Quantitative Research Methods in the Social Sciences

A strong understanding and appreciation of statistics and quantitative research methods is vital to any graduate student of the social sciences. Yet the texts on these subjects that are written at a level appropriate for graduate students are few and far between. With this in mind, the author has designed a text suitable for first year graduate survey courses that reviews general statistical theory and method and explores the problems that quantitative social scientists face in conducting research. After providing an overview of the philosophical basis of neo-positivistic, quantitative social science, the book will present the concepts of theory formalization and casuality. It will then move into more specific areas, focusing extensively on issues of design and data collection. These issues will include experimental designs, mesasurement theory, classical test theory, data collection methods and measurement errors, micro simulation, sampling designs, and computer intensive techniques.