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    Social research methods / Alan Bryman.

    • Title:Social research methods / Alan Bryman.
    •    
    • Author/Creator:Bryman, Alan.
    • Published/Created:Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press. ©2012.
    • Holdings

       
    • Library of Congress Subjects:Social sciences--Research.
    • Edition:4th ed.
    • Description:xli, 766 p. : ill. ; 27 cm.
    • Notes:Includes bibliographical references and index.
    • ISBN:9780199588053
      0199588058
    • Contents:Machine generated contents note: Part One
      ch. 1 nature and process of social research
      Introduction
      What is meant by `social research'?
      Why do social research?
      context of social research methods
      Elements of the process of social research
      Literature review
      Concepts and theories
      Research questions
      Sampling cases
      Data collection
      Data analysis
      Writing up
      messiness of social research
      Key points
      Questions for review
      ch. 2 Social research strategies
      Introduction
      Theory and research
      What type of theory?
      Deductive and inductive theory
      Epistemological considerations
      natural science epistemology: positivism
      Interpretivism
      Ontological considerations
      Objectivism
      Constructionism
      Relationship to social research
      Research strategy: quantitative and qualitative research
      Influences on the conduct of social research
      Values
      Practical considerations
      Key points
      Questions for review
      ch. 3 Research designs
      Introduction
      Criteria in social research
      Reliability
      Replication
      Validity
      Relationship with research strategy
      Research designs
      Experimental design
      Cross-sectional design
      Longitudinal design(s)
      Case study design
      Comparative design
      Bringing research strategy and research design together
      Key points
      Questions for review
      ch. 4 Planning a research project and formulating research questions
      Introduction
      Getting to know what is expected of you by your institution
      Thinking about your research area
      Using your supervisor
      Managing time and resources
      Formulating suitable research questions
      Criteria for evaluating research questions
      Writing your research proposal
      Preparing for your research
      Doing your research and analysing your results
      Checklist
      Key points
      Questions for review
      ch. 5 Getting started: reviewing the literature
      Reviewing the existing literature
      Getting the most from your reading
      Systematic review
      Narrative review
      Searching the existing literature
      Electronic databases
      Keywords and defining search parameters
      Referencing your work
      role of the bibliography
      Avoiding plagiarism
      Checklist
      Key points
      Questions for review
      ch. 6 Ethics and politics in social research
      Introduction
      Ethical principles
      Harm to participants
      Lack of informed consent
      Invasion of privacy
      Deception
      Ethics and the issue of quality
      difficulties of ethical decision-making
      New media and difficult decisions
      Politics in social research
      Checklist
      Key points
      Questions for review
      Part Two
      ch. 7 nature of quantitative research
      Introduction
      main steps in quantitative research
      Concepts and their measurement
      What is a concept?
      Why measure?
      Indicators
      Using multiple-indicator measures
      Dimensions of concepts
      Reliability and validity
      Reliability
      Validity
      Reflections on reliability and validity
      main preoccupations of quantitative researchers
      Measurement
      Causality
      Generalization
      Replication
      critique of quantitative research
      Criticisms of quantitative research
      Is it always like this?
      Reverse operationism
      Reliability and validity testing
      Sampling
      Key points
      Questions for review
      ch. 8 Sampling
      Introduction to survey research
      Introduction to sampling
      Sampling error
      Types of probability sample
      Simple random sample
      Systematic sample
      Stratified random sampling
      Multi-stage cluster sampling
      qualities of a probability sample
      Sample size
      Absolute and relative sample size
      Time and cost
      Non-response
      Heterogeneity of the population
      Kind of analysis
      Types of non-probability sampling
      Convenience sampling
      Snowball sampling
      Quota sampling
      Limits to generalization
      Error in survey research
      Key points
      Questions for review
      ch. 9 Structured interviewing
      Introduction
      structured interview
      Reducing error due to interviewer variability
      Accuracy and ease of data processing
      Other types of interview
      Interview contexts
      More than one interviewee
      More than one interviewer
      In person or by telephone?
      Computer-assisted interviewing
      Conducting interviews
      Know the schedule
      Introducing the research
      Rapport
      Asking questions
      Recording answers
      Clear instructions
      Question order
      Probing
      Prompting
      Leaving the interview
      Training and supervision
      Problems with structured interviewing
      Characteristics of interviewers
      Response sets
      problem of meaning
      feminist critique
      Key points
      Questions for review
      ch. 10 Self-completion questionnaires
      Introduction
      Self-completion questionnaire or postal questionnaire?
