Product Description: How do we interact with people in our everyday life? Who are the people we are connected to? What are the consequences of overlapping social circles and how people deal with the potential emerging conflicts? What are the structural and cultural mechanisms that regulate social worlds? Network science is a scientific approach to the study of network dependencies and associations which tries to answer these and many other questions...read more

Designed to help readers acquire basic skills in the methods of social science research, this book contains excerpts from professional journal articles, scholarly books, and popular press. It uses a straightforward writing style to present essential information, without eliminating key concepts, tools, and their applications. Concrete, everyday examples and hands-on practice activities reinforce fundamental concepts that will be useful in future careers and life. Chapter topics cover foundations of social research; variables and measurement; designing social research; indirect methods; surveys; populations, samples and sampling; preparing the data and basic data analysis; preparing the report; and applying principles of science learning to everyday learning. For a better understanding of the research findings presented to us in magazines, newspapers, television reports, and elsewhere.

Product Description: In relatively few pages, Michael Angrosino delivers a high-impact, step-by-step guide to the process of social research. While stressing qualitative methods, he also discusses the processes and attributes of quantitative methods, offering a coherent view of an eight-phased research process...read more

Product Description: Interviewing is used very widely in qualitative research, and takes many different forms. It is also a method that is constantly evolving, in response both to theoretical and technological developments. The authors present a clear and thorough guide to the use of interviews in contemporary qualitative research...read more

Product Description: The First Edition of InterViews has provided students and professionals in a wide variety of disciplines with the “whys” and “hows” of research interviewing, preparing students for learning interviewing by doing interviews and by studying examples of best practice...read more

Content analysis is one of the most important but complex research methodologies in the social sciences. In this thoroughly updated Second Edition of The Content Analysis Guidebook, author Kimberly Neuendorf draws on examples from across numerous disciplines to clarify the complicated aspects of content analysis through step-by-step instruction and practical advice. Throughout the book, the author also describes a wide range of innovative content analysis projects from both academia and commercial research that provide readers with a deeper understanding of the research process and its many real-world applications.

Over the two decades since the publication of the first edition of Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods, qualitative research has risen from a novel and controversial approach to the study of social issues to a widely practiced method for understanding how people view themselves and the world around them. New journals, university courses, handbooks, and encyclopedias are now devoted to the study and practice of qualitative research, but there is still only one comprehensive, practical guide to the collection and presentation of qualitative data. Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods, Third Edition is a completely up-to-date guide to qualitative study design, data collection, analysis, and reporting. The first part of the book surveys a range of methods for collecting qualitative data, focusing on how these techniques are applied when conducting an actual study. Separate chapters are devoted to participant observation (both pre-fieldwork and in the field), in-depth interviewing, creative new approaches such as postmodern ethnography and personal document analysis, and data analysis. The second half of the book, which covers the writing and publication of qualitative studies, clearly demonstrates how qualitative methods are used in actual practice. Comprehensive and jargon-free, Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods, Third Edition: Reviews current theoretical developments in feminist research and postmodernism Includes examples of studies conducted in educational, human services, disability services, and health care settings Surveys the full range of qualitative methods and reviews the research process from design through data collection, analysis, and writing Provides an extensive bibliography and an appendix containing participant observation field notes. Comprehensive, practical, and brimming with new material, Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods, Third Edition is an ideal text for graduate and upper-level undergraduate courses across a broad range of social science disciplines. It is also an excellent guidebook and resource for practicing social scientists. Praise for Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods: A Guidebook and Resource — Third Edition. "This book has long been my favorite text in qualitative methods. With a bit of theory, a lot of practical advice, and some wonderful examples of field notes and published research, the authors educate beginners in qualitative research and provide a useful reference for experienced researchers. This Third Edition adds clear and straightforward coverage of new developments in the field, including feminism, postmodernism, and the recent emphasis on writing issues in qualitative research." —Marjorie L. DeVault, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Sociology Syracuse University. "A valuable resource. Once again, Steven Taylor and Robert Bogdan have made an important contribution to the literature on qualitative research. The book is written with the same insight, clarity, and commitment to reaching their readers that has characterized their earlier collaborations." —J. David Smith, Ed.D. Dean of the School of Education and Human Services Longwood College. "Taylor and Bogdan's updating of their classic text will be incredibly valuable to students. It is a great choice for qualitative methods courses in the social sciences." —David Goode, Ph.D. Professor of Sociology and Coordinator Program in Developmental Disabilities College of Staten Island/CUNY Author of A World Without Words 1995 winner of the John Horton Cooley Award. "The broad spectrum of methodological possibilities, the discussion of the history of methods, and the many instructive examples make this exciting new edition an excellent text for the beginning qualitative methodologist." — Carol Rambo Ronai, Ph.D. Professor of Sociology University of Memphis. "An engaging, highly readable, and instructive guide to established and emerging methodological conventions. This impressively straightforward and balanced guide is also the most comprehensive and usable resource for publishing qualitative research that I have seen." — Tom Skrtic, Ph.D. Professor of Special Education University of Kansas.

This is a comprehensive methodology text for the instructor looking for limited coverage of statistics in a methods textbook. It offers a balance of qualitative and quantitative research approaches. Both approaches are treated as serious alternatives that have their own strengths. It includes an extensive discussion of how to do historic-comparative research. Topics covered include research ethics, using the library for preparing a literature review and a survey research. The text also presents alternative epistemological approaches to social research and links the research techniques to theory.