Research Methods: The Basics

With the skills acquired by studying The Basics, the reader should be able to carry out a small but complete applied research project. The book is not a collection of simple 'do-it-yourself' steps, however. The emphasis is on understanding the successive steps and choices to be made in the process of doing research in a range of behavioural and social science disciplines. It offers a complete introduction to social science research methods. The book can be used easily and effectively in combination with e-learning. Wherever pertinent, the reader is referred to useful websites and Wikipedia articles for further information. Each chapter has exercises, sources of relevant literature and lists of key terms. The Basics was written with students of social sciences at universities, colleges and higher vocational training in mind but it will also be useful for students of other disciplines that include 'research methods' as a subsidiary subject. It will also help readers to gain a better understanding of publications and newspaper articles based on social research, and it will assist all those who come across social research results in their profession. Contents 1 Introducing social research 11 The stages of research projects 11 The researcher's toolbox 16 Applied research 27 Exercises 33 Suggested reading 34 Key terms 35 2 Research questions 36 Why start with a research question? 36 An example: Research on school absenteeism 38 Descriptive problems 42 Explanatory problems 45 Design problems 49 Starting a research project: exploration 52 Referring to sources 56 Exercises 58 Suggested reading 60 Key terms 60 3 Data and research strategies 61 Introduction 61 A panoply of data sources 64 Existing data 66 New data 75 Research question and strategy choice 85 Exercises 86 Suggested reading 88 Key terms 90 4 Case studies 91 What is a case study? 91 Research questions in a case study 94 Selecting case(s) 99 Wealth of data 101 The participating researcher 102 Types of observations 103 Data analysis 105 Conclusions 108 Exercises 111 Suggested reading 112 Key terms 112 5 Surveys: types, samples and non-response 113 What is a survey? 113 Comparing types of surveys 117 Repeated surveys 123 Respondents as informants 124 Probability samples 124 Non-probability samples 133 Non-response 136 Exercises 141 Suggested reading 142 Key terms 143 6 The survey questionnaire 144 Introduction 144 Questions 146 Response modalities 154 'Not applicable' and 'don't know' 157 Composite measuring instruments 159 Layout 168 Exercises 171 Suggested reading 172 Key terms 172 7 Experiments 173 What is an experiment? 173 Minimizing differential effects of other variables 177 Extensions 181 9 C o n t e n t s Efficiency 182 Exercises 196 Suggested reading 197 Key terms 197 8 Quality criteria 198 The scientific community 198 Falsifiable knowledge 200 Quality criteria 202 Reliability 202 Validity of instruments 204 Validity of research conclusions about causes and effects 206 Generalisability 207 Usability (for applied research) 208 Exercises 209 Suggested reading 211 Key terms 211 9 The logic of inquiry 212 Models and theories 212 Research styles 222 Exercises 232 Suggested reading 233 Key terms 233 10 F requency distributions of one variable: tables and graphs 234 Level of measurement 234 Rules of the game 240 Compressing a frequency distribution 243 Grouped frequency distributions; classes; lower and upper limits 245 Graphs 249 Exercises 261 Suggested reading 266 Key terms 266 11 Measures of centre, spread and shape 267 Introduction 267 Centre and spread 268 The mean 270 Variance and standard deviation 271 Shape 275 Other measures of centre: mode and median 279 Box plots 284 Selecting a measure for centre and for spread 285 Exercises 286 Suggested reading 289 Key terms 289 12 Cross-tabulations 290 Introduction 290 Calculating percentages vertically and comparing horizontally 293 Cross-tabulating three and more variables 295 The strength of a statistical relationship 297 Introduction to regression 313 Exercises 319 Suggested reading 322 Key terms 322 13 The validity of conclusions about causes and effects using survey data 323 Exercises 335 Suggested reading 337 Key terms 337 14 The ethics of social research 338 Introduction 338 The researcher and the research subjects 339 The researcher and the pursuit of scientific knowledge 344 The researcher and the institutional setting 345 The researcher and the general public 349 Suggested reading 350 Websites on codes of ethics 350 Appendix A Computer analysis of qualitative data 351 Appendix B Computer analysis of quantitative data 355 Appendix C Cohen's kappa 363 Appendix D Variance and variance decomposition 365 Answers to exercises 370