Includes bibliographical references and index.

Ted Palys is a Professor in the School of Criminology at Simon Fraser University. He has taught research methods and ethics for more than twenty years, and conducted research involving a broad array of qualitative and quantitative methods. His primary research and writing interests include research methods and the sociology of science, with particular expertise in the law and ethics of research confidentiality.

Chris Atchison is currently completing his doctoral studies in the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto. His primary research interests are located in research methods, quantitative, and qualitative data analysis, gender and sexuality, and social control. His main area of publication to date relates to the social and methodological implications of computer technology.

"Written in an engaging and accessible narrative style, Research Decisions: Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed-Method Approaches shows students how they can effectively integrate qualitative methods, such as surveys, and statistical methods, such as data collection and manipulation in SPSS and other software, to undertake deeper and more nuanced social research and analyses. The text is truly multidisciplinary and features a rich diversity of examples for sociology, criminology, political science, health studies, education, and anthropology students." (Publisher's Website)

CONTENTS:

Chapter 1: Perspectives on Research

Chapter 2: Getting Started

Chapter 3: Ethics in Social Research

Chapter 4: Sampling and Recruitment

Chapter 5: Constructing a Research Proposal

Chapter 6: Interactive Methods: Survey, Interview, and Oral History Techniques

Chapter 7: Observation and Ethnography

Chapter 8: Archival Methods

Chapter 9: Eliminating Rival Plausible Explanations: The Experiment

Chapter 10: From Manipulative to Analytic Control: Quasi-Experimentation and Case Study Analysis

Chapter 11: Text, Image, Audio, and Video: Making Sense of Non Numeric Data

Chapter 12: A Conceptual Introduction to Quantitative Data Analysis

Chapter 13: Writing Your Research Report

Chapter 14: Mixed Methods

APPENDICES:
Appendix A: Critical Values of Chi-Square
Appendix B: Critical Values of r
Appendix C: Critical Values of t
Appendix D: Critical Values of F

Glossary

References