Understanding Research
International Edition
Published on 21. April 2011
Book
Paperback/Softback
400 pages
978-0-205-10496-3 (ISBN)
Description
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 interesting and highly relevant for their lives and professional work.
Reviews / Votes
Review Summary"This section is extremely important. Information in this section would be reiterated in lecture."
Karen Benton
Urbana University
Learning from History
"This section is useful and would serve as a ink to changes in modern day, ethical research practice."
Karen Benton
Urbana University
Tips for the Wise Consumer
"This section reinforces the need for students to look critically at the research process. This would be reinforced weekly in the article reviews."
Karen Benton
Urbana University
"This is a great addition for those students who don't foresee themselves conducting social research and is often neglected in other text books, which is a shame considering that most social science students don't necessarily go on to produce social research of their own."
Molly George
University of California at Santa Barbara
Strengths:
"Students will be able to apply the course concepts to other courses or in the workforce."
Karen Benton
Urbana University
"Great examples are provided throughout the chapters."
Karen Benton
Urbana University
"This is a very comprehensive, user-friendly text."
John A. Lewis
University of Southern Mississippi
"The text is fluid and in-depth, but written at the appropriate level."
John A. Lewis
University of Southern Mississippi
Content
Chapter 8: Research with Nonreactive Members
"This chapter was thorough, used great examples, and provided a balanced assessment of the strengths and weaknesses associated with using nonreactive measures. I was impressed with the extensive descriptions the author provided to illustrate the key concepts related to this topic."
Molly George
University of California at Santa Barbara
Chapter 9: Making Sense of Numbers
"The author did an excellent job introducing this chapter and presenting the fundamentals of quantitative research. I know this is often the most intimidating and most difficult topic for most of my students. I feel that the author's use of examples and clear explanations works well."
Molly George
University of California at Santa Barbara
Chapter 10: Field Research and Ethnography
"This is one of the strongest, most comprehensive explanations of field research that I have encountered in a social research text book. As an ethnographer, I am often disappointed with the superficial description of this approach. More specifically, I appreciated the inclusion fo contemporary qualitative research to illustrate key issue/concerns with this approach."
Molly George
University of California at Santa Barbara
Features
'Making It Practical'
"I think Making it Practical provides a very useful, straight-forward explanation of how to put field work principles into practice."
Molly George
University of California at Santa Barbara
'Example Study'
"The study chosen as an example in Chapter 10's study is excellent! It is one of my favorite studies produced this past year and using various elements f the project to illustrate different issues and abstract concepts in field work is a great idea."
Molly George
University of California at Santa Barbara
Writing Style
"The author's writing style is clear and well-organized."
Molly George
University of California at Santa Barbara
"The writing style was excellent"
John A. Lewis
University of Southern Mississippi
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Publishing group
Pearson Education (US)
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 276 mm
Width: 215 mm
Thickness: 14 mm
Weight
710 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-205-10496-3 (9780205104963)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
New editions
Book
08/2013
1st Edition
Pearson Education Limited
€99.49
Shipment within 10-20 days
Person
W. Lawrence Neuman James is professor of sociology and Asian Studies coordinator at University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. His M.A. and Ph.D. were earned at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has authored seven books and published 35 articles and book chapters, which have appeared in Social Problems, Sociological Inquiry, Social Science Quarterly, American Sociological Review, Critical Asian Studies, Teaching Sociology, The Journal of Contemporary Asia, Sociological Quarterly, and other journals . He is a former president of the Wisconsin Sociological Association. Neuman has received his university's highest award for research, the Chancellor's Award for service to students with disabilities, as well as the the Wisconsin Sociological Association's Outstanding Service Award, and the College of Letters and Sciences awards for outstanding teaching, excellence in research, and outstanding service.
Content
IN THIS SECTION:
1.) BRIEF
2.) COMPREHENSIVE
BRIEF TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Chapter 1: Why Do Research?
Chapter 2: Planning A Study
Chapter 3: Becoming An Ethical Researcher
Chapter 4: Sampling, How To Select A Few To Represent The Many
Chapter 5: Measuring Social Life, How Many? How Much? What Type?
Chapter 6: The Survey: Asking People Questions
Chapter 7: The Experiment
Chapter 8: Research With Non-Reactive Measures
Chapter 9: Making Sense Of The Numbers
Chapter 10: Observing People In Natural Settings
Chapter 11: Looking At The Past And Across Cultures
Chapter 12: Writing A Research Report
Appendices
COMPREHENSIVE TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Chapter 1: Why do research?
On What Basis Do You Make Decisions?
How Do We Know What We Know?
What is Empirical Social Research?
Fit the Question You Want to Answer With a Type of Social Research
Steps in the Research Process
What have you learned?
Applying what you learned.
Chapter 2: Planning a Study
Picking a Study Topic
Conducting a Review Past Studies
Focusing on a Research Question
The Research Proposal
Chapter 3: Becoming an Ethical Researcher
The Ethical Imperative
Scientific Misconduct
Ethical Issues Involving Research Participants
Ethics and the Sponsors of Research
Politics of Research
Value-Free and Objective Research
Chapter 4: Sampling, How to select a few to represent the many
How and Why do Samples Work?
Focusing on at a specific group: four types of non-random samples
Coming to Conclusions about Large Populations
Three Specialized Sampling Techniques
Inferences from a Sample to a Population
What Have You Learned?
Chapter 5: Measuring Social Life, How Many? How Much? What Type?
Why Measure?
