The Research Imagination: An Introduction to Qualitative and Quantitative Methods

COVER......Page 1
HALF-TITLE......Page 3
TITLE......Page 5
COPYRIGHT......Page 6
BRIEF CONTENTS......Page 7
CONTENTS......Page 9
Responding to the Postmodern Critique......Page 21
What Is New in the Field?......Page 22
The Plan of This Book......Page 23
REFERENCES......Page 24
What Is Social Research?......Page 25
Sources of Data......Page 26
What Is Methodology?......Page 27
The Research Cycle – Theory......Page 28
Conclusions and Findings......Page 29
A Short History of Social Science......Page 30
Common Sense and Social Science......Page 31
Principles of Scientific Investigation......Page 34
Remaining Questions......Page 37
KEY TERMS......Page 38
REFERENCES......Page 39
INTRODUCTION......Page 41
What Theory Looks Like......Page 42
The Verification and Discovery of Theory......Page 47
Pure and Applied Research......Page 49
Already Existing Theory......Page 50
Training and Experience......Page 52
Learning the Craft......Page 53
SUMMARY......Page 54
REFERENCES......Page 55
3 RESEARCH DESIGN......Page 57
The Research Cookbook......Page 58
Conceptualizing a Topic......Page 61
Concepts and Variables......Page 62
The Role of the Literature in Research Design......Page 63
Types of Information......Page 64
Quantitative and Qualitative Techniques......Page 66
Strategies of Data Collection......Page 67
Spending Time and Resources Wisely......Page 70
Collecting Data......Page 71
Analyzing and Processing Data......Page 72
The Final Report......Page 73
The Ups and Downs of Research......Page 74
An Example: A Study of Undergraduate Life......Page 75
KEY TERMS......Page 78
SUGGESTED READINGS AND SOURCES......Page 79
REFERENCES......Page 80
4 MEASUREMENT......Page 81
INTRODUCTION......Page 82
Interval Measures......Page 83
Precision and Accuracy......Page 84
Example: Assessing Excellence in Education......Page 85
Example: Assessing Happiness......Page 86
EVALUATING RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY......Page 87
The Criterion of Validity......Page 88
Situational Error......Page 93
Problems of Reliability in the Research Instrument......Page 94
Lying as a Source of Error......Page 95
Errors in Data Processing......Page 96
Measurement in the Physical and Social Sciences......Page 97
Lack of Consensus in Measurement......Page 98
Using a Variety of Methods......Page 99
SUMMARY......Page 100
EXERCISES......Page 101
REFERENCES......Page 102
5 ETHICAL AND POLITICAL ISSUES......Page 105
The Strict Position......Page 106
Criticism of Objectivity......Page 107
Choice of Theory......Page 108
Funding......Page 109
Impartiality......Page 110
Disguised Observation......Page 111
Ethics and Experimentation......Page 112
Informed Consent......Page 114
Research on Children......Page 115
The Fudging Effect......Page 117
Co-optation or Potency?......Page 118
SUMMARY......Page 119
EXERCISES......Page 120
SUGGESTED READINGS AND SOURCES......Page 121
REFERENCES......Page 122
6 SAMPLING......Page 125
INTRODUCTION......Page 126
Populations......Page 127
Nonprobability Sampling......Page 128
Probability Sampling......Page 129
Combining Sampling Plans......Page 135
Sample Size......Page 136
Nonsampling Error......Page 137
Bias in Panels......Page 138
SAMPLING IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH......Page 139
Event Sampling......Page 140
Snowball Sampling......Page 141
KEY TERMS......Page 142
SUGGESTED READINGS AND SOURCES......Page 143
REFERENCES......Page 144
7 SURVEY RESEARCH......Page 145
INTRODUCTION......Page 146
Formulating Objectives and Hypotheses......Page 147
Choosing a Time Frame......Page 148
Planning a Sampling Strategy......Page 150
Choosing a Data-Gathering Technique......Page 151
Formulating Questionnaire Items......Page 154
The Interview Survey......Page 163
Preparing the Data for Processing......Page 165
Code Checking and Cleaning......Page 167
Secondary Analysis......Page 168
THE STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS OF SURVEY RESEARCH......Page 169
SUMMARY......Page 170
Readings about the Method......Page 171
Readings Illustrating the Method......Page 172
