Essentials of Research Methods: A Guide to Social Science Research

Contents......Page 6
List of Figures and Tables......Page 10
Preface......Page 11
Acknowledgments......Page 13
1 When Should We Trust What We Know? Why Research Methods?......Page 14
Time-Based Knowing: Traditional Knowledge......Page 16
Credential-Based Knowing: Authoritative Knowledge......Page 17
More Risky Knowledge Sources: Common Sense and Intuition......Page 21
Science as a Trustworthy Way of Knowing......Page 22
Goals of Research......Page 24
Using Research Methods to Become Critical Consumers of Information......Page 26
2 Ethics: It\'s the Right Thing To Do......Page 29
Research Should Not Cause Harm to Subjects......Page 30
Researchers Should Obtain the Informed Consent of Subjects......Page 32
Researchers Should Respect Subjects\' Privacy......Page 35
Researchers Should Avoid Conflicts of Interest......Page 39
Ethical Reporting: The Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth?......Page 40
Reinforcing the Ethical Route: Institutional Review Boards......Page 41
Ethical Fusion......Page 42
3 Some Perfectly Valid Points: Measurement, Internal, and External Validity......Page 45
Measurement Validity......Page 46
Internal Validity......Page 51
External Validity......Page 54
Conclusions......Page 58
4 Measure By Measure: Making the Abstract Concrete......Page 60
Concepts and the Research Process......Page 61
Bringing Theory Down to Earth......Page 62
Conceptualization......Page 63
Operationalization......Page 64
Levels of Measurement......Page 65
Operational Definitions......Page 70
Conclusion......Page 72
Facing Off Our Measures......Page 75
Content Validity......Page 76
Criterion Validity......Page 77
Construct Validity......Page 79
Testing, Testing, Testing for Reliability......Page 80
Multiple-Forms......Page 81
Split-Half Technique......Page 82
Noise and Bias......Page 83
Measuring Up and Out......Page 86
6 One Thing Leads to Another: Causal Analysis......Page 88
Causal Models: Nomothetic and Idiographic......Page 89
Causal Requirements......Page 91
Causal Analysis and Research Design......Page 95
Causal Analysis and Survey Research......Page 99
Causality and Field Research......Page 101
Conclusions......Page 103
It\'s All in the Timing......Page 105
Cross-Sectional Research Designs......Page 106
Longitudinal Research Designs......Page 107
Units of Analysis......Page 112
Conclusions......Page 115
8 An Informative Few: Sampling......Page 117
Obstacles to Representative Samples......Page 119
A Representative Sample: Take a Chance......Page 122
Non-Probability Techniques......Page 129
Estimating Sampling Error......Page 131
Just a Sampling of the Issues......Page 133
9 Our Inquisitive Nature: The Questionnaire......Page 136
The Way We Word......Page 139
The Structure of Questions: Closed- and Open-Ended Questions......Page 143
Putting It Together......Page 147
Return to Sender: The Special Challenge of the Mailed Questionnaire......Page 154
Ask and You Shall Receive......Page 156
10 Talking Heads: The Interview......Page 159
Conversational Exchange......Page 160
Developing an Unstructured Guide......Page 164
The Interview Schedule......Page 167
Phone Home......Page 168
The More the Merrier: Focus Groups......Page 170
Training Issues......Page 172
Tools of the Trade......Page 174
The Final Word......Page 175
11 Watch and Learn: Field Research......Page 177
Location, Location, Location ... and More......Page 178
Fieldwork Tasks......Page 180
Notes......Page 182
Files......Page 185
The Validity of Field Research......Page 187
How Did We Get to this Point?......Page 190
Summarizing Descriptions......Page 192
Picture This......Page 200
SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences)......Page 207
The Normal Curve......Page 211
Repeat After Me......Page 215
The Sampling Distribution......Page 216
Putting It Together......Page 217
Some Concrete Examples......Page 220
Bringing It Home......Page 221
References......Page 224
Web Resources......Page 232
C......Page 244
D......Page 245
G......Page 246
K......Page 247
N......Page 248
R......Page 249
S......Page 250
V......Page 251
Z......Page 252