Research Basics

Design to Data Analysis in Six Steps
James V. (Vernon) Spickard - University of Redlands
Research Basics
September 2016 | 424 pages | Sage US
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Description

Research Basics: Design to Data Analysis in Six Steps offers a fresh and creative approach to the research process based on author James V. Spickard’s decades of teaching experience. Using an intuitive six-step model, readers learn how to craft a research question and then identify a logical process for answering it. Conversational writing and multi-disciplinary examples illuminate the model’s simplicity and power, effectively connecting the “hows” and “whys” behind social science research. Students using this book will learn how to turn their research questions into results.

Contents

For Instructors: Why This Book?

  • What Lies Ahead

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments

About the Author

About the Author

Introduction

  • Why a Six-Step Formula?
  • Looking Ahead

PART ONE THE SIX STEPS

  • Chapter 1 Step 1: Develop a Good Research Question
  • Start With a Research Topic
  • From Topic to Question
  • An Example: Mass Transit
  • Making Decisions
  • Search the Literature
  • Recraft Your Research Question
  • Questions Based on the Literature
  • Three More Possibilities
  • Start Your Research Proposal
  • The Parts of a Proposal
  • A Proposal in Brief: The Concept Paper
  • Review Questions
  • Notes
  • Chapter 2 Step 2: Choose a Logical Structure for Your Research
  • Three Examples
  • 1. Comparing Outcomes
  • 2. Systematic Description
  • 3. Seeking Correlations
  • Ten Logical Structures for Research
  • 1. True Experiments
  • 2. Quasi-Experiments
  • 3. Ex Post Facto Research
  • 4. Correlational Research
  • 5. Descriptive Research
  • 6. Case Studies
  • 7. Historical Research
  • 8. Longitudinal Research
  • 9. Meta-Analysis
  • 10. Action Research
  • Matching Logical Structure to the Research Question
  • Review Questions
  • Notes
  • Chapter 3 Step 3: Identify the Type of Data You Need
  • Fourteen Types of Data
  • 1. Acts, Behavior, or Events
  • 2. Reports of Acts, Behavior, or Events
  • 3. Economic Data
  • 4. Organizational Data
  • 5. Demographic Data
  • 6. Self-Identity
  • 7. Shallow Opinions and Attitudes
  • 8. Deeply Held Opinions and Attitudes
  • 9. Personal Feelings
  • 10. Cultural Knowledge
  • 11. Expert Knowledge
  • 12. Personal and Psychological Traits
  • 13. Experience as It Presents Itself to Consciousness
  • 14. Hidden Social Patterns
  • Review Questions
  • Notes
  • Chapter 4 Step 4: Pick a Data Collection Method
  • Match Your Method to Your Data
  • Data Type 1: Acts, Behavior, or Events
  • Data Type 2: Reports of Acts, Behavior, or Events
  • Data Types 3, 4, and 5: Economic, Organizational, and Demographic Data
  • Data Type 6: Self-Identity
  • Data Types 7 and 8: Shallow and Deeply Held Opinions and Attitudes
  • Data Type 9: Personal Feelings
  • Three Examples (that include data types 10-12)
  • Example 1: Mass Transit and Property Values
  • Example 2: Mass Transit and Street Life
  • Example 3: Best Places to Work
  • Data Type 13: Experience as It Presents Itself to Consciousness
  • Hidden Social Patterns
  • Research Ethics
  • Unethical Research
  • Implementing Ethical Practices
  • Institutional Review Boards
  • Review Questions
  • Notes
  • Chapter 5 Step 5: Choose Your Data Collection Site
  • Demographic and Economic Data
  • Opinions, Identities, and Reports of Acts at a Shallow Level
  • Populations and Samples
  • Sample Size, Margin of Error, and Confidence Level
  • Observable Behavior
  • Deeply Held Opinions and Attitudes
  • Cultural and Expert Knowledge
  • Hidden Social Patterns
  • The Remaining Data Types
  • Review Questions
  • Notes
  • Chapter 6 Step 6: Pick a Data Analysis Method
  • Preliminary Questions
  • What Kind of Analysis Does Your Research Question Require?
  • What Form Does Your Data Take?
  • What Is Your Unit of Observation? What Is Your Unit of Analysis?
  • Working With Numeric Data: Describing
  • Working With Numeric Data: Comparing
  • Interval/Ratio Data
  • Ordinal and Categorical Data
  • Identifying Cause
  • What Statistical Test Should I Use?
  • Three Fallacies
  • Working With Qualitative Data
  • Respondent-Centered Versus Researcher-Centered Analysis
  • Coding
  • Internal Versus External Coding
  • Qualitative Data Analysis (QDA) Software
  • Warnings
  • Review Questions
  • Summarizing the Six Steps
  • Notes

