Understanding Research Methods: An Overview of the Essentials

by Michelle Newhart, Mildred L Patten

In the eleventh edition of Understanding Research Methods: An Overview of the Essentials, Newhart and Patten leverage the principles of learning and content design to present the fundamentals students need to get started in research. Basics of quantitative and qualitative research are covered in short, independent topics and grouped into meaningful sections.

A perennial bestseller for over ten editions, Understanding Research Methods focuses concisely on key concepts, and lessons in topics that are "chunked" to suit today's students. Each topic ends with suggestions for planning a research project by answering topic-specific prompts in a research planning journal. Topic Review exercises encourage active learning. Finally, Topics for Discussion suggest open-ended prompts that could serve as conversation starters in the classroom or online. The final Part of the book offers guidance and activities specific to writing a research report. This section can be used to support the development of project-based assignments for courses, or it can be used independently to support senior thesis projects, master's theses, dissertations, or articles for publication.



Instructors, will appreciate the organization of Understanding Research Methods because it allows a great deal of customization and choice in which topics to cover and in what order to cover them, making it suitable for methodological training in a variety of courses and fields of study. Online digital materials support course development.



New to this edition:



Part introductions now include a part table of contents and list of keywords



Newly expanded coverage of qualitative research



New coverage on designing quantitative research



Expanded material on sampling



More simple graphs, charts, and illustrations emphasize and visualize Topic key points

520 pages, ebook

Published April 25, 2023

About the author

I earned my Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Colorado at Boulder. I enjoy teaching on topics of research methods, social problems, and social science health topics. For about a decade, my sociological research has been primarily focused on medical cannabis, especially among middle-aged and older Americans. Societal attitudes are shifting and a large natural experiment is currently underway. The changes in attitudes and behaviors around cannabis include all kinds of lessons about attitude formation, stigma and stereotypes, behavior around medicines, and how people translate science when making decisions. Not only is there a need for data collection and research in this area, but the topic has great opportunities for innovative thinking to understand the issue and think through the best ways to approach regulation.