Dixon, Royce A. Singleton, Jr. This book is based on the premise that doing social research is exciting and fun. The research process involves discovering and learning new things, which are enjoyable experiences. In this book the historical background of research techniques is outlined, and specific studies are described to show that research is a.
Methods of Social Research, 4th Edition. An introduction for undergraduates to every stage of sociological research, showing how to deal effectively with typical problems they might encounter.
The book is fully updated to include examples from the LA riots and the presidential elections. Principles and Methods of Social Research. Authors: William D. Crano, Marilynn B.
Brewer, Andrew Lac. Users applaud the book's comprehensiveness. It reviews experimental, correlational, quasi experimental, and evalaution designs to survey sampling, interviewing, content analysis, questionaire design, scale developments, and assessing dyads and groups. The research process is described using basic. Usually, at least one of the variables is a nominal variable. Each cell in the table shows the frequency of occurrence of that intersection of categories of each of the two variables and usually a percentage.
Continuous recording A procedure in structured observation whereby observation occurs for extended periods so that the frequency and duration of certain types of behaviour can be carefully recorded. Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4th edition Control group Sometimes used in experiements, which involves a research design that rules out alternative causal explanations of findings deriving from it i.
Convenience sample A sample that is selected because of its availability to the researcher. It is a form of non-probability sample. Conversation analysis The fine-grained analysis of talk as it occurs in interaction in naturally occurring situations.
The talk is recorded and transcribed so that the detailed analyses can be carried out. The analysis is concerned with uncovering the underlying structures of talk in interaction and as such with the achievement of order through interaction.
Conversation analysis is grounded in ethnomethodology. Covert research A term frequently used in connection with ethnographic research in which the researcher does not reveal his or her true identity. Such research violates the ethical principle of informed consent. Critical discourse analysis A form of discourse analysis that emphasizes the role of language as a power resource that is related to ideology and socio-cultural change.
It draws in particular on the theories and approaches of Foucault. Critical realism A realist epistemology that asserts that the study of the social world should be concerned with the identifi cation of the structures that generate that world.
Critical realism is critical because its practitioners aim to identify structures in order to change them, so that inequalities and injustices may be counteracted. Unlike a positivist epistemology, critical realism accepts that the structures that are identified may not be amenable to the senses. Thus, whereas positivism is empiricist, critical realism is not. Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4th edition Cross-sectional design A research design that entails the collection of data on more than one case usually quite a lot more than one and at a single point in time in order to collect a body of quantitative or quantifi able data in connection with two or more variables usually many more than two , which are then examined to detect patterns of association.
Deductive, deduction An approach to the relationship between theory and research in which the latter is conducted with reference to hypotheses and ideas inferred from the former.
Compare with inductive. Denotation A term used in semiotics to refer to the meanings of a sign associated with the social context within which it operates that are supplementary to and less immediately apparent than its connotation. Dependent variable A variable that is causally influenced by another variable i. Diary A term that in the context of social research methods can mean different things. Three types of diary can be distinguished: diaries written or completed at the behest of a researcher; personal diaries that can be analysed as a personal document, but that were produced spontaneously; and diaries written by social researchers as a log of their activities and refl ections.
Dichotomous variable A variable with just two categories. Dimension Refers to an aspect of a concept. Discourse analysis An approach to the analysis of talk and other forms of discourse that emphasizes the ways in which versions of reality are accomplished through language. Distribution of values A term used to refer to the entire data relating to a variable.
Thus, the ages of members of a sample represent the distribution of values for that variable for that sample. Ecological fallacy The error of assuming that inferences about individuals can be made from findings relating to aggregate data.
Embedded email questionnaire survey A social survey in which respondents are sent an email that contains a questionnaire. Compare with attached email survey. Empiricism An approach to the study of reality that suggests that only knowledge gained through experience and the senses is acceptable.
Epistemology, epistemological A theory of knowledge. It is particularly employed in this book to refer to a stance on what should pass as acceptable knowledge.
