Methods in Social Research

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Description
This volume was written out of our teaching experience with the students of Princeton University, Wayne University, Ohio State University, Northwestern University, and Pennsylvania State College and is an attempt to meet some of the problems which are part of the experience. Its primary debt must therefore be to those students who have suffered with us in seminars, classes, and projects over the past ten years. The book attempts to steer a course between a simple anecdotal account of research studies with their technical details, and a set of broad generalizations about research methodology. Its aim is to make both the elements of basic logic and the research procedures of modern sociology understandable at the undergraduate level, where the students should first e introduced to them. It has been a working assumption in our classes that such an understanding of research techniques is indispensable to the student, whether or not he wishes to become an active researcher. In the changing field of sociology, the person who is unwilling to learn how conclusions are reached cannot judge properly whether or not the conclusion he reads are correct
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Contents
Preface
1.    The New Sociology
2.    Science: Theory and Fact
3.    Value and Science
4.    Science: Pure and Applied
5.    Basic Elements of the Scientific Method: Concepts
6.    Basic Elements of the Scientific Method: Hypothesis
7.    Design of Proof: Testing the Hypothesis
8.    Further Problems in Research Design
9.    Use of Library (by Joseph S. Komidar)
10.  Observation
11.  Construction and Questionnaire
12.  The Mailed Questionnaire
13.  The Interview
14.  Probability and Sampling
15.  Scaling Techniques: The Basic Problem
16.  Scaling Techniques: Social Distance, Sociometric, and Rating Scales
17.  Scaling Techniques: Ranking, Internal constitency, and Scalogram Scales
18.  Research in Population
19.  Some Problems in Qualitative and Case Analysis
20.  The Analysis of Data
21.  Preparing the Report
Index
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Author Details
William J. Goode
Paul K. Hatt