Textbooks:

The Practice of Social Research (10th ed.) (2004)
Babbie, Earl

Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches (2nd ed.) (2003)
Creswell, John W.

::: See bookshelf for all texts :::

Concepts:

• Evaluating Research
• Research Design
  • Types of studies: exploratory, descriptive, explanatory
  • Research questions & hypotheses
  • Variables: independent, dependent, intervening, moderating
  • Ecological validity, reactivity effect
  • Measurement: discrete (nominal, ordinal) and continuous (interval, ratio)
• Sampling
  • Unit of analysis
  • Probability vs. nonprobability sampling
• Experiments
  • Designs: pre-experimental, basic, Solomon, latin-square, factorial
• Surveys
  • Types of questions & responses
  • Exclusivity, equivalence, exhaustivity, appropriateness, social desirability, double-barreled
• Content Analysis
  • Unobtrusive methods, social artifacts, procedures, coding
• Interviews
  • Components, types, behaviors, question style, focus groups,
• Qualitative Data Analysis
  • Coding, pattern detection, grounded theory
• Quantitative Data Analysis
  • Descriptive & inferential statistics
  • Frequency distribution, measures of association
• Ethics