Description of Methodology
The methodology section of the paper is a 2+ page description of your plan for collecting data (doing virtual interviews). In addition to your methodology, you also have to make a ½ page consent form.
In both the methodology and the consent form, you can use 1st person. It’s okay to say “I”.
The methodology, with the consent form, will be due during Module 10.
Important Note
Due to the Covid, students can choose to do their interviews in-person or virtually. For example, you can use Zoom, FaceTime, Discord, Google Meet, or other virtual chat options.
What important vocabulary should you know?
Data: Data refers to your interviews. Your interviews are your data.
Participants: Participants refers to the people who you will interview.
How many paragraphs/sections should it have?
The first paragraph of the methodology should cover these three things:
Type of Research
Explain in one sentence that you will be doing qualitative research.
There are two main types of research, qualitative (data in the form of words) and quantitative (data in the form of numbers).
You are all doing qualitative research and you need to mention it at the beginning of the first paragraph. You can just provide a quick sentence that states you are doing qualitative research. Remember… qualitative research usually involves doing interviews and/or observations, while quantitative research usually involves doing surveys.
Method
After saying you are doing qualitative research, you need to state that the method you are using to collect your data is interviews. Again, this can be just one sentence.
Setting
In the rest of this paragraph, you will need to describe the setting of your study. In other words, give us information about where your study takes place. For example, is it focused on a specific school, city, region like the Bay Area, state, or is it a national study? You will need to decide where the people you will be interviewing are coming from and describe this as the setting of your study. Provide demographic data for this location, ie the average income, racial/ethnic breakdown, age, educational level… You will need to use websites for this information. For example, the Ohlone CollegeLinks to an external site. website, the city of Fremont Links to an external site.website, the Bay Area CensusLinks to an external site. website, or the U.S. Census Bureau: CA Quick FactsLinks to an external site. website for … Make sure to cite these sources in your paragraph.
In the second paragraph, you will cover these two things:
Sampling
Who are the participants in your study? Explain the criteria you are using to choose people to virtually interview. For example, women under the age of thirty who have experienced divorce. Explain the type of people you are looking to interview, but not who the specific people are. For example, you can say you will be interviewing Latinas who are currently enrolled in their first year of college. You do not want to say, I will interview my friend’s little sister who is in her first year of college. Even if you already know the specific people you will interview, you don’t want to tell us specifically who they are yet. Instead, just explain the general criteria will you use to select your participants. For example, “I will be interviewing professors who teach social justice issues” is okay. “I will be interviewing Jennifer Jovel who teaches sociology” is not okay.
Remember, everyone you interview must be at least 18 years old.
Explain why you chose the criteria you are using to select people to interview. Why is their knowledge valuable to your study?
Finding Participants
Tell us how you will find your participants. In a real study, you would not use people you already know. However, since this is not something you will publish and we are doing this for the sake of getting practice with the research process, it is totally fine to interview people you know. I actually recommend using people you already know (ie, family, friends, classmates, or referral from close family/friends. So provide a sentence or two that explains, for example, that your participants will be friends you’ve made in college. This is not a legit way of doing research, but we will have to cut corners for the sake of getting this experience. You will have to reach out to people to see if they are willing to do an interview. Be sure not to tell us the names of specific people. Instead, just tell us if they are family members, friends, coworkers, classmates. It can also be a mix of people and that’s fine too.
You’ll want to find around 4 to 5 people to interview, so state how many people you plan to interview. I do not recommend more than 5 because it’s a lot of work.
The third paragraph will cover these two things:
Data Collection
In order to tell us about the data collection for you study, you need to tell us the following:
Will they be in-person or virtual interviews? If they are in-person, where will they take place (home, school cafeteria, library, work break room, local cafe…)? If they are virtual, over what virtual tool will your interviews take place? Will you be using Zoom, Facetime, Google Meet, phone call…?
How long will each interview be? You should plan for about 45 minutes per interview.
How will you document your data? You should plan to take hand-written notes during and after each interview. Write down as much as you can during the interview, but be sure to give yourself at least a half-hour of free, undisturbed time immediately after the interview to write down as much as you possibly remember for each question they answered. (Again, this is not the legit way of doing this. But we need to cut corners for the sake of getting this experience.) You will need these notes to write the findings section of our paper. Please do not plan to video record or sound record your interviews. Recording your interviews seems like it would be helpful, but it’s too much work to count on the idea that you will go back to review the recordings. It will save you much more time to just write notes while you are doing the interview.
Explain that Table 1 has the interview questions you plan to ask each participant.
