Social Research Methods: Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods Approaches

Description

Structured around one of the concepts students struggle with the most―the research question―this book begins with how to understand the role of good questions before demonstrating how questions underpin good research designs and how social research can be framed as asking and answering questions. Perfect for undergraduate students new to methods, it teaches students how qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research can be used to answer these questions. "An incredibly resourceful book that contains a forensic insight into social research methods, offering the full range of contemporary approaches. Students will find particular value in the accessibility and detail of the text. Each chapter provides a set of learning outcomes, study questions and further reading." - Dr Ruth McAreavey, Newcastle University Supported by a website that maps online resources to key stages of the learning process, it helps students: -          Understand the scientific method -          Learn the vocabulary of social science research -          Plan and design research -          Practice with and interpret data -          Explore social science literature and improve assignments with good citations -          Improve critical thinking. -    Extensive visualizations, overviews, examples, exercises, and other learning features, make this the perfect introductory text to build confidence and best practice around research methods. Half Title Acknowledgements Title Page Copyright Page Contents Preface About the Author Discover your textbook’s online resources! Part I Researching society 1 How and why we study society 2 Methods and methodologies in social science 3 The ethics and politics of research Part II Designing social research 4 Creating research questions 5 Doing a literature review 6 Choosing a research design 7 Finding sources and data 8 Sampling Part III Data collection and data quality 9 Ethnography and participant observation 10 Unstructured interviews and focus groups 11 Documentary sources and qualitative content analysis 12 Structured observation 13 Questionnaires and surveys 14 Quantitative content analysis 15 Data quality, reliability and validity Part IV Data analysis 16 Analysis of qualitative data 17 Indexes and distributions 18 Relationships between variables 19 Statistical generalization 20 Mixed methods and combining data Part V Asking and answering questions in social science 21 Description, explanation and understanding 22 Time, space and level 23 Relations, networks and structures 24 Big data and computational social science Part VI Writing and presenting research 25 Working with data visualization 26 Writing about research Glossary References Index