PART TWO COLLECTING AND ANALYZING DIFFERENT TYPES OF DATA

  • Chapter 7 Comparing: Economic, Demographic, and Organizational Data
  • About Comparing
  • Comparing San Antonio and Portland
  • Comparing the 50 U.S. States
  • About Correlations
  • Three Examples
  • Comparing Places: Do Walkable Neighborhoods Improve Health?
  • Comparing Organizations: Does Treating Employees Well Increase Company Performance?
  • Comparing Schools: Do Charter Schools Improve Student Test Scores?
  • Research Ethics
  • Review Questions
  • Notes
  • Chapter 8 Surveying: Shallow Opinions, Identities, and Reports of Acts
  • Three Reminders
  • Two Examples
  • Studying School Safety
  • Kids’ Attitudes Toward Reading
  • Survey Data Analysis
  • Analyzing Interval/Ratio Survey Results
  • Analyzing Ordinal and Categorical Data
  • Practical Matters
  • Creating Your Questionnaire
  • Sampling (Again)
  • Surveying Online
  • Research Ethics
  • Review Questions
  • Notes
  • Chapter 9 Interviewing: Deep Talk to Gather Several Types of Data
  • Hermeneutic Interviews
  • An Example: “Motherloss”
  • How to Write an Interview Protocol
  • Coding Your Data
  • Interviews With Experts
  • Critical Incident Interviews
  • Focus Groups
  • Phenomenological Interviews
  • An Example
  • How Is It Done?
  • Other Types of Data
  • How Many Subjects?
  • Research Ethics
  • Review Questions
  • Notes
  • Chapter 10 Scales: Looking for Underlying Traits
  • Scales of Psychological Well-Being
  • Creating Scales
  • Using the Scales
  • Analyzing Scale Research
  • T-Tests and Analysis of Variance
  • Control Variables
  • Research Ethics
  • Review Questions
  • Notes
  • Chapter 11 Recording Behavior: Acts and Reports of Acts
  • Watching People
  • Watching Gender Speech
  • Collecting Self-Reports
  • A Variation: The Beeper Studies
  • Watching Animals
  • Watching Chimps
  • Ravens and Elephant-Shrews
  • What If They Hide?
  • Experiments
  • Experiments About Stereotype Threat
  • Experiments About Discrimination
  • Rules for Experiments
  • Research Ethics
  • Review Questions
  • Notes
  • Chapter 12 Finding Hidden Social Patterns: In Life, Texts, and Popular Culture
  • About Hidden Patterns
  • Analyzing Texts
  • Dreams as Texts
  • Other Texts
  • Analyzing Discourses
  • Critical Discourse Analysis
  • Two Examples
  • Analyzing Popular Culture: The Soaps
  • Research Ethics
  • Review Questions
  • Notes
  • Chapter 13 Ethnography: Exploring Cultural and Social Scenes
  • The Three Goals
  • Goal One: Seeing the World as the Participants See It
  • Goal Two: Watching What Participants Do
  • On Taking Field Notes
  • Goal Three: Understanding Hidden Patterns
  • What Doesn’t Matter
  • Steps to a Successful Ethnography
  • Gaining Access
  • Developing Rapport
  • Listening to Language
  • Being an Observed Observer
  • What About Objectivity?
  • Writing Your Results
  • A Word About Grounded Theory
  • Research Ethics
  • Review Questions
  • Notes
  • Chapter 14 Extended Example: Counting the Homeless
  • What Caused the Homeless Crisis?
  • Who Is Homeless?
  • How Can We Find and Count Street Homeless?
  • Peter Rossi’s Chicago Count
  • Martha Burt’s Weeklong Method
  • Counting San Bernardino
  • Conflicting Results
  • Correcting National Figures
  • Research Ethics
  • Reflections
  • Summary of the Six Steps
  • Notes

