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 Brief Contents

For Instructors: Why This Book? xviii

Acknowledgments xxiii
About the Author xxiv
Introduction1

PART ONE THE SIX STEPS 7

Chapter 1 Step 1: Develop a Good Research Question 8

Chapter 2 Step 2: Choose a Logical Structure for Your

Research 26

Chapter 3 Step 3: Identify the Type of Data You Need 54

Chapter 4 Step 4: Pick a Data Collection Method 68

Chapter 5 Step 5: Choose Your Data Collection Site 96

Chapter 6 Step 6: Pick a Data Analysis Method 114

PART TWO COLLECTING AND ANALYZING

DIFFERENT TYPES OF DATA 151
Chapter 7 Comparing: Economic, Demographic, and
Organizational Data 156

Chapter 8 Surveying: Shallow Opinions, Identities, and

Reports of Acts 186

Chapter 9 Interviewing: Deep Talk to Gather Several

Types of Data 216

Chapter 10 Scales: Looking for Underlying Traits 242

Chapter 11 Recording Behavior: Acts and Reports of Acts 266

Chapter 12 Finding Hidden Social Patterns: In Life, Texts,
and Popular Culture 284

Chapter 13 Ethnography: Exploring Cultural and Social Scenes 302

Chapter 14 Extended Example: Counting the Homeless 326

Research Guides and Handouts1 354

Glossary 373
Author Index 389
Subject Index 391

1
Unlike the rest of this book, these guides and handouts may be photocopied and distributed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 United States License. To view a copy of
this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative
Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042.
 Detailed Contents

For Instructors: Why This Book? xviii

What Lies Ahead xxi
Acknowledgments xxiii
About the Author xxiv

Introduction 1
Why a Six-Step Formula? 2
Looking Ahead 3

PART ONE THE SIX STEPS 7

Chapter 1 Step 1: Develop a Good Research Question 8

Start With a Research Topic 9
From Topic to Question 10
An Example: Mass Transit 11
Making Decisions 12
Search the Literature 14
Recraft Your Research Question 17
Questions Based on the Literature 17
Three More Possibilities 20
Start Your Research Proposal 21
The Parts of a Proposal 22
A Proposal in Brief: The Concept Paper 23
Review Questions 23
Notes 23

Chapter 2 Step 2: Choose a Logical Structure for

Your Research 26
Three Examples 26
1. Comparing Outcomes 27
2. Systematic Description 29
3. Seeking Correlations 31
 Ten Logical Structures for Research 35
1. True Experiments 36
2. Quasi-Experiments 36
3. Ex Post Facto Research 37
4. Correlational Research 38
5. Descriptive Research 40
6. Case Studies 41
7. Historical Research 42
8. Longitudinal Research 43
9. Meta-Analysis 45
10. Action Research 46
Matching Logical Structure to the Research Question 49
Review Questions 51
Notes 51

Chapter 3 Step 3: Identify the Type of Data You Need 54

Fourteen Types of Data 56
1. Acts, Behavior, or Events 56
2. Reports of Acts, Behavior, or Events 57
3. Economic Data 57
4. Organizational Data 58
5. Demographic Data 58
6. Self-Identity 59
7. Shallow Opinions and Attitudes 60
8. Deeply Held Opinions and Attitudes 60
9. Personal Feelings 60
10. Cultural Knowledge 61
11. Expert Knowledge 61
12. Personal and Psychological Traits 62
13. Experience as It Presents Itself to Consciousness 63
14. Hidden Social Patterns 64
Review Questions 66
Notes 66

Chapter 4 Step 4: Pick a Data Collection Method 68

Match Your Method to Your Data 70
Data Type 1: Acts, Behavior, or Events 70
Data Type 2: Reports of Acts, Behavior, or Events 71
Data Types 3, 4, and 5: Economic, Organizational,
and Demographic Data 73
Data Type 6: Self-Identity 74
Data Types 7 and 8: Shallow and Deeply Held Opinions
and Attitudes 75
Data Type 9: Personal Feelings 76
 Three Examples (that include data types 10-12) 76
Example 1: Mass Transit and Property Values 76
Example 2: Mass Transit and Street Life 79
Example 3: Best Places to Work 82
Data Type 13: Experience as It Presents Itself to Consciousness 84
Hidden Social Patterns 84
Research Ethics 87
Unethical Research 88
Implementing Ethical Practices 89
Institutional Review Boards 90
Review Questions 91
Notes 92

Chapter 5 Step 5: Choose Your Data Collection Site 96

Demographic and Economic Data 96
Opinions, Identities, and Reports of Acts at a Shallow Level 100
Populations and Samples 100
Sample Size, Margin of Error, and Confidence Level 102
Observable Behavior 106
Deeply Held Opinions and Attitudes 107
Cultural and Expert Knowledge 109
Hidden Social Patterns 110
The Remaining Data Types 110
Review Questions 111
Notes 111

