Develop a clear, specific, sociological research question that will investigate the relationship

SOCIOLOGY
330

RESEARCH METHODS

HW3: Questionnaire (25 points):

Due no later than 11:55p ET on Sunday of Week 7 –
submit using link in Sakai AND using www.turnitin.com

PURPOSE: The purpose of exercise is to develop a short questionnaire
containing both close-ended survey questions and open-ended questions. Students will go through the research design
process from research question, to survey construction, to analysis of survey
results and theory building using a peer-reviewed article. Tips on Finding a Peer
Reviewed Journal Article may be found under Lessons>Course
Materials>Resources.

Requirements:

Your
assignment should include

–
ALL sections 1-9

This
assignment does NOT have to be written in essay format. You may organize it by section, question number
with question text, and then your answer.

APA formatting
should be used throughout. Any time your
paraphrase or directly quote a source (such as your article), in-text citations
should be used. A full APA-formatted reference
should be included at the beginning or end of assignment. See Lessons>Course Materials>Resources
for APA Tips.

1.Research
Question (1pt)

1)
Develop a clear, specific,
sociological research question that will investigate the relationship between
two social phenomena/behaviors/facts.

2. Conceptual
and Operational Definitions (5pts)

2)
Clearly identify the variables
in your research question

3)
Identify which variable is your
independent variable, and which variable is your dependent variable.

4)
Provide a conceptual definition
for each variable. (i.e. similar to dictionary definition)

5)
Describe what ‘type’ of
variable each variable is.

6)
Provide an operational
definition for each variable. (i.e. how
the variable is going to be measured)

3. Hypothesis
(1pt)

7)
Develop a hypothesis for your research
question – a statement of what direction you believe the relationship between
your two variables will be.

4. Questionnaire
Construction (3 pts)

8)
Develop 5-10 closed-ended
questions (*for groups: 10-15 questions)

a.
Some of these should measure
basic socio-demographic characteristics (i.e. age, race/ethnicity, gender, SES)

b.
The rest should be indicators
for your variables

c.
These should be constructed
based on the ‘type’ of variable you are measuring.

9)
Develop 2-5 open-ended
questions for to help measure your variables (* for groups: 3-7 questions)

a.
This is going to help provide
some rich qualitative information and serve as a check for the internal
validity of your close-ended questions

5. Sampling
Design (2 pts)

10)
Describe your population,
sampling frame, and method

11) Describe your
sample

6.
Administer the Questionnaire (1 pt)

12) Have 3-5 people complete your questionnaire. (*for groups: 10 people
per person)

a.
This may be done face-to-face
where you ask the questions, the respondent answers, and you record the information

b.
This may be done via a form
that people fill out (i.e. it could have been sent to some friends/family via
email or handed to them in the kitchen)

c.
When asking people to complete
the questionnaire, you need to inform them that it is VOLUNTARY, and their
identity will be kept confidential

i.
Do not put a place for name on
the questionnaire

6. Compile
the results of your questionnaire into a table (1 pt)

13) This provides you with a simple count

14) *For groups only: consolidate data and consult with professor by
Week 6 about data analysis.

Sample Table

	Indicators	Respondent 1	Respondent 1
Socio-demographic measures
	Age	38	24
	Gender	female	Male
	Etc.
Variable 1
	Measured by Q1	C – neither agree nor disagree	A – strongly agree
	Q3	D – disagree	B – agree
	Q8 (open-ended)	R1 described their daily activities in the household…	R2 described their daily activities in the household…
Variable 1	Measured by Q2	5 hours	29 hours
	Q5	3 days a week	7 days a week
	Etc.

7. Analyze
the results of your questionnaire (see chapter 12) (3 pts)

15) Provide descriptive statistics (counts) of the responses

16) Identify trends in the data results

17) Conduct a chi-square test (OPTIONAL)

18) How do these results help you to answer your research question

8. Peer-Reviewed
Article (3 pts)

19) Find 1 peer-reviewed article that is related to your research
question.

20) Briefly describe the article (thesis/research question, hypothesis,
methods, findings)

21) Compare and discuss the methods and findings of the article to your
own small study

9. Discussion
(4 pts)

22) Briefly summarize the research purposes, methodologies, and key
findings (in a non-statistical manner) of your study

23) What are the strengths of your study and findings

24) What are the weaknesses of your study and findings

25) Discuss implications for future research on your research question

10.
Reflection (1 pt)

26) Briefly discuss what you learned about research methods through this
assignment.