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Using This Textbook
Copyright Information
Suggested Citation
Acknowledgements
Lists of Sidebars, Figures, Tables, and Videos
1.1. The World according to Science
Victor Tan Chen; Gabriela León-Pérez; Julie Honnold; and Volkan Aytar
1.2. Sociology as a Social Science
1.3. Design and Goals of This Textbook
1.4. References
2.1. Sociologists as Scholars
2.2. Sociologists as Market Researchers
2.3. Sociologists as Policy Advisors and Evaluators
2.4. Sociologists as Clinicians and Public Health Researchers
2.5. Sociologists as Activists and Change Agents
2.6. Sociologists as Professionals and Citizens
2.7. References
3.1. What Do We Mean by “Theory”?
3.2. Levels of Analysis
3.3. The Components of Theories
3.4. Evaluating Theories
3.5. Major Sociological Theories and Paradigms
3.6. Linking Theory and Data
3.7. References
4.1. Choosing a General Research Topic
4.2. Types of Research Questions
4.3. Posing Explanatory Research Questions
4.4. Refining Your Research Question
4.5. References
5.1. What Should My Literature Review Cover?
5.2. What Sources Should I Use?
5.3. How Do I Find Relevant Sources?
5.4. How Do I Read and Evaluate Sources?
5.5. How Do I Write a Literature Review?
5.6. How Do I Write a Research Proposal?
5.7. References
6.1. Units of Analysis
6.2. Populations versus Samples
6.3. Probability Sampling
6.4. Nonprobability Sampling
6.5. Questions to Ask about Samples
6.6. References
7.1. Operationalizing a Concept
7.2. Deciding on the Correct Level of Measurement
7.3. Indexes and Scales: Measures with Multiple Items
7.4. Measurement Quality
7.5. References
8.1. Subject to Harm: Coercion, Deception, and Other Risks for Participants
8.2. The Belmont Principles: Respect for Persons, Beneficence, and Justice
8.3. Regulating Research: Institutional Review Boards and Professional Norms
8.4. Veracity and Objectivity in Research
8.5. References
9.1. When and How to Use Ethnography
9.2. Going into the Field
9.3. Field Jottings and Field Notes
9.4. References
10.1. When Should In-Depth Interviewing Be Used?
10.2. Creating Interview Guides
10.3. Preparing for In-Depth Interviews
10.4. Conducting In-Depth Interviews
10.5. Focus Groups
10.6. References
11.1. Coding Qualitative Data
11.2. Creating Arguments out of Codes
11.3. Writing Up Qualitative Results
11.4. References
12.1. Pre-experimental Designs: What You Should Not Do
12.2. Randomized Controlled Designs: What You Should Do
12.3. Persistent Validity Problems: What You Still Need to Avoid
12.4. Field Experiments: External Validity at the Cost of Control
12.5. Quasi-experiments: Approximating True Experiments with Observational Data
12.6. Experiments: Our Best Way of Inferring Causality, but Far from Foolproof
12.7. References
13.1. The Strengths and Weaknesses of Survey Research
13.2. Types of Surveys
13.3. Designing Effective Questions and Questionnaires
13.4. References
14.1. Preparing for Data Analysis
14.2. Univariate Data Analysis: Analyzing One Variable at a Time
14.3. Bivariate Data Analysis: Crosstabulations and Chi-Square
14.4. References
15.1. Content Analysis
15.2. References
A.1. Deciding What to Share and with Whom to Share It
A.2. Presenting Your Research
A.3. Writing Up Your Work for Other Scholars
A.4. Reaching Your Intended Audience
A.5. References
Glossary
Credits
Contributors
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Glossary Copyright © by Victor Tan Chen; Gabriela León-Pérez; Julie Honnold; and Volkan Aytar is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.