Experimental Design for Survey Research

Instructor:
Rui Costa Lopes, University of Lisbon

Time:
9.00-12.00 July 17th 2017

Course Description:
The willingness in establishing causality that we have been witnessing in social sciences research has sparked interest in the experimental method and randomized controlled trials. At the same time, it is now clearer that experimental studies are not necessarily conducted in laboratories or in other highly controlled environments. Applying the experimental design in survey research allows the combination of scientific rigor with the convenience of large and sometimes representative samples. This course intends to explain the fundamentals of experimental research and its usage in survey research. The course will start from a basic level of understanding of experimental research, detailing different options of experimental design and will carry on to the description of examples in social psychology, political science and other social sciences. It will then provide a step-by-step guide to create and implement experimental designs within surveys.

About the instructor:
Rui Costa Lopes is a social psychologist and a Research Fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences (ICS) and a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Catholic University of Portugal. He received his Degree in Social Psychology from ISCTE – Lisbon University Institute (2004) and his PhD in Social Psychology (2009) from the same institute (in collaboration with the University of Colorado at Boulder). From 2009 to 2015 he developed postdoctoral research in both the Radboud University Nijmegen (the Netherlands) and ICS. His work often involves the design, implementation and analyses of experimental studies mostly applied in the study of the impact and efficacy of social influence mechanisms. Currently works on projects funded by the EC (such as MOPACT) and by FCT (the Portuguese National Science Foundation). His work has been published in outlets such as the European Journal of Social Psychology, British Journal of Social Psychology, International Review of Social Psychology, International Journal of Psychology and Routledge-edited books.