Research Guides and Handouts

  • Six-Steps Graphic: From Research Question to Data Analysis
  • What Is a Concept Paper?
  • How to Choose a Data Collection Method
  • A Template for Field Notes
  • How to Write an Interview Protocol
  • How Many Subjects? (for interview studies)
  • Interview Rule-of-Thumb Flowchart for Nonrandom Samples
  • What Statistical Tests Should I Use?

Glossary

Glossary

Author Index

Author Index

Subject Index

Subject Index

Additional materials

Description

Research Basics: Design to Data Analysis in Six Steps offers a fresh and creative approach to the research process based on author James V. Spickard’s decades of teaching experience. Using an intuitive six-step model, readers learn how to craft a research question and then identify a logical process for answering it. Conversational writing and multi-disciplinary examples illuminate the model’s simplicity and power, effectively connecting the “hows” and “whys” behind social science research. Students using this book will learn how to turn their research questions into results.

Contents

For Instructors: Why This Book?

  • What Lies Ahead

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments

About the Author

About the Author

Introduction

  • Why a Six-Step Formula?
  • Looking Ahead

PART ONE THE SIX STEPS

  • Chapter 1 Step 1: Develop a Good Research Question
  • Start With a Research Topic
  • From Topic to Question
  • An Example: Mass Transit
  • Making Decisions
  • Search the Literature
  • Recraft Your Research Question
  • Questions Based on the Literature
  • Three More Possibilities
  • Start Your Research Proposal
  • The Parts of a Proposal
  • A Proposal in Brief: The Concept Paper
  • Review Questions
  • Notes
  • Chapter 2 Step 2: Choose a Logical Structure for Your Research
  • Three Examples
  • 1. Comparing Outcomes
  • 2. Systematic Description
  • 3. Seeking Correlations
  • Ten Logical Structures for Research
  • 1. True Experiments
  • 2. Quasi-Experiments
  • 3. Ex Post Facto Research
  • 4. Correlational Research
  • 5. Descriptive Research
  • 6. Case Studies
  • 7. Historical Research
  • 8. Longitudinal Research
  • 9. Meta-Analysis
  • 10. Action Research
  • Matching Logical Structure to the Research Question
  • Review Questions
  • Notes
  • Chapter 3 Step 3: Identify the Type of Data You Need
  • Fourteen Types of Data
  • 1. Acts, Behavior, or Events
  • 2. Reports of Acts, Behavior, or Events
  • 3. Economic Data
  • 4. Organizational Data
  • 5. Demographic Data
  • 6. Self-Identity
  • 7. Shallow Opinions and Attitudes
  • 8. Deeply Held Opinions and Attitudes
  • 9. Personal Feelings
  • 10. Cultural Knowledge
  • 11. Expert Knowledge
  • 12. Personal and Psychological Traits
  • 13. Experience as It Presents Itself to Consciousness
  • 14. Hidden Social Patterns
  • Review Questions
  • Notes
  • Chapter 4 Step 4: Pick a Data Collection Method
  • Match Your Method to Your Data
  • Data Type 1: Acts, Behavior, or Events
  • Data Type 2: Reports of Acts, Behavior, or Events
  • Data Types 3, 4, and 5: Economic, Organizational, and Demographic Data
  • Data Type 6: Self-Identity
  • Data Types 7 and 8: Shallow and Deeply Held Opinions and Attitudes
  • Data Type 9: Personal Feelings
  • Three Examples (that include data types 10-12)
  • Example 1: Mass Transit and Property Values
  • Example 2: Mass Transit and Street Life
  • Example 3: Best Places to Work
  • Data Type 13: Experience as It Presents Itself to Consciousness
  • Hidden Social Patterns
  • Research Ethics
  • Unethical Research
  • Implementing Ethical Practices
  • Institutional Review Boards
  • Review Questions
  • Notes
  • Chapter 5 Step 5: Choose Your Data Collection Site
  • Demographic and Economic Data
  • Opinions, Identities, and Reports of Acts at a Shallow Level
  • Populations and Samples
  • Sample Size, Margin of Error, and Confidence Level
  • Observable Behavior
  • Deeply Held Opinions and Attitudes
  • Cultural and Expert Knowledge
  • Hidden Social Patterns
  • The Remaining Data Types
  • Review Questions
  • Notes
  • Chapter 6 Step 6: Pick a Data Analysis Method
  • Preliminary Questions
  • What Kind of Analysis Does Your Research Question Require?
  • What Form Does Your Data Take?
  • What Is Your Unit of Observation? What Is Your Unit of Analysis?
  • Working With Numeric Data: Describing
  • Working With Numeric Data: Comparing
  • Interval/Ratio Data
  • Ordinal and Categorical Data
  • Identifying Cause
  • What Statistical Test Should I Use?
  • Three Fallacies
  • Working With Qualitative Data
  • Respondent-Centered Versus Researcher-Centered Analysis
  • Coding
  • Internal Versus External Coding
  • Qualitative Data Analysis (QDA) Software
  • Warnings
  • Review Questions
  • Summarizing the Six Steps
  • Notes

