While most people think that “throwing together” a survey instrument (aka questionnaire) is an easy task, it can be more challenging than initially anticipated. There is a lot more that goes into i than most people understand. While the advanced aspects of questionnaire design are beyond the scope of this course, you should complete the course with a better understanding of designing good questions.
For this assignment, I want you to use the same topic you chose in assignment #1 and the research question you chose in assignment #2.
The topic I chose in the last assignment was arrest and domestic violence.
The research question I would like to explore on this topic is what factors are associated with an
increased likelihood of domestic violence arrests?
Respond to the following:
1. Offer a hypothesis about the relationship between two variables concerning your topic. Remember that in social science theory and research we are examining or theorizing about relationships.
2. Make sure that at least one (1) of your variables is an attitude, perception, knowledge, or behavior that an individual might have. Some of you may need to think about your research question more broadly.
3. Suggest at least a third variable that might affect the hypothesized relationship — as an intervening variable, a causal variable in a multi-variate model, or possibly an antecedent variable that would reveal the hypothesized relationship to be spurious.
4. You should now have at least three (3) variables: an dependent variable, an independent variable of principal interest, and a second independent variable that may be an intervening or antecedent variable.
5. Draw a model of the hypothesized relationship between these variables. It should follow the following format: y = a + x1 + x2 where y is the dependent variable, a is the constant and x1 is your independent variable of principal interest and x2 is the second independent variable that may influence the dependent variable based on common sense or one of the articles you found earlier in the term. Indicate the direction of the expected relationship of each IV to the DV. For example, as IV1 increases, what happens to the DV? Do you hypothesize that it will increase or decrease? Do the same task for IV2.
6. Next, write a set of closed-ended survey questions that, when answered, could provide data to test your hypotheses. Write at least three (3) questions for the variable that is an attitude, perception, knowledge, or behavior. You should have a total of at least five (5) survey questions.
7. Go through the checklist below for each question:
Validity: Are these questions the best indicators for the hypothesis proposed?
Reliability: Are these questions clear enough that they would elicit the same response by respondents with the same set of characteristics?
Operationalization: Are the closed-ended responses mutually exclusive and exhaustive? If there is an order to the underlying variable, do the responses clearly indicate that?
Word choice: Could these questions raise problems associated sensitive topics? Do they use of jargon or other unintelligible vocabulary?
Answer all questions fully and throughly. Reach out with any questions ASAP. The topic and question is at the beginning.
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