1. An introduction to social inquiry -- The nature of scientific knowledge -- Metatheory and social inquiry -- Methodological paradigms in social research -- 2. Research design -- Research design and problem formulation -- Conceptualization and measurement -- Operationalization -- The logic of sampling -- 3. Types of research design -- Experiments -- Surveys -- Qualitative studies -- Participatory action research -- Evaluation research -- Unobtrusive research -- 4. Analysis of data -- Quantifying data -- Elementary analyses -- The elaboration model -- Social statistics -- Qualitative data analysis -- 5. The social context of social research -- The ethics and politics of social research -- Using the library -- Social research in cyberspace -- The research report -- World values survey questionnaire for South Africa -- Random numbers -- Distribution of chi square -- Normal curve areas -- Estimated sampling error -- A learner's guide to SPSS.