FOUNDATIONS -- Research in the real world -- Learning objectives -- Do methods matter? -- Research, policy, and practice -- Evidence can mislead -- What is research? -- Descriptive and causal research -- Epistemology: ways of knowing -- Approaching research from different angles -- Ethics of research -- Conclusion: the road ahead -- Exercises -- Theory, models, and research questions -- Learning objectives -- Community policing comes to Portland -- What is a theory? -- What is a model? -- Logic models: mechanisms of programs -- Alternative perspectives on theory in social research -- How to find and focus research questions -- Conclusion: theories are practical -- Qualitative research -- Learning objectives -- Fighting malaria in Kenya -- What is qualitative research? -- Existing qualitative data -- Qualitative interviews -- Focus groups -- Qualitative observation -- Participant observation and ethnography -- Case study research -- Qualitative data analysis -- The qualitative-quantitative debate -- Ethics in qualitative research -- Conclusion: matching methods to questions -- Exercises -- STRATEGIES FOR DESCRIPTION -- Measurement -- Learning objectives -- The U.S. poverty measure -- What is measurement? -- Conceptualization -- Operationalization -- Validity -- Criteron-related validity -- Measurement error -- Reliability -- Validity and reliability in qualitative research -- Levels of measurement -- Measurement in the real world: trade-offs and choices -- Conclusion: measurement matters -- Sampling -- Learning objectives -- Gauging the fallout from Hurricane Katrina -- Generalizability -- Basic sampling concepts -- Problems and biases in sampling -- Nonprobability sampling -- Random (probability) sampling -- Sampling distributions, standard errors, and confidence intervals -- Sampling in practice -- Sampling and generalizability: a summary -- Exercises -- Secondary data -- Learning objectives -- Tracking a global pandemic -- Quantitative data forms and structures -- Administrative records -- Aggregate data tables -- Public use microdata -- Secondary qualitative data -- Big data -- Linking data -- Some limitations of secondary data -- Conclusion -- Exercises -- Surveys and other primary data -- Learning objectives -- Taking the nation's economic pulse -- When should you do a survey? -- Steps in the survey research process -- Modes of survey data collection -- Crafting a questionnaire -- Ethics of survey research -- Other ways to collection primary data -- Conclusion -- Exercises -- STATISTICAL TOOLS AND INTERPRETATIONS -- Making sense of the numbers -- Learning objectives -- "Last weekend I walked eight" -- Units, rates, and ratios -- Statistics starting point: variables in a data set -- Distributions -- Measures of center: mean and median -- Measures of spread and variation -- Relationships between categorical variables -- Relationships between quantitative variables: scatterplots and correlation -- Simple regression: best-fit straight line -- Practical significance -- Statistical software -- Conclusion: tools for description and causation -- Exercises -- Making sense of inferential statistics -- Learning objectives -- But is it significant? -- Statistical inference: what's it good for? -- The sampling distribution: foundation of statistical inference -- Confidence intervals -- Significance tests -- Statistical significance, practical significance, and power -- Issues and extensions of statistical inference -- Conclusion -- Exercises -- Making sense of multivariate statistics -- Learning objectives -- Multiple regression: the basics -- Inference for regression -- Categorical independent variables -- Interactions in regression -- Functional form and transformations in regression -- Categorical variables as dependent variables in regression -- Which statistical methods can I use? -- Other multivariate methods -- Conclusion -- Exercises -- STRATEGIES FOR CAUSATION -- Causation -- Learning objectives -- Family dinners and teenage substance abuse -- Alternative explanations of a correlation -- Causal mechanisms -- Evidence of causation: some critical clues -- Self-selection and endogeneity -- The counterfactual definition of causation -- Experimentation and exogeneity: making things happen -- Conclusion: tools to probe causation -- Exercises -- Observational studies -- Learning objectives -- Private versus public schools -- What is an observational study? -- Control variables -- Matching -- Control variables: an empirical example -- How to choose control variables -- Epidemiological approaches to observational studies -- Conclusion: observational studies in perspectives -- Exercises -- Using regression to estimate causal effects -- Leanring objectives -- Cigarette taxes and smoking -- From stratification to multiple regression -- Does greenery affect birth outcomes -- Further topics in regression for estimating causal effects -- Control variables with exogenous independent variables: the gender earnings gap -- Other multivariate techniques for observational studies -- Conclusion: a widely used strategy, with drawbacks -- Exercises -- Randomized experiments -- Learning objectives -- Time limits on welfare -- Random assignment: creating statistical equivalence -- The logic of randomized experiments: exogeneity revisited -- The settings of randomized experiments -- Generalizability of randomized experiments -- Variations on the design of experiments -- Artifacts and experiments -- Analysis of randomized experiments -- Ethics of randomized experiments -- Qualitative methods and randomized experiments -- conclusion: a gold standard, with limitations -- Exercises -- Natural and quasi experiments -- Learning objectives -- A casino benefits the mental health of Cherokee children -- What are natural and quasi experiments? -- Internal validity of natural and quasi experiments -- Generalizability of natural and quasi experiments -- Types of natural and quasi experimental studies -- Difference-in-differences strategy -- Instrumental variables and regression discontinuity -- Regression discontinuity -- Ethics of quasi and natural experiments -- Conclusion -- Exercises -- The poltics, production, and ethics of research -- Learning objectives -- Risking your baby's health -- From research to policy -- The production of research -- Making research ethical -- Making research open and transparent -- Conclusion -- Exercises -- How to find, review, and present research -- Learning objectives -- Where to find research -- How to search for studies -- How to write a literature review -- How to communicate your own research -- How to publish your research -- Conclusion -- Exercises --