The A-Z of Social Research

John D. Brewer is President of the British Sociological Association and Sixth-Century Professor of Sociology and former Head of Department (2004-2007) at Aberdeen University, moving from Queen’s University Belfast in July 2004. He was Head of the School of Sociology and Social Policy at Queen’s between 1993-2002. He has held visiting appointments at Yale University (1989), St John’s College Oxford (1992), Corpus Christi College Cambridge (2002) and the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University (2003).  He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (elected 1998), an Academician in the Academy of Social Sciences (elected 2003), a Member of the Royal Irish Academy (elected 2004), then only the third sociologist to be elected in the Academy’s 217-year history, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (elected 2008).  He was a member of the Training and Development Board of the ESRC (2005-2007) and has been Chair of the British Sociological Association (2004-2006), a member of the National Committee for Economics and Social Science of the Royal Irish Academy (1997-1999) and a member of the International Assessment Panel of the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences (2002-07). He currently sits on the Council of the Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences and is a member of the ESRC′s Research College. In 2001 he became a member of the Institute of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education. In 2010 he became a member of the United Nations Roster of Global Experts.

• Abduction and RetroductionAction ResearchA Case StudyAnalysis of Variance (ANOVA)AttitudesBiographical MethodCAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing)Case StudyCausationCentral TendencyChild ResearchComparative AnalysisComputer Simulation of Social ProcessesConstructionism, SocialContent AnalysisContingency TablesConversation AnalysisCorrelation and RegressionCritical TheoryCultural AnalysisData ArchivesDeductionDiaries, Self-CompletionDiscourse AnalysisDispersion and the Normal DistributionDocumentary SourcesEcological FallacyE-Mail as a Research ToolEmpiricism, Abstracted EmpiricismEpistemologyEthicsEthnographyEthnomethodologyExploratory Data AnalysisFactor AnalysisFeminist EpistemologyFeminist MethodologyFocus GroupsGender Identity Dysphoria AssessmentGeneralizationGeographic Information Systems (GIS)Grounded TheoryHawthorne EffectHermeneuticsHistorical MethodsHypothesis TestingIdeal TypeImpact AssessmentInductionIntellectual Property RightsInternetInterpretationInterviewsLiterature SearchingLoglinear AnalysisLongitudinal ResearchMeasurement, Level ofMeaningMethodology`Micro′ Sampling TechniquesModernityMultilevel ModelsNarrative ApproachNaturalismObservation, Overt and CovertOnline MethodsParadigmParticipant ObservationParticipatory Action ResearchPhenomenologyPhilosophy of Social ResearchPolicy ResearchPositivismQualitative ResearchQualitative Research Data, ArchivingQueer ResearchQuestionnaire and Structured Interview Schedule DesignQuestionnaires and Structured Interview SchedulesRealismReflexivityResearch DesignSampling, ProbabilitySampling, QuotaSampling, SnowballAssessing Hidden and Hard-to-Reach PopulationsSecondary Analysis QualitativeSecondary Data AnalysisSensitive ResearchSex SurveysSocial FactSocial IndicatorsSocial StatisticsSocial SurveyStandardisationStatistical InteractionStructuralism/PoststructuralismSystematic ReviewTelephone Methods for Social SurveysTheoryTriangulationUnobtrusive MeasuresVerbal Protocol AnalysisVerstehenVignetteVisual Research Methods

`I think the book is likely to appeal to a wider audience than students, as medical colleagues and those less familiar with social research attempt to find out more about the terms and concepts they encounter′ - Medical Sociology News