survey design

Paper Details:
Overview
The following assignment will give you practice in survey design and description. This is a formal paper, so please write the paper as such by following the guidelines for organization and content below. The paper has three parts: part one, a mini literature review; part two, theory and measurement; part three, survey design. Outline a theory of interest to you; this requires a partial rewrite of Assignment 1 and incorporation of relevant sociological literature. Design a survey to test your theory using survey items (questions) as measures of specific indicators (variables). Your survey must be formatted to look like an actual survey and should have appropriate instructions and directions for completion.

Note: for this Research Exercise, you will have the opportunity to draw on and to improve your work from previous assignments. Please note the comments given to you for your work on these assignments, and edit your responses accordingly.

Directions
Design a survey to test your theory using survey items (questions) as measures of specific indicators (variables). Your survey must be formatted to look like an actual survey and should have appropriate instructions and directions for completion. Follow the directions outlined below to assist you with the organization and completeness of your paper. Your written assignment and complete survey is due on Monday, 2 November at 11:59pm.

Your paper must be typewritten, double-spaced, with standard margins and font size (11 or 12-point) and should be no fewer than 3 pages (not including the table of survey questions from Reflection 2, the formatted survey, and list of annotated references (ASA-style)). Please number each page of your paper. Put your name on the front page of your paper, and include your completed table from Reflection 2 and formatted survey as two separate attachments to your paper. Your survey and the completed table from Reflection 2 must be turned in with your paper.

Part One: Using the literature to frame your research question
This section of your paper requires you to outline some relevant literature (3-4 articles) in a mini literature review. Start your paper by examining the annotated references from your first Research Exercise. Using 3-4 of these sources, write a “mini” literature review. A literature review requires an integrated explanation of existing sociological studies related to your research question. Your “mini” literature review should demonstrate your familiarity with the existing research and indicate how your proposed theory fits within it. (~2-3 paragraphs; you may want to refer to the literature you annotated in Research Exercise 1)

List your references at the end of your paper in a bibliography. Your list of references should be alphabetized by author last name, single-spaced, and presented using ASA-style citation.

Part Two: What is your theory of interest?
This section of your paper requires that you define the theoretical proposition of interest to you: What is the relationship between the two concepts of interest to you? Briefly and clearly define each of the two concepts (KINDNESS and a CONCEPT you choose); be sure each definition is unique and does not include the other concept. Next, describe the empirical indicators that you will use to represent these concepts (one for KINDNESS, and one for your other CONCEPT). The indicators must be measureable (i.e., countable). Describe other indicators that you considered, and discuss why the ones you chose are the best possible indicators of the concepts in your theory. (~4-5 paragraphs; you may want to refer to your Discussion Board response in Module 7 to assist you with this portion of your response.)

In the body of your paper, describe the population of interest to you from which you will draw your sample. Discuss how you might select your sample of respondents to complete your survey. (~1 paragraph; you may want to refer back to the Discussion Board from Module 5 to help you frame your response.)

Part Three: Design a Structured Self-Administered Survey
Design a structured survey to investigate the question of interest to you. To assist you with this task, complete the MODULE 7 WORKSHEET: identify your two concepts (one will be KINDNESS), the empirical indicators for each concept, and the questions that you might use to indicate these variables in a structured survey (pay careful attention to the examples presented in your readings and in Lecture/Canvas). After you have completed the WORKSHEET, use the information in it to structure your survey.

Your survey must include a minimum of 7 questions. Write at least TWO questions for the indicators of each concept of interest to you. Guidelines for the type of survey questions to be contained in your survey are as follows: at least 1 open-ended question, 2 closed-ended questions, and 1 index or scale measure. In addition to these questions, specify 3 demographic characteristics and questions you will use to measure each characteristic. You can use the examples from the structured demographic survey posted to Canvas or any other survey containing well-structured questions.

TYPE your survey and attach your appropriately-formatted survey to your paper.