The practice of social research

Previous edition: 2010.

Note continued: Evaluating the Quality of Qualitative Research -- Ethics and Qualitative Data Analysis -- ch. 14 Quantitative Data Analysis -- Introduction -- Quantification of Data -- Developing Code Categories -- Codebook Construction -- Data Entry -- Univariate Analysis -- Distributions -- Central Tendency -- Dispersion -- Continuous and Discrete Variables -- Detail versus Manageability -- Subgroup Comparisons -- "Collapsing" Response Categories -- Handling "Don't Knows" -- Numerical Descriptions in Qualitative Research -- Bivariate Analysis -- Percentaging a Table -- Constructing and Reading Bivariate Tables -- Introduction to Multivariate Analysis -- Sociological Diagnostics -- Ethics and Quantitative Data Analysis -- ch. 15 The Logic of Multivariate Analysis -- Introduction -- The Origins of the Elaboration Model -- The Elaboration Paradigm -- Replication -- Explanation -- Interpretation -- Specification -- Refinements to the Paradigm -- Elaboration and Ex Post Facto Hypothesizing -- ch. 16 Statistical Analyses -- Introduction -- Descriptive Statistics -- Data Reduction -- Measures of Association -- Regression Analysis -- Inferential Statistics -- Univariate Inferences -- Tests of Statistical Significance -- The Logic of Statistical Significance -- Chi Square -- t-Test -- Some Words of Caution -- Other Multivariate Techniques -- Path Analysis -- Time-Series Analysis -- Factor Analysis -- Analysis of Variance -- Discriminant Analysis -- Log-Linear Models -- Odds-Ratio Analysis -- Geographic Information Systems (GIS) -- ch. 17 Reading and Writing Social Research -- Introduction -- Reading Social Research -- Organizing a Review of the Literature -- Reading Journals versus Books -- Evaluating Research Reports -- Using the Internet Wisely -- Some Useful Websites -- Searching the Web -- Evaluating the Quality of Internet Materials -- Citing Internet Materials -- Writing Social Research -- Some Basic Considerations -- Organization of the Report -- Guidelines for Reporting Analyses -- Going Public -- The Ethics of Reading and Writing Social Research -- Appendixes -- A. Using the Library -- B. GSS Household Enumeration Questionnaire -- C. Random Numbers -- D. Distribution of Chi Square -- E. Normal Curve Areas -- F. Estimated Sampling Error.

A straightforward, comprehensive, and approachable guide to research as practiced by social scientists, the Thirteenth Edition of Babbie's "gold-standard" text gives you the tools you need to apply research concepts practically, as both a researcher and a consumer. Babbie emphasizes the process by showing you how to design and construct projects, introducing the various observation modes in use today, and answering critical questions about research methods--such as how to conduct online surveys and analyze both qualitative and quantitative data --