Making Sense of the Social World: Methods of Investigation / Edition 6

by Daniel F. Chambliss, Russell K. Schutt

Overview

Congratulations to Daniel F. Chambliss, winner of the ASA Distinguished Contribution to Teaching Prize for 2018.

The new Sixth Edition of Making Sense of the Social World continues to be an unusually accessible and student-friendly introduction to the variety of social research methods, guiding undergraduate readers to understand research in their roles as consumers and novice producers of social science. Known for its concise, casual, and clear writing, its balanced treatment of quantitative and qualitative approaches, and its integrated approach to the fundamentals, the text has much to offer both novice researchers and more advanced students alike. The authors use a wide variety of examples from formal studies and everyday experiences to illustrate important principles and techniques.

New to this Edition

• Failure (and success) of pre-election polls in the 2016 Presidential election
• The use and abuse of data from social media such as Facebook and Twitter
• When does research on underprivileged populations become cultural appropriation? (based on the controversy over Alice Goffman’s ethnographic studies in Philadelphia)
• The debate over inclusion of U.S. citizenship questions on the 2020 Census
• The growth of new video techniques by researchers, and dramatically expanded use of web-based surveys (both by professionals and by students)
• Addition of material on methods widely used by student researchers, such as content analysis and “grounded theory” ethnography
• New vignettes on Research That Matters, Research in the News, and Careers and Research, to enhance the relevance of the book to undergraduates

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781544324098
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	01/10/2019
Edition description:	Sixth Edition
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 10.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Daniel F. Chambliss, Ph D, is the Eugene M. Tobin Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Emeritus at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, where he has taught from 1981 to 2023. He received his Ph D from Yale University in 1982; later that year, his thesis research received the American Sociological Association’s (ASA’s) Medical Sociology Dissertation Prize. In 1988, he published the book Champions: The Making of Olympic Swimmers, which received the Book of the Year Prize from the U.S. Olympic Committee. In 1989, he received the ASA’s Theory Prize for work on organizational excellence based on his swimming research. Recipient of both Fulbright and Rockefeller Foundation fellowships, he published his second book, Beyond Caring: Hospitals, Nurses, and the Social Organization of Ethics, in 1996; for that work, he was awarded the ASA’s Eliot Freidson Prize in Medical Sociology. In 2014, Harvard University Press published his book How College Works, coauthored with his former student Christopher G. Takacs. His research and teaching interests include organizational analysis, higher education, social theory, and comparative research methods. In 2018, he received the ASA’s national career award for Distinguished Contributions to Teaching.

Russell K. Schutt, Ph D, is professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Massachusetts Boston, where he received the 2007 Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Service and taught from 1979 to 2022. He is also a Clinical Research Scientist I at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and a Lecturer (part-time) in the Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School. He completed his BA, MA, and Ph D degrees at the University of Illinois at Chicago and was a postdoctoral fellow in the Sociology of Social Control Training Program at Yale University (where he met Dan). In addition to ten editions of Investigating the Social World: The Process and Practice of Research and one of Understanding the Social World, as well as coauthored versions for the fields of social work, criminal justice, psychology, and education, his other books include Homelessness, Housing, and Mental Illness (2011), Social Neuroscience: Brain, Mind, and Society (coedited, 2015), and Organization in a Changing Environment (1986). He has authored and coauthored more than 65 peer reviewed journal articles, as well as book chapters and research reports on homelessness, mental health, organizations, law, and teaching research methods. His currently a Dual Principal Investigator (with Matcheri Keshavan, MD) in randomized comparative effectiveness trial of two socially-oriented interventions to improve community functioning among persons diagnosed with serious mental illness, funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). His other recently concluded research includes co-principal investigator on a National Science Foundation-funded study of the social impact of the pandemic in Boston, and co-investigator on a Veterans Health Administration-funded study of peer support. His earlier research has been funded by the National Cancer Institute, the Veterans Health Administration, the National Institute of Mental Health, the Fetzer Institute, and state agencies. Details are available at https://blogs.umb.edu/russellkschutt/.