      Evaluating the self-completion questionnaire in relation to the structured interview
      Advantages of the self-completion questionnaire over the structured interview
      Disadvantages of the self-completion questionnaire in comparison with the structured interview
      Steps to improve response rates to postal questionnaires
      Designing the self-completion questionnaire
      Do not cramp the presentation
      Clear presentation
      Vertical or horizontal closed answers?
      Clear instructions about how to respond
      Keep question and answers together
      Diaries as a form of self-completion questionnaire
      Advantages and disadvantages of the diary as a method of data collection
      Key points
      Questions for review
      ch. 11 Asking questions
      Introduction
      Open or closed questions?
      Open questions
      Closed questions
      Types of questions
      Rules for designing questions
      General rules of thumb
      Specific rules when designing questions
      Vignette questions
      Piloting and pre-testing questions
      Using existing questions
      Checklist
      Key points
      Questions for review
      ch. 12 Structured observation
      Introduction
      Problems with survey research on social behaviour
      So why not observe behaviour?
      observation schedule
      Strategies for observing behaviour
      Sampling
      Sampling people
      Sampling in terms of time
      Further sampling considerations
      Issues of reliability and validity
      Reliability
      Validity
      Field stimulations as a form of structured observation
      Criticisms of structured observation
      On the other hand...
      Checklist
      Key points
      Questions for review
      ch. 13 Content analysis
      Introduction
      What are the research questions?
      Selecting a sample
      Sampling media
      Sampling dates
      What is to be counted?
      Significant actors
      Words
      Subjects and themes
      Dispositions
      Coding
      Coding schedule
      Coding manual
      Potential pitfalls in devising coding schemes
      Advantages of content analysis
      Disadvantages of content analysis
      Checklist
      Key points
      Questions for review
      ch. 14 Secondary analysis and official statistics
      Introduction
      Other researchers' data
      Advantages of secondary analysis
      Limitations of secondary analysis
      Accessing the Data Archive
      Official statistics
      Reliability and validity
      Condemning and resurrecting official statistics
      Official statistics as a form of unobtrusive method
      Key points
      Questions for review
      ch. 15 Quantitative data analysis
      Introduction
      small research project
      Missing data
      Types of variable
      Univariate analysis
      Frequency tables
      Diagrams
      Measures of central tendency
      Measures of dispersion
      Bivariate analysis
      Relationships not causality
      Contingency tables
      Pearson's r
      Spearman's rho
      Phi and Cramer's V
      Comparing means and eta
      Multivariate analysis
      Could the relationship be spurious?
      Could there be an intervening variable?
      Could a third variable moderate the relationship?
      Statistical significance
      chi-square test
      Correlation and statistical significance
      Comparing means and statistical significance
      Checklist
      Key points
      Questions for review
      ch. 16 Using IBM SPSS for Windows
      Introduction
      Getting started in SPSS
      Beginning SPSS
      Entering data in the Data Viewer
      Defining variables: variable names, missing values, variable labels, and value labels
      Recoding variables
      Computing a new variable
      Data analysis with SPSS
      Generating a frequency table
      Generating a bar chart
      Generating a pie chart
      Generating a histogram
      Generating the arithmetic mean, median, standard deviation, the range, and boxplots
      Generating a contingency table, chi-square, and Cramer's V
      Generating Pearson's r and Spearman's rho
      Generating scatter diagrams
      Comparing means and eta
      Generating a contingency table with three variables
      Further operations in SPSS
      Saving your data
      Retrieving your data
      Printing output
      Key points
      Questions for review
      Part Three
      ch. 17 nature of qualitative research
      Introduction
      main steps in qualitative research
      Theory and research
      Concepts in qualitative research
      Reliability and validity in qualitative research
      Adapting reliability and validity for qualitative research
      Alternative criteria for evaluating qualitative research
      Recent discussions about quality criteria for qualitative research
      Between quantitative and qualitative research criteria
      Contents note continued: Overview of the issue of criteria
      main preoccupations of qualitative researchers
      Seeing through the eyes of the people being studied
      Description and the emphasis on context
      Emphasis on process
      Flexibility and limited structure
      Concepts and theory grounded in data
      critique of qualitative research
      Qualitative research is too subjective
      Difficult to replicate
      Problems of generalization
      Lack of transparency
      Is it always like this?
      Some contrasts between quantitative and qualitative research
      Some similarities between quantitative and qualitative research
      Feminism and qualitative research
      Key points
      Questions for review
      ch. 18 Sampling in qualitative research
      Introduction
      Levels of sampling
      Purposive sampling
      Theoretical sampling
      Generic purposive sampling
      Snowball sampling
      Sample size
      Not just people
      Using more than one sampling approach
      Key points
      Questions for review
      ch. 19 Ethnography and participant observation
      Introduction
      Access
      Overt versus covert ethnography
      Access to closed settings
      Access to open/public settings
      Ongoing access
      Key informants
      Roles for ethnographers
      Active or passive?
