Key Concepts in Social Research

This book is a major addition to undergraduate reading lists. It is reliable, allows for easy transference to essays and exams and easy to use, and exceptionally clearly written for student consumption. Topics range over qualitative and quantitative approaches and combine practical considerations with philosophical issues.

Action Research
Association and Causation
Attitude Scales
Auto/Biography and Life Histories
Bias
Case Study
Coding Qualitative Data
Community Profiles
Community Studies
Content Analysis
Contingency Tables
Documentary Methods
Ethical Practice
Ethnography
Ethnomethodology and Conversational Analysis
Evaluation Studies
Experiments
Feminist Research
Fieldwork
Grounded Theory
Group Discussions/Focus Groups
Hawthorne Effect
Hypothesis
Indicators and Operationalisations
Internet and Other Searches
Internet Polling
Interviewing
Key Informants
Levels of Measurement
Longitudinal and Cross-Sectional Studies
Methods and Methodologies
Objectivity
Observation
Official Statistics
Participant Observation
Positivism and Realism
Qualitative Methods
Quantitative Methods
Questionnaires
Reflexivity
Reliability
Sampling
Estimates and Size
Sampling
Questions of Size
Sampling
Types
Secondary Analysis
Social Surveys
Telephone and Computer-Assisted Polling
Unobstrusive Methods and Triangulation
Validity
Visual Methods