Social Research Methods
Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches
- H. Russell Bernard - University of Florida, USA
This text provides a comprehensive guide to doing research in the social and behavioral sciences—from research design and sampling to collecting and analyzing data. Rich in examples, the book has been revised and updated to provide today's students with a conceptual understanding of each qualitative and quantitative technique, as well as showing them how to use it.
"The main strength of this text is coverage of both quantitative and qualitative methodology from a broad range of fields. The examples are often my students' favorite thing to discuss in class." -Erica B. Gibson, University of South Carolina
"Bernard does an excellent job of not only showing how to practice research but also provides a detailed discussion of broader historical and philosophical contexts that are important for understanding research." -Julian Kilker, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
"The depth of detailed descriptions (foundations of social research; interviewing, participant observation, field notes, and data analysis) go beyond other texts…the organization is superb." -Benedict J. Colombi, University of Arizona
Click here to read what The Qualitative Report said about this title.
good book. easy to use and accessible to undergraduate students.
good explanation of scientific methodology. excellent for consultation
This text was extremely useful in providing a single source of information for first-time research students trying to understanding the structure of qualitative methods and approaches.
The writing style is quite difficult to grasp for first year (non-native English speaking) undergraduate students.
The book contains a great bundle of knowledge in both quantitative and qualitative research designs. It is very much suited for more advanced level students, but very much to cope for beginners.
The book can very well be compared with one of the Handbooks on Research Methods and we are thinking of using it in one of our more advanced courses in research methods.
Am teaching research methods this spring but book already chosen for course. Will consider for next time.
Good clear structure. Guides the reader to understand differences between qualitative and quantitative approaches to research and also considers mixed methods. The detailed descriptions and explanations contribute to a wider understanding of the subject overall.
This text is good for students that will be designing their own research using quantitative, qualititative, or a mixed model. Emphasis is appropriate for understanding validity and reliability concerns.
This book provides a good overview of both designs and assists students identifying the most suitable approach for their projects
comprehensive coverage of both qualitative and quantitative research methods
Did not suit our needs.
Great overall book for intro research methods course for my grad students. Lots of good description and thought-provoking questions. Good resource for researchers to have on their shelves.
The Further Reading section at the end of each chapter is expanded and the result is that the bibliography is about 60% larger than in the last edition. People ask me why there are so many references to really, really old stuff. The reason is that I want students to know that the literature on research methods is very rich and I want them to know about many of the classics. Many examples have been updated, including new information about some of the classics.
The separate chapter on searching the literature is gone from this edition because students are universally aware of the databases. Chapter 3 retains the information about the databases that I think are most important for students to control and instructions on how to use the databases effectively.
Sampling takes up three chapters in this edition, up from one in the first edition. A lot of progress has been made in the development of nonprobability methods of sampling, for example, so these are treated in a separate chapter. In the first edition, I treated consensus analysis in the chapter on participant observation and on choosing informants. Consensus analysis has become much more widely used in the last 15 years. It is now described in greater detail in Chapter 16, on cultural domain analysis. Choosing both key informants and specialized informants, however, remains in the chapter on nonprobability methods of sampling.
Interviewing takes up three chapters in this edition, up from two in the first edition. In Chapter 8, on unstructured and semistructured interviewing, the sections on recording equipment and on voice recognition software (VRS) have been updated, and examples have been added or updated. Chapters 9 and 10 are on two very different kinds of structured interviewing. Chapter 9 focuses on questionnaires and surveys. I've updated the material on computer-based methods and on Internet-based surveys and added material on the list experiment. Chapter 10 introduces methods used in cognitive science, including free lists, pile sorts, triad tests, and paired comparisons. Methods for analyzing these data are in Chapter 16.
In Chapter 11, on scaling, I've updated material on the various instruments. In Chapter 12, on participant observation, I've updated several examples and added bibliography. In Chapter 13, on taking and managing field notes, I've updated or added examples and added information on using word processors as text managers. In Chapter 14, the bibliography has been updated.
Chapter 15 is unchanged from the first edition. Chapter 16 contains new material on analyzing data from the systematic ethnographic methods described in Chapter 10: free lists, pile sorts, and so on. The section on network analysis in Chapter 16 is new to this edition. Multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis are described in Chapter 16, as is cultural consensus analysis and cultural consonance analysis. Chapter 17 continues with methods in this cognitive science tradition of social science, including decision modeling and taxonomic analysis and it covers new methods for analytic induction.
The chapter on text analysis in the last edition is now two chapters. Chapters 18 and 19 owe much to my work with Gery Ryan (Bernard and Ryan 2010; Ryan and Bernard 2000, 2003). Chapter 18 focuses on methods for analyzing whole texts; Chapter 19 deals with methods that involve finding themes in texts and analyzing the distribution of themes.
Chapters 20, 21, and 22 are updated versions of Chapters 14, 15, and 16 in the first edition.
Sage College Publishing
