Seven Rules for Social Research - Rilegato

Firebaugh, Glenn

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0691125465 ISBN 13: 9780691125466

Casa editrice: Princeton Univ Pr, 2008

Riassunto

Seven Rules for Social Research teaches social scientists how to get the most out of their technical skills and tools, providing a resource that fully describes the strategies and concepts no researcher or student of human behavior can do without.

Glenn Firebaugh provides indispensable practical guidance for anyone doing research in the social and health sciences today, whether they are undergraduate or graduate students embarking on their first major research projects or seasoned professionals seeking to incorporate new methods into their research. The rules are the basis for discussions of a broad range of issues, from choosing a research question to inferring causal relationships, and are illustrated with applications and case studies from sociology, economics, political science, and related fields. Though geared toward quantitative methods, the rules also work for qualitative research.

Seven Rules for Social Research is ideal for students and researchers who want to take their technical skills to new levels of precision and insight, and for instructors who want a textbook for a second methods course.

The Seven Rules

1. There should be the possibility of surprise in social research
2. Look for differences that make a difference, and report them.
3. Build reality checks into your research.
4. Replicate where possible.
5. Compare like with like.
6. Use panel data to study individual change and repeated cross-section data to study social change.
7. Let method be the servant, not the master.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

"Firebaugh has produced a lively and insightful contribution. He discusses thought-provoking examples and has created some truly excellent and innovative end-of-chapter exercises. Firebaugh maintains a refreshingly reassuring conversational style with the reader and communicates difficult concepts in a straightforward manner. [T]his is a book to be studied, rather than just read."--David Shemmings, Times Higher Education

"This book is one of a kind and so excellent it will probably go into second and third editions. . . . Seven Rules of Social Research brings important issues of research design to life: this is not a dry or abstract book. . . . I think his book could be used to great advantage by three sorts of human geographers: those doing a thesis for their degree; those teaching introductory and more advanced courses on 'doing research'; and those seeking to refresh their own approach to research as full-time academics, research assistants or post-docs. . . . The book is supremely clear (even when discussing some knotty issues) and, even at almost 300 pages, does not feel long or turgid."--Noel Castree, Progress in Human Geography

"Seven Rules for Social Research is an excellent choice as a supplement for an undergraduate methods course as well as a complete text for the basic graduate methods course. Firebaugh's book would also serve as an invaluable supplement for undergraduate senior seminar students and graduate students alike who are looking for a straightforward reference for conducting both course based and independent research projects. This will be a book that students keep on their shelf throughout their academic career. I intend to keep it on mine."--Allison L. Vetter, Teaching Sociology

"This . . . book provides an interesting set of rules and thoughtful reflections on issues relevant to conducting social research. It also has useful reviews of newer statistical developments. Overall, this is an insightful book that should be of interest to graduate students and researchers in the social sciences."--Debra L. Oswald, PsycCRITIQUES

"[T]his book is insightful and clearly written. . . . Simply put, this is an excellent book that I highly recommend for graduate courses I methods and methods comprehensive exam reading lists. All of our graduate students would benefit from reading it."--Robert Andersen, Canadian Journal of Sociology

"The book, and especially its chapter exercises, is most suitable for graduate students with an intermediate quantitative background. The author states that the book is 'to serve as a second methods textbook' the social sciences. This is a modest statement. As long as students pursue the types of research that Firebaugh discusses, this should be among the first books introduced in the course of research design."--Yasuyuki Motoyama, Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare

"Seven Rules for Social Research, teaches social scientists how to get the most out of their technical skills and tools, providing a resource that fully describes the strategies and concepts no researcher or student of human behavior can do without. . . . Seven Rules for Social Research is ideal for students and researchers who want to take their technical skills to new levels of precision and insight, and for instructors who want a textbook for a second methods course."--World Book Industry

Contenuti:

Preface xi

Chapter 1: The First Rule
There Should Be the Possibility of Surprise in Social Research 1
Selecting a Research Question 2
Researchable Questions 2
Interesting Questions 4
Selecting a Sample 18
Samples in Qualitative Studies 23
Is Meaningful Social Research Possible? 26
Summary 29
Student Exercises on Rule 1 31