PART TWO COLLECTING AND ANALYZING DIFFERENT TYPES OF DATA

  • Chapter 7 Comparing: Economic, Demographic, and Organizational Data
  • About Comparing
  • Comparing San Antonio and Portland
  • Comparing the 50 U.S. States
  • About Correlations
  • Three Examples
  • Comparing Places: Do Walkable Neighborhoods Improve Health?
  • Comparing Organizations: Does Treating Employees Well Increase Company Performance?
  • Comparing Schools: Do Charter Schools Improve Student Test Scores?
  • Research Ethics
  • Review Questions
  • Notes
  • Chapter 8 Surveying: Shallow Opinions, Identities, and Reports of Acts
  • Three Reminders
  • Two Examples
  • Studying School Safety
  • Kids’ Attitudes Toward Reading
  • Survey Data Analysis
  • Analyzing Interval/Ratio Survey Results
  • Analyzing Ordinal and Categorical Data
  • Practical Matters
  • Creating Your Questionnaire
  • Sampling (Again)
  • Surveying Online
  • Research Ethics
  • Review Questions
  • Notes
  • Chapter 9 Interviewing: Deep Talk to Gather Several Types of Data
  • Hermeneutic Interviews
  • An Example: “Motherloss”
  • How to Write an Interview Protocol
  • Coding Your Data
  • Interviews With Experts
  • Critical Incident Interviews
  • Focus Groups
  • Phenomenological Interviews
  • An Example
  • How Is It Done?
  • Other Types of Data
  • How Many Subjects?
  • Research Ethics
  • Review Questions
  • Notes
  • Chapter 10 Scales: Looking for Underlying Traits
  • Scales of Psychological Well-Being
  • Creating Scales
  • Using the Scales
  • Analyzing Scale Research
  • T-Tests and Analysis of Variance
  • Control Variables
  • Research Ethics
  • Review Questions
  • Notes
  • Chapter 11 Recording Behavior: Acts and Reports of Acts
  • Watching People
  • Watching Gender Speech
  • Collecting Self-Reports
  • A Variation: The Beeper Studies
  • Watching Animals
  • Watching Chimps
  • Ravens and Elephant-Shrews
  • What If They Hide?
  • Experiments
  • Experiments About Stereotype Threat
  • Experiments About Discrimination
  • Rules for Experiments
  • Research Ethics
  • Review Questions
  • Notes
  • Chapter 12 Finding Hidden Social Patterns: In Life, Texts, and Popular Culture
  • About Hidden Patterns
  • Analyzing Texts
  • Dreams as Texts
  • Other Texts
  • Analyzing Discourses
  • Critical Discourse Analysis
  • Two Examples
  • Analyzing Popular Culture: The Soaps
  • Research Ethics
  • Review Questions
  • Notes
  • Chapter 13 Ethnography: Exploring Cultural and Social Scenes
  • The Three Goals
  • Goal One: Seeing the World as the Participants See It
  • Goal Two: Watching What Participants Do
  • On Taking Field Notes
  • Goal Three: Understanding Hidden Patterns
  • What Doesn’t Matter
  • Steps to a Successful Ethnography
  • Gaining Access
  • Developing Rapport
  • Listening to Language
  • Being an Observed Observer
  • What About Objectivity?
  • Writing Your Results
  • A Word About Grounded Theory
  • Research Ethics
  • Review Questions
  • Notes
  • Chapter 14 Extended Example: Counting the Homeless
  • What Caused the Homeless Crisis?
  • Who Is Homeless?
  • How Can We Find and Count Street Homeless?
  • Peter Rossi’s Chicago Count
  • Martha Burt’s Weeklong Method
  • Counting San Bernardino
  • Conflicting Results
  • Correcting National Figures
  • Research Ethics
  • Reflections
  • Summary of the Six Steps
  • Notes

