Emotional and Psychological Benefits of Pets
What kind of information should appear in a methodology section?
The methodology or method section of a research paper details the researcher’s plan to collect data. It should be very specific so that other researchers are able to replicate your study.
Survey Method – My method
What type of survey method did you use? Is this an interview or a questionnaire? – questionnaire
What is the sampling method? If applicable, how did you construct your sampling frame? – conveyance
sampling
When, where, and how was the survey distributed? The survey will be distributed at my work Members1st Federal credit union this upcoming week via paper. Each respondent will fill out the questionnaire in a private office one by one and drop it into a locked box in the office.
What are the characteristics of the respondents? We will know the gender and ethnicity of the respondents
How many respondents? 10
What instructions were given? They were instructed to respond to each question and return the form back to a locked empty box
What incentive, if any, was given for participation? None, just a simple thank you
What questions were asked, and what were the response categories?
1. Do you own a pet? – Yes or No
2. How does your pet benefit your health and well-being? (all that apply) – something to live for – companionship – unconditional love – relaxation/reduction in stress – makes me feel needed – helps me exercise – other – none of the above
3. Do you have an emotional attachment to your pet? – Yes or No
4. What feelings do you have about your pet? (all that apply) – happy – mad – joy – sad – other
5. Would you recommend getting a pet? – Yes or No
6. Do you think your pet affects your happiness? – Yes or No and Positively or Negatively
7. What is your experience with pet ownership? – open-ended
8. What is your gender? – Male or Female
9. What is your ethnicity?
What questions serve as your operation definitions for key variables? We will see if there is a correlation between people who own pets and their happiness versus people who don’t own pets. Questions 1, 2, 4, 6
What methodological challenges do you expect, and what will you do to deal with them? A challenge I could run into is unreliable or inaccurate answers on the questionnaire due to what people think I want to hear and or based on other opinions. To ensure the most reliable data is collected I will make sure to inform respondents to be completely honest that the questionaries are anonymous and in order to get accurate findings I need accurate answers. I will also have the respondents fill out the questionnaire in solidarity.)
Term Paper Methodology
Instructions
The Methodology or Method section of the term paper describes your plan to collect data. It should allow you to test your hypotheses and should be as specific as possible so that it can be replicated, or repeated, by others. Generally, you would not cite other researchers in this section, unless you are replicating some portion of their study. Select one of the methods described in class (I recommend that you select either the survey, content analysis, or field research method) and describe how it specifically applies to your procedure.
This section should be at least two pages in length.
Be sure to examine the attachment; it describes what kinds of information are appropriate for the method section for each type of research method. In this section, you can also include a discussion of ethical considerations as well as potential limitations of your procedure.
At the time you submit this section, you may not have all of the details because you are still in the process of collecting data. It is acceptable to provide bracketed statements to let me know you are thinking about information that you will add to the methodology in your final paper submission. For example: “The participants consisted of [#] students at Harrisburg Area Community College [and maybe Lebanon Valley College].”
Submit your Methodology section as a Microsoft Word document by the due date in order to receive credit.
