A Panoply of Social Science Methods to Illuminate the Phenomena, Reduce Researcher Bias, and Permit Disconfirmation

Abstract

There is a great variety of social science methods that will be helpful in our quest, and I have chosen some of the most interesting and important for our purposes. In this chapter we will discuss the specification of a protocol; systematic and random sampling methods; thick description and extensive verbatim quotations; self-disclosure by the researcher of personal background and possible bias; quantitative and qualitative content analysis; multiple raters; validation through symbolic interactionist procedures or by means of the Delphi technique; use of informants in the tradition of urban sociological field work; narrative analysis; and Popperian disconfirmation procedures using risky predictions.