Real World Research: a Resource for Social Scientists and Practitioner-Researchers - Softcover

Robson, Colin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0631176896 ISBN 13: 9780631176893

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell, 1993

Synopsis

This textbook is an innovative introduction to research methods in psychology and the social sciences. Whereas traditional texts deal with laboratory-based experimentation, this book is a guide to carrying our research in the "real-world" which is often more complex and difficult to control than the laboratory, but where an increasing number of students and researchers are required to work.

About this title

Book Description:

This successful text furnishes students with the skills necessary to conduct research outside the laboratory, in real world situations. For the second edition, the text has been thoroughly revised in order to bring it right up to date, and to make it as useful as possible for teachers and students from a range of behavioral and social science disciplines. Changes for the new edition include: Examples and references have been updated, and new examples have been drawn in from the fields of applied psychology, applied social science, health studies, social work and education. Greater emphasis has been placed on flexible designs using largely qualitative methods, including additional coverage of ethnographic and grounded theory approaches. Critical discussion is included of the place of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and statistical significance testing in fixed, quantitative design research The quantitative analysis section is now based around the current version of SPSS, while the section on qualitative analysis is now based around the NUD*IST software. Material has been added on combining quantitative and qualitative approaches. The author has situated the material more clearly within theoretical conceptualizations of the nature of social science research, pointing to the advantages of a critical realist approach. The text now incorporates more on tests and test theory. Improvements to the pedagogical material include the addition of a glossary and detailed cross-referencing across chapters. For sample chapters please visit www.blackwellpublishing.com/robson

From the Back Cover:

Though few students of the behavioural and social sciences go on to be laboratory-based experimentalists, traditional degree and other courses, and the texts that they use, tend to concentrate very largely on the design and analysis of laboratory experiments. Many graduates do however go on to jobs where they are called upon to carry out some form of enquiry task - often in complex, messy, poorly controlled situations.

This text is the first to give advice and support in the carrying out of such real world research. The emphasis is on achieving rigour and trustworthiness in the enquiry through systematic procedures appropriate to the task. Particular features include an advocacy of multi-method case study as a serious strategy alongside field experimentation and the survey, and an even-handed coverage of qualitative and quantitative approaches. Many real world studies are, in effect, evaluations and their distinctive features are stressed. A final section covers issues in 'making an impact' including different approaches to reporting, the place of enquiry in promoting change, and the relative roles of practitioners and researchers.

About this edition

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0631176896
• ISBN 13: 9780631176893
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 528