      Field notes
      Types of field notes
      Bringing ethnographic research to an end
      Can there be a feminist ethnography?
      rise of visual ethnography
      Writing ethnography
      changing nature of ethnography
      Key points
      Questions for review
      ch. 20 Interviewing in qualitative research
      Introduction
      Differences between the structured interview and the qualitative interview
      Asking questions in the qualitative interview
      Preparing an interview guide
      Kinds of questions
      Recording and transcription
      Telephone interviewing
      Life history and oral history interviewing
      Feminist research and interviewing in qualitative research
      Qualitative interviewing versus participant observation
      Advantages of participant observation in comparison to qualitative interviewing
      Advantages of qualitative interviewing in comparison to participant observation
      Overview
      Checklist
      Key points
      Questions for review
      ch. 21 Focus groups
      Introduction
      Uses of focus groups
      Conducting focus groups
      Recording and transcription
      How many groups?
      Size of groups
      Level of moderator involvement
      Selecting participants
      Asking questions
      Beginning and finishing
      Group interaction in focus group sessions
      Limitations of focus groups
      Checklist
      Key points
      Questions for review
      ch. 22 Language in qualitative research
      Introduction
      Conversation analysis
      Assumptions of conversation analysis
      Transcription and attention to detail
      Some basic tools of conversation analysis
      Overview
      Discourse analysis
      Uncovering interpretative repertoires
      Producing facts
      Critical discourse analysis
      Overview
      Key points
      Questions for review
      ch. 23 Documents as sources of data
      Introduction
      Personal documents
      Diaries, letters, and autobiographies
      Visual objects
      Official documents deriving from the state
      Official documents deriving from private sources
      Mass-media outputs
      Virtual documents
      reality of documents
      Interpreting documents
      Qualitative content analysis
      Semiotics
      Hermeneutics
      Checklist
      Key points
      Questions for review
      ch. 24 Qualitative data analysis
      Introduction
      General strategies of qualitative data analysis
      Analytic induction
      Grounded theory
      Basic operations in qualitative data analysis
      Steps and considerations in coding
      Turning data into fragments
      Problems with coding
      Thematic analysis
      Narrative analysis
      Secondary analysis of qualitative data
      Key points
      Questions for review
      ch. 25 Computer-assisted qualitative data analysis: using NVivo
      Introduction
      Is CAQDAS like quantitative data analysis software?
      No industry leader
      Lack of universal agreement about the utility of CAQDAS
      Learning NVivo
      Coding
      Searching text
      Memos
      Saving an NVivo project
      Opening an existing NVivo project
      Final thoughts
      Key points
      Questions for review
      Part Four
      ch. 26 Breaking down the quantitative/qualitative divide
      Introduction
      natural science model and qualitative research
      Quantitative research and interpretivism
      Quantitative research and constructionism
      Research methods and epistemological and ontological considerations
      Problems with the quantitative/qualitative contrast
      Behaviour versus meaning
      Theory and concepts tested in research versus theory and concepts emergent from data
      Numbers versus words
      Artificial versus natural
      mutual analysis of quantitative and qualitative research
      qualitative research approach to quantitative research
      quantitative research approach to qualitative research
      Quantification in qualitative research
      Thematic analysis
      Quasi-quantification in qualitative research
      Combating anecdotalism through limited quantification
      Key points
      Questions for review
      ch. 27 Mixed methods research: combining quantitative and qualitative research
      Introduction
      argument against mixed methods research
      embedded methods argument
      paradigm argument
      Two versions of the debate about quantitative and qualitative research
      Approaches to mixed methods research
      content analysis of articles based on mixed methods research
      Approaches to combining quantitative and qualitative research in mixed methods research
      Reflections on mixed methods research
      Checklist
      Key points
      Questions for review
      ch. 28 E-research: Internet research methods
      Introduction
      Internet as object of analysis
      Using the Internet to collect data from individuals
      Online ethnography
      Qualitative research using online focus groups
      Qualitative research using online personal interviews
      Online social surveys
      Email surveys
      Web surveys
      Mixing modes of survey administration
      Sampling issues
      Overview
      Ethical considerations in Internet research
      state of e-research
      Key points
      Questions for review
      ch. 29 Writing up social research
      Introduction
      Writing up your research
      Start early
      Be persuasive
      Get feedback
      Avoid sexist, racist, and disablist language
      Structure your writing
      Writing up quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research
      Writing up quantitative research
      Writing up qualitative research
      Writing up mixed methods research
      Academic writing
      Checklist
      Key points
      Questions for review.
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