Book Title: Reading Social Science Methods

Book Description

Science (including its practical older sibling engineering) has been a driving force in civilization for centuries – arguably since humans learned to control fire and absolutely since the age of enlightenment. Science and engineering have altered virtually all aspects of what we are — what we wear, how we eat, how we get from one place to another, how long we live, and how much pain we live in. Most of these changes are beneficial, but benefits come with risks. And the knowledge of when, and often how, to protect oneself – or to support corrective policy – is based primarily on knowledge derived from science. This book is based on the belief that understanding how to judge scientific papers and using science as important background to make decisions is an important skill to have. When citizens understand the rules of science, they have the background knowledge to decide how and why to put limits on current conditions.

This textbook, aimed at introductory level social science and humanities majors, is aimed at understanding the rules and limits of social science methods. The book starts from the assumption that it is not necessary to be able to do research to read research. That is, it develops students’ abilities to judge the soundness of scientific research by guiding students through an explicit set of rules for reading research articles developed from three common research methods: content analysis, survey research, and experimental method.