• Part 1. An introduction to inquiry. Human inquiry and science
• Paradigms, theory, and research
• The ethics and politics of social research
• Part 2. The structuring of inquiry : quantitative and qualitative. Research design
• Conceptualization, operationalization, and measurement
• Index, scales, and typologies
• The logic of sampling
• Part 3. Modes of observation. Experiments
• Survey research
• Qualitative field research
• Unobtrusive research
• Evaluation research
• Part 4. Analysis of data : quantitative and qualitative. Qualitative data analysis
• Quantitative data analysis
• The logic of multivariate analysis
• Social statistics
• Reading and writing social research

• Part 1. An introduction to inquiry
• Human inquiry and science
• Paradigms, theory, and research
• The ethics and politics of social research
• Part 2. The structuring of inquiry : quantitative and qualitative
• Research design
• Conceptualization, operationalization, and measurement
• Index, scales, and typologies
• The logic of sampling
• Part 3. Modes of observation
• Experiments
• Survey research
• Qualitative field research
• Unobtrusive research
• Evaluation research
• Part 4. Analysis of data : quantitative and qualitative
• Qualitative data analysis
• Quantitative data analysis
• The logic of multivariate analysis
• Social statistics
• Reading and writing social research
• Appendix A. Using the library
• Appendix B. Random numbers
• Appendix C. Distribution of chi square
• Appendix D. Normal curve areas
• Appendix E. Estimated sampling error

Packed with hands-on applications, Babbie's THE PRACTICE OF SOCIAL RESEARCH, 15th Edition, equips your students with the tools they need to practically apply research concepts as both researchers and consumers. Known as the "gold standard" for research methods, the text delivers a comprehensive, straightforward introduction to the field of research as practiced by social scientists. Dr. Babbie emphasizes the research process by showing students how to design and construct projects, introducing the various observation modes in use today. The new edition includes "What do you think?" puzzles that immediately draw students into chapter concepts. General Social Survey data is updated throughout while new coverage includes the global use of social research, the emerging role of big data, demographic analysis and more.-publisher's description

• Public settings for "private" encounters
• Methods: the sociologist as voyeur
• Rules and roles
• Patterns of collective action
• Risks of the game
• The people next door
• The breastplate of righteousness
• Kicks, commitment, and social control
• Postscript: a question of ethics
• Retrospect: ethical issues in social research
• Sociological snoopers and journalistic moralizers / Nicholas von Hoffman, Irving Louis Horowitz, Lee Rainwater
• Tearoom trade: means and ends in social research / Donald P. Warwick
• Impersonal sex / Myron Glazer
• Retrospect: ethical issues in social research / Laud Humphreys

From the time of its first publication in 1970, this book engendered controversy. It was also accorded an unusual amount of praise for a first book on a marginal, intentionally self-effacing population by a previously unknown sociologist. The book was quickly recognized as an important, imaginative, and useful contribution to our understanding of "deviant" sexual activity. Describing impersonal, anonymous sexual encounters in public restrooms - "tearooms" in the argot - the book explored the behavior of men whose closet homosexuality was kept from their families and neighbors. By combining participant observation with structured as well as informal interviews, Tearoom Trade still furnishes a controversial example of recent social science methods. This enlarged edition includes the original text, together with a retrospect. The material added includes a perspective on the social scientist at work and the ethical problems to which that work may give rise, along with debate by t