This comprehensive text offers students balanced coverage of both the qualitative and quantitative approaches to social research. The fourth edition of Social Research Methods renews its commitment to help students learn that social research does not take place in a vacuum, but in a social and historical context that can affect their actions. It teaches students to guard against ethnocentric perspectives and confining their research on the assumptions, values, and beliefs of their own particular society. Lastly, the author hopes to show students not only that both quantitative and qualitative styles of social research are valuable, but that the greatest benefit to social research lies in combining the two.