Making Sense of the Social World: Methods of Investigation - Softcover

Chambliss, Daniel F.; Schutt, Russell K.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0761987878 ISBN 13: 9780761987871

Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc, 2003

Synopsis

 Making Sense of the Social World: Methods of Investigation presents an engaging, accessible, and accurate introduction to social research. Authors Daniel F. Chambliss and Russell K. Schutt present the logic and essential techniques of research methods with a light, readable writing style and without skimping on critical concepts or recent developments. More than a brief derivative of Schutt′s widely successful Investigating the Social World, this compelling volume focuses on validity as a unifying concept and supplies an integrated treatment of research ethics and research practices with innovative examples and exercises.

 

Intended as a methods text for Sociology, Criminal Justice, Media Studies, Political Science, and Public Administration undergraduate students, Making Sense of the Social World is indispensable reading for anyone who needs a functional understanding of research methods.

 

 

About this title

About the Author

Daniel F. Chambliss, PhD, is the Eugene M. Tobin Distinguished Professor of Sociology at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, where he has taught since 1981. He received his PhD from Yale University in 1982; later that year, his thesis research received the American Sociological Association’s Medical Sociology Dissertation Prize. In 1988, he published the book Champions: The Making of Olympic Swimmers, which received the Book of the Year Prize from the U.S. Olympic Committee. In 1989, he received the American Sociology Association (ASA)’s Theory Prize for work on organizational excellence based on his swimming research. Recipient of both Fulbright and Rockefeller Foundation fellowships, he published his second book, Beyond Caring: Hospitals, Nurses, and the Social Organization of Ethics, in 1996; for that work, he was awarded the ASA’s Elliot Freidson Prize in Medical Sociology. In 2014, Harvard University Press published his book, How College Works, coauthored with his former student Christopher G. Takacs. His research and teaching interests include organizational analysis, higher education, social theory, and comparative research methods. In 2018, he received the ASA’s national career award for Distinguished Contributions to Teaching.

Russell K. Schutt, PhD, is a professor and the chair of sociology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and a lecturer on sociology in the Department of Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School (Massachusetts Mental Health Center). He completed his BA, MA, and PhD (1977) at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a postdoctoral fellowship in the Sociology of Social Control Training Program at Yale University (1977–1979). His other books include Investigating the Social World: The Process and Practice of Research and Fundamentals of Social Work Research (with Ray Engel), Making Sense of the Social World (with Dan Chambliss), and Research Methods in Psychology (with Paul G. Nestor)―all with SAGE Publications, as well as Homelessness, Housing, and Mental Illness (Harvard University Press) and Social Neuroscience: Brain, Mind, and Society (coedited with Larry J. Seidman and Matcheri S. Keshavan, also Harvard University Press). Most of his peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters focus on the effect of social context on cognition, satisfaction, functioning, and recidivism, the orientations of service recipients and of service and criminal justice personnel, and the organization of health and social services. He is currently a coinvestigator for a randomized trial of peer support for homeless dually diagnosed veterans, funded by the Veterans Administration.

Review

"First, I would adopt―not just consider―this book. The writing style is direct and easy to follow. The issues are treated in context, with good examples. The authors do a great job of presenting the material in a way that prevents students from asking "how is this relevant to what I do?" I do wish I had written this book myself."

Author: Ronald Perry

"The text’s strengths, bottom line, are that it’s casual and accessible, yet thorough and accurate. It is very up-to-date using good examples from very contemporary social science research."

Author: Mark Edwards

"The strength of this text is in its brevity. In a one semester course, it is impossible to cover all the topics in a comprehensive text in any depth. I would rather my students learn the fundamentals of doing research – a few topics in depth. They can then build on this knowledge, if they need to, in order to learn new types of analysis. I also like the types and varieties of exercises included in the text."

Author: Ann Marie Kinnell

Edition details

• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0761987878
• ISBN 13: 9780761987871
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368