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Copyright, ii
Preface, ix
Why Do Research?, 1-a
Chapter 1. Why Do Research?, 1-a
On What Basis Do You Make Decisions?, 3
How Do We Know What We Know?, 4
Ways of Knowing Without Research, 4
Developing Critical Thinking Skills, 6
What Is Empirical Social Research?, 8
What Evidence?, 10
Research Is a Process that Results in a Product, 11
Varieties of Social Research, 11
Fit the Question You Want to Answer with a Type of Social Research, 12
Exploring, 13
Describing, 13
Explaining, 14
Evaluating, 15
How to Use Research, 18
Basic Research, 18
Applied Research, 18
Steps in the Research Process, 20
What Have You Learned?, 22
Apply What You’ve Learned, 22
Part 1. Beginning the Research Process, 24
Chapter 2. Planning a Study, 24
Picking a Study Topic, 26
Conducting a Review of Past Studies, 27
Where Do You Find the Research Literature?, 27
How to Conduct a Literature Review: A Six-Step Process, 34
Focusing on a Research Question, 44
The Research Proposal, 46
A Proposal for Quantitative or Qualitative Research, 46
What Have You Learned?, 57
Apply What You’ve Learned, 57
Chapter 3. Becoming an Ethical Researcher, 60
The Ethical Imperative, 62
Scientific Misconduct, 63
Unethical but Legal, 64
Ethical Issues Involving Research Participants, 65
The Origin of Ethical Principles for Research with Humans, 66
Protect Research Participants from Harm, 66
Participation Must Be Voluntary and Informed, 69
Limits to Using Deception in Research, 70
Privacy, Anonymity, and Confidentiality, 73
Extra Protection for Special Populations, 75
Formal Protections for Research Participants, 76
Ethics and the Sponsors of Research, 79
Arriving at Particular Findings, 79
Political Influences on Research, 81
Value-Free and Objective Research, 82
What Have You Learned?, 83
Apply What You’ve Learned, 84
Chapter 4. Sampling: How to Select a Few to Represent the Many, 86
How and Why Do Samples Work?, 88
Focusing on a Specific Group: Four Types of Nonrandom Samples, 88
Convenience Sampling, 88
Quota Sampling, 89
Positive or Judgmental Sampling, 90
Snowball Sampling, 91
Coming to Conclusions About Large Populations, 92
Why Use a Random Sample?, 93
Types of Random Samples, 94
Three Specialized Sampling Situations, 103
Random-Digit Dialing, 103
Within-Household Sampling, 104
Sampling Hidden Populations, 104
Inferences from Sample to Population, 105
How to Reduce Sampling Errors, 105
How Large Should My Sample Be?, 106
How to Create a Zone of Confidence, 107
What Have You Learned?, 108
Apply What You’ve Learned, 109
Chapter 5. Measuring Social Life, 112
Why Measure?, 114
Making Aspects of the Social World Visible, 115
Measuring with Numbers of Words, 116
Two Parts of the Measurement Process, 116
Quantitative Conceptualization and Operationalization, 118
Qualitative Conceptualization and Operationalization, 120
How to Create Good Measures: Reliability and Validity, 122
Reliability and Validity in Quantitative Research, 122
Reliability and Validity in Qualitative Research, 125
Putting Reliability and Validity Together, 125
A Guide to Quantitative Measurement, 126
Levels of Measurement, 126
Specialized Measures: Scales and Indexes, 129
Adding Measures to Get a Score: Index Construction, 130
Two Complications in Index Construction, 131
Capturing Intensity: Scale Construction, 132
Commonly Used Scales, 133
What Have You Learned?, 139
Applying What You’ve Learned, 139
Chapter 6. The Survey: Asking People Questions, 142
What Is a Social Survey?, 144
How to Conduct a Survey, 153
Start-Up Stage, 153
Execution Stage, 157
Data Analysis Stage, 157
Writing Good Survey Questions, 157
What Are Leading Questions?, 158
Getting Answers to Survey Questions, 160
Effective Questionnaire Design Tips, 166
Length of Survey or Questionnaire, 166
Question Order or Sequence, 166
Advantages and Disadvantages of Different Survey Formats, 168
Mail and Self-Administered Questionnaires, 168
Telephone Interviews, 168
Face-to-Face Interviews, 169
Web Surveys, 169
Survey Interviewing, 170
The Interviewer’s Role, 170
Interview Stages, 171
Training Interviewers, 172
Using Probes, 172
Interviewer Bias, 173
Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing, 174
The Ethical Survey, 174
What Have You Learned?, 175
