Social Research Guides To A Decision-Making Process

This book arose from the authors' conviction that teaching and learning social science research methods should not be dull or difficult. It can be extremely challenging and even fun to learn why people believe and behave the way they do. You'll be your own worst enemy if you expect methodology and statistics to be too difficult. We hope this text is understandable even for those who've carefully avoided mathematics and research.

While we're technically accurate about how to do social research, we're also professionally honest about how social research is actually done. We don't believe the interests of students or the social sciences are served by pretending research methods arise from a series of inviolable rules. Research is basically a decision-making process. At every stage, you'll have to make compromises with what's ideal. At best we can only offer you hints about how to make intelligent choices and some consequences of those choices.