, population projection, and demographic data sources. Letter grading.

213B. Techniques of Demographic and Ecological Analysis. (4)

Requisite: course 210A. Procedures and techniques for collection, evaluation, and analysis of demographic and ecological data; models of population and ecological structure and change; applications to study of social structure and social change.

216A-216B. Survey Research Design. (4-4)

Lecture, 90 minutes; discussion, 90 minutes. Requisite: course 210A. History of survey method; facet metatheory and concept formation; questionnaire and item design; scales, indices typologies; data collection–planning and management; network, snowball, and experience sampling; multistage probability sampling, stratification and clustering. Students participate in survey research project. Letter grading.

226A-226B. Introduction to Theory and Major Empirical Research in Social Demography. (4-4)

Lecture, two hours; discussion, one hour. Requisite: course 210A. Survey and critical examination of population theories and related major empirical research. Emphasis on interrelation of cultural, socioeconomic, and demographic factors. Introduction to elementary demographic methods utilizing microcomputers.

235. Theories of Ethnicity. (4)

Lecture, one hour; discussion, two hours. Designed for graduate students. Examination of variety of theoretical approaches in understanding race and ethnicity in contemporary societies, with emphasis on recent debates among class analysis, pluralist, primordialist, and rational choice perspectives. Letter grading.

236A-236B-236C. International Migration. (4-4-4)

Lecture, three hours. S/U or letter grading:

236A. (4) Lecture, three hours. Comprehensive overview of key current theoretical debates in study of international migration, with focus on exploration of possibilities of comparative (historical and cross-national) research program in field, linking North American, European, and other global experiences of immigration. S/U or letter grading.

236B. (4) Lecture, three hours. Further exploration of key current theoretical debates in study of international migration, with emphasis on exploring both theoretical debates of the field and empirical data and case studies on which those debates hinge, to encourage students to undertake research in the field. S/U or letter grading.

236C. (4) Lecture, three hours. Designed for students beginning or undertaking original research in field of international migration. Outside lectures, oral presentations of student projects, circulation of completed or draft student papers. S/U or letter grading.

239A-239B. Quantitative Research on Social Stratification and Social Mobility. (4-4)

Lecture, three hours. Requisites: courses 210A, 210B. Introduction to English language research literature on quantitative social stratification and social mobility.

M252. Selected Topics in Sociology of Gender. (4)

(Same as Women’s Studies M252.) Lecture, two hours; discussion, two hours. Designed for graduate students. Seminar on selected topics in sociology of gender. May be repeated for credit. Letter grading.

M263. Social Demography of Los Angeles. (4)

(Same as Community Health Sciences M263.) Lecture, three hours. Designed for graduate students. Use of city of Los Angeles to examine major social and demographic factors that characterize cities in the U.S. Examination of role of these factors in affecting health outcomes. Letter grading.

285A-285B. (Special topics) Intergenerational Relationships (4-4)

Seminar, three hours. Study of relationships between parents and children. Emphasis on relationships in adulthood, with adoption of a life course perspective to take account of childhood experiences. Familiarizes students with multidisciplinary theoretical perspectives that sociologists, demographers, and other population scientists use to understand the bonds that tie generations together. Exposes students to cutting-edge research on intergenerational relationships. Topics include home leaving; co-residence and geographic dispersion of kin over the life course; adult sibling relationships; grandparent-grandchild ties; and later-life transfers of time and money between parents and adult children, and the public and private value of these transfers. First of two-quarter sequence; enrollment in both terms strongly encouraged but not required.

295. Working Group in Sociology. (1 to 4)

Discussion, two hours. Variable topics, including sociology of family; gender; ethnography; social networks; race, ethnicity, immigration; and social demography and stratification. Advanced study and analysis of current topics in specialized areas of sociology. Discussion of current research and literature in research specialty of faculty member teaching course. May be repeated for credit. S/U grading.

CCPR Population Seminar