GUIDELINES FOR RESEARCH PROPOSAL PART 3
GUIDELINES FOR RESEARCH PROPOSAL PART 3
Methodology for Quantitative Study(2 to 4pages; including survey–refer to survey guidelines below)
- Double-spaced, 11-12 font
- Reference the textbook when used but no other references needed for this assignment. But if you do choose to use other sources for this part, you will need to cite and reference it. But it might be helpful if you re-reviewed your literaturereview material to get more ideas for relevant questions and methodology.
- Repeat your purpose statement from Research Proposal 1 –This is your chance to change it or improve on it.
- Describe and justify your design choice. Experimentalornonexperimental design. Why is it appropriate for your study’s purpose?
- Describe and justify your sampling plan. Is it probability or non-probability? Which type within either of these categories? What biases might be attributable to your sampling plan? To what extent can you generalize your results?
- Describe where, when, and how you will recruit people to be in your study. Describe the context of your data gathering plan (privacy considerations, safety considerations, feasibility considerations, etc.).
GUIDELINES FOR QUANTITATIVESELF-ADMINISTERED SURVEY INSTRUMENTLength of Assignment:
Self-administered surveys should be as short as possible but still cover the information needed. It would take about a half page to describe what you’re focusing on (see Page 1 below).
The survey itself might take a page or two.
You would have one section of the survey to measure your concept and probably another page to add the relevant demographic questions/items. Remember that one of the rules for questionnaire construction is to space the content out nicely rather than cramming everything into one page.
Page 1: Please describe the concept you are intending to measure (e.g., satisfaction with services; levels of depression, anxiety, or PTSD; marital satisfaction; children’s behavioral problems; or compassion fatigue among social workers). It would be helpful to you if you used a concept from your qualitative purpose statement since you have already assembled some literature and would thus have a feel for thespecific questions/items that a quantitative instrument would need to measure that concept.
The Survey:
You will need to have enough questions/items to measure your concept and I am suggesting at least 10 questions/items. In addition to the 10 questions, you’ll need demographic information to describe the sample. For example, you can ask about their gender, age, ethnicity, years of experience, or any other background information that might be relevant to your purpose. For example, if you’re studying substance abusers, drug of choice might be relevant to ask. If you’re studying psychologists, type of degree and years of experience might be relevant to ask.
Creating the questions/items is one thing. The more time consuming and perhaps more challenging aspect of this assignment is dealing with the formatting of the survey. It needs to look good since it would be seen by your study participants. Pay attention to the cosmetics involved and to all of the other guidelines for quantitative instrument development.
