Methodological Thinking: Basic Principles of Social Research Design 2nd Revised edition

For those in the social sciences, this text explains the underlying principles and logic of research, how research methods are ways of thinking about the world, and how to evaluate research done by others. It aims to teach students how to think about social research as a set of tools to examine social life, connects models of research and forms of data to research design, and provides examples from published research, discussing the why behind methodological rules and procedures, rather than how-to skills. It covers the foundations of social research design, developing research questions, literature reviews, measurement, data generation techniques, and samples. This edition includes information on the philosophy of science underlying methodological thinking (to replace positivist, interpretive, and critical perspectives); has more on research ethics and the importance of samples, evaluating research, and critical thinking; and has new articles and examples. Annotation ©2016 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
Methodological Thinking focuses on the underlying logic of social research and encourages students to understand research methods as a way of thinking. Donileen R. Loseke provides an overview of the basic principles of social research, including the foundations of research (data, concepts, theory), the characteristics of research questions, the importance of literature reviews, measurement (conceptualization and operationalization), data generation techniques (experiments, surveys, interviews, observation, document analysis), and sampling. The text is organized to help students become good consumers and producers of research by developing skills to design small-scale research projects and evaluate research done by others. Extracts from a number of journal articles in the appendix illustrate the discussion presented, and full-text versions of the articles are available on an accompanying website. The Second Edition includes a revised chapter on research foundations, including more on philosophy of science, and ethics; more coverage of sampling; more focus on critical thinking; and a new selection of journal articles that are more accessible to an undergraduate audience, draw from more disciplines outside of sociology, and including more that are quantitatively focused.