REFERENCES......Page 173
8 INTENSIVE INTERVIEWING......Page 175
INTRODUCTION......Page 176
APPLICATIONS OF INTENSIVE INTERVIEWING......Page 177
DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF INTENSIVE INTERVIEWS......Page 179
Commitment and Reciprocity......Page 180
Shared Meanings......Page 181
Assimilation......Page 183
Interviewing, Reliability, and Validity......Page 184
Access to Respondents......Page 185
Execution......Page 187
Recording Information......Page 190
Avoiding Overrapport......Page 194
LIMITATIONS OF INTENSIVE INTERVIEWING......Page 195
CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS IN THE TECHNIQUE......Page 197
Using the World Wide Web......Page 198
SUMMARY......Page 199
SUGGESTED READINGS......Page 200
REFERENCES......Page 201
9 OBSERVATIONAL FIELD RESEARCH......Page 203
The Chicago School and Beyond......Page 204
Promise and Problems......Page 205
Beginning the Research: A Question and a Research Site......Page 207
Gaining Access......Page 210
Taking a Role......Page 211
Some Practical Suggestions......Page 214
Data Collection and Note Taking......Page 215
Descriptions......Page 216
Explanations......Page 217
Formulating an Analysis......Page 218
Conceptual Categories......Page 219
Data Coding......Page 221
LIMITATIONS OF OBSERVATIONAL FIELD RESEARCH......Page 222
Cyberspace as a Field Setting......Page 224
Computer-Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis......Page 225
SUMMARY......Page 226
EXERCISES......Page 227
SUGGESTED READINGS......Page 228
REFERENCES......Page 231
10 FEMINIST METHODS......Page 235
INTRODUCTION......Page 236
Multiple Disciplines and Methodologies......Page 237
PATRIARCHAL SCIENCE......Page 239
BASICS OF FEMINIST EPISTEMOLOGY......Page 240
Patricia Hill Collins’s Black Feminist Thought......Page 242
Dorothy Smith: Women’s Standpoint......Page 244
Sandra Harding’s Critique of Scientific Objectivity......Page 246
Grassroots Sociology......Page 248
Making Women’s Invisible Experiences Visible......Page 249
Feminist Activism as Product of Research......Page 250
Collaboration with Research Subjects......Page 251
Are Feminist Methods Exclusionary?......Page 252
Can Men Do Feminist Research?......Page 253
Why Bother Using Feminist Methods?......Page 254
Increasing Validity with Feminist Methods......Page 255
NEWER FEMINIST METHODS......Page 257
SUMMARY......Page 258
EXERCISES......Page 259
SUGGESTED READINGS......Page 260
REFERENCES......Page 261
INTRODUCTION......Page 265
HISTORY AND THE GROWTH OF KNOWLEDGE......Page 267
Primary and Secondary Sources......Page 269
Generalizability......Page 270
USES OF HISTORY: SOME EXAMPLES......Page 271
Changes in Urban Life......Page 272
The Historical Case Study......Page 274
Personal Documents......Page 275
The Use of Available Records......Page 276
Example: Changing Attitudes toward Abortion......Page 278
ANALYSIS IN PERSPECTIVE......Page 279
KEY TERMS......Page 280
SUGGESTED READINGS......Page 281
REFERENCES......Page 283
12 EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH......Page 287
INTRODUCTION......Page 288
Experimental and Control Groups......Page 289
Experimental Procedure......Page 290
Establishing Causality......Page 291
Internal Validity......Page 292
The Solomon Four-Group Design......Page 293
External Validity......Page 294
Sampling and Generalizability......Page 295
FIELD EXPERIMENTATION......Page 296
A Study of Group Culture......Page 299
More Quasi-Field Experiments......Page 300
DEMONSTRATION EXPERIMENTS......Page 301
A FINAL WORD......Page 302
SUMMARY......Page 303
EXERCISES......Page 304
SUGGESTED READINGS......Page 305
REFERENCES......Page 306
INTRODUCTION......Page 307
Objective Analysis......Page 308
Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis......Page 309
Inferences to the Source of Communications......Page 310
Inferences to Populations: Communication Content and Social Values......Page 312
Evaluating the Effects of Communications......Page 314
Specification of the Research Problem......Page 315
Sampling Items......Page 316
Choosing the Unit of Analysis......Page 317