Table of Contents

ABOUT THE AUTHORS
PREFACE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Chapter 1. Science, Society, and Social Research
Learning About the Social World
Can Social Scientists See the Social World More Clearly?
How Well Have We Done Our Research?
Conclusion
Key Terms
Highlights
Student Study Site
Exercises
Chapter 2. The Process and Problems of Social Research
What Is the Question?
What Is the Theory?
What Is the Strategy?
What Is the Design?
Conclusion
Key Terms
Highlights
Student Study Site
Exercises
Chapter 3. Ethics in Research
Historical Background
Ethical Principles
Conclusion
Key Terms
Highlights
Student Study Site
Exercises
Chapter 4. Conceptualization and Measurement
What Do We Have in Mind?
How Will We Know When We’ve Found It?
How Much Information Do We Really Have?
Did We Measure What We Wanted to Measure?
Conclusion
Key Terms
Highlights
Student Study Site
Exercises
Chapter 5. Sampling and Generalizability
How Do We Prepare to Sample?
What Sampling Method Should We Use?
Conclusion
Key Terms
Highlights
Student Study Site
Exercises
Chapter 6. Causation and Experimental Design
Causal Explanation
What Causes What?
Why Experiment?
What If a True Experiment Isn’t Possible?
What Are the Threats to Validity?
How Do Experimenters Protect Their Subjects?
Conclusion
Key Terms
Highlights
Student Study Site
Exercises
Chapter 7. Survey Research
Why Is Survey Research So Popular?
How Should We Write Survey Questions?
How Should Questionnaires Be Designed?
What Are the Alternatives for Administering Surveys?
A Comparison of Survey Designs
Ethical Issues in Survey Research
Conclusion
Key Terms
Highlights
Student Study Site
Exercises
Chapter 8. Elementary Quantitative Data Analysis
Why Do Statistics?
How to Prepare Data for Analysis
What Are the Options for Displaying Distributions?
What Are the Options for Summarizing Distributions?
How Can We Tell Whether Two Variables Are Related?
Secondary Data Analysis
Big Data
Big Data, Big Ethics Issues
Conclusion
Key Terms
Highlights
Student Study Site
Exercises
Chapter 9. Qualitative Methods: Observing, Participating, Listening
What Are Qualitative Methods?
How Does Participant Observation Become a Research Method?
How Do You Conduct Intensive Interviews?
How Do You Run Focus Groups?
Ethical Issues in Qualitative Research
Conclusion
Key Terms
Highlights
Student Study Site
Exercises
Chapter 10. Qualitative Data Analysis
What Is Distinctive About Qualitative Data Analysis?
What Techniques Do Qualitative Data Analysts Use?
What Are Some Alternatives in Qualitative Data Analysis?
Why Are Mixed Methods Helpful?
How Can Computers Assist Qualitative Data Analysis?
What Ethical Issues Arise in Doing Qualitative Data Analysis?
Conclusion
Key Terms
Highlights
Student Study Site
Exercises
Chapter 11. Unobtrusive Measures
Creative Sources
Content Analysis
Historical Methods
Comparative Methods
Ethical Issues in Unobtrusive Methods
Conclusion
Key Terms
Highlights
Student Study Site
Exercises
Chapter 12. Evaluation Research
What Is the History of Evaluation Research?
What Is Evaluation Research?
What Are the Alternatives in Evaluation Designs?
What Can an Evaluation Study Focus On?
Ethical Issues in Evaluation Research
Conclusion
Key Terms
Highlights
Student Study Site
Exercises
Chapter 13. Reviewing, Proposing, and Reporting Research
Comparing Research Designs
Reviewing Research
Proposing New Research
Reporting Research
Conclusion
Key Terms
Highlights
Student Study Site
Exercises
GLOSSARY
APPENDIX A: FINDING INFORMATION
REFERENCES
INDEX

Editorial Reviews

"The text’s strengths, bottom line, are that it’s casual and accessible, yet thorough and accurate. It is very up-to-date using good examples from very contemporary social science research. "

Mark Edwards

"First, I would adopt—not just consider—this book. The writing style is direct and easy to follow. The issues are treated in context, with good examples. The authors do a great job of presenting the material in a way that prevents students from asking "how is this relevant to what I do?" I do wish I had written this book myself. "

Ronald Perry

"It is a worthy contribution. "

Diane Pike

"The strength of this text is in its brevity. In a one semester course, it is impossible to cover all the topics in a comprehensive text in any depth. I would rather my students learn the fundamentals of doing research – a few topics in depth. They can then build on this knowledge, if they need to, in order to learn new types of analysis. I also like the types and varieties of exercises included in the text. "

Ann Marie Kinnell