Research Guides and Handouts

  • Six-Steps Graphic: From Research Question to Data Analysis
  • What Is a Concept Paper?
  • How to Choose a Data Collection Method
  • A Template for Field Notes
  • How to Write an Interview Protocol
  • How Many Subjects? (for interview studies)
  • Interview Rule-of-Thumb Flowchart for Nonrandom Samples
  • What Statistical Tests Should I Use?

Glossary

Glossary

Author Index

Author Index

Subject Index

Subject Index

Additional materials

SAGE Publishing Logo

Research Basics

Design to Data Analysis in Six Steps


September 2016 | 424 pages | Sage US

Format Published Date ISBN Price

Research Basics: Design to Data Analysis in Six Steps offers a fresh and creative approach to the research process based on author James V. Spickard’s decades of teaching experience. Using an intuitive six-step model, readers learn how to craft a research question and then identify a logical process for answering it. Conversational writing and multi-disciplinary examples illuminate the model’s simplicity and power, effectively connecting the “hows” and “whys” behind social science research. Students using this book will learn how to turn their research questions into results.


Table Of Contents:

  • For Instructors: Why This Book?
  • What Lies Ahead
  • Acknowledgments
  • About the Author
  • Introduction
  • Why a Six-Step Formula?
  • Looking Ahead
  • PART ONE THE SIX STEPS
  • Chapter 1 Step 1: Develop a Good Research Question
  • Start With a Research Topic
  • From Topic to Question
  • An Example: Mass Transit
  • Making Decisions
  • Search the Literature
  • Recraft Your Research Question
  • Questions Based on the Literature
  • Three More Possibilities
  • Start Your Research Proposal
  • The Parts of a Proposal
  • A Proposal in Brief: The Concept Paper
  • Review Questions
  • Notes
  • Chapter 2 Step 2: Choose a Logical Structure for Your Research
  • Three Examples
  • 1. Comparing Outcomes
  • 2. Systematic Description
  • 3. Seeking Correlations
  • Ten Logical Structures for Research
  • 1. True Experiments
  • 2. Quasi-Experiments
  • 3. Ex Post Facto Research
  • 4. Correlational Research
  • 5. Descriptive Research
  • 6. Case Studies
  • 7. Historical Research
  • 8. Longitudinal Research
  • 9. Meta-Analysis
  • 10. Action Research
  • Matching Logical Structure to the Research Question
  • Review Questions
  • Notes
  • Chapter 3 Step 3: Identify the Type of Data You Need
  • Fourteen Types of Data
  • 1. Acts, Behavior, or Events
  • 2. Reports of Acts, Behavior, or Events
  • 3. Economic Data
  • 4. Organizational Data
  • 5. Demographic Data
  • 6. Self-Identity
  • 7. Shallow Opinions and Attitudes
  • 8. Deeply Held Opinions and Attitudes
  • 9. Personal Feelings
  • 10. Cultural Knowledge
  • 11. Expert Knowledge
  • 12. Personal and Psychological Traits
  • 13. Experience as It Presents Itself to Consciousness
  • 14. Hidden Social Patterns
  • Review Questions
  • Notes
  • Chapter 4 Step 4: Pick a Data Collection Method
  • Match Your Method to Your Data
  • Data Type 1: Acts, Behavior, or Events
  • Data Type 2: Reports of Acts, Behavior, or Events
  • Data Types 3, 4, and 5: Economic, Organizational, and Demographic Data
  • Data Type 6: Self-Identity
  • Data Types 7 and 8: Shallow and Deeply Held Opinions and Attitudes
  • Data Type 9: Personal Feelings
  • Three Examples (that include data types 10-12)
