9781439082423

A concise introduction to the fundamental concepts of social scientific thinking and research, this classic text makes scientific thinking, research methods and statistics accessible to undergraduates at a common sense level. This text is intended for use in a broad array of introductory social sciences courses as well as the Research Methods course taught in Political Science, Sociology and Psychology.

Preface	p. v
About the Authors	p. ix
Thinking Scientifically	p. 1
Why Bother to Be Systematic?	p. 4
The Role of Reasoned judgment and Opinion	p. 5
The Role of Imagination, Intuition, and Custom	p. 6
The Elements of Science	p. 11
The Origin and Utility of Concepts	p. 12
What Is a Variable?	p. 15
The Hypothesis	p. 24
The Scientific Method	p. 27
The Many Roles of Theory	p. 29
Strategies	p. 38
Thinking Over the Problem	p. 40
Reality Testing	p. 46
Understanding the Results	p. 50
Refinements	p. 58
Hypotheses	p. 59
Variables	p. 73
Measuring Variables and Relationships	p. 78
Measuring Variables: Levels of Measurement	p. 79
Measuring the Significance and Representativeness of Data: Probability, Sampling, and Problems in Polling	p. 84
Measuring Relationships Between Variables: Association and Correlation	p. 92
Computers and Statistics	p. 113
Reflections: Back to the Roots	p. 118
Factuality, Reality, and Actuality	p. 119
Morality and the Limits of Science	p. 122
Of Scientists, Science, and Paradigms	p. 127
Making Social Science Serve Human Needs	p. 129
The Radicalism of Science	p. 132
Science and Politics	p. 133
Tuning In, Tuning Out: The Strange Disappearance of Social Capital in America	p. 138
Trust in Government: The United States in Comparative Perspective	p. 167
Index	p. 192
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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The Elements Of Social Scientific Thinking

The Elements Of Social Scientific Thinking

1439082421

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