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This course introduces research methods in the social sciences. The purpose of the course is to teach the theory behind and application of research methods. We will start with broad questions about fundamental principles that undergird any approaches to social inquiries, the basic research process and the measurement of rigor, and then proceed to the discussion of specific techniques in qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methodologies, such as case study, content analysis, survey research, and statistical analysis. As part of the course, students will learn how analytical tools and software assist data analysis. Students are expected to improve research capacities in analytical thinking, devising research questions, searching and reviewing literature, formulating hypotheses, selecting and performing appropriate tests, interpreting results, and drafting research proposals.
This second edition provides an introduction to social science methodology relevant to the disciplines of anthropology, economics, history, political science, psychology, and sociology. This book is organized into 4 parts. Part 1 introduces elements of the social science enterprise that are general in purview. Part 2 focuses on description, that is, on empirical propositions that answer what, how, when, whom or in what manner questions. Part 3 focuses on causation, that is, on empirical arguments that answer why questions. Part 4 concludes the book by discussing the problem of unity and diversity, as well as the setting of standards.
This book was initially written as a methodology textbook for sociology courses, but has been increasingly used in the fields of psychology, public administration, urban studies, education, communications, social sciences, and political science. Part One examines the fundamental characteristics and issues that make science- defined as a method of inquiry by Babbie- different from other ways of knowing things. Part Two deals with the posing of proper scientific questions, the structuring of inquiry. Part Three presents various observational techniques available to social scientists. Part Four discusses the analysis of social research data and examines the steps that separate observation from the final reporting of findings.
This sixth edition provides a complete portal to the world of case study research. It consists of 6 chapters. Chapter 1 discusses how to know whether and when to use the case study as a research method. Chapter 2 focuses on identifying your cases and establishing the logic of your case study. Chapter 3 discusses what you need to do before starting to collect case study data. Chapter 4 discusses the principles you should follow in working with six sources of evidence. Chapter 5 discusses how to start your analysis, your analytic choices, and how they work. Chapter 6 focuses on how and what to compose when reporting case studies.
This book introduces ways of analyzing meaningful matter, texts, images, and voices. It is organized into 3 parts. Part 1 introduces the history of content analysis, discusses the definition of content analysis, and presents the ways in which content analysis has been applied. Part 2 outlines the procedures used in content analysis, beginning with their procedural logic and moving naturally from unitizing, sampling, recording/coding in terms of formal data languages and analytical constructs. Part 3 traces several paths through content analysis protocols, including analytical constructs, the use of computers and computational techniques, and the two principal criteria used in evaluating content analyses: reliability and validity.
This fourth edition presents the tools and concepts used in multivariate data analysis. It surveys the basic principles and emphasizes both exploratory and inferential statistics. It consists of 22 chapters divided in to 4 parts. All chapters include practical exercises that highlight applications in different multivariate data analysis fields: in quantitative financial studies, where the joint dynamics of assets are observed; in medicine, where recorded observations of subjects in different locations form the basis for reliable diagnoses and medication; and in quantitative marketing, where consumers’ preferences are collected in order to construct models of consumer behavior.
This book develops a unified approach to qualitative and quantitative research in political science, showing how the same logic of inference underlies both. Issues discussed are related to framing research questions, measuring the accuracy of data and the uncertainty of empirical inferences, discovering causal effects, and getting the most out of qualitative research. It addresses topics such as interpretation and inference, comparative case studies, constructing causal theories, dependent and explanatory variables, the limits of random selection, selection bias, and errors in measurement. The book only uses mathematical notation to clarify concepts, and assumes no prior knowledge of mathematics or statistics.