Category Construction......Page 318
COMPUTER-ASSISTED CONTENT ANALYSIS......Page 320
THE TECHNIQUE IN PERSPECTIVE......Page 321
SUMMARY......Page 322
Readings about the Method......Page 323
Resources......Page 324
REFERENCES......Page 325
INTRODUCTION......Page 329
APPLICATIONS OF AGGREGATE DATA ANALYSIS......Page 330
Using Census Materials to Study Race Relations......Page 331
Estimated Rates and True Rates: The Case of Crime Statistics......Page 334
Development of Social Indicators......Page 335
Forecasting......Page 337
FALLACIES IN THE INTERPRETATION OF AGGREGATE DATA......Page 340
The Ecological Fallacy......Page 341
SUMMARY......Page 342
EXERCISES......Page 343
SUGGESTED READINGS AND SOURCES......Page 344
Readings Illustrating the Method......Page 345
REFERENCES......Page 346
15 COMPARATIVE RESEARCH METHODS......Page 349
A Brief History......Page 350
Testing and Qualifying Existing Theories......Page 351
Specifying the Conditions under Which Theory Applies......Page 353
Discovering the Relationships among Macrolevel Variables......Page 354
Fieldwork......Page 355
Ethnographic Data Files......Page 356
Historical-Comparative Research......Page 357
Conceptual and Measurement Equivalence......Page 359
Secondary Data Analysis......Page 361
Two Examples......Page 362
Warning: Use with Care......Page 363
OTHER COMPARATIVE TECHNIQUES......Page 364
SUMMARY......Page 365
EXERCISES......Page 366
Readings Illustrating the Method......Page 367
Data for Comparative Research......Page 368
REFERENCES......Page 369
16 EVALUATION RESEARCH......Page 373
An Example: Pedestrian Safety......Page 374
The Social Significance of Evaluation Research......Page 376
Formative Evaluation......Page 377
Resistance to the Evaluation: Outsiders and Insiders......Page 378
Formulation of the Problem......Page 380
Research Design......Page 382
Sources of Data......Page 383
Sampling......Page 384
FOCUS GROUPS......Page 385
ONE-SHOT AND BEFORE-AND-AFTER STUDIES......Page 386
EXPERIMENTATION AND EVALUATION......Page 387
DIFFICULTIES IN IMPLEMENTING RESEARCH DESIGN......Page 388
OUTCOME MAPPING......Page 390
UTILIZATION OF RESULTS FOR DECISION MAKING......Page 392
SUMMARY......Page 393
EXERCISES......Page 394
SUGGESTED READINGS......Page 395
REFERENCES......Page 396
17 INDEXES AND SCALES......Page 399
INTRODUCTION......Page 400
An Example: The Consumer Price Index......Page 401
Face Validity......Page 402
Statistical Relationship among Items......Page 403
The Range and Numbering of Response Categories......Page 405
Weighting of Index Items......Page 407
Coping with Missing Data......Page 408
Internal Validation......Page 409
THE SCALING OF RESPONSES......Page 410
Measuring Intensity and Response Patterns......Page 411
Some Well-Known Scaling Techniques......Page 412
STANDARDIZATION OF COMPOSITE MEASURES......Page 416
The Politics of Measurement......Page 417
KEY TERMS......Page 418
SUGGESTED READINGS AND SOURCES......Page 419
REFERENCES......Page 420
INTRODUCTION......Page 421
Marginals......Page 422
Central Tendency and Levels of Measurement......Page 423
Measures of Variability......Page 425
Grouping and Recoding Data......Page 427
BIVARIATE ANALYSIS......Page 428
Computing Percentages for Cross-Tabulations......Page 429
Measures of Association......Page 430
Other Measures of Association......Page 433
The Elaboration Paradigm......Page 434
Partial Correlation......Page 439
SUMMARY......Page 441
EXERCISES......Page 442
REFERENCES......Page 443
Regression Analysis......Page 445
Path Analysis......Page 448
Other Multivariate Techniques......Page 449
Tests of Statistical Significance......Page 450
The Misuse of Tests of Significance......Page 452
SUMMARY......Page 453
EXERCISES......Page 454
SUGGESTED READINGS......Page 455
REFERENCES......Page 456
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE RULES OF INVESTIGATION......Page 457
TOLERANCE FOR AMBIGUITY: LIMITS TO POSITIVISM?......Page 458
SOLVING SOCIAL PROBLEMS: DATA AND DEMOCRACY......Page 460
APPENDIX A A PRECODED QUESTIONNAIRE......Page 463
APPENDIX B EXCERPT FROM A CODEBOOK......Page 466
AUTHOR INDEX......Page 469
SUBJECT INDEX......Page 473