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Preface | |
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Acknowledgement | |
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Dedication | |
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Why Bother Learning Research? | |
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The Excitement of Discovery | |
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Knowledge: Is Some Knowledge Better Than Other Knowledge? | |
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Inductive Versus Deductive Reasoning | |
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The Scientific Method | |
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Is the Scientific Method the Only Approach? | |
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Creativity and Science | |
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The Three Ways of Doing Research | |
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Pure and Applied Research | |
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A Way of Viewing the Research Process: Research Paradigms | |
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The Four Paradigms | |
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Explanation, Usage, Examples of Each, Methodologies Used, Types of Data to Collect, Pros and Cons of Each Paradigm | |
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Which Paradigm Should You Choose for Your Research Project? | |
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What's the Beef? | |
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A Look at Problem Formulations | |
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An Example of a Problem Formulation: Why Do So Few Men Enter the Helping Professions? | |
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A Feminist Response to the Problem Formulation | |
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The Moral of the Story | |
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Choosing a Research Problem | |
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Walking You Through the Problem of Finding and Formulating a Suitable Problem to Study | |
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Have You Chosen the Correct Problem? | |
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The Research Proposal | |
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The Purpose of the Proposal | |
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The Content of the Proposal | |
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Choosing a Topic | |
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Issues to Consider When Choosing a Topic | |
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A Suggested Outline for the Proposal | |
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Constructivist Proposals | |
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Critical Theory Studies | |
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Evaluation Protocol for Research Proposals | |
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The Literature Review | |
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Steps in Doing a Serious Literature Review | |
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Good and Bad Sources | |
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Commonly-Used Sources and Their Relative Quality | |
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How to Judge Well-Done Literature Reviews | |
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Plagiarism | |
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Locating Documents on the Internet | |
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Full-Text Data Bases in the Social Sciences | |
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Citations and Abstracts | |
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Using Instruments to Measure Behavior | |
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Creating Your Own Instrument | |
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Using an Instrument Created by Others | |
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Six Types of Validity | |
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Determining Reliability (Test-Retest, Split-Half Method) | |
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Common Ways of Using Instruments | |
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Guidelines for Surveys | |
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Examples of Research Instruments | |
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Instrument 1: A Vague Likert Scale: The Dakota Measure of Spirituality (Scale and Discussion) | |
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Instrument 2: A Behaviorally Oriented Likert Scale: The CES-D Measure of Depression: (Scale and Discussion) | |
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Instrument 3: The Use of Vignettes: The Mt | |
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Pleasant Crisis Scale (Scale and Discussion) | |
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Instrument 4: An Open-Ended Instrument: Disclosure of AIDS in Latino Families (Scale and Discussion) | |
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Making Sense Out of Open-Ended Answers | |
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The Importance of Cover Letters with Examples | |
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Sending Results Out to Respondents with an Actual Example | |
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Tough Research: Quantitative Designs | |
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The Characteristics of Quantitative Research (6 Characteristics Explained) | |
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Comparison Between Experiment and Control Group | |
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Solomon Four-Group Designs | |
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Time Series Studies | |
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Quasi-Experimental Designs | |
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Survey Research | |
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Threats to Experimental Design | |
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Qualitative Designs | |
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Rules of Qualitative Research | |
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Types of Qualitative Studies | |
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Conclusions | |
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Sampling | |
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Sampling Bias and Sampling Error | |
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Sampling Terms: Statistic, Universe, Parameter, Population and Sa | |