Chapter 6 Step 6: Pick a Data Analysis Method 114

Preliminary Questions 115
What Kind of Analysis Does Your Research Question Require? 116
What Form Does Your Data Take? 116
What Is Your Unit of Observation? What Is Your Unit of Analysis? 119
Working With Numeric Data: Describing 121
Working With Numeric Data: Comparing 124
Interval/Ratio Data 125
Ordinal and Categorical Data 126
Identifying Cause 130
What Statistical Test Should I Use? 133
Three Fallacies 135
Working With Qualitative Data 138
Respondent-Centered Versus Researcher-Centered Analysis 138
Coding 140
Internal Versus External Coding 142
 Qualitative Data Analysis (QDA) Software 144
Warnings 146
Review Questions 146
Summarizing the Six Steps 147
Notes 148

PART TWO COLLECTING AND ANALYZING

DIFFERENT TYPES OF DATA 151

Chapter 7 Comparing: Economic, Demographic,

and Organizational Data 156
About Comparing 157
Comparing San Antonio and Portland 157
Comparing the 50 U.S. States 160
About Correlations 162
Three Examples 168
Comparing Places: Do Walkable Neighborhoods
Improve Health? 168
Comparing Organizations: Does Treating Employees
Well Increase Company Performance? 170
Comparing Schools: Do Charter Schools Improve
Student Test Scores? 174
Research Ethics 180
Review Questions 183
Notes 183

Chapter 8 Surveying: Shallow Opinions, Identities,

and Reports of Acts 186
Three Reminders 187
Two Examples 188
Studying School Safety 188
Kids’ Attitudes Toward Reading 194
Survey Data Analysis 200
Analyzing Interval/Ratio Survey Results 201
Analyzing Ordinal and Categorical Data 203
Practical Matters 208
Creating Your Questionnaire 208
Sampling (Again) 209
Surveying Online 210
Research Ethics 212
Review Questions 214
Notes 215
Chapter 9 Interviewing: Deep Talk to Gather Several
Types of Data 216
Hermeneutic Interviews 217
An Example: “Motherloss” 218
How to Write an Interview Protocol 221
Coding Your Data 227
Interviews With Experts 230
Critical Incident Interviews 230
Focus Groups 232
Phenomenological Interviews 233
An Example 233
How Is It Done? 234
Other Types of Data 236
How Many Subjects? 236
Research Ethics 238
Review Questions 239
Notes 239

Chapter 10 Scales: Looking for Underlying Traits 242

Scales of Psychological Well-Being 243
Creating Scales 247
Using the Scales 248
Analyzing Scale Research 252
T-Tests and Analysis of Variance 253
Control Variables 255
Research Ethics 261
Review Questions 263
Notes 264

Chapter 11 Recording Behavior: Acts and Reports of Acts 266

Watching People 267
Watching Gender Speech 268
Collecting Self-Reports 269
A Variation: The Beeper Studies 270
Watching Animals 271
Watching Chimps 271
Ravens and Elephant-Shrews 272
What If They Hide? 274
Experiments 275
Experiments About Stereotype Threat 275
Experiments About Discrimination 277
Rules for Experiments 278
Research Ethics 279
Review Questions 281
Notes 281
Chapter 12 Finding Hidden Social Patterns: In Life,
Texts, and Popular Culture 284
About Hidden Patterns 285
Analyzing Texts 287
Dreams as Texts 288
Other Texts 289
Analyzing Discourses 290
Critical Discourse Analysis 292
Two Examples 293
Analyzing Popular Culture: The Soaps 295
Research Ethics 298
Review Questions 299
Notes 299

Chapter 13 Ethnography: Exploring Cultural and

Social Scenes 302
The Three Goals 303
Goal One: Seeing the World as the Participants See It 303
Goal Two: Watching What Participants Do 306
On Taking Field Notes 307
Goal Three: Understanding Hidden Patterns 309
What Doesn’t Matter 311
Steps to a Successful Ethnography 312
Gaining Access 312
Developing Rapport 313
Listening to Language 314
Being an Observed Observer 315
What About Objectivity? 316
Writing Your Results 319
A Word About Grounded Theory 320
Research Ethics 321
Review Questions 323
Notes 324

Chapter 14 Extended Example: Counting the Homeless 326

What Caused the Homeless Crisis? 327
Who Is Homeless? 328
How Can We Find and Count Street Homeless? 332
Peter Rossi’s Chicago Count 332
Martha Burt’s Weeklong Method 334
 Counting San Bernardino 337
Conflicting Results 338
Correcting National Figures 345
Research Ethics 348
Reflections 350
Summary of the Six Steps 351
Notes 351
Research Guides and Handouts1 354
Six-Steps Graphic: From Research Question to Data Analysis 355
What Is a Concept Paper? 357
How to Choose a Data Collection Method 359
A Template for Field Notes 361
How to Write an Interview Protocol 363
How Many Subjects? (for interview studies) 367
Interview Rule-of-Thumb Flowchart for Nonrandom Samples 369
What Statistical Tests Should I Use? 371

