Metodologia De La Investigacion
Páginas: 303 (75705 palabras)
Publicado: 3 de julio de 2012
Principles of Research Design in
the Social Sciences
Principles of Research Design in the Social Sciences is a book for researchers
who know what they want to study, but who have yet to decide how best to
study it. This book does not aim to provide a set of rigid recipes for social
scientists – like many methodology books do – rather it is intended to
stimulate them to think about theissues involved when deciding upon their
research design.
By discussing standard approaches to research design and method in
various disciplines within the social sciences, the authors illustrate why
particular designs have traditionally predominated in certain areas of study.
But whilst they acknowledge the strengths of these standard approaches,
Bechhofer and Paterson’s emphasis is onhelping researchers to find the most
effective solution to their given problem, encouraging them, through this
familiarity with the principles of a variety of approaches, to innovate where
appropriate.
Principles of Research Design in the Social Sciences will prove
indispensable to students of all levels in the social sciences embarking upon a
research project, and to experienced researcherslooking for a fresh
perspective on their object of study.
Frank Bechhofer is Professor at the Research Centre for Social Sciences at
the University of Edinburgh. Lindsay Paterson is Professor in the Faculty of
Education at the University of Edinburgh.
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
1 Fundamentals: comparison and control
vii
x
1
2 Experiments
14
3 Representativeness
314 The choice of locale and group
43
5 To interview or not to interview
55
6 Structured questionnaires
72
7 Fieldwork
91
8 Time
104
9 Policy research
120
10 Journalism and literature
134
Guide to further reading
Bibliography
Index
149
155
167
Preface
If you want to plan a piece of empirical social research, you have to make
decisionsabout how the research is to be carried out. You have to choose a set
of procedures which enable your aims and objectives to be realised in practice.
The aim of this book is to help you to do that – not by providing a set of recipes,
but by stimulating you to think about the issues involved in choosing a
research design. So the book is written mainly for social scientists who have
done littleresearch before, who already have a broad idea of what they want
to study, but who are just beginning to work out how to study it.
The organising principles we use are comparison and control. We argue in
Chapter 1 that these ideas are fundamental to research design, and in each of
the later chapters – devoted to particular ways of going about a research
project – we consider the different rolesof comparison and control in different
types of research. The book itself is informed by comparison. At several
places, we compare different designs, and we would encourage you to read
through the whole text, even though you may be fairly sure you know what
design you want to use: in order to be clear about the effectiveness of the
design you have chosen, you should know why you are not usingcertain
others.
One reason for this is that it is easy to restrict yourself unthinkingly to the
standard repertoire of designs in the main academic discipline to which you
are attached. So, if you are a psychologist you might tend to use experiments
or observation. If you are a sociologist or political scientist, you might incline
towards surveys or interviews. If you are an anthropologist,you would be
most likely to think first about fieldwork and participant observation. And if
you work in one of the many professional social disciplines – such as
education, social work, criminology or social medicine – you are likely to
favour a fairly eclectic mixture of surveys, interviews, case studies and
observation.
viii Preface
There are good reasons, especially historically,...
the Social Sciences
Principles of Research Design in the Social Sciences is a book for researchers
who know what they want to study, but who have yet to decide how best to
study it. This book does not aim to provide a set of rigid recipes for social
scientists – like many methodology books do – rather it is intended to
stimulate them to think about theissues involved when deciding upon their
research design.
By discussing standard approaches to research design and method in
various disciplines within the social sciences, the authors illustrate why
particular designs have traditionally predominated in certain areas of study.
But whilst they acknowledge the strengths of these standard approaches,
Bechhofer and Paterson’s emphasis is onhelping researchers to find the most
effective solution to their given problem, encouraging them, through this
familiarity with the principles of a variety of approaches, to innovate where
appropriate.
Principles of Research Design in the Social Sciences will prove
indispensable to students of all levels in the social sciences embarking upon a
research project, and to experienced researcherslooking for a fresh
perspective on their object of study.
Frank Bechhofer is Professor at the Research Centre for Social Sciences at
the University of Edinburgh. Lindsay Paterson is Professor in the Faculty of
Education at the University of Edinburgh.
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
1 Fundamentals: comparison and control
vii
x
1
2 Experiments
14
3 Representativeness
314 The choice of locale and group
43
5 To interview or not to interview
55
6 Structured questionnaires
72
7 Fieldwork
91
8 Time
104
9 Policy research
120
10 Journalism and literature
134
Guide to further reading
Bibliography
Index
149
155
167
Preface
If you want to plan a piece of empirical social research, you have to make
decisionsabout how the research is to be carried out. You have to choose a set
of procedures which enable your aims and objectives to be realised in practice.
The aim of this book is to help you to do that – not by providing a set of recipes,
but by stimulating you to think about the issues involved in choosing a
research design. So the book is written mainly for social scientists who have
done littleresearch before, who already have a broad idea of what they want
to study, but who are just beginning to work out how to study it.
The organising principles we use are comparison and control. We argue in
Chapter 1 that these ideas are fundamental to research design, and in each of
the later chapters – devoted to particular ways of going about a research
project – we consider the different rolesof comparison and control in different
types of research. The book itself is informed by comparison. At several
places, we compare different designs, and we would encourage you to read
through the whole text, even though you may be fairly sure you know what
design you want to use: in order to be clear about the effectiveness of the
design you have chosen, you should know why you are not usingcertain
others.
One reason for this is that it is easy to restrict yourself unthinkingly to the
standard repertoire of designs in the main academic discipline to which you
are attached. So, if you are a psychologist you might tend to use experiments
or observation. If you are a sociologist or political scientist, you might incline
towards surveys or interviews. If you are an anthropologist,you would be
most likely to think first about fieldwork and participant observation. And if
you work in one of the many professional social disciplines – such as
education, social work, criminology or social medicine – you are likely to
favour a fairly eclectic mixture of surveys, interviews, case studies and
observation.
viii Preface
There are good reasons, especially historically,...
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