Chapter 2: The Second Rule
Look for Differences That Make a Difference, and Report Them 36
You Can't Explain a Variable with a Constant 37
Maximizing Variance to Find the Effect of a Cause 39
Size versus Statistical Significance 41
Comparing Effects Where There Is a Common Metric 42
Calibration: Converting Explanatory Variables to a Common Metric 44
Substantive Profiling: The Use of Telling Comparisons 46
Visual Presentation of Results 51
Policy Importance 53
Importance for Theory 54
Conclusion 56
Student Exercises on Rule 2 58

Chapter 3: The Third Rule
Build Reality Checks into Your Research 64
Internal Reality Checks 65
Reality Checks on Data--Dubious Values and Incomplete Data 65
Reality Checks on Measures--Aim for Consistency in Conceptualization and Measurement 69
Reality Checks on Models--The Formal Equivalence Check 71
External Reality Checks: Validation with Other Data and Methods 76
Using Causal-Process Observations to Test Plausibility of Results 77
Using Ethnographic Data to Help Interpret Survey Results 79
Other Examples of Multiple-Method Research 81
Concluding Remark 82
Student Exercises on Rule 3 84

Chapter 4: The Fourth Rule
Replicate Where Possible 90
Sources of Uncertainty in Social Research 91
Overview: From Population to Sample and Back to Population 93
Measurement Error as a Source of Uncertainty 100
Illustration: Two Methods for Estimating Global Poverty 101
Toward a Solution: Identical Analyses of Parallel Data Sets 105
Meta-analysis: Synthesizing Results Formally across Studies 106
Summary: Your Confidence Intervals Are Too Narrow 109
Student Exercises on Rule 4 111

Chapter 5: The Fifth Rule
Compare Like with Like 120
Correlation and Causality 121
Types of Strategies for Comparing Like with Like 129
Matching versus Looking for Differences 130
The Standard Regression Method for Comparing Like with Like 131
Critique of the Standard Linear Regression Strategy 132
Comparing Like with Like Through Fixed-Effects Methods 134
First-Difference Models: Subtracting Out the Effects of Confounding Variables 134
Special Case: Growth-Rate Models 138
Sibling Models 140
Comparing Like with Like through Matching on Measured Variables 146
Exact Matching 146
Propensity-Score Method 147
Matching as a Preprocessing Strategy for Reducing Model Dependence 151
Comparing Like with Like through Naturally Occurring Random Assignment 152
Instrumental Variables: Matching through Partial Random Assignment 153
Matching Through Naturally Occurring Random Assignment to the Treatment Group 158
Comparison of Strategies for Comparing Like with Like 159
Conclusion 162
Student Exercises on Rule 5 165

Chapter 6: The Sixth Rule
Use Panel Data to Study Individual Change and Repeated Cross-section Data to Study Social Change 172
Analytic Differences between Panel and Repeated Cross-section Data 173
Three General Questions about Change 175
Changing-Effect Models, Part 1: Two Points in Time 176
Changing-Effect Models, Part 2: Multilevel Models with Time as the Context 182
What We Want to Know 183
The General Multilevel Model 183
Convergence Models 185
The Sign Test for Convergence: Comparing Your fs and ds 186
Convergence Model versus Changing-Effect Model 191
Bridging Individual and Social Change: Estimating Cohort Replacement Effects 195
An Accounting Scheme for Social Change 197
Linear Decomposition Method 198
Summary 201
Student Exercises on Rule 6 203

Chapter 7: The Seventh Rule
Let Method Be the Servant, Not the Master 207
Obsession with Regression 209
Naturally Occurring Random Assignment, Again 209
Decomposition Work in the Social Sciences 218
Decomposition of Variance and Inequality 220
Decomposition of Segregation Indexes 222
The Effects of Social Context 226
Context Effects as Objects of Study 227
Context Effects as Nuisance 230
Critical Tests in Social Research 231

Conclusion 235
Student Exercises on Rule 7 236
References 241
Index 253

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Princeton Univ Pr
• Data di pubblicazione: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0691125465
• ISBN 13: 9780691125466
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 257