Writers Den

SOCIOLOGY
331

RESEARCH METHODS FOR SOCIOLOGY

HW3:
Questionnaire (25 points):

Due
no later than 11:59pm EST on Sunday of Week 7 – submit using link in Educator
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 Course Materials>Resources.

Requirements:

Your assignment should
include

–
ALL sections 1-11

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 Course Materials>Resources for APA
Tips.

For classes with 4 or
more students, you may partner in groups of 2-3 students, with instructor
approval. This does change some of the
requirements – see below.

1. Research Question

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

2. Conceptual and
Operational Definitions

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

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

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

10) Describe
your population, sampling frame, and method

11) Describe
your sample

6. Administer the
Questionnaire

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

7. Compile the
results of your questionnaire into a table

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.

8. Analyze the
results of your questionnaire (see chapter 12)

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

9. Peer-Reviewed
Article

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

10. Discussion

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

11. Reflection

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

Grading Rubric

CATEGORY	Outstanding	Above Average	Average	Below Average	Unacceptable
Completed both steps	2 pts	1.6	1.4	1.2	0-1
Observation Description	Provided thick description of observations/content analysis with a lot of detail about social setting and socio-demographic characteristics of people observed (5 pts)	Needed some elaboration on either social setting or socio-demographic characteristics of people observed (4 pts)	Need significantly more detail about social setting or socio-demographic characteristics observed; or some elaboration on both. (3.5 pts)	Summary of observations lacks detail overall. (3pt)	No summary of norm breaking behavior included (0-2 pts)
Research Problem/ Question	Clearly identified a specific, measurable research problem. (3 pts)	Clearly identified research problem. (2.5 pts)	Identified a research problem; it needs some refining/ specification. (2 pts)	Research problem unclear, not easily measured. (1.5 pts)	Research problem not specified or very unclear (0-1 pts)
Variables identified and operationalized	Clearly identified and operationalized 2+ variables that are clearly used in the research problem (3 pts)	Clearly identified and operationalized 2 variables that are clearly used in the research problem. (2.5 pts)	Identified and operationalized 2 variables that are from the research problem (2 pts)	Missing one variable or operationalization; or variables not clearly associated with/from research problem (1.5 pts)	Variables incorrect; missing operationalizations; variables unrelated to research problem (0-1 pts)
Hypothesis	Succinct hypothesis predicts relationship between two+ variables, based on research problem; in statement form. (2 pts)	(1.6 pts)	Hypothesis not in statement form; needs to more clearly specify ‘relationship’ between two variables. (1.4 pts)	Hypothesis unclear; does not specify relationship. (1.2)	Hypothesis not related or missing (0-1pts)
Analysis	Clearly applied relevant sociological theory(ies) to analysis of observations/ content analysis. (5 pts)	(4 pts)	Need to more clearly use sociological theory(ies) to analyze observations/content analysis (3.5 pts)	Analysis based entirely on opinion, or application to theory unclear. (3 pts)	Did not apply sociological theory to analysis. (0-2 pts)
Reflection	Included discussion of your experience of the situation (1pts)	(.8)	Need to elaborate on your experience of the situation (.7 pt)	(.6)	No discussion of your experience of the situation (0-.5 pts)
Compared Inductive to Deductive Approach	Thoughtful discussion about differences between the two approaches; clearly illustrate understanding of the two approaches. (3pts)	Needed some elaboration in discussion. (2.5 pts)	Need significant elaboration about differences between two approaches. (2 pts)	Discussion lacks clarity and detail overall. (1.5 pt)	No discussion of comparison (0-1 pts)
APA Formatted Citations	Included APA formatted in-text citations and full references for ALL paraphrased and quoted work from other sources. (1 pts)	Minor errors in APA formatting of citations. (.8 pts)	Multiple errors in APA formatting of citations. (.7 pt)	Missing some citations, and errors in APA formatting. (.6 pts)	No citations included. (0-.5 pts)