Written by Shamus Khan (Princeton University) and Gwen Sharp (Nevada State College) as part of A Sociology Experiment. To read this chapter, add it to your cart, complete the checkout process, return to this page, and select “Read Now” to open the Bookshelf reader.

By the end of this chapter, you will be able to: identify the role of skepticism and ethics in research; identify the main research methods used in sociology; describe the steps involved in designing a research project; and differentiate between correlation and causation.

You can listen to this chapter’s accompanying discussion section podcast on Apple, Spotify, or our Spreaker page.