Data Analysis
Explain how you will you analyze your data (interviews). This is usually done by creating themes and categories. You look for patterns of similarities and areas of differences. You should therefore end this paragraph with a sentence about how you will analyze your data by creating themes and categories.
After the third paragraph, you will include your table with the interview questions.
Your table will need to be formatted like the example below. At the top it has your main research question from the end of your Problem Statement and Literature Review. Then it has the 3 research sub-questions that you created in the Conceptual Framework. For each of the 3 research sub-questions, you will want to develop around 5 interview questions. Think about what questions you can ask during the interviews to help you understand that particular sub-question. You should have a total of 15 interview questions.
Tips for constructing good interview questions are provided in a link at the top of this page.
Table 1.
Interview Questions
Research Question:
“What does the glass ceiling look like for women today?”
Theme One:
What barriers do women face in the business world?
Theme Two:
What support do women receive in the business world?
Theme Three:
How do women view the impact of gender on their career?
Interview questions for theme one:
Can you tell me about a time in which you had a difficult time in your career?
Have you ever been disappointed with the development/progress of your career? What happened?
What difficulties did you experience while you were trying to become a manager?
(Make sure you have 5 questions)
Interview questions for theme two:
Who were the most important people in helping you get into the position of manager, and how did they help you?
Was there anything specific that your company did that was helpful for you to advance in your career –policy, program, training?
(Make sure you have 5 questions)
Interview questions for theme three:
· Have you ever been treated differently at work because you are a woman?
· Has being a woman ever created obstacles for you as you moved up in your career?
· Have you ever seen or heard of someone in our field of work being treated differently because of their gender?
(Make sure you have 5 questions)
What about citations and references?
You will need in-text citations for the website(s) you used to describe the setting of your study in paragraph 1.
You will also need to include a reference page. Your reference page should include all the sources you used in the Problem Statement, Literature Review, Conceptual Framework, and now the Methodology. This means you just need to add the website(s) to the reference page that you used in the Conceptual Framework.
There is a link at the top of this page on how to cite websites.
Consent Form
You will need a consent form after your reference page.
Please see the link at the top of this page under “Example and Resources to Help You” for directions and a template for the consent form.
A Consent Form informs the participants in your study about: 1) the purpose of your research; 2) what they can expect as participants; and 3) any risks they may be exposed to.
You will NOT be getting this form signed by your participants. Remember, in-person interactions are NOT allowed. Instead, you will use this form as a guide to start your interviews. Before jumping into your interview question, you can go over the purpose of your study and explain to your participants what they can expect.
Below is an example of a Consent Form. Please feel free to use this example as a template. I will not consider it plagiarism if you use this as a template and only change the information specific to your paper. This is the only area I will allow you to use an example as an actual template that you can use the exact wording from 😉
Consent Form for All Participants
FOR QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS RESEARCH, CONTACT: FirstName Last Name at ****************************
DESCRIPTION: You are invited to participate in a research study on social media effects on body image. The purpose of the study is to find out how exactly prolonged use of social networking sites impact the lives of female teenagers, in both positive and negative. It seeks to explore the ways in which social media affects self esteem, body dysmorphic tendencies, and unfavored self-perception.
You will be asked to take part in a virtual interview through FaceTime, and your permission to take handwritten notes during the interview will be requested. The responses to the interview questions will be analyzed and may appear in a class paper for Sociology 102 at Ohlone College. However, your real name will not be used in the paper.
RISKS AND BENEFITS: There are no foreseeable risks for participating in this research project. There is potential for discomfort in responding to some of the interview questions because they ask for reflections on personal life experiences. However, if you experience discomfort, you are free to skip any of the questions or end the interview early.
You may benefit personally from participating in the research project by having the opportunity to share and reflect on your experiences. You may also enjoy knowing that your experience may eventually have an effect on other girls seeking help with recovering from negative body image.
TIME INVOLVEMENT: It is anticipated that the interview will take about 45 minutes. However, if clarification is needed, a follow-up virtual interview or email may be requested.
PAYMENTS: Although your participation in this interview is greatly appreciated, there are no financial payments.
SUBJECT’S RIGHTS: Please understand your participation is voluntary and you have the right to discontinue with the interview at any time. You also have the right to refuse to answer particular questions. Your individual privacy will be maintained in all work resulting from this interview.
websites
https://www.ohlone.edu/research/demographics
https://www.fremont.gov/184/Demographics
http://www.bayareacensus.ca.gov/bayarea.htm
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/CA
to be turned into turnitin.com