Applying What You’ve Learned, 176
Part 2. Quantitative Data Collection and Analysis, 178
Chapter 7. The Experiment, 178
Doing Experiments in Everyday Life, 180
What Questions Can You Answer with the Experimental Method?, 180
Why Assign People Randomly?, 181
Do You Speak the Language of Experimental Design?, 183
Managing Experiments, 186
Types of Experimental Design, 186
Design Notation, 193
Experimental Validity Inside and Out, 194
Looking at an Experiment’s Internal Validity, 194
External Validity and Field Experiments, 196
Making Comparisons and Looking at Experimental Results, 199
How to Be Ethical in Conducting Experiments, 201
What Have You Learned?, 201
Applying What You’ve Learned, 202
Chapter 8. Research with Nonreactive Measures, 204
Analyzing Physical Evidence for Clues About Social Life, 206
Limitations of Physical Evidence, 207
Revealing the Content Buried Within Communication Messages, 208
How to Measure and Code in Content Analysis, 209
How to Conduct Content Analysis Research, 213
Limitations of Content Analysis, 216
Mining Existing Statistical Sources to Answer New Questions, 216
Locating Data, 218
Verifying Data Quality, 220
Creative Thinking About Variables of Interest, 223
Standardization of Data, 223
Secondary Sources, 225
Limitations of Secondary Data Sources, 226
Conducting Ethical Nonreactive Research, 227
What Have You Learned?, 228
Applying What You’ve Learned, 228
Chapter 9. Making Sense of the Numbers, 230
What to Do Once You Have the Numbers, 233
Cleaning Up the Numbers, 235
How to Describe Quantitative Results, 235
Looking at Results with One Variable, 235
Results with Two Variables, 244
Results with More than Two Variables, 252
Going Beyond Description: Inferential Statistics, 255
Statistical Significance, 255
Levels of Significance, 256
What Have You Learned?, 259
Applying What You’ve Learned, 260
Part 3. Qualitative Data Collection and Analysis, 262
Chapter 10. Observing People in Natural Settings, 262
What Is Field Research?, 264
Ethnography, 264
Studying People in the Field, 267
1. Preparing for a Field Study, 267
2. Starting the Research Project, 268
3. Being in the Field, 271
4. Strategies for Success in the Field, 274
5. Observing and Collecting Data, 276
6. Interviewing in Field Research, 282
7. Leaving the Field, 284
8. Writing the Field Research Report, 285
Ethics and the Field Researcher, 286
Focus Groups, 287
What Have You Learned?, 289
Applying What You’ve Learned, 290
Chapter 11. Looking at the Past and Across Cultures, 292
What Is Historical-Comparative Research?, 294
How Are Field Research and H-C Research Alike?, 295
What Is Unique about H-C Research?, 297
How to Do a Historical-Comparative Research Study, 300
Acquire the Necessary Background, 300
Conceptualize the Issue, 300
Locate and Evaluate the Evidence, 301
Organize the Evidence, 301
Synthesize and Develop Concepts, 301
Write a Report, 301
Researching the Past, 302
Types of Historical Evidence, 302
Research That Compares Across Cultures, 308
Can You Really Compare?, 310
Galton’s Problem, 312
Gathering Comparative Data, 312
The Issue of Equivalence, 315
Being an Ethical H-C Researcher, 318
What Have You Learned, 319
Applying What You’ve Learned, 319
Part 4. Research Report, 322
Chapter 12. Writing a Research Report, 322
Why Write a Report?, 324
The Writing Process, 325
Know Your Audience, 325
Pick a Style and Tone, 326
Organize Your Thoughts, 326
Go Back to the Library, 326
Engage in Prewriting Activities, 328
Rewrite Your Report, 329
Show Cause-Effect Relations, 331
The Quantitative Research Report, 332
Abstract or Executive Summary, 332
Presentation of the Problem, 333
Description of the Method, 333
Results and Tables, 333
Discussion, 333
Conclusions, 334
The Qualitative Research Report, 335
Report on Field Research, 335
Report on Historical-Comparative Research, 337
The Research Proposal, 338
Proposals for Research Grants, 338
Undergraduate Research, 343
What Have You Learned?, 344
Applying What You’ve Learned, 344
Appendix A. Sample Research Proposals, 346
Appendix B. Data and Literature Research, 354
Appendix C. Sample Articles Based on Different Research Methods, 358
Credits, 378
Name Index, 379
Subject Index, 381

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