  • Example 1: Mass Transit and Property Values
  • Example 2: Mass Transit and Street Life
  • Example 3: Best Places to Work
  • Data Type 13: Experience as It Presents Itself to Consciousness
  • Hidden Social Patterns
  • Research Ethics
  • Unethical Research
  • Implementing Ethical Practices
  • Institutional Review Boards
  • Review Questions
  • Notes
  • Chapter 5 Step 5: Choose Your Data Collection Site
  • Demographic and Economic Data
  • Opinions, Identities, and Reports of Acts at a Shallow Level
  • Populations and Samples
  • Sample Size, Margin of Error, and Confidence Level
  • Observable Behavior
  • Deeply Held Opinions and Attitudes
  • Cultural and Expert Knowledge
  • Hidden Social Patterns
  • The Remaining Data Types
  • Review Questions
  • Notes
  • Chapter 6 Step 6: Pick a Data Analysis Method
  • Preliminary Questions
  • What Kind of Analysis Does Your Research Question Require?
  • What Form Does Your Data Take?
  • What Is Your Unit of Observation? What Is Your Unit of Analysis?
  • Working With Numeric Data: Describing
  • Working With Numeric Data: Comparing
  • Interval/Ratio Data
  • Ordinal and Categorical Data
  • Identifying Cause
  • What Statistical Test Should I Use?
  • Three Fallacies
  • Working With Qualitative Data
  • Respondent-Centered Versus Researcher-Centered Analysis
  • Coding
  • Internal Versus External Coding
  • Qualitative Data Analysis (QDA) Software
  • Warnings
  • Review Questions
  • Summarizing the Six Steps
  • Notes
  • PART TWO COLLECTING AND ANALYZING DIFFERENT TYPES OF DATA
  • Chapter 7 Comparing: Economic, Demographic, and Organizational Data
  • About Comparing
  • Comparing San Antonio and Portland
  • Comparing the 50 U.S. States
  • About Correlations
  • Three Examples
  • Comparing Places: Do Walkable Neighborhoods Improve Health?
  • Comparing Organizations: Does Treating Employees Well Increase Company Performance?
  • Comparing Schools: Do Charter Schools Improve Student Test Scores?
  • Research Ethics
  • Review Questions
  • Notes
  • Chapter 8 Surveying: Shallow Opinions, Identities, and Reports of Acts
  • Three Reminders
  • Two Examples
  • Studying School Safety
  • Kids’ Attitudes Toward Reading
  • Survey Data Analysis
  • Analyzing Interval/Ratio Survey Results
  • Analyzing Ordinal and Categorical Data
  • Practical Matters
  • Creating Your Questionnaire
  • Sampling (Again)
  • Surveying Online
  • Research Ethics
  • Review Questions
  • Notes
  • Chapter 9 Interviewing: Deep Talk to Gather Several Types of Data
  • Hermeneutic Interviews
  • An Example: “Motherloss”
  • How to Write an Interview Protocol
  • Coding Your Data
  • Interviews With Experts
  • Critical Incident Interviews
  • Focus Groups
  • Phenomenological Interviews
  • An Example
  • How Is It Done?
  • Other Types of Data
  • How Many Subjects?
  • Research Ethics
  • Review Questions
  • Notes
  • Chapter 10 Scales: Looking for Underlying Traits
  • Scales of Psychological Well-Being
  • Creating Scales
  • Using the Scales
  • Analyzing Scale Research
  • T-Tests and Analysis of Variance
  • Control Variables
  • Research Ethics
  • Review Questions
  • Notes
  • Chapter 11 Recording Behavior: Acts and Reports of Acts
  • Watching People
  • Watching Gender Speech
  • Collecting Self-Reports
  • A Variation: The Beeper Studies
  • Watching Animals
