Methodological Thinking: Basic Principles of Social Research Design

Methodological Thinking: Basic Principles of Social Research Design by Loseke, Donileen R.. paperback edition. ISBN: 9781412997201.

Thinking Methodologically: Basic Principles of Social Research Design focuses on the underlying logic of social research and encourages students to understand research methods as a way of thinking. The bookprovides 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. The author highlights the relationships among these components of research; she also explains that it is not possible to argue that one of research is better than any other and that good researchers understand the differences among―and appreciate the capabilities of―different tools.