Discuss the potential weaknesses of your proposed study that could arise in your sampling approach, measurement techniques, or elsewhere.

Second Assignment: Research Proposal Part 1

OBJECTIVE & OVERVIEW:

The purpose of this assignment is to apply the skills learned throughout the semester to a social science research topic of interest to you. For this assignment, you will propose a research project you have designed yourself. You must choose your own research topic, devise a researchable research question, and then use the latter to structure your research proposal.

The study you propose can be either quantitative or qualitative (but not both), and you must propose to collect your own data and design your own measures (rather than using available data, like the Canadian census, or established measures, like a standard depression inventory).

Assume for the purposes of the research proposal that you have a period of up to three years in which to conduct your study. You are required to consult the literature for this proposal but you are not required to actually collect or analyze any data.

EVALUATION:

Your project will be graded according to the specification of the research question(s) and the appropriateness, quality, and clarity of the proposed research methodology. Be as detailed and precise as possible, in line with the guidelines.

As you design your study, ask yourself: If this study were undertaken, how successfully would it answer the research question(s) it poses? How well does it meet the standards for valid social science research?

PART 1 & PART 2:

The research proposal assignment will be divided into two parts. Details regarding Part 1 (10% of your final grade) are provided below. Details for Part 2 (20% of your final grade) will be provided closer to the due date. As you draft Part 2, you must follow any instructions and implement any corrections suggested by the TA who has marked Part 1.

FORMAT FOR PART 1:

Include the following sections in your assignment, which should be 4-5 double-spaced pages in length, with page numbers clearly labelled. Before drafting each section, review the relevant textbook and lecture materials. You may order the sections as you wish, but please use bold headers for each section.

Part 1 must include the following sections:

Research Topic and Research Question
Justification of Research Question
Literature Review
Conceptualization
Operationalization
Sampling Plan
Citation List

Instructions for each section:

Clearly Defined Research Topic and Research Question(s)

You must develop your own unique research question(s) (no more than 1-2 research questions are advisable) on a social science research topic that you find interesting.

Do not replicate examples from Assignment 1, the textbook, lectures, or other published sources.

Ideas can come from other Social Science classes or the conclusions sections of existing studies.

If you do model your research on an existing example, you must convincingly demonstrate that your project is making a new contribution in the justification and literature review sections. You can do this by:

Proposing a different sample than previous studies

Proposing revised variables or concepts

Proposing a different methodology from previous studies

Take the time to develop a meaningful research question(s).

Avoid simplistic or obvious questions or questions that we can already guess the answer to with a fair degree of confidence.

Make sure your research question is neither too narrow nor too broad.

Be specific – what social group, what geographic area, and what historical time period does your research question pertain to?

Explain your research question to the reader.

If you are following the deductive model, list the hypotheses (up to three) that you will be testing

Justification of Research Question

In this section, you are required to explain to your reader why your research question is important and why it requires a sociological explanation based on both your opinions and existing literature on the topic.

The justification section should be based on what you found in the literature, but should not repeat the same arguments and findings as your literature review (see below). You need to apply what you learn from the literature to show why your proposed study is important, interesting and worthy of attention.
Be sure to use appropriate in-text citations using the ASA format (more under section 7 below).

Literature Review of at Least 4 Academic Sources

Consult at least 4 academic sources (articles from peer-reviewed journals or books published by a university press) that have clear relevance to your research question.

Your 4 sources should be social science publications that report the findings of empirical research related to your research question(s). The geographic area and time period should be relevant to those you intend to focus on in your study.

Do not describe each of the 4 sources separately. Your literature review should weave the four sources together, with each paragraph discussing one cross-cutting theme found in the sources.

Be sure to describe the empirical findings of the 4 sources, as well as the methodologies they used.

Based on these sources, discuss how your study will refine, revise or extend existing research on your research question.

Be sure to use appropriate in-text citations using the ASA format (more under section 7 below).

Conceptualization of 1-3 Key Concepts

Conceptualize (ie. define) between 1 and 3 key concepts you will use in your study. At least one of these 1-3 concepts must be abstract.

Define possible dimensions of your abstract concept(s) that are relevant to your research question.

If you have independent and dependent variables that are not socio-demographic variables (see the point immediately below), these must be included in the 1-3 concepts.

If answering your research question requires standard socio-demographic information such as gender, age, race, or ethnicity, you may simply list these. However, these are not considered key concepts and you do not need to specify how you will define them.

Operationalization of your Key Concepts

Describe, in detail, how you plan to measure or observe each of the key concepts from the previous section, as well as any relevant dimensions.

If you need to use more than one measure (indicator) to adequately capture a concept or dimension, describe these indicators.

Explain how each indicator will be measured and, if appropriate, at what level it will be measured.
If appropriate, identify the dependent and independent variables.

Assess how reliable (how repeatable) you believe your measures or observations will be and explain why.

Assess how valid (how well aligned with the definition of the concept) you believe your measures or observations will be and explain why.

Sampling Plan

Discuss what type of sampling you will be carrying out (probability or non-probability) as well as the specific sampling design you will utilize.

Explain the rationale (why you are using this approach) and limitations (the disadvantages of this approach) associated with your choice.

Describe how generalizable your study’s findings will be, and how important the issue of generalizability is, given your research question and the sampling plan you propose.

Citation List (ASA format only)

You will need to provide a reference list that contains proper ASA reference style citation for any articles, books or other sources that are utilized in your research proposal.

