PROJECT ASSIGNMENT REQUIREMENTS

You will deconstruct a published research study of your choosing in order to demonstrate your understanding of the elements of research methods and good research design. You will be working with this study throughout the remainder of the course, so choose a research study from the academic literature in your field on either a topic of interest to you or a topic on which you might be interested in doing further research.

Choose a study that is either quantitative or qualitative. The study should meet the following criteria:

• It does not use mixed methodology.
• It is a primary research study. Studies detailing meta-analyses, theoretical proposals, or opinion papers are not appropriate for this project.
• It must report on original research conducted using human participants.
• It must be reported in an article that is part of the research literature of your field.
• It must have been published in the last 5-7 years.

You are required to provide the following to complete this assignment:

• The article reference in APA format.
• The persistent link to the article.
• A short paragraph explaining your reasons for indicating the study is part of the research literature of your field.
• A short paragraph explaining your reasons for identifying the research as qualitative or quantitative.

Compose your assignment in a Microsoft Word document.

Readings

Leedy and Ormrod:

• Read Chapter 1, "The Nature and Tools of Research," pages 1-7, stopping at the heading "Tools of Research." This reading will provide background information on what research is and what it is not.

• Read Chapter 2, "The Problem: The Heart of the Research Process," pages 27-51. This chapter provides information on research problems and sub-problems, and research questions and sub-questions. It also discusses how to use scientific research literature in order to identify a research problem.

Suri's 2011 article, "Purposeful Sampling in Qualitative Research Synthesis," from Qualitative Research Journal, volume 11, issue 2, pages 63-75.

Read the following pages on Trochim's Research Methods Knowledge Base Web site. The following pages provide material on sampling for quantitative methodologies.

• Sampling.
• Sampling Terminology.
• Probability Sampling.
• Nonprobability Sampling.

Read Marshall's 1996 article, "Sampling for Qualitative Research," in Family Practice, volume 13, issue 6, pages 522-525. This article provides an explanation of qualitative sampling techniques and the rationale behind them. Examples are provided. Although written from the health care perspective, the coverage of methodology and sampling readily applies to qualitative research in psychology.
Optional

• Crouch, M., & McKenzie, H. (2006). The logic of small samples in interview-based qualitative research. Social Science Information, 45(4), 483-499. doi:10.1177/0539018406069584. This article provides guidance on sampling for qualitative studies including determining or estimating an a priori sample size that will increase the odds of reaching saturation.

• Guest, G., Bunce, A., & Johnson, L. (2006). How many interviews are enough?: An experiment with data saturation and variability. Field Methods, 18(1), 59-82. doi:10.1177/1525822X05279903. This article provides guidance on sampling for qualitative studies including determining or estimating an a priori sample size that will increase the odds of reaching saturation.