Introduction Social Research Quan tit a ti ve & Qualitative Approaches 300.72 P96 1998 Introduction to Social Research \ ' < Introduction to Social Research Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches Keith F Punch SAGE Publications London • Thousand Oaks • New Delhi © Keith F Punch 1998 First published 1998 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without permission in writing from the Publishers. SAGE Publications Ltd 6 Bonhill Street London EC2A 4PU SAGE Publications Inc 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, California 91320 SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd 32, M-Block Market Greater Kailash - I New Delhi 110 048 British Library Cataloguing in Publication data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0 7619 5812 6 ISBN 0 7619 5813 4 (pbk) Library of Congress catalog record available Typeset by Photoprint, Torquay Printed in Great Britain by The Cromwell Press Ltd, Trowbridge, Wiltshire *16 '99 9> Contents List of Figures xi List of Tables xii List of Examples xiii Preface xiv 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Background 2 1.2 Some Simplifying Devices 4 1.3 Research Methods Training 6 1.4 Essentials and Logic 7 1.5 Science, the Social Sciences and Social Research 8 1.6 Organization of the Book 10 1.7 Suggestions for Further Reading 11 1.8 The Use of Examples 11 Notes 12 2 Some Central Issues 14 2.1 Description versus Explanation 14 2.2 Question-Method Connections 19 2.3 Prespecified versus Unfolding: Structure in Research Questions, Design and Data 23 2.4 Some Important Terms 27 Notes 31 Further Reading 31 3 Research Questions 33 3.1 General and Specific Research Questions 34 3.2 Developing Research Questions 35 3.3 The Role of Research Questions 38 3.4 Hypotheses 39 3.5 A Simplified Model of Research 41 3.6 The Role of the Literature 43 Notes 44 Further Reading 44 VI INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL RESEARCH 4 From Research Questions to Data 46 4.1 The Empirical Criterion 46 4.2 Linking Concepts and Data 47 4.3 Good and Bad Research Questions 49 4.4 Value Judgements 49 4.5 Causation 51 4.6 Conceptual Frameworks 56 4.7 From Research Questions to Data 57 4.7.1 Quantitative data 58 4.7.2 Qualitative data 59 4.8 Combining Quantitative and Qualitative Data 61 Notes 62 Further Reading 63 5 Quantitative Research Design 65 5.1 What is Research Design? 66 5.2 Some Background 68 5.3 Independent, Dependent and Control Variables 70 5.4 The Experiment 71 5.5 Quasi-Experimental and Non-Experimental Design 74 5.6 Relationships between Variables: the Correlational Survey 76 5.7 Relationships between Variables: Causation and Accounting for Variance 78 5.8 Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) as a General Design Strategy 81 5.9 Controlling Variables 83 5.10 Internal Validity 85 Notes 86 Further Reading 87 6 Collecting Quantitative Data 88 6.1 Types of Variables 89 6.2 The Process of Measurement 90 6.3 Latent Traits 93 6.4 Measuring Techniques 94 6.5 Steps in Constructing a Measuring Instrument 95 6.6 To Construct an Instrument or to Use an Existing Instrument? 96 6.7 Locating Existing Measuring Instruments 97 CONTENTS vii 6.8 Reliability and Validity 98 6.8.1 Reliability 99 6.8.2 Validity 100 6.9 Developing a Survey Questionnaire 102 6.10 Collecting the Data: Administering the Measuring Instrument 104 6.11 Sampling 104 6.12 Secondary Analysis 106 Notes 107 Further Reading 109 7 The Analysis of Quantitative Data 111 7.1 Summarizing Quantitative Data 113 7.1.1 Central tendency: the mean 113 7.1.2 Variation: the standard deviation and the variance 113 7.1.3 Frequency distributions 115 7.2 Relationships between Variables: Cross-Tabulations and Contingency Tables 115 7.3 Comparisons between Groups: the Analysis of Variance 117 7.3.1 Analysis of variance 117 7.3.2 Interaction 118 7.3.3 Analysis of covariance 120 7.3.4 From univariate to multivariate 121 7.4 Relationships between Variables: Correlation and Regression 121 7.4.1 Simple correlation 122 7.4.2 Multiple correlation and regression 124 7.4.3 The squared multiple correlation coefficient Pi2 124 7.4.4 The regression weights 125 7.4.5 Stepwise regression 125 7.4.6 Review: MLR as a general data analysis system 126 7.4.7 Analysis of covariance using MLR 127 7.4.8 From regression analysis to causal path analysis 127 7.5 The Analysis of Survey Data 128 7.6 Data Reduction: Factor Analysis 129 7.7 Statistical Inference 132 7.8 Computer Software for the Analysis of Quantitative Data 134 Notes 135 Further Reading 136 viii INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL RESEARCH 8 Qualitative Research: Overview, Design and Grounded Theory 138 8.1 Overview 139 8.1.1 Diversity in qualitative research 139 8.1.2 Feminism 141 8.1.3 Postmodernism 143 8.1.4 Common themes within the diversity 148 8.2 Design in Qualitative Research 149 8.3 Case Studies 150 8.3.1 The general idea 150 8.3.2 Four characteristics of case studies 153 8.3.3 Case studies and generalizability 153 8.3.4 Preparing a case study 156 8.4 Ethnography 157 8.4.1 Introduction 157 8.4.2 Some main characteristics 160 8.4.3 General comments 162 8.5 Grounded Theory 162 8.5.1 What is grounded theory? 163 8.5.2 A short history of grounded theory 163 8.5.3 Theory generation versus theory verification 166 8.5.4 Data-collection/data-analysis relationships: theoretical sampling 167 8.5.5 The use of the literature in grounded theory 167 8.5.6 The place of grounded theory research 168 Notes 169 Further Reading 171 9 Collecting Qualitative Data 174 9.1 The Interview 174 9.1.1 Types of interviews 175 9.1.2 Feminist perspectives on interviewing 178 9.1.3 Practical aspects of interviewing 180 9.1.4 The analytic status of interview data: the role of language 182 9.2 Observation 184 9.2.1 Structured and unstructured approaches to observation 185 9.2.2 Practical issues in observation 186 9.3 Participant Observation 188