Summary
Contents
What is qualitative secondary analysis? How can it be most effectively applied in social research? This timely and accomplished book offers readers a well informed, reliable guide to all aspects of qualitative secondary analysis. The book: Defines secondary analysis. Distinguishes between quantitative and qualitative secondary analysis. Maps the main types of qualitative secondary analysis. Covers the key ethical and legal issues. Offers a practical guide to effective research. Sets the agenda for future developments in the subject. Written by an experienced researcher and teacher with a background in sociology, the book is a comprehensive and invaluable introduction to this growing field of social research.
Experiments
Experiments
Experiments are ways of assessing causal relationships, by randomly allocating ‘subjects’ to two groups and then comparing one (the ‘control group’) in which no changes are made, with the other (the ‘test group’) who are subjected to some manipulation or stimulus.
Section Outline: Laboratory experiments. OXO. Randomised controlled trials. Experiment and control groups; matched pairs; closure. Social life not reducible to laboratory conditions. Extraneous social factors. Informed consent and prior approval create Hawthorne Effect. Quasi-experimental designs: comparison and post hoc matching. Cross-sectional designs and social change. Quantitative tradition.
Anybody who has done secondary school science will be familiar with laboratory experiments. Physical substances are subjected to some kind of stimulus (chemicals are heated or mixed with other chemicals; electrical currents are applied to wires; plants are ...
