Experiencing Social Research: A Reader

by Strand, Kerry J.

• ISBN13: 9780205404483
• ISBN10: 0205404480
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-11-09
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This unique reader introduces the social research process by pairing sixteen published research articles with candid interviews with the lead researcher on each study. The interviews bring the research process to life, showing it as a human activity involving choices and constraints, challenges and surprises, frustrations and satisfactions, and collaboration among colleagues. The selections represent a wide range of methodological approaches, and many different subfields of sociology and related disciplines, such as criminology, family studies, gender, disaster research, mass media, health care, religion, rural sociology, race and ethnicity, social movements, comparative studies, evaluation research, historical analysis, and the scholarship of teaching and learning.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
About the Authors	xi
Overview of Social Research
Experiencing Social Research: Choices, Challenges, Constraints, and Compromises	1	(12)
Getting Started: Choosing a Topic	2	(1)
Choosing a Research Design: Method, Measures, Samples	3	(4)
Ethical Issues and Considerations	7	(1)
Collecting, Organizing, and Analyzing the Data	8	(2)
The Rewards of Social Research	10	(3)
Why Do Social Research?	13	(34)
The Relative Influence of Youth and Adult Experiences on Personal Spirituality and Church Involvement	15	(18)
Thomas P. O'Connor
Dean R. Hoge
Estrelda Alexander
An interview with Thomas P.O'Connor	27	(6)
Young Dads: The Effects of a Parenting Program on Urban African-American Adolescent Fathers	33	(14)
Carl Mazza
An interview with ... Carl Mazza	42	(5)
Research Design, Sampling, and Measurement	47	(46)
Cigarette Smoking and the Disenfranchisement of Adolescent Girls: A Discourse of Resistance?	51	(22)
Marjorie MacDonald
Nancy E. Wright
An interview with Marjorie MacDonald	69	(4)
Rebellion, Modernity, and Romance: Smoking as a Gendered Practice in Popular Young Women's Magazines, Britain 1918--1939	73	(20)
Penny Tinkler
An interview with ... Penny Tinkler	86	(7)
Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches
Experimental Research	93	(30)
The Impact of Social Structure on Mate Selection: An Empirical Evaluation of an Active-Learning Exercise	95	(16)
John F. Zipp
An interview with ... John F. Zipp	106	(5)
The Effect of Enforcement on Merchant Compliance with the Minimum Legal Drinking Age Law	111	(12)
Richard Scribner
Deborah Cohen
An interview with ... Richard Scribner	118	(5)
Survey Research	123	(38)
Spankers and Nonspankers: Where They Get Information on Spanking	127	(18)
Wendy Walsh
An interview with ... Wendy Walsh	141	(4)
Predictors of Fear of Criminal Victimization at School among Adolescents	145	(16)
David C. May
R. Gregory Dunaway
An interview with ... David C. May	157	(4)
Nonreactive Research: Content Analysis, Accretion Measures, and Using Existing Statistics	161	(52)
Race, Gender, and Status: A Content Analysis of Print Advertisements in Four Popular Magazines	165	(16)
Melvin E. Thomas
Linda A. Treiber
An interview with ... Linda A. Treiber	175	(6)
Graffiti on the Great Plains: A Social Reaction to the Red River Valley Flood of 1997	181	(16)
Carol A. Hagen
Morten G. Ender
Kathleen A. Tiemann
Clifford O. Hagen, Jr.
An interview with ... Carol A. Hagen	191	(6)
Capital Punishment and Deterrence: Examining the Effect of Executions on Murder in Texas	197	(16)
Jon Sorensen
Robert Wrinkle
Victoria Brewer
James Marquart
An interview with ... Jon Sorensen	207	(6)
Field Research	213	(66)
Neither Real Americans nor Real Asians? Multigeneration Asian Ethnics Navigating the Terrain of Authenticity	215	(22)
Mia Tuan
An interview with ... Mia Tuan	232	(5)
Exceptions to the Rule: Upwardly Mobile White and Mexican American High School Girls	237	(22)
Julie Bettie
An interview with ... Julie Bettie	251	(8)
The Glass Phallus: Pub(lic) Masculinity and Drinking in Rural New Zealand	259	(20)
Hugh Campbell
An interview with ... Hugh Campbell	272	(7)
Historical and Comparative Research	279	(39)
``Button-Down Terror'': The Metamorphosis of the Hate Movement	281	(22)
Barbara Perry
An interview with ... Barbara Perry	297	(6)
Ties That Bind: Correlates of Adolescents' Civic Commitments in Seven Countries	303	(15)
Constance A. Flanagan
Jennifer M. Bowes
Britta Jonsson
Beno Csapo
Elena Sheblanova
An interview with ... Constance A. Flanagan	318