Leonard Bickman - Böcker

The leading social research methodologists and evaluators address the issues of validity, research design and social experimentation in this first of two volumes inspired by the work of Donald Campbell and sponsored by the American Evaluation Association. Each chapter is designed to offer readers insight into such issues as validity applied to meta-analysis, subject selection problems in randomized experiments, time-series designs and quasi-experiments, and the logic of ruling out rival hypotheses. Anyone engaged in social research will find this book a thought-provoking and inspiring read for their work.

The leading social research methodologists and evaluators address the issues of validity, research design and social experimentation in this first of two volumes inspired by the work of Donald Campbell and sponsored by the American Evaluation Association. Each chapter is designed to offer readers insight into such issues as validity applied to meta-analysis, subject selection problems in randomized experiments, time-series designs and quasi-experiments, and the logic of ruling out rival hypotheses. Anyone engaged in social research will find this book a thought-provoking and inspiring read for their work.

"The Terry E. Hedrick, Leonard Bickman, and Debra J. Rog text provides a framework for designing research that is adaptable to almost any applied setting and constantly reiterates the need for establishing and maintaining credibility with the client at each level of the research process. Although the applied research book is a practical guide, suitable to accompany any thorough applied design textbook, it does a comprehensive job of presenting the distinction between basic and applied research. It introduces many topics found in the general methodology textbooks. This overlap will help students to feel comfortable in using the general skills in a more specific and complex manner."

--Contemporary Psychology

"For researchers needing to know how to plan and design applied research projects, Applied Research Design will be a most welcome publication. . . . The writing is clear and concise, graphics are utilized helpfully, and this book will be much appreciated by beginning social scientists who are serious but uncertain about the methodologies possible for doing applied research."

--Academic Library Book Review

Aimed at helping researchers and students make the transition from the classroom and the laboratory to the "real" world, the authors reveal pitfalls to avoid and strategies to undertake in order to overcome obstacles in the design and planning of applied research. Applied Research Design focuses on refining research questions when actual events force deviations from the original analysis. To accomplish this, the authors discuss how to study and monitor program implementation, statistical power analysis, and how to assess the human and material resources needed to conduct an applied research design to facilitate the management of data collection, analysis, and interpretation. Appropriate for professionals and researchers who have had some previous exposure to research methods, this book will enable the development of research strategies that are credible, useful, and--more important--feasible.

The Handbook includes chapters on each phase of the research process: research design, methods of data collection, and the processes of analyzing and interpreting data. The volume maintains that there is much more to research than learning skills and techniques; methodology involves the fit between theory, research questions research design and analysis. The book also includes several chapters that describe historical and current directions in social research, debating crucial subjects such as qualitative versus quantitative paradigms, how to judge the credibility of types of research, and the increasingly topical issue of research ethics.

The Handbook serves as an invaluable resource for approaching research with an open mind. This volume maps the field of social research methods using an approach that will prove valuable for both students and researchers.

The Second Edition of The SAGE Handbook of Applied Social Research Methods provides students and researchers with the most comprehensive resource covering core methods, research designs, and data collection, management, and analysis issues. This thoroughly revised edition continues to place critical emphasis on finding the tools that best fit the research question given the constraints of deadlines, budget, and available staff. Each chapter offers guidance on how to make intelligent and conscious tradeoffs so that one can refine and hone the research question as new knowledge is gained, unanticipated obstacles are encountered, or contextual shifts take place.

Each chapter has been enhanced pedagogically to include more step-by-step procedures, more practical examples from various settings to illustrate the method, parameters to define when the method is most appropriate and when it is not appropriate. The editors also include numerous graphs, models, tip boxes to provide teaching and learning tools.

Key Features of the Second Edition

Intended Audience

This Handbook is appropriate for introductory and intermediate research methods courses that focus intently on practical applications and a survey of the many methods available to budding researchers.