Exercise 4: Writing the Methods Section
Purpose
This assignment focuses on writing the methods section of your proposal which includes choosing your sampling frame, study design, and data collection plan. This is an important part of the proposal because it provides the details on exactly how you would tackle the research problem and answer your research question if you were to actually conduct the proposed study.
Quick Reminder Note: We are not actually going to conduct these research studies this semester. You are writing up a proposed study, so be sure to write in the future tense as appropriate. Think about if you were writing a proposal to a non-profit agency requesting funding. You are explaining what you would do if they chose to fund your project.
Instructions
For Exercise 4, complete the methods section of your research proposal using the headings below here. Be sure to delete the instructions/suggestions in your paper and just use the headings to guide the flow of your paragraphs.
Typically, you will not have many cites in this section. Think about what data collection instrument you might use and look at the examples of tools, screeners or assessments that are freely available to use (see the sources on blackboard). You need to include your selected data collection instrument as an Appendix. Remember to include a separate title page and a reference page if you cited any sources in the narrative for this exercise.
Methods
Sampling Frame
State the population you are studying in the larger context. Then describe the sampling approach you will use to select a subset of the population you are studying that will be representative of the whole population. You will use methods from either:
Probability sampling: simple random, systematic sampling, or cluster sampling; OR
Non-probability sampling: convenience sampling, quota sampling, purposive sampling, or snowball sampling.
Define your sampling frame and state specific inclusion and exclusion criteria for participants in the study (i.e., age, experience, hair color, living situation, mental health diagnosis, etc..).
State how you will ensure your study is inclusive and has as diverse a sample as possible.
Explain how you would recruit study participants. Think about ways you have seen research advertised and what would best reach the population you are studying.
Determine the number of participants that would be ideal for the study. This is your estimated or expected sample size. Explain why that is a logical number.
Study Design
Describe the study design you will use from these types: surveys or questionnaires, focus groups, classic experimental, or quasi-experimental.
List the specific steps you will take from beginning to end to carry out your study design.
Talk about the data collection instruments or tools you will use to collect data (examples and links in Module 6). You will include an example of the instrument as an appendix for the research proposal paper.
Ethical Considerations
Describe how you would protect participants in the research study (think about CITI training).
What types of consent will you need (assent for minors under 18 with parent/guardian consent? consent for adults 18+)?
Which institutional review boards, agencies, or administrators will need to approve the study plan?
What will you do to protect the data you collect? How will you keep information confidential or anonymous (two different concepts)? How will you restrict access to the information in a secure way (passwords, locked files, etc …)?
Measure
What key variables are you proposing to study?
Explain the operational definition for your independent and dependent variables.
Name at least two control variables you could use in your study and state why they are important.
Critique of Methodology
Describe the strengths and limitations of the approach to sampling, ethics, measures, and design that you are choosing.
Think about how generalizable your study results might be to the larger population or to different populations. Why?
Implications and Conclusions
Discuss how your study could benefit the discipline of social work, your target population, and how it might add to the research and knowledge base on your topic.
Describe how you would disseminate your research results to stakeholders and to expand knowledge about your topic.
References
If you used any in-text cites, list the full reference here. Not everyone will have a reference page for the methods section.
Appendix: Data Collection Instrument
Include a draft of your data collection instrument. If you are choosing to use existing screeners or tools attach them with your document and be sure to cite the source. Include an introduction statement that participants would read before responding to the questions you ask.
Include basic demographic questions that you think are important to capture in your dataset (i.e., age, gender identity, housing status, other characteristics of the sample). You can get ideas from other surveys you find online
