Now in its third edition, this market-leading textbook continues to provide students with an excellent explanation and demonstration of the main approaches and techniques in social research methods. The book shows students how to assess the contexts within which different research methods may be used, and how they should be implemented. It covers both quantitative and qualitative research and examines the significance of this very distinction. It also covers mixed methods research, a topic on which the author is an authority. In an accessible and student-friendly manner, the book shows students how to go about doing their own research projects and how to write up their research. In addition to presenting a wide range of features within the text, including up-to-date empirical research examples, the third edition supports students and lecturers with a full set of online resources. Online Resource Centre For lecturers resources include PowerPoint slides, notes to accompany the slides, case studies with questions, and a test bank to enable lecturers to create their own unique online testing sessions.For students the resources include instant feedback multiple choice questions, web links, an online research guide, interactive Excel tutorials, and access to the real-life student experiences used in the book.

Table of Contents

PART ONE; 1. Social research strategies; 2. Research designs; 3. Planning a research project and formulating research questions; 4. Getting started: reviewing the literature; 5. Ethics and politics in social research; PART TWO; 6. The nature of quantitative research; 7. Sampling; 8. Structured interviewing; 9. Self-completion questionnaires; 10. Asking questions; 11. Structured observation; 12. Content analysis; 13. Secondary analysis and official statistics; 14. Quantitative data analysis; 15. Using SPSS for Windows; PART THREE; 16. The nature of qualitative research; 17. Ethnography and participant observation; 18. Interviewing in qualitative research; 19. Focus groups; 20. Language in qualitative research; 21. Documents as sources of data; 22. Qualitative data analysis; 23. Computer-assisted qualitative data analysis: using NVivo; PART FOUR; 24. Breaking down the quantitative/qualitative divide; 25. Mixed methods research: combining quantitative and qualitative research; 26. E-research: using the Internet as object and method of data collection; 27. Writing up social research