Glossary 373
Author Index 389
Subject Index 391

1
Unlike the rest of this book, these guides and handouts may be photocopied and distributed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 United States License. To view a copy of
this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative
Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042.
 List of Figures and Tables

Figures
Figure 2.1 Percentage of Fourth Graders Reading Below Grade Level 32
Figure 2.2 Percentage of Public School Students Defined
as “Economically Disadvantaged” 33
Figure 2.3 Three Possible Causal Relationships 39
Figure 2.4 Letting Your Research Question Determine Your
Logical Structure 50
Figure 2.5 Matching Your Logical Structure to Your Research Question 50
Figure 5.1 Relationships Between Sample Size, Margin
of Error, and Confidence Level 103
Figure 5.2 Interview Rule-of-Thumb Flowchart for Nonrandom
Samples 108
Figure 6.1 U.S. High School Graduation Rates (a) for All Students and
(b) for Students From Low-Income Families 122
Figure 6.2 Ranges of States’ High School Graduation Rates 123
Figure 6.3 U.S. (a) Suicide Rates and (b) Murder Rates 125
Figure 6.4 U.S. (a) Suicide Rates and (b) Residential Mobility 131
Figure 6.5 Factor A Causes Factor B 132
Figure 6.6 Factor B Causes Factor A 132
Figure 6.7 Factors A and B Are Caused by a Third Factor, C 133
Figure 6.8 What Statistical Test Should I Use? (A Decision Tree) 134
Figure 6.9 Sample From QDA Miner Lite 145
Figure 7.1 Maps of (a) Long Commutes and (b) High Rents 161
Figure 7.2 Scatterplot of Commute Times Versus High Rents 163
Figure 7.3 Imagined Perfect Correlation: Commute
Times Versus High Rents 164
Figure 7.4 Scatterplot With a Regression Line 164
Figure 7.5 Types of Positive Correlation 165
Figure 7.6 Negative Correlation 167
Figure 7.7 Types of Negative Correlation 167
Figure 8.1 Percentage of Schools Reporting Various Disciplinary
Problems (NCES, 2009–2010 and 2013–2014) 189
Figure 8.2 Population Reporting a Great Deal of Confidence in
Educational Leaders 203
Figure 8.3 Relationships Between Sample Size, Margin
of Error, and Confidence Level 210
Figure 9.1 The Hermeneutic Circle 218
Figure 9.2 Structuring Your Interview: Central Research
Question (CRQ) 222
Figure 9.3 Structuring Your Interview: Theory-Based
Questions (TQs) 223
Figure 9.4 Structuring Your Interview: Interview Questions (IQs) 223
Figure 9.5 Sample Flow for Interview Questions 225
Figure 9.6 Interview Rule-of-Thumb Flowchart for Nonrandom
Samples 237
Figure 10.1 Ten Questions About Psychological Well-Being 244
Figure 10.2 Positive Relationships With Others Scale 246
Figure 10.3 Scatterplot of Two Statements From Ryff’s Positive
Relationships With Others Scale 247
Figure 10.4 Logical Structure for the Wabash National
Study of Liberal Arts Education 250
Figure 10.5 Scatterplot of Income Versus Ryff Scores 253
Figure 10.6 Comparing District A With District B 254
Figure 10.7 Discrimination, Educational Opportunity, and Prestige 256
Figure 10.8 Occupational Prestige as a Function of Race and
Education 257
Figure 10.9 Occupational Prestige as a Function of Education,
for Whites and Blacks Separately 257
Figure 10.10 Occupational Prestige as a Function of Race, for
the Two Educational Levels Separately 258
Figure 10.11 Option 1 Disproved 258
Figure 10.12 Option 3 Disproved 259
Figure 10.13 Option 2 Proved 260
Figure 11.1 McIntyre’s Raven Map 273
Figure 12.1 Oscar Nominations of African Americans: (a) Acting Category,
1936–2015; (b) Selected Categories, 2006–2015 286
Figure 12.2 The Three Elements of Discourse Analysis 292
Figure 14.1 Homeless Counts: (a) Unsheltered Population;
(b) Doubled-Up Population 330
Figure 14.2 Count of Street and Shelter Homeless (HUD Definition) 338
Tables
Table 2.1 Ten Logical Structures for Research 49
Table 3.1 Fourteen Types of Data 65
Table 4.1 How to Pick a Data Collection Method 69
Table 5.1 Samples of the U.S. Adult Population 104
Table 6.1 Measures of Central Tendency in U.S. High School
Graduation Rates 124
Table 6.2 Sample Responses From the 2012 General Social Survey 127
Table 6.3 GSS Responses About Negative Workplace Behaviors,
Comparing Men and Women 128
Table 6.4 GSS Responses About Other Negative Workplace
Behaviors, Comparing Men and Women 130
Table 6.5 Cross-Tabulation Demonstrating No Significant Difference 137
Table 6.6 Sample Coding Scheme: Factors Making for a Good Place to Work 141
Table 7.1 Comparison of San Antonio and Portland MSAs 158
Table 7.2 Comparison of Populations in Eight States 160
Table 7.3 Summary of Glazier et al.’s Study of Walkable
Neighborhoods in Toronto 171
Table 7.4 Summary of Fulmer et al.’s Great Place to Work Study 174
Table 7.5 Test Scores in Charter Schools and Public Schools
in Michigan 176
Table 7.6 Test Score Changes in Charter Schools and Public
Schools in Michigan 177
Table 7.7 Summary of Bettinger’s Charter Schools Study 180
Table 8.1 Composition of NCES Sample 191
Table 8.2 Weighting of NCES Data 192
Table 8.3 Summary of the NCES’s Safety and Discipline Survey 194
Table 8.4 Data Collected in McKenna et al.’s Study 198
Table 8.5 Summary of McKenna et al.’s National Attitudes Toward
Reading Survey 200
Table 8.6 Correlation Between Age and Highest Year of
School Completed (GSS, 1974–2014) 202
Table 8.7 GSS Responses About Confidence in the Education
System, Comparing Men and Women, and Whites
and African Americans 204
Table 8.8 GSS Responses About the Importance of Teaching Various
School Subjects 205
Table 8.9 GSS Responses About the Importance of Sex Education,
Comparing Across Political Preferences and Races 206
Table 8.10 GSS Responses About the Importance of Teaching Science and
Technology, Comparing Across Three Religious Tendencies 207
Table 9.1 Sample Coding Scheme: Factors Making for a Good
Place to Work (With TQs and IQs Identified) 228
Table 10.1 Summary of the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts
Education 251
Table 10.2 Cross-Tabulation: Race and Education 259
Table 14.1 Chicago Homeless Counts 333
Table 14.2 Weekly Homeless Estimates 337
Table 14.3 San Bernardino County, California, Homeless Counts 339
Table 14.4 San Bernardino County Homeless Count Results, by Method 345
Table 14.5 Comparison of Count Methods With Hypothetical Data 347
 For Instructors: Why This Book?

