Investigating The Social World : The Process And Practice Of Research - Text Only - 6th edition

Russell K. Schutt, Ph.D., is Professor of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Author of Investigating the Social World: The Process and Practice of Research (3 rd ed.) and Organization in a Changing Environment, and coauthor of Responding to the Homeless: Policy and Practice, he has written numerous journal articles on organizations, law, homelessness, mental health, and teaching research methods. His research experience includes federally funded studies of housing options for severely mentally ill persons, surveys of homeless persons and service personnel, multi-method investigations of organizational change, and secondary analyses of juvenile justice decision making and craft union practices. He has recently been a lecturer in the Department of Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School.

Preface Acknowledgements

CHAPTER 1: SCIENCE, SOCIETY AND SOCIAL RESEARCH Learning About the Social World Avoiding Errors in Reasoning About the Social World Science, Social Science and Pseudoscience Motives for Social Research Types of Social Research Alternative Research Orientations Conclusions

CHAPTER 2: THE PROCESS AND PROBLEMS OF SOCIAL RESEARCH Social Research Questions Social Research Foundations Theoretical Foundations for Social Research Social Research Strategies Social Research Goals Social Research Proposals Conclusions

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH ETHICS Historical Background Ethical Principles Conclusions

CHAPTER 4: CONCEPTUALIZATION AND MEASUREMENT Concepts Measurement Operations Levels of Measurement Evaluating Measures Ways to Improve Reliability and Validity Conclusions

CHAPTER 5: SAMPLING Sampling Methods Sampling Distributions Conclusions

CHAPTER 6: RESEARCH DESIGN AND CAUSATION Research Design Alternatives Causal Explanation Criteria for Causal Explanations

CHAPTER 7: EXPERIMENTS True Experiments Quasi-Experiments Nonexperiments Validity in Experiments Ethical Issues in Experimentation Conclusions

CHAPTER 8: SURVEY RESEARCH Survey Research in the Social Sciences Writing Questions Combining Questions in Indexes Designing Questionnaires Organizing Surveys Ethical Issues in Survey Research Conclusions

CHAPTER 9: QUALITATIVE METHODS Fundamentals of Qualitative Research Participant Observation Systematic Observation Intensive Interviewing Focus Groups Ethical Issues in Qualitative Research Conclusions

CHAPTER 10: QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS Features of Qualitative Data Analysis Techniques of Qualitative Data Analysis Alternatives in Qualitative Data Analysis Visual Sociology Computer-Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Ethics in Qualitative Data Analysis Conclusions

CHAPTER 11: EVALUATION AND POLICY RESEARCH History of Evaluation Research Evaluation Basics Questions for Evaluation Research Design Decisions Ethics in Evaluations Conclusions

CHAPTER 12: HISTORICAL AND COMPARATIVE RESEARCH Overview of Unobtrusive Methods for Comparative and Historical Research Historical Social Science Methods Comparative Social Science Methods Demographic Analysis Ethical Issues in Historical and Comparative Research Conclusions

CHAPTER 13: SECONDARY DATA ANALYSIS AND CONTENT ANALYSIS Secondary Data Sources Challenges for Secondary Data Analysis Content Analysis Ethical Issues in Secondary Data Analysis Conclusions

CHAPTER 14: QUANTITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS Introducing Statistics Preparing Data for Analysis Displaying Univariate Distributions Summarizing Univariate Distributions Analyzing Data Ethically: How Not to Lie with Statistics Crosstabulating Variables Regression Analysis Conclusions

CHAPTER 15: SUMMARIZING AND REPORTING RESEARCH Comparing Research Designs Writing Research Reporting Research Ethics, Politics, and Research Reports Conclusions APPENDIX A APPENDIX B APPENDIX C APPENDIX D APPENDIX E BIBLIOGRAPHY GLOSSARY/INDEX

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