) Develop two 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
7. Analyze the results of your questionnaire
15) Provide descriptive statistics (counts) of the responses
16) Identify trends in the data results
17) Explains how these results help you to answer your research question
8. Peer-Reviewed Article
18) Find 1 peer-reviewed article that is related to your research question.
19) Briefly describe the article (thesis/research question, hypothesis, methods, findings)
20) Compare and discuss the methods and findings of the article to your own small study
9. Discussion
21) Briefly summarize the research purposes, methodologies, and key findings (in a non-statistical manner) of your study
22) What are the strengths of your study and findings
23) What are the weaknesses of your study and findings
24) Discuss implications for future research on your research question
10. Reflection
25) Briefly discuss what you learned about research methods through this assignment