Making Aspects of the Social World Visible
Measuring with Numbers or Words
How to Create Good Measures: Reliability and Validity
A Guide to Quantitative Measures
How to create an Index
How to create a Scale
What have you Learned?
Chapter 6: The Survey: Asking People Questions
What is a Social Survey?
How to Conduct a Survey
Writing Good Survey Questions
Effective Questionnaire Design Tips
Advantages and Disadvantages of Different Survey Formats
Survey Interviewing
Chapter 7: The 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?
Experimental Validity Inside and Out
What You Can See In Experimental Results with Comparison
How to be Ethical in Experiments
What did you Learn?
Chapter 8: Research With Non-Reactive Measures
Analyzing Physical Evidence for Clues About Social Life
Revealing the Content Buried Within Communication Messages
Mining Existing Statistical Sources to Answer New Questions
Answering New Questions Using Survey Data Collected by Others
Conducting Ethical Non-Reactive Research
Chapter 9: Making Sense of the Numbers
What to do once you have the numbers
How to Describe Quantitative Results
Inferring from Statistics
Conclusion
Chapter 10: Observing People in Natural Settings
What is Field Research?
Studying People in the Field
Preparing For a Field Study
Starting the Research Project
Being in the Field
Strategies for Success in the Field
Observing and Collecting Data
The Field Research Interview
Leaving the Field
Writing the Field Research Report
Ethics and the Field Researcher
Focus Groups
Chapter 11: Looking at the Past and Across Cultures
What is Historical-Comparative Research?
How to do a Historical-Comparative Research Study
Researching the Past
Research to Compare Across Cultures
Being an Ethical H-C Researcher
Chapter 12: Writing A Research Report
Why Write a Report?
The Writing Process
The Quantitative Research Report
The Qualitative Research Report
The Research Proposal
Undergraduate Research
Appendices
1. Sample Annotated Research Paper
2. Leading Academic Journals by Subject
1.) BRIEF
2.) COMPREHENSIVE
BRIEF TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Chapter 1: Why Do Research?
Chapter 2: Planning A Study
Chapter 3: Becoming An Ethical Researcher
Chapter 4: Sampling, How To Select A Few To Represent The Many
Chapter 5: Measuring Social Life, How Many? How Much? What Type?
Chapter 6: The Survey: Asking People Questions
Chapter 7: The Experiment
Chapter 8: Research With Non-Reactive Measures
Chapter 9: Making Sense Of The Numbers
Chapter 10: Observing People In Natural Settings
Chapter 11: Looking At The Past And Across Cultures
Chapter 12: Writing A Research Report
Appendices
COMPREHENSIVE TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Chapter 1: Why do research?
On What Basis Do You Make Decisions?
How Do We Know What We Know?
What is Empirical Social Research?
Fit the Question You Want to Answer With a Type of Social Research
Steps in the Research Process
What have you learned?
Applying what you learned.
Chapter 2: Planning a Study
Picking a Study Topic
Conducting a Review Past Studies
Focusing on a Research Question
The Research Proposal
Chapter 3: Becoming an Ethical Researcher
The Ethical Imperative
Scientific Misconduct
Ethical Issues Involving Research Participants
Ethics and the Sponsors of Research
Politics of Research
Value-Free and Objective Research
Chapter 4: Sampling, How to select a few to represent the many
How and Why do Samples Work?
Focusing on at a specific group: four types of non-random samples
Coming to Conclusions about Large Populations
Three Specialized Sampling Techniques
Inferences from a Sample to a Population
What Have You Learned?
Chapter 5: Measuring Social Life, How Many? How Much? What Type?
Why Measure?
Making Aspects of the Social World Visible
Measuring with Numbers or Words
How to Create Good Measures: Reliability and Validity
A Guide to Quantitative Measures
How to create an Index
How to create a Scale
What have you Learned?
Chapter 6: The Survey: Asking People Questions
What is a Social Survey?
How to Conduct a Survey
Writing Good Survey Questions
Effective Questionnaire Design Tips
Advantages and Disadvantages of Different Survey Formats
Survey Interviewing
Chapter 7: The 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?
Experimental Validity Inside and Out
What You Can See In Experimental Results with Comparison
How to be Ethical in Experiments
What did you Learn?
Chapter 8: Research With Non-Reactive Measures
Analyzing Physical Evidence for Clues About Social Life
Revealing the Content Buried Within Communication Messages
Mining Existing Statistical Sources to Answer New Questions
Answering New Questions Using Survey Data Collected by Others
Conducting Ethical Non-Reactive Research
Chapter 9: Making Sense of the Numbers
What to do once you have the numbers
How to Describe Quantitative Results
Inferring from Statistics
Conclusion
Chapter 10: Observing People in Natural Settings
What is Field Research?
Studying People in the Field
Preparing For a Field Study
Starting the Research Project
Being in the Field
Strategies for Success in the Field
Observing and Collecting Data
The Field Research Interview
Leaving the Field
Writing the Field Research Report
Ethics and the Field Researcher
Focus Groups
Chapter 11: Looking at the Past and Across Cultures
What is Historical-Comparative Research?
How to do a Historical-Comparative Research Study
Researching the Past
Research to Compare Across Cultures
Being an Ethical H-C Researcher
Chapter 12: Writing A Research Report
Why Write a Report?
The Writing Process
The Quantitative Research Report
The Qualitative Research Report
The Research Proposal
Undergraduate Research
Appendices
1. Sample Annotated Research Paper
2. Leading Academic Journals by Subject