Real World Research: A Resource for Social Scientists and Practitioner-researchers - Softcover

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Colin Robson is Professor of Psychology in the School of Human and Health Sciences and Director of Postgraduate Programmes at Huddesfield Polytechnic. He is author of the highly successful Experiment, Design and Statistics in Psychology 2nd edition.

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Though few students of the behavioural and social sciences go on to be laboratory-based experimentalists, traditional degree and other courses, and the texts that they use, tend to concentrate very largely on the design and analysis of laboratory experiments. Many graduates do however go on to jobs where they are called upon to carry out some form of enquiry task - often in complex, messy, poorly controlled situations.

This text is the first to give advice and support in the carrying out of such real world research. The emphasis is on achieving rigour and trustworthiness in the enquiry through systematic procedures appropriate to the task. Particular features include an advocacy of multi-method case study as a serious strategy alongside field experimentation and the survey, and an even-handed coverage of qualitative and quantitative approaches. Many real world studies are, in effect, evaluations and their distinctive features are stressed. A final section covers issues in 'making an impact' including different approaches to reporting, the place of enquiry in promoting change, and the relative roles of practitioners and researchers.