The course introduces the main theoretical and methodological approaches in the analysis of social phenomena and shows the link between the epistemological principles of psychological knowledge and empirical research. In particular, the issues related to the methodological aspects of the research process are addressed: the nature of scientific problems, the different perspectives in the way of conceiving the social sciences, the phases of research design, the introduction to the main methods and techniques of collection. data, such as the sample survey, and the logic of the secondary analysis of these databases.