T
here are lots of books about research, but none quite like this one. Thirty years of
teaching social science research has convinced me that the standard approaches
need revision. They’re not wrong, if you already know what you’re doing. Yet
most students don’t. Even graduate students make simple errors, because their text-
books don’t show them how to think through the research process clearly.
Three problems with most research textbooks get in the way of student learning.
First, most texts are titled something like Research Methods. They focus on vari-
ous data gathering techniques: from survey research to questionnaire construction
to detached and participant observation to content analysis, and so on. Such data
gathering methods are important, but that isn’t where research must start.
Instead, research starts with developing a good research question and a logical
structure for what it takes to produce an answer. The question identifies exactly
what you are looking for. The logical structure describes exactly what you have to
do to find it. Students often don’t know how to create clear research questions and
they frequently neglect to think through their research logic. They need to be taught
how to do both. Research Basics starts with these two steps. It teaches readers how
to craft a research question and how to identify a logical process for answering it.
That’s where research begins, so it is the first focus of this book.
Second, even those texts that provide a pro forma chapter on the research question
typically jump directly from that chapter to a series of chapters on various data gath-
ering techniques. This leaves out a crucial intermediate step. Before you can choose
a research method, you have to identify the type of data that you need to answer the
question you have posed. In my experience, most students don’t know how to do this,
and most textbooks don’t cover it very clearly.
For example, I’ve seen even top-notch graduate students think that they can get
a deep understanding of people’s worldviews with a mailed questionnaire. This is not
an appropriate data collection method for getting at deep understandings. Surveys are
fine for eliciting shallow opinions, but they are inadequate for tapping deep, nuanced
ways of thinking. Standard textbooks have chapters on how to gather both types
of data, but they usually don’t teach students how to identify the type of data their
particular research question needs. Research Basics does. It draws a clear connection
between the type of data one needs and the best ways to gather it. This helps research
succeed.
Research Basics also highlights how to choose a data collection site—where you
think you’ll be able to find the data you need.
This brings us to the third problem with standard textbooks: They typically
divide data collection methods into two categories: quantitative and qualitative. This

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