See positivism, realism, and interpretivism. Eta A test of the strength of the relationship between two variables. The independent variable must be a nominal variable and the dependent variable must be an interval variable or ratio variable.
The resulting level of correlation will always be positive. Ethnographic content analysis An approach to documents that emphasizes the role of the investigator in the construction of the meaning of and in texts.
There is an emphasis on allowing categories to emerge out of data and on recognizing the significance for understanding the meaning of the context in which an item being analysed and the categories derived from it appeared.
Ethnography, ethnographer Like participant observation, a research method in which the researcher immerses him- or herself in a social setting for an extended period of time, observing behaviour, listening to what is said in conversations both between others and with the fi eldworker, and asking questions. However, the term has a more inclusive sense than participant observation, which seems to emphasize the observational component.
Ethnomethodology A sociological perspective concerned with the way in which social order is accomplished through talk and interaction.
It provides the intellectual foundations of conversation analysis. Evaluation research Research that is concerned with the evaluation of real-life interventions in the social world.
Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4th edition Experiment A research design that rules out alternative causal explanations of findings deriving from it i. Instead of a control group, an experiment may comprise a further group or groups that are exposed to other treatments.
External validity A concern with the question of whether the results of a study can be generalized beyond the specific research context in which it was conducted. Face validity A concern with whether an indicator appears to reflect the content of the concept in question.
Facilitator The person who guides the questioning of a focus group. Also called a moderator. Factor analysis A statistical technique used for large numbers of variables to establish whether there is a tendency for groups of them to be inter-related. It is often used with multiple-indicator measures to see if the indicators tend to bunch to form one or more groups of indicators. These groups of indicators are called factors and must then be given a name. Focal sampling A sampling approach in structured observation whereby a sampled individual is observed for a set period of time.
The observer records all examples of whatever forms of behaviour are of interest. Generalization, generalizability A concern with the external validity of research findings. Grounded theory An iterative approach to the analysis of qualitative data that aims to generate theory out of research data by achieving a close fit between the two.
Hermeneutics A term drawn from theology, which, when imported into the social sciences, is concerned with the theory and method of the interpretation of human action. It emphasizes the need to understand from the perspective of the social actor.
Hypothesis An informed speculation, which is set up to be tested, about the possible relationship between two or more variables. Independent variable A variable that has a causal impact on another variable i. Index A term that is usually used interchangeably with scale to refer to a multiple-indicator measure in which the score a person gives for each component indicator is used to provide a composite score for that person.
Indicator A measure that is employed to refer to a concept when no direct measure is available. Inductive, induction An approach to the relationship between theory and research in which the former is generated out of the latter.
Compare with deductive. Informed consent A key principle in social research ethics. It implies that prospective research participants should be given as much information as might be needed to make an informed decision about whether or not they wish to participate in a study. Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4th edition Inter-coder reliability The degree to which two or more individuals agree about the coding of an item.
Inter-coder reliability is likely to be an issue in content analysis, structured observation, and when coding answers to open questions in research based on questionnaires or structured interviews. Internal reliability The degree to which the indicators that make up a scale are consistent. Internal validity A concern with the question of whether a fi nding that incorporates a causal relationship between two or more variables is sound. Internet survey A very general term used to include any social survey conducted online.
As such, it includes the Web survey and the attached email survey and the embedded email survey. Interpretative repertoire A collection of linguistic resources that are drawn upon in order to characterize and assess actions and events.
Interpretivism An epistemological position that requires the social scientist to grasp the subjective meaning of social action. Interval variable A variable where the distances between the categories are identical across its range of categories. Intervening variable A variable that is affected by another variable and that in turn has a causal impact on another variable. Taking an intervening variable into account often facilitates the understanding of the relationship between two variables.
Interview guide A rather vague term that is used to refer to the brief list of memory prompts of areas to be covered that is often employed in unstructured interviewing or to the somewhat more structured list of issues to be addressed or questions to be asked in semi-structured interviewing. Interview schedule A collection of questions designed to be asked by an interviewer. An interview schedule is always used in a structured interview. Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4th edition Intra-coder reliability The degree to which an individual differs over time in the coding of an item.