You can find information about the ASA format here: https://q.utoronto.ca/courses/242838/pages/writing-support-using-and-citing-resources

Research Proposal Part 2

OBJECTIVE & OVERVIEW:

For this assignment, you will propose a research project you have designed yourself (a continuation from part one). You must choose your own research topic, devise a researchable research question, and then use the latter to structure your research proposal.

The study you propose can be either quantitative or qualitative (but not both), and you must propose to collect your own data and design your own measures (rather than using available data, like the Canadian census, or established measures, like a standard depression inventory).

Assume for the purposes of the research proposal that you have a period of up to three years in which to conduct your study. You are required to consult the literature for this proposal but you are not required to actually collect or analyze any data.

EVALUATION:

Your project will be graded according to the specification of the research question(s) and the appropriateness, quality, and clarity of the proposed research methodology. Be as detailed and precise as possible, in line with the guidelines.

As you design this study, ask:

If this study were undertaken, how successfully would it answer the research question(s) it poses? How well does it meet the standards for valid social science research?

PART 1 & PART 2:

Details regarding Part 2 (20% of your final grade) are provided below. As you draft Part 2, you must follow any instructions and implement any corrections suggested by the TA who marked your submission for Part 1. If you do not, you will be marked down 5% on your grade for Part 2.

FORMAT FOR PART 2:

Include the following sections in your assignment, which should be 9-10 double-spaced pages in length, with page numbers clearly labelled. Before drafting each section, review the relevant textbook and lecture materials. You may order the sections as you wish, but please use bold headers for each section.

Part 2 must include the following sections:

Research Topic and Research Question
Justification of Research Question
Literature Review
Conceptualization
Operationalization
Proposed Method of Observation
Sampling Plan
Proposed Plan of Analysis
Ethical Considerations
Limitations of the Study and Conclusions
Citation List

Instructions for each section:

Clearly Defined Research Topic and Research Question(s)

See the instructions from the handout on Part 1, plus any comments or corrections made by your TA.

Justification of Research Question

See the instructions from the handout on Part 1, plus any comments or corrections made by your TA.

Literature Review of at Least 4 Academic Sources

See the instructions from the handout on Part 1, plus any comments or corrections made by your TA.

Conceptualization of 1-3 Key Concepts

See the instructions from the handout on Part 1, plus any comments or corrections made by your TA.

Operationalization of your Key Concepts

See the instructions from the handout on Part 1, plus any comments or corrections made by your TA.

Proposed Method of Observation

Your methodology will take the form of either a survey or a qualitative method (choose only one of these for your proposal).

Make sure to discuss the rationale for your method (why this method is more appropriate for addressing your research question than other methods) and to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of your method.

Follow the instructions below based on the method you propose to employ for your study:
Survey:

Identify and describe the type of survey you will employ (cross-sectional, longitudinal, etc.).

Describe how your survey will be distributed to respondents, administered to respondents, and returned to you.

Include the exact question wording and response categories of up to 5 of your most important survey questions. Make sure that these survey questions cover the key concepts described in section 4, and that they are consistent with section 5.

Discuss how you will minimize possible sources of bias in your survey.

Qualitative Methods:

Identify and describe the type of qualitative method you will employ (ethnography, participant observation, case study, focus groups, qualitative interviewing, oral history, or a combination of these).

Describe where and when you will conduct your study, as well as the duration of the study.

Describe how you will go about obtaining access to the field and/or to participants.

Discuss the role you will assume vis a vis your research subjects (participant or non–participant) and how you intend to minimize your effect on the social phenomenon you will be observing.

Include the exact wording of at least 5 open-ended questions that you would ask your participants. Make sure that these open-ended questions cover the key concepts described in section 4, and that they are consistent with section 5.

Describe specifically how you will record answers from your participants and/or observations in the field.

Sampling Plan

See the instructions from the handout on Part 1, plus any comments or corrections made by your TA.

Proposed Plan of Analysis

Outline how you would analyze your data if you had indeed completed this research project.

Quantitative Analysis:

What relationships among your variables do you expect based on your hypotheses?

What type of analyses would be appropriate for your project (univariate, multivariate or both) and why?

Remember that the level of measurement of your variables dictates the type of quantitative data analysis that you can conduct.

What variables, if any, might it be important to control for in your analyses?

If you conduct a survey or quantitatively analyze qualitative data, compose at least one mock table demonstrating support for your hypotheses. Since you won’t actually collect data, you will need to make up hypothetical data for the table(s).

Qualitative Analysis:

Describe the type of coding scheme you might anticipate using (open/ focused).

Give examples of at least 5 codes (include label, code name, and code definition) you could apply to the data collected.

Discuss the types of memoing you would engage in.

Create at least one mock answer to one of your interview questions to your research subjects and illustrate how you would apply at least 2 codes from your coding scheme.

Ethical Considerations

Specify the measures you will take to ensure that each of the ethical principles covered in lecture and the textbook is ensured.

Discuss any other ethical considerations that may be relevant to your study or to the particularities of the study sample.

Limitations of the Study and Conclusions

Discuss the potential weaknesses of your proposed study that could arise in your sampling approach, measurement techniques, or elsewhere.

Assess how generalizable you think your findings will be once more (see instructions for section 6), whether this is a limitation or strength of your proposed study, and why.

If your research question is explanatory, discuss the issue of causality. Will you be able to make causal claims? Why or why not?

Discuss the potential implications of your study – what would your study add to the current literature, how would it inform policymaking or service provision, how would it benefit your participants, etc.?

Citation List (ASA format only)

See the instructions from the handout on Part 1, plus any comments or corrections made by your TA.

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