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Proud sponsor of the 2019 SAGE Keith Roberts Teaching Innovations Award—enabling graduate students and early career faculty to attend the annual ASA pre-conference teaching and learning workshop.
In the Ninth Edition of his leading social research text, Russell K. Schutt, an award-winning researcher and teacher, continues to make the field come alive with current, compelling examples of high quality research and the latest innovations in research methodology, along with a clear and comprehensive introduction to the logic and techniques of social science research. Through numerous hands-on exercises that promote learning by doing, Investigating the Social World helps students to understand research methods as an integrated whole. Using examples from research on contemporary social issues, the text underscores the value of both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, and the need to make ethical research decisions. Investigating the Social World develops the critical skills necessary to evaluate published research, and to carry out one's own original research.
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Contents
About the Author
Preface
Acknowledgments
Section I. Foundations for Social Research
1. Science, Society, and Social Research
Learning About the Social World
Avoiding Errors in Reasoning About the Social World
Science and Social Science
Strengths and Limitations of Social Research
Alternative Research Orientations
Conclusions
2. The Process and Problems of Social Research
Social Research Questions
Social Theories
Social Research Foundations
Social Research Strategies
Social Research Organizations
Social Research Standards
Conclusions
3. Research Ethics and Research Proposals
Historical Background
Ethical Principles
The Institutional Review Board
Social Research Proposals
Conclusions
Section II. Fundamentals of Social Research
4. Conceptualization and Measurement
Concepts
From Concepts to Indicators
From Observations to Concepts
Measurement
Levels of Measurement
Evaluating Measures
Conclusions
5. Sampling and Generalizability
Sample Planning
Sampling Methods
Sampling Distributions
Conclusions
6. Research Design and Causation
Research Design Alternatives
Criteria and Cautions for Nomothetic Causal Explanations
Comparing Research Designs
Conclusions
Section III. Basic Social Research Design
7. Experiments
History of Experimentation
True Experiments
Quasi-Experiments
Validity in Experiments
Ethical Issues in Experimental
Conclusions
8. Survey Research
Survey Research in the Social Sciences
Writing Survey Questions
Combining Questions in Indexes
Designing Questionnaires
Organizing Surveys
Ethical Issues in Survey Research
Conclusions
9. Quantitative Data Analysis
Introducing Statistics
Preparing for Data Analysis
Displaying Univariate Distributions
Summarizing Univariate Distributions
Analyzing Data Ethically: How Not to Lie With Statistics
Cross-Tabulating Variables
Regression Analysis
Performing Meta-Analyses
Analyzing Data Ethically: How Not to Lie About Relationships
Conclusions
10. Qualitative Methods
Fundamentals of Qualitative Methods
Participant Observation
Intensive Interviewing
Interviewing Online
Focus Groups
Generalizability in Qualitative Research
Ethical Issues in Qualitative Research
Conclusions
11. Qualitative Data Analysis
Features of Qualitative Data Analysis
Techniques of Qualitative Data Analysis
Alternatives in Qualitative Data
Visual Sociology
Systematic Observation
Participatory Action Research
Computer-Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis
Ethics in Qualitative Data Analysis
Conclusions
Section IV. Complex Social Research Designs
12. Mixed Methods
History of Mixed Methods
Types of Mixed Methods
Strengths and Limitations of Mixed Methods
Ethics and Mixed Methods
Conclusions
13. Evaluation and Policy Research
History of Evaluation Research
Evaluation Basics
Questions for Evaluation Research
Design Decisions
Policy Research
Ethics in Evaluation
Conclusions
14. Research Using Secondary Data and "Big" Data
Secondary Data Sources
Challenges for Secondary Data Analyses
Big Data
Ethical Issues in Secondary Data Analysis and Big Data
Conclusions
15. Research Using Historical and Comparative Data and Content Analysis
Overview of Historical and Comparative Research Methods
Historical Social Science Methods
Comparative Social Science Methods
Demographic Analysis
Content Analysis
Ethical Issues in Historical and Comparative Research and Content Analysis
Conclusions
16. Summarizing and Reporting Research
Writing Research
Displaying Research
Reporting Research
Ethics, Politics, and Research Reports
Conclusions
Appendix A: Questions to Ask About a Research Article
Appendix B: How to Read a Research Article
Appendix C: Table of Random Numbers
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
