Research methods in practice : strategies for description and causation / Dahlia K. Remler, Gregg G. Van Ryzin.

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"Authors Dahlia K. Remler and Gregg G. Van Ryzin are back with the third edition of their innovative, standard-setting text, Research Methods in Practice: Strategies for Description and Causation. Imbued with a deep commitment to making social and policy research methods accessible and meaningful, t...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Remler, Dahlia K. (Author)
Van Ryzin, Gregg G. (Gregg Gerard), 1961- (Author)
Language:English
Published: Thousand Oaks, CA : SAGE Publishing, [2022]
Edition:Third edition.
Subjects:
Research > Methodology > Study and teaching (Graduate)
Research > Moral and ethical aspects.
Qualitative research > Methodology.
Quantitative research > Methodology.
Sampling (Statistics)
Research Design.
Ethics, Research.
Recherche > Méthodologie > Étude et enseignement (2e et 3e cycles)
Recherche > Aspect moral.
Recherche quantitative > Méthodologie.
Échantillonnage (Statistique)
Physical Description:1 volume (xxxviii, 650, 14, 18, 7 pages) : illustrations, charts, photographs (chiefly color) ; 26 cm
Format: Book
Contents:
  • PART I: FOUNDATIONS
  • Chapter 1. Research in the real world
  • Learning objectives
  • Do methods matter?
  • Research, policy, and practice
  • Evidence can mislead
  • What is research?
  • Descriptive and causal research
  • Epistemology: ways of knowing
  • Approaching research from different angles
  • Ethics of research
  • Conclusion: the road ahead
  • Exercises
  • Chapter 2. Theory, models, and research questions
  • Learning objectives
  • Community policing comes to Portland
  • What is a theory?
  • What is a model?
  • Logic models: mechanisms of programs
  • Alternative perspectives on theory in social research
  • How to find and focus research questions
  • Conclusion: theories are practical
  • Chapter 3. Qualitative research
  • Learning objectives
  • Fighting malaria in Kenya
  • What is qualitative research?
  • Existing qualitative data
  • Qualitative interviews
  • Focus groups
  • Qualitative observation
  • Participant observation and ethnography
  • Case study research
  • Qualitative data analysis
  • The qualitative-quantitative debate
  • Ethics in qualitative research
  • Conclusion: matching methods to questions
  • Exercises
  • PART II: STRATEGIES FOR DESCRIPTION
  • Chapter 4. Measurement
  • Learning objectives
  • The U.S. poverty measure
  • What is measurement?
  • Conceptualization
  • Operationalization
  • Validity
  • Criteron-related validity
  • Measurement error
  • Reliability
  • Validity and reliability in qualitative research
  • Levels of measurement
  • Measurement in the real world: trade-offs and choices
  • Conclusion: measurement matters
  • Chapter 5. Sampling
  • Learning objectives
  • Gauging the fallout from Hurricane Katrina
  • Generalizability
  • Basic sampling concepts
  • Problems and biases in sampling
  • Nonprobability sampling
  • Random (probability) sampling
  • Sampling distributions, standard errors, and confidence intervals
  • Sampling in practice
  • Sampling and generalizability: a summary
  • Exercises
  • Chapter 6. Secondary data
  • Learning objectives
  • Tracking a global pandemic
  • Quantitative data forms and structures
  • Administrative records
  • Aggregate data tables
  • Public use microdata
  • Secondary qualitative data
  • Big data
  • Linking data
  • Some limitations of secondary data
  • Conclusion
  • Exercises
  • Chapter 7. Surveys and other primary data
  • Learning objectives
  • Taking the nation's economic pulse
  • When should you do a survey?
