The Basics of Social Research

574 Pages·2012·29.654 MB·English

by  Earl Babbie

T H E B A S I C S O F
S O C I A L
R E S E A R C H
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A Note from the Author
Writing is my joy, sociology my passion. I delight in putting
words together in a way that makes people learn or laugh or
both. Sociology shows up as a set of words, also. It represents
our last, best hope for planet-training our race and finding
ways for us to live together. I feel a special excitement at being
present when sociology, at last, comes into focus as an idea
whose time has come.
II ganrenwou unpc eind sIm waalnl-tteodw nto V beerm aonn atu atnod-b Nodewy mHeacmhpasnhicir,e m. Wy hen Earl Babbie
teacher, like my dad, told me I should go to college instead.
When young Malcolm Little announced he wanted to be a lawyer, his teacher
told him a “colored boy” should be something more like a carpenter. The
difference in our experiences says something powerful about the idea of a
level playing field. The inequalities among ethnic groups run deep, as
Malcolm X would go on to point out.
I ventured into the outer world by way of Harvard, the U.S. Marine Corps,
U.C. Berkeley, and 12 years’ teaching at the University of Hawaii. I resigned
from teaching in 1980 and wrote full-time for seven years, until the call of the
classroom became too loud to ignore. For me, teaching is like playing jazz. Even
if you perform the same number over and over, it never comes out the same way
twice and you don’t know exactly what it’ll sound like until you hear it. Teaching
is like writing with your voice.
After some 20 years of teaching at Chapman University in southern California,
I have now shifted my venue by moving to Arkansas and getting a direct
experience of southern/midwestern life. When that’s balanced by periodic
returns to California and to my roots in Vermont, I feel well rounded in my
sociological experiences.
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SIxTH EDITION
T H E B A S I C S O F
S O C I A L
R E S E A R C H
E A R L B A B B I E
Chapman University
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The Basics of Social Research, Sixth Edition, © 2014, 2011 Wadsworth, Cengage Learning
International Edition
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright
Earl Babbie
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To Evelyn Fay Babbie
and Henry Robert Babbie
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Contents in Brief
P a r t O n e An Introduction to Inquiry
1 Human Inquiry and Science 1
2 Paradigms, Theory, and Research 30
3 The Ethics and Politics of Social Research 61
P a r t t W O the Structuring of Inquiry
4 Research Design 91
5 Conceptualization, Operationalization, and Measurement 127
6 Indexes, Scales, and Typologies 162
7 The Logic of Sampling 194
P a r t t H r e e modes of observation
8 Experiments 237
9 Survey Research 259
10 Qualitative Field Research 302
11 Unobtrusive Research 339
12 Evaluation Research 371
P a r t F O U r Analysis of Data
13 Qualitative Data Analysis 402
14 Quantitative Data Analysis 436
15 Reading and Writing Social Research 462
Appendixes
A Using the Library 490
B Random Numbers 497
C Distribution of Chi Square 499
D Normal Curve Areas 501
e Estimated Sampling Error 502
vii
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Contents
Preface xix ChApter
A Letter to Students from This Book xxv 2 paradigms, theory,
and research 30
P a r t O n e
What do you think? 31
An Introduction to Inquiry
Introduction 31
Some Social Science Paradigms 32
ChApter Macrotheory and Microtheory 33
1 human Inquiry and Science 1 Early Positivism 34
Conflict Paradigm 34
What do you think? 2 Symbolic Interactionism 35
Introduction 2 Ethnomethodology 36
Structural Functionalism 36
Looking for Reality 3
Feminist Paradigms 37
Knowledge from Agreement Reality 3
Critical Race Theory 39
Ordinary Human Inquiry 4
Rational Objectivity Reconsidered 40
Tradition 5
Two Logical Systems Revisited 43
Authority 5
The Traditional Model of Science 43
Errors in Inquiry and Some Solutions 6
Deduction and Induction Compared 46
The Foundations of Social Science 7
Deductive Theory Construction 51
Theory, Not Philosophy or Belief 7
Getting Started 51
Social Regularities 9
Constructing Your Theory 52
Aggregates, Not Individuals 11
An Example of Deductive Theory:
Concepts and Variables 12
Distributive Justice 52
The Purposes of Social Research 17
The Ethics of Human Inquiry 20 Inductive Theory Construction 54
Some Dialectics of Social Research 20 An Example of Inductive Theory:
Why Do People Smoke Marijuana? 54
Idiographic and Nomothetic Explanation 20
Inductive and Deductive Theory 22 The Links between Theory and Research 55
Determinism versus Agency 23 The Importance of Theory in the “Real World” 56
Qualitative and Quantitative Data 24 Research Ethics and Theory 57
The Research Proposal 26
What do you think? Revisited 57
What do you think? Revisited 26 Main Points 58
Main Points 27 Key Terms 59
Key Terms 28 Proposing Social Research: Theory 59
Proposing Social Research: Introduction 28 Review Questions 59
Review Questions 29 Online Study Resources 60
Online Study Resources 29
ix
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