Bailey - Methods of social research

METHODS OF SOCIAL RESEARCH

KENNETH D. BAILEY

The Free Press
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Maxwell Macmillan Canada, Inc.
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Copyright 1994 by The Free Press

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher.

The Free Press
A Division of Macmillan, Inc.
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www.SimonandSchuster.com

Maxwell Macmillan Canada, Inc.
1200 Eglinton Avenue East
Suite 200
Don Mills, Ontario M3C 3N1

Macmillan, Inc. is part of the Maxwell Communication Group of Companies.

Printed in the United States of America

printing number

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Bailey, Kenneth D.

Methods of social research / Kenneth D. Bailey.4th ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and indexes.

ISBN 13: 978-0-0290-1279-6
ISBN 0-02-901279-1
eISBN-13: 978-1-43911-889-4

1. SociologyMethodology. I. Title.

HM24.B295 1994 93-36444

301.072dc20 CIP

To JNB and SJB

CONTENTS

The Unit of Analysis

Level of Measurement

Purposive Sampling

Pretesting

Approaching the Respondent

Two-Group Design

Measured Validity

13 Simulations and Games

Questions Format

Path Analysis

18 Ethics in Social Research

Ethics

It seems customary to preface a book on social research methods by stating that the book focuses on the interrelationship between theory and research. The implication seems to be that this will make it clear and easy to read. Unfortunately, things are not so simple. While not de-emphasizing the need to integrate theory and research, I have made it my major objective to write a book that is comprehensive and detailed enough to be useful while plainly written enough to be readable. Students are too often faced either with a book too simple to prepare them for the complexities of the real world of social research, with all its myriad problems, or too complex and abstract to be understood.

I have attempted to integrate the various data collection techniques by discussing the advantages and disadvantages and assessing the reliability and validity of each. I hope that this common framework will allow the student to compare methods more easily and will illuminate the compatibility of otherwise apparently diverse methods, thus dispelling the all too common but erroneous tendency to view the presentation of several methods in a single volume as a cafeteria approach having little continuity or depth.

The response from readers of the first three editions has been most gratifying, and I wish to thank all of you.

The chief goal in preparing the fourth edition is to move Methods of Social Research firmly into the 1990s. As before, this has meant diligent updating, reflecting steady progress in various areas. Once again, I had the impression of a maturing discipline, still growing, but now involved in refinement in a number of basic areas.

However, in addition to this steady growth and refinement, social research shows evidence of rather dramatic change in at least two areas. One is the growth of a number of new techniques, all new to this edition, and some spawned by technological developments. These include).

A second major development is the growing recognition that some groups are excluded from social research, and the development of methods for including them. The fourth and earlier editions deal with this problem in a number of chapters. For example, chapter 5 presents snowball sampling as a means of sampling excluded populations, while chapter 8 discusses the effects of race and sex of interviewers and respondents. In addition to such discussions, the fourth edition includes an entirely new chapter designed to study inclusion in a general fashion. This is chapter 17, Inclusionary Research Methods. This chapter deals with why such groups as women, racial and ethnic groups, alcoholics, homosexuals, the ill and disabled, and others are often excluded from research, and how they can be included.

I think that chapter 17 is a very important chapter. It obviously cannot deal with all groups, but it provides general guidelines for inclusion based on the available literature (which is mostly quite recent). This area will surely grow in importance and will receive increased attention as societies become more pluralistic during the 1990s and beyond.

A number of people worked especially hard in preparing this fourth edition. I wish to thank Leah Robin for reading the entire text and providing many helpful comments, and Charles OConnell for once again preparing the instructors manual. Special thanks also go to Joyce Seltzer, senior editor and vice president at The Free Press, for her excellent support at all stages of the project, and to Loretta Denner, Free Press production editor, for her excellent supervision.

We wish to thank the following for the use of their materials in the production of this book:

Patricia Breyer Wild for various questionnaire items, questionnaire portions, cover-letter portions, and descriptions of survey procedure from Child Health Care Survey (Los Angeles: University of California, 1973) and from Sociological Determinants of Utilization of a Prepaid Pediatric Health Care Plan (Ph.D. dissertation, University of California at Los Angeles, 1974 Patricia Breyer Wild). Reprinted by the permission of the author.

Gene N. Levine and Robert C. Rhodes for questionnaire items and introductory questionnaire statement from the Nisei Male Questionnaire Mailed Instrument (University of California at Los Angeles, Japanese-American Research Project [JARP] by Gene N. Levine and John Modell, 1967), which will be appearing in their forthcoming book, The Japanese-American Community. Reprinted by permission.

Leo G. Reeder for questionnaire items, opening statement, and face sheet from Student Survey: Questionnaire 1969a; The UCLA Student Poll 1969b; Los Angeles Metropolitan Area Survey: III (LAMAS III): Questionnaire 1971; and Los Angeles Metropolitan Area Survey: IV (LAMAS IV): Questionnaire 1972 by The Survey Research Center (SRC) of the University of California at Los Angeles. Reprinted by permission.

Marjorie N. Donald for material from Implications of Nonresponse for the Interpretation of Mail Questionnaire Data in Public Opinion Quarterly 24 (Spring): 102. Reprinted by the permission of the author and the publisher, 1960 American Association for Public Opinion Research.

John R. Raser for material from Simulation and Society: An Exploration of Scientific Gaming (Boston: Allyn and Bacon). Reprinted by the permission of the author, 1969 by John R. Raser.

Otis Dudley Duncan for material from Path Analysis: Sociological Examples in The American Journal of Sociology 72 (July). Reprinted by the permission of the author and the publisher, 1966 the University of Chicago. All rights reserved.

Robert Brown for material from Explanation in Social Science (Chicago: Aldine). Reprinted by the permission of Routledge and Kegan Paul, Ltd. and Aldine Publishing Co., 1963 Routledge and Kegan Paul, Ltd.