ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides the intellectual tools to independently evaluate factual claims so that you are not misled. It presents the most basic elements of scientific research so that any reader can apply them to gather valid information about important relationships and to assess the claims that others make about how things work. The book detects the tension that exists in our discipline between people interest in learning about human behaviour and people concern that may be negatively affecting people through research. It discusses other approaches to studying the political and social world, and focuses exclusively on qualitative and quantitative research methods based on the assumptions of the scientific method that there is an objective reality. The book provides the different stages of the research process.