  • Watching Chimps
  • Ravens and Elephant-Shrews
  • What If They Hide?
  • Experiments
  • Experiments About Stereotype Threat
  • Experiments About Discrimination
  • Rules for Experiments
  • Research Ethics
  • Review Questions
  • Notes
  • Chapter 12 Finding Hidden Social Patterns: In Life, Texts, and Popular Culture
  • About Hidden Patterns
  • Analyzing Texts
  • Dreams as Texts
  • Other Texts
  • Analyzing Discourses
  • Critical Discourse Analysis
  • Two Examples
  • Analyzing Popular Culture: The Soaps
  • Research Ethics
  • Review Questions
  • Notes
  • Chapter 13 Ethnography: Exploring Cultural and Social Scenes
  • The Three Goals
  • Goal One: Seeing the World as the Participants See It
  • Goal Two: Watching What Participants Do
  • On Taking Field Notes
  • Goal Three: Understanding Hidden Patterns
  • What Doesn’t Matter
  • Steps to a Successful Ethnography
  • Gaining Access
  • Developing Rapport
  • Listening to Language
  • Being an Observed Observer
  • What About Objectivity?
  • Writing Your Results
  • A Word About Grounded Theory
  • Research Ethics
  • Review Questions
  • Notes
  • Chapter 14 Extended Example: Counting the Homeless
  • What Caused the Homeless Crisis?
  • Who Is Homeless?
  • How Can We Find and Count Street Homeless?
  • Peter Rossi’s Chicago Count
  • Martha Burt’s Weeklong Method
  • Counting San Bernardino
  • Conflicting Results
  • Correcting National Figures
  • Research Ethics
  • Reflections
  • Summary of the Six Steps
  • Notes
  • Research Guides and Handouts
  • Six-Steps Graphic: From Research Question to Data Analysis
  • What Is a Concept Paper?
  • How to Choose a Data Collection Method
  • A Template for Field Notes
  • How to Write an Interview Protocol
  • How Many Subjects? (for interview studies)
  • Interview Rule-of-Thumb Flowchart for Nonrandom Samples
  • What Statistical Tests Should I Use?
  • Glossary
  • Author Index
  • Subject Index

Recent Product Reviews:

"An extremely well organized text covering basics of research design and methods that consistently uses the six steps in the text and in examples to assure that students understand."
Anne Rothstein, Lehman College
"As Spickard explains, students tend to fear and shy away from research and particularly statistics courses. This textbook is designed in such a manner that it engages the student and keeps the student's attention through case illustrations and an easy-to-read format."
Manuel Zamora, Angelo State University
"It incorporates much of what must be pieced together from multiple resources into one text. The six-step strategy breaks the process down into manageable units, and it is clear to me how each step contributes to the overall process."
Terry Webster, Pacific Oaks College
"It's a textbook with lots of unique features, such as question-method match, data type-analytical tool match, as well as ethical theory-practice match. It's easy to follow and it acts as a textbook and a practical guide for undergraduate students. Chapters are organized as cooking recipes and examples are interesting and inspiring."
Lei Zhang, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
"Scholarly but not threatening to students who are scared of the word "research". The layout, language, and images make a challenging subject easier to understand and much less overwhelming."
Timothy Gunnells, Amridge University

Recommendations