Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi

This is a textbook in introductory social science methodology, with an emphasis on East African illustrations and applications, It covers standard topics in social data collection: sampling theory, survey questionnaires and interviewing, use of public documents and aggregate statistics, and systematic observation. It then reviews basic concepts in statistical data analysis, including simple correlations and tests of statistical significance. The text is written for beginning students in the social sciences and for other persons, especially civil servants, whose occupation requires that they be knowledgeable consumers of social science research reports. The emphasis throughout is placed on conceptual understanding rather than on computational knowledge. The text is not a 'how to' book in that it does not instruct the reader how to become a practicing social scientist. Rather it tries to tell the reader what the practicing social scientist is doing, and why. The purpose is to help the reader become an intelligent user, and critic, of social science research.