Intra-coder reliability is likely to be an issue in content analysis, structured observation, and when coding answers to open questions in research based on questionnaires or structured interviews. Key informant Someone who offers the researcher, usually in the context of conducting an ethnography, perceptive information about the social setting, important events, and individuals.
Life history interview Similar to the oral history interview, but the aim of this type of unstructured interview is to glean information on the entire biography of each respondent. Life history method Also often referred to as the biographical method, this method emphasizes the inner experience of individuals and its connections with changing events and phases throughout the life course.
Likert scale A widely used format developed by Rensis Likert for asking attitude questions. Respondents are typically asked their degree of agreement with a series of statements that together form a multiple- indicator or -item measure.
The scale is deemed then to measure the intensity with which respondents feel about an issue. Longitudinal research A research design in which data are collected on a sample of people, documents, etc. Mail questionnaire Traditionally, this term has been synonymous with the postal questionnaire, but with the arrival of email-based questionnaires see embedded email survey and attached email survey , many writers prefer to refer to postal rather than mail questionnaires.
Mean Also known as the artithmetic mean, this is the everyday average—namely, the total of a distribution of values divided by the number of values. Measure of central tendency A statistic, like the arithmetic mean, median, or mode, that summarizes a distribution of values. Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4th edition Measure of dispersion A statistic, like the range or standard deviation, that summarizes the amount of variation in a distribution of values.
Measurement validity The degree to which a measure of a concept truly refl ects that concept. See also face validity and concurrent validity. Median The mid-point in a distribution of values.
Meta-analysis A form of systematic review that involves summarizing the results of a large number of quantitative studies and conducting various analytical tests to show whether or not a particular variable has an effect across the studies.
Meta-ethnography A form of systematic review that is used to achieve interpretative synthesis of qualitative research and other secondary sources, thus providing a counterpart to meta-analysis in quantitative research.
It can be used to synthesize and analyse information about a phenomenon that has been extensively studied. Missing data Data relating to a case that are not available —for example, when a respondent in social survey research does not answer a question.
Mixed methods research A term that is increasingly employed to describe research that combines the use of both quantitative research and qualitative research. The term can be employed to describe research that combines just quantitative research methods or that combines just qualitative research methods. However, in recent times, it has taken on this more specifi c meaning of combining quantitative and qualitative research methods.
Mode The value that occurs most frequently in a distribution of values. Moderated relationship A relationship between two variables is said to be moderated when it holds for one category of a third variable but not for another category or other categories.
Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4th edition Moderator The person who guides the questioning of a focus group. Also called a facilitator. Multiple-indicator measure A measure that employs more than one indicator to measure a concept. Multivariate analysis The examination of relationships between three or more variables. Narrative analysis An approach to the elicitation and analysis of data that is sensitive to the sense of temporal sequence that people, as tellers of stories about their lives or events around them, detect in their lives and surrounding episodes and inject into their accounts.
However, the approach is not exclusive to a focus on life histories. Narrative review An approach to reviewing the literature that is often contrasted nowadays with a systematic review.
It tends to be less focused than a systematic review and seeks to arrive at a critical interpretation of the literature that it covers. Naturalism A confusing term that has at least three distinct meanings: a commitment to adopting the principles of natural scientific method; being true to the nature of the phenomenon being investigated; and a style of research that seeks to minimize the intrusion of artifi cial methods of data collection.
Negative relationship A relationship between two variables, whereby as one increases the other decreases. Nominal variable Also known as a categorical variable, this is a variable that comprises categories that cannot be rank ordered.
Non-manipulable variable A variable that cannot readily be manipulated either for practical or for ethical reasons and that therefore cannot be employed in an experiment. Non-probability sample A sample that has not been selected using a random sampling method. Essentially, this implies that some units in the population are more likely to be selected than others.
Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4th edition Non-response A source of non-sampling error that occurs whenever some members of a sample refuse to cooperate, cannot be contacted, or for some reason cannot supply the required data.
