Research methods

The Faculty has different experts in the field of qualitative and mixed methods. This concerns text analysis, observations, in-depth interviews, and focus groups with analysis methods like the thematic analysis and grounded theory.

Furthermore, the Faculty distinguishes itself through the focus on the historical and philosophical perspectives on the social sciences. The research groups Theory and History of Psychology and Education in Culture jointly specialize in the theory and history of teaching and psychology.

The Faculty has a substantial number of in-house experts in the field of quantitative research. They conduct both fundamental and applied statistical research. With fundamental research, the focus lies on the development and improvement of methods based on a statistical purpose, such as minimizing the prediction error or optimizing the calculation rate. Applied research focuses on the development of the analytical methods they deem most suitable to answer research questions.

Specific expertise within statistics lies in the area of the item response theory, Bayesian methods, hierarchical models, structural comparison models, models for intensive longitudinal data, data visualization, multilevel analysis, structural equation models, and multiple imputation of missing data.

For the social network analysis, statistical models have been developed for the analysis of cross-sectional and longitudinal network models.