Social Research Methods Survey Paper:
For this assignment, worth 10% of your final grade, you will write a research paper (at least 4 pages in length) that describes your research. Remember, you are conducting social scientific research, meaning that your methods and research process should be logical, systematic, documented, and unbiased. Please use standard document formatting in your paper (double-spaced, 1 inch margins, 11 or 12 point font.)
1. State your research question and describe your methods (about 1 page). Here, it would also be appropriate to talk about any tough decisions or issues that you experienced. At the least, be sure to address the following questions:
• What is your research question and hypothesis? Why did you expect your independent and dependent variables to be associated? **Are women more likely to get warning over tickets for speeding than men?
• How did you find your respondents (where/when were they surveyed)? **I found them walking across the college campus.
• What are your key concepts and how are they operationalized? Justify your decisions
(e.g., question wording, response options, level of measurement).
• What steps, if any, did you take to ensure the accuracy of your data?
2. Describe your finding (about 1 page). Did any interesting patterns or anomalies emerge? Did your findings support or challenge your initial hypotheses? Please keep in mind that I am not concerned about how interesting your findings are, but I care a lot about whether you understand and can execute survey research. For full credit, include the following:
FINDINGS: men got more tickets than females
Summarize the distribution of each variable. In other words, what does the central tendency, variability, and skewness look like?
Describe the association between your two variables (e.g., gamma or chi-square)
Include at least one graph with your paper.
3. Write a discussion and conclusion (about 2 pages). Describe the process of survey research. What was frustrating, interesting, appealing, etc.? Would you change anything about the questionnaire (e.g. question wording, design, were important questions left unanswered)? How has the project changed your ideas about survey research and/or about your area of study, if at all?
