Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences (4th Edition)

This book offers the most comprehensive coverage of qualitative techniques of any book on the market today and does it in a way that is easy to read and follow. The author's central purpose remains a desire to instruct inexperienced researchers in ways of effectively collecting, organizing, and making sense of qualitative data, while stressing the importance of ethics in research and in taking the time to properly design and think through any research endeavor. After reading this book, fledgling researchers should be able to design, collect, and analyze data and then present their results to the scientific community. Considers seven different data collection strategies in detail. Describes focus group interviewing, one of the fastest growing styles of data collection, in detail (Ch. 5), including a new Moderator's Guide that provides the inexperienced focus group facilitator with a step-by-step guide to how the interview should be conducted. Maintains the emphasis on ethics in research (Ch. 3) including a new section on the President's apology for the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. For anyone in the social sciences who needs to develop research methodology.

This text uses hands-on activities and real-life examples to provide the most comprehensive and straightforward coverage of doing qualitative research on the market.

The author's central purpose is to show inexperienced researchers how to design, collect, and analyze data and then present their results to the scientific community, while stressing the importance of ethics in research and taking the time to properly design and think through any research endeavor.