Content: The Good Research Guide: For small-scale social research projects
The Good Research Guide
Summary of contents
Contents
List of tables and figures
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part 1 Strategies for social research
What are research strategies?
Which strategy to choose?
Checklist for the choice of research strategy
1 Surveys
What is a survey?
Types of survey
Which type of survey to choose?
Postal surveys
Face-to-face surveys
Group-administered surveys
Telephone surveys
Internet surveys
Web-based questionnaire surveys
Social network sites
Facebook surveys. The research populationResponse rates
How to achieve good response rates
Non-response bias
Advantages of surveys
Disadvantages of surveys
Further reading
Checklist for the use of surveys
2 Sampling
Representative samples and exploratory samples
Probability sampling and non-probability sampling
Sampling frames
Probability sampling techniques
Non-probability sampling techniques
Which sampling technique should be used?
Size of the sample
Advantages of sampling
Disadvantages of sampling
Further reading
Checklist for the use of sampling
3 Case studies
What is a 'case'? The case study approachThe purpose of a case study
Selecting a case
Can you generalize from a case study?
Advantages of the case study approach
Disadvantages of the case study approach
Further reading
Checklist for the use of case studies
4 Experiments
What is an experiment?
When to use an experiment
Types of experiment
Experiments involving people --
the observer effect
Causal relationships and variables
The use of controls
Control groups
Blind trials
True experiments and quasi-experiments
Advantages of experiments
Disadvantages of experiments
Further reading. Checklist for the experimental approach5 Ethnography
What is ethnography?
The alien, the exotic and the routine
Life on the Internet
Life history
Access to fieldwork settings
Description and theory
Reflexivity: ethnographers as part of the world they seek to describe
Putting the researcher's 'self' into ethnographicresearch
Advantages of ethnography
Disadvantages of ethnography
Further reading
Checklist for ethnographic research
6 Phenomenology
What is the phenomenological approach?
Experience
The everyday world
Seeing things through the eyes of others. The social construction of realityMultiple realities
Description
The suspension of common-sense beliefs
Members' accounts
Types of phenomenology: underlying essences or actual experiences
Advantages of phenomenology
Disadvantages of phenomenology
Further reading
Checklist for phenomenology
7 Grounded theory
What is the grounded theory approach?
When is the grounded theory approach useful?
Starting grounded theory research
Theoretical sampling: the selection of sites for fieldwork
Completing the research (theoretical saturation)
Methods of data collection
Analysing the data.