  • Steps in the survey research process
  • Modes of survey data collection
  • Crafting a questionnaire
  • Ethics of survey research
  • Other ways to collection primary data
  • Conclusion
  • Exercises
  • PART III: STATISTICAL TOOLS AND INTERPRETATIONS
  • Chapter 8. Making sense of the numbers
  • Learning objectives
  • "Last weekend I walked eight"
  • Units, rates, and ratios
  • Statistics starting point: variables in a data set
  • Distributions
  • Measures of center: mean and median
  • Measures of spread and variation
  • Relationships between categorical variables
  • Relationships between quantitative variables: scatterplots and correlation
  • Simple regression: best-fit straight line
  • Practical significance
  • Statistical software
  • Conclusion: tools for description and causation
  • Exercises
  • Chapter 9. Making sense of inferential statistics
  • Learning objectives
  • But is it significant?
  • Statistical inference: what's it good for?
  • The sampling distribution: foundation of statistical inference
  • Confidence intervals
  • Significance tests
  • Statistical significance, practical significance, and power
  • Issues and extensions of statistical inference
  • Conclusion
  • Exercises
  • Chapter 10. Making sense of multivariate statistics
  • Learning objectives
  • Multiple regression: the basics
  • Inference for regression
  • Categorical independent variables
  • Interactions in regression
  • Functional form and transformations in regression
  • Categorical variables as dependent variables in regression
  • Which statistical methods can I use?
  • Other multivariate methods
  • Conclusion
  • Exercises
  • PART IV: STRATEGIES FOR CAUSATION
  • Chapter 11. Causation
  • Learning objectives
  • Family dinners and teenage substance abuse
  • Alternative explanations of a correlation
  • Causal mechanisms
  • Evidence of causation: some critical clues
  • Self-selection and endogeneity
  • The counterfactual definition of causation
  • Experimentation and exogeneity: making things happen
  • Conclusion: tools to probe causation
  • Exercises
  • Chapter 12. Observational studies
  • Learning objectives
  • Private versus public schools
  • What is an observational study?
  • Control variables
  • Matching
  • Control variables: an empirical example
  • How to choose control variables
  • Epidemiological approaches to observational studies
  • Conclusion: observational studies in perspectives
  • Exercises
  • Chapter 13. Using regression to estimate causal effects
  • Leanring objectives
  • Cigarette taxes and smoking
  • From stratification to multiple regression
  • Does greenery affect birth outcomes
  • Further topics in regression for estimating causal effects
  • Control variables with exogenous independent variables: the gender earnings gap
  • Other multivariate techniques for observational studies
  • Conclusion: a widely used strategy, with drawbacks
  • Exercises
  • Chapter 14. Randomized experiments
  • Learning objectives
  • Time limits on welfare
  • Random assignment: creating statistical equivalence
  • The logic of randomized experiments: exogeneity revisited
  • The settings of randomized experiments
  • Generalizability of randomized experiments
  • Variations on the design of experiments
  • Artifacts and experiments
  • Analysis of randomized experiments
  • Ethics of randomized experiments
  • Qualitative methods and randomized experiments
  • conclusion: a gold standard, with limitations
  • Exercises
  • Chapter 15. Natural and quasi experiments
  • Learning objectives
  • A casino benefits the mental health of Cherokee children
  • What are natural and quasi experiments?
  • Internal validity of natural and quasi experiments
  • Generalizability of natural and quasi experiments
  • Types of natural and quasi experimental studies
  • Difference-in-differences strategy
  • Instrumental variables and regression discontinuity
  • Regression discontinuity
  • Ethics of quasi and natural experiments
  • Conclusion
  • Exercises
  • PART V: CONTEXT AND COMMUNICATION
  • Chapter 16. The poltics, production, and ethics of research
  • Learning objectives
  • Risking your baby's health
  • From research to policy
  • The production of research
  • Making research ethical
  • Making research open and transparent
  • Conclusion
  • Exercises
  • Chapter 17. How to find, review, and present research
  • Learning objectives
  • Where to find research
  • How to search for studies
  • How to write a literature review
  • How to communicate your own research
  • How to publish your research
  • Conclusion
  • Exercises
  • Glossary
  • References
  • Index