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| Additional Physical Format: | Online version: Neuman, William Lawrence, 1950- Understanding research. Boston, MA : Pearson/Allyn and Bacon, c2009 (OCoLC)757574322 |
|---|---|
| Material Type: | Internet resource |
| Document Type: | Book, Internet Resource |
| All Authors / Contributors: |
William Lawrence Neuman |
| ISBN: | 9780205471539 0205471536 |
| OCLC Number: | 222250173 |
| Description: | xv, 383 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 28 cm. |
| Contents: | Preface -- 1: Why do research? -- On what basis do you make decisions? -- How do we know what we know? -- Ways of knowing without research -- Developing critical thinking skills -- What is empirical social research? -- What evidence? -- Research is a process that results in a product -- Varieties of social research -- Fit the question you want to answer with a type of social research -- Exploring -- Describing -- Explaining -- Evaluating -- How to use research -- Basic research -- Applied research -- Steps in the research process -- What have you learned? -- Apply what you've learned -- Part 1: Beginning The Research Process -- 2: Planning a study -- Picking a study topic -- Conducting a review of past studies -- Where do you find research literature? -- How to conduct a literature review: a six-step process -- Focusing on a research question -- Research proposal -- Proposal for quantitative or qualitative research -- What have you learned? -- Apply what you've learned -- 3: Becoming an ethical researcher -- Ethical imperative -- Scientific misconduct -- Unethical but legal -- Ethical issues involving research participants -- Origin of ethical principles for research with humans -- Protect research participants from harm -- Participation must be voluntary and informed -- Limits to using deception in research -- Privacy, anonymity, and confidentiality -- Extra protection for special populations -- Formal protections for research participants -- Ethics and the sponsors of research -- Arriving at particular findings -- Political influences on research -- Value-free and objective research -- What have you learned? -- Apply what you've learned -- 4: Sampling: how to select a few to represent the many -- How and why do samples work? -- Focusing on a specific group: four types of nonrandom samples -- Convenience sampling -- Quota sampling -- Positive or judgmental sampling -- Snowball sampling -- Coming to conclusions about large populations -- Why use a random sample? -- Types of random samples -- Three specialized sampling situations -- Random-digit dialing -- Within-household sampling -- Sampling hidden populations -- Inferences from sample to population -- How to reduce sampling errors -- How large should my sample be? -- How to create a zone of confidence -- What have you learned? -- Apply what you've learned -- 5: Measuring social life -- Why measure? -- Making aspects of the social world visible -- Measuring with numbers of words -- Two parts of the measurement process -- Quantitative conceptualization and operationalization -- Qualitative conceptualization and operationalization -- How to create good measures: reliability and validity -- Reliability and validity in quantitative research -- Reliability and validity in qualitative research -- Putting reliability and validity together -- Guide to quantitative measurement -- Levels of measurement -- Specialized measures: scales and indexes -- Adding measures to get a score: index construction -- Two complications in index construction -- Capturing intensity: scale construction -- Commonly used scales -- What have you learned? -- Applying what you've learned. 6: Survey: asking people questions -- What is a social survey? -- How to conduct a survey -- Start-up stage -- Execution stage -- Data analysis stage -- Writing good survey questions -- What are leading questions? -- Getting answers to survey questions -- Effective questionnaire design tips -- Length of survey or questionnaire -- Question order or sequence -- Advantages and disadvantages of different survey formats -- Mail and self-administered questionnaires -- Telephone interviews -- Face-to-face interviews -- Web surveys -- Survey interviewing -- Interviewer's role -- Interview stages -- Training interviewers -- Using probes -- Interviewer bias -- Computer-assisted telephone interviewing -- Ethical survey -- What have you learned? -- Applying what you've learned -- Part 2: Quantitative Data Collection And Analysis -- 7: Experiment -- Doing experiments in everyday life -- What questions can you answer with the experimental method? -- Why assign people randomly? -- Do you speak the language of experimental design? -- Managing experiments -- Types of experimental design -- Design notation -- Experimental validity inside and out -- Looking at an experiment's internal validity -- External validity and field experiments -- Making comparisons and looking at experimental results -- How to be ethical in conducting experiments -- What have you learned? -- Applying what you've learned -- 8: Research with nonreactive measures -- Analyzing physical evidence for clues about social life -- Limitations of physical evidence -- Revealing the content buried within communication messages -- How to measure and code in content analysis -- How to conduct content analysis research -- Limitations of content analysis -- Mining existing statistical sources to answer new questions -- Locating data -- Verifying data quality -- Creative thinking about variables of interest -- Standardization of data -- Secondary sources -- Limitations of secondary data sources -- Conducting ethical nonreactive research -- What have you learned? -- Applying what you've learned -- 9: Making sense of the numbers -- What to do once you have the numbers -- Cleaning up the numbers -- How to describe quantitative results -- Looking at results with one variable -- Results with two variables -- Results with more than two variables -- Going beyond description: inferential statistics -- Statistical significance -- Levels of significance -- What have you learned? -- Applying what you've learned -- Part 3: Qualitative Data Collection And Analysis -- 10: Observing people in natural settings -- What is field research? -- Ethnography -- Studying people in the field -- 1: Preparing for a field study -- 2: Starting the research project -- 3: Being in the field -- 4: Strategies for success in the field -- 5: Observing and collecting data -- 6: Interviewing in field research -- 7: Leaving the field -- 8: Writing the field research report -- Ethics and the field researcher -- Focus groups -- What have you learned? -- Applying what you've learned -- 11: Looking At The Past And Across Cultures -- What is historical-comparative research? -- How are field research and H-C research alike? -- What is unique about H-C research? -- How to do a historical-comparative research study -- Acquire the necessary background -- Conceptualize the issue -- Locate and evaluate the evidence -- Organize the evidence -- Synthesize and develop concepts -- Write a report -- Researching the past -- Types of historical evidence -- Research that compares across cultures -- Can you really compare? -- Galton's problem -- Gathering comparative data -- Issue of equivalence -- Being an ethical H-C researcher -- What have you learned -- Applying what you've learned -- Part 4: Research Report -- 12: Writing a research report -- Why write a report? -- Writing process -- Know your audience -- Pick a style and tone -- Organize your thoughts -- Go back to the library -- Engage in prewriting activities -- Rewrite your report -- Show cause-effect relations -- Quantitative research report -- Abstract or executive summary -- Presentation of the problem -- Description of the method -- Results and tables -- Discussion -- Conclusions -- Qualitative research report -- Report on field research -- Report on historical-comparative research -- Research proposal -- Proposals for research grants -- Undergraduate research -- What have you learned? -- Applying what you've learned -- Appendices -- Appendix A: Sample research proposals -- Appendix B: Data and literature research -- Appendix C: Sample articles based on different research methods -- Name index -- Subject index. |
| Responsibility: | W. Lawrence Neuman. |
Abstract:
Understanding Research is an accessible and visually-appealing introduction to research. Whether students become producers or consumers of research, this text shows them that the subject is both
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