Non-sampling error Differences between the population and the sample that arise either from deficiencies in the sampling approach, such as an inadequate sampling frame or non-response, or from problems such as poor question wording, poor interviewing, or flawed processing of data. Null hypothesis A hypothesis of no relationship between two variables. Objectivism An ontological position that asserts that social phenomena and their meanings have an existence that is independent of social actors.
Compare with constructionism. Observation schedule A device used in structured observation that specifies the categories of behaviour that are to be observed and how behaviour should be allocated to those categories. Official statistics Statistics compiled by or on behalf of state agencies in the course of conducting their business.
Ontology, ontological A theory of the nature of social entities. See objectivism and constructionism. Open question A question employed in an interview schedule or self-completion questionnaire that does not present the respondent with a set of possible answers to choose from.
Compare with closed question. Operational definition The definition of a concept in terms of the operations to be carried out when measuring it. Operationism, operationalism A doctrine, mainly associated with a version of physics, that emphasizes the search for operational definitions of concepts. Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4th edition Oral history interview A largely unstructured interview in which the respondent is asked to recall events from his or her past and to reflect on them.
Ordinal variable A variable whose categories can be rank ordered as in the case of interval and ratio variables , but the distances between the categories are not equal across the range. Outlier An extreme value in a distribution of values. If a variable has an extreme value—either very high or very low—the arithmetic mean or the range will be distorted by it.
Paradigm A term deriving from the history of science, where it was used to describe a cluster of beliefs and dictates that for scientists in a particular discipline influence what should be studied, how research should be done, and how results should be interpreted. Participant observation Research in which the researcher immerses him- or herself in a social setting for an extended period of time, observing behaviour, listening to what is said in conversations both between others and with the fi eldworker, and asking questions.
Participant observation usually includes interviewing key informants and studying documents and as such is diffi cult to distinguish from ethnography. In this book, participant observation is employed to refer to the specifi cally observational aspect of ethnography. Personal documents Documents such as diaries, letters, and autobiographies that are not written for an offi cial purpose. Phenomenology A philosophy that is concerned with the question of how individuals make sense of the world around them and how in particular the philosopher should bracket out preconceptions concerning his or her grasp of that world.
Phi A method for assessing the strength of the relationship between two dichotomous variables. Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4th edition Photo-elicitation Typically, photo-elicitation is a visual research methods that entails getting interviewees to discuss one or more photographs in the course of an interview. The photograph s may be extant or may have been taken by the interviewee for the purpose of the research. Population The universe of units from which a sample is to be selected.
Positive relationship A relationship between two variables, whereby as one increases the other increases as well. Positivism An epistemological position that advocates the application of the methods of the natural sciences to the study of social reality and beyond.
Postal questionnaire A form of self-completion questionnaire that is sent to respondents and usually returned by them by mail.
Postmodernism A position that displays a distaste for master-narratives and for a realist orientation. In the context of research methodology, postmodernists display a preference for qualitative methods and a concern with the modes of representation of research fi ndings. Pre-coded question Another name for a closed question.
The term is often preferred, because such a question removes the need for the application of a coding frame to the question after it has been answered. This is because the range of answers has been predetermined and a numerical code will have been pre- assigned to each possible answer.
The term is particularly appropriate when the codes appear on the questionnaire or interview schedule. Probability sampling, sample A sample that has been selected using random sampling and in which each unit in the population has a known probability of being selected. Bryman: Social Research Methods, 4th edition Qualitative content analysis An approach to documents that emphasizes the role of the investigator in the construction of the meaning of and in texts.
There is an emphasis on allowing categories to emerge out of data and on recognizing the signifi cance for understanding the meaning of the context in which an item being analysed and the categories derived from it appeared. Qualitative research Qualitative research usually emphasizes words rather than quantification in the collection and analysis of data. As a research strategy it is inductivist, constructionist, and interpretivist, but qualitative researchers do not always subscribe to all three of these features.
Compare with quantitative research. Quantitative research Quantitative research usually emphasizes quantification in the collection and analysis of data.
0コメント