RESEARCH: RESEARCH DESIGN ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS
OVERVIEW
This is the first assignment in your Research Project. The purpose is to scaffold the process of designing and conducting a research study. In this first phase, you will submit a research proposal and survey by completing this form. Your instructor will review this form and provide feedback to let you know if you are approved to collect data using the survey submitted as part of this assignment (you should create your survey at the end of this document).
INSTRUCTIONS
Be sure you have reviewed this module’s assigned readings and presentations before completing this assignment. Of most relevance is the Research Project Overview and Research Project Survey Instructions documents in this week’s Learn section. This assignment is worth 40 points: 36 points for content and 4 points based on format. Each question is worth 2 content points. Format is for completing answers within the assigned sections and for proper format of the survey. Note that until the survey is approved by your instructor you cannot move forward with the future assignments associated with the Research Project. Turning in this assignment late, incomplete, or inaccurately formatted may impact performance on future portions of this project.
• There are two parts to this assignment:
o Research Design: complete the table below by placing answers where indicated (“
o Survey: at the end of this document (where it says
• You will submit this assignment as a single word document by the due date in Canvas.
Research Design Table
Demographic Variable Name of variable: Participant age.
Levels of variable you will use: 20-50
Scale of Measurement (nominal, ordinal, or scale): Scale
Appropriate measure of central tendency and (if appropriate) variability: Mean
Variable of Interest #1 Name of variable and/or scale selected (including citation): Religious Reflections Scale
How many questions? What are the answer options – e.g., Likert 1 – 5?): Survey enables this study to predict specific categories. The use of a Likert Scale will facilitate the necessary categories in this process. Six questions will be provided with a scale from 1-10.
How is this variable quantified? What is the potential numerical range and how is it interpreted? (i.e. how do you calculate the variable as a single numerical value to be used in SPSS for data analysis) Notes: if it is only one question, the answer will be similar to what you have as the previous answer; if scale is nominal, numbers are meaningless but necessary for SPSS so you won’t discuss the numbers in your paper but will state them here. In each of the six questions the score for all of the questions will be averaged together to present a specific number using SPSS.
What is its scale of measurement? The scores will range from 0 (not spiritual) to 10 (extremely spiritual).
Variable of Interest #2 Name of variable and/or scale selected (including citation if appropriate): Conscious Reflections
How many questions? What are the answer options – e.g., Likert 1 – 5?: Quantitative
How is this variable quantified? What is the potential numerical range and how is it interpreted? (i.e. how do you calculate the variable as a single numerical value to be used in SPSS for data analysis) Notes: if it is only one question, the answer will be similar to what you have as the previous answer; if scale is nominal, numbers are meaningless but necessary for SPSS so you won’t discuss the numbers in your paper but will state them here. In eleven of the questions, a numerical score for each question will be tallied then averaged to provide a specific numerical value using SPSS.
What is its scale of measurement? Scores will be between 1and 5.
The scale of measurement will be interval.
Research Design Correlational, quasi-experimental, or experimental (since you have 2 variables it will NOT be descriptive): Predictive.
Justification: Personal spirituality will effect each person’s life based on surroundings, the media, and society.
Research / Alternate Hypothesis (note this is NOT the null hypothesis). **It is common practice in the field to explicitly state the research hypothesis in the paper but statistically test the null hypothesis.
Information will be collected based on each person’s inner reflections of thoughts and feelings.
Proposed Target Population (e.g., “friends” on facebook; only women, colleagues at a specific type of business – note you will need 20 participants from this target population, and you cannot use people you do not know due to the educational nature of this study and our IRB exempt status constraints – read the M2 Research Data Collection Instructions for further clarification):
Facebook; Friends.
Proposed survey distribution method (e.g., email, facebook, hand out paper surveys at your church, et cet – note you cannot distribute these in public places due to the exempt status of this educational assignment – read the M2 Research Data Collection Instructions for further clarification):
Facebook.
At the end of this document (starting on the next page), create a proposed survey making sure to include the following components:
• Disclaimer
• Directions to the participant on how to answer the questions (may need directions for each subsection)
• Question(s) related to the Demographic Variable
• Question(s) related to Variable 1
• Question(s) related to Variable 2
Instructions:
This is a survey of spirituality. Please take a moment to answer the following questions. The information that yo provide is being collected for research purposes and will not be shared. This information being collected is strictly confidential. In order to participate in this survey, you must be between the age of 20 and 50. Please circle the most appropriate answer that you feel is appropriate for you.
Note: Your assignment will be checked for originality via the Turnitin plagiarism tool.
