Approaches to Social Research
Product Description:
Thoroughly revised and updated, the fourth edition of this successful text offers a wealth of new research examples and references, accessible diagrams of essential concepts and processes, and extended coverage of core methods and recent developments. Striking a balance between specific techniques and the underlying logic of scientific inquiry, Approaches to Social Research, Fourth Edition, provides a lucid treatment of the four major approaches to research--experimentation, survey research, field research, and the use of available data. While advocating a multiple-methods strategy that treats these approaches as complementary rather than mutually exclusive, the book contains a detailed account of the advantages and disadvantages of each approach.
Opening chapters draw students into the subject by illustrating the practicality of the study of research methods and outlining the scientific foundations of social research. The text then follows a typical research project, beginning with research design, measurement, and sampling. It proceeds with data collection and concludes with data processing and analysis. This fourth edition includes new and revised chapters that address the role of emerging technologies and the Internet in social research. Extensively updated research examples and a clear exposition make complex issues accessible to students with no background in social research. Approaches to Social Research, Fourth Edition, is an ideal textbook for graduates and advanced undergraduates in the social sciences, and it also provides important guidance for researchers in sociology and related disciplines.
Subjects: Social research & statistics, Sociology, Social Studies, Social Science, Sociology, Methodology, Research, Sociology - General, Social Science / Research, Social Science / Sociology / General, Social sciences,
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Good Chapter on Field Research
The book is quite good, but it tries to do too much. The book isn't long enough to really discuss all methods in social research. The sections on survey data and sampling are decent, but there are excellent books devoted purely to survey data and to sampling. The sections on forming an hypothesis are too simplistic. They simply tell people what they already know.
However, there are chapters that serve as excellent introductions. They are the chapter on Field Research and the chapters on Experimental Methods. Yes there are plenty of boooks on devoted purely to those subjects, but Singleton and Straits do a good job introducing the novice to these methods.
Educational
The authors point out that methodology is at the heart of social science, that it is what distinguishes social science from journalism and social commentary. Four approaches to social research are covered in this book: experimentation, survey research, field research, and the use of available data.
In the beginning of the book the argument is made for the book's primary subject, i.e., the question of why study research methods is addressed.
From this introduction a segue is made into the nature of science and the logical foundations of social research in particular.
After this section, there follows a discussion on research design and the elements which are found therein.
In the third section of the book, one finds a discussion of the methods of data collection.
As would be expected, this is followed by a discussion of interpreting the results and presenting the findings.
This is an effective book on how to go about conducting social research. I recommend it.
