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Investigating the Social World - International Student Edition
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Investigating the Social World - International Student Edition
The Process and Practice of Research

Ninth Edition (International Student Edition)


March 2018 | 728 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc

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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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

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