Writing the Methodology Chapter of Your Dissertation

Writing the Methodology Chapter of Your Dissertation

Exploring the Main Components of Chapter Three

Philip Adu, Ph.D.Methodology Expert National Center for Academic & Dissertation Excellence (NCADE)The Chicago School of Professional Psychology

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Analogy about Writing the Methodology Chapter

Making a Dish

Recipe Put the ingredients in the

blender

Add one cup of water

Blend for 10 minutes

Ingredients

Writing a Methodology Chapter

What resources do you have or need to conduct the study?

Resources

Why are the resources important to conduct the study?

How are you going to use the resources to conduct the study?

Conducting Research

Resources

RationaleUtilization

Rationale

Utilization

Ingredients and Cooking Tools(What do you need to make pasta with vegetables?)

Source: http://classroomclipart.com/ `

Resources

What resources do you have or need to conduct the study?

Resources Problem statement

Purpose statement

Research question(s)

Literature reviewed

You (the researcher)

Time available

Participants

Sampling technique

Instrument(s)/measure(s)

Theories

Theoretical framework

Research method

Philosophical assumptions and paradigm

Data analysis tool

Data collection strategy

IRB

Background and experience

Knowledge about the research approach

Writing skills

Motivation

Dissertation chair and committee members

Sponsoring organization

Gatekeepers

What resources do you have or need to conduct the study?

Rationale

Problem statement

Purpose statement

Research question(s)

Literature reviewed

You (the researcher)

Time available

Participants

Sampling technique

Instrument(s)/measure(s)

Theories

Theoretical framework

Research method

Philosophical assumptions and paradigm

Data analysis tool

Data collection strategy

IRB

Background and experience

Knowledge about the research approach

Writing skills

Motivation

Dissertation chair and committee members

Sponsoring organization

Gatekeepers

Why are the resources identified important to conduct the study?

Utilization

How are you going to use the resources to conduct the study?

Problem statement

Purpose statement

Research question(s)

Literature reviewed

You (the researcher)

Time available

Participants

Sampling technique

Instrument(s)/measure(s)

Theories

Theoretical framework

Research method

Philosophical assumptions and paradigm

Data analysis tool

Data collection strategy

IRB

Background and experience

Knowledge about the research approach

Writing skills

Motivation

Dissertation chair and committee members

Sponsoring organization

Gatekeepers

Things To Consider When Writing Chapter Three

Things To Consider When Writing Chapter Three

Decisions: What decisions have you made?

Actions: What actions do you plan to take in the study?

Rationale: Why do you want to take those decisions and actions?

Implications: What are the potential implications of your decisions and actions?

Implementation process: How do you plan to implement the decisions?

Decisions

Actions

Rationale

Implication

Implementation process

Things To Consider When Writing Chapter Three

Problem statement

Purpose statement

Research question(s)

Literature reviewed

You (the researcher)

Time available

Participants

Sampling technique

Instrument(s)/measure(s)

Theories

Theoretical framework

Research method

Philosophical assumption and paradigm

Data analysis tool

Interview questions

IRB

Background and experience

Knowledge about the research approach

Writing skills

Motivation

Dissertation chair and committee members

Sponsoring organization

Gatekeepers

Existing data

Exiting documents

Decisions: What decisions have you made?

Actions: What actions do you plan to take in the study?

Rationale: Why do you want to take those decisions and actions?

Implications: What are the potential implications of your decisions and actions?

Implementation process: How do you plan to implement the decisions?

Chapter Three Sections

Chapter Three Sections

• Chapter Overview

• Research Questions and/or Hypotheses and their Rationales

• Research Design

• Population and Sample

• Procedure

• Quality Assurance

• Instrumentation

• Data Processing

• Assumptions

• Limitations

• Ethical Assurances

• Summary

Chapter Overview

Problem

What specific problem do you plan to address?

Purpose of the study

What do you want to do or find out in the study?

Overview

What should your readers expect in this chapter?

Research Questions and/or Hypotheses and their Rationales

Research question

State the research question/hypothesis

Rationale

Based on existing studies, why it is important to address the question or test the hypothesis?

Types of Research Questions

(Saldana, 2013; Trochim, 2006)

Examples

Qualitative Research QuestionHow does mental health stigma influence help seeking behaviors among teens with mental health problems in a low income neighborhood in Accra, Ghana?

Quantitative Research QuestionIs there an effect of mental health stigma on help seeking behaviors among teens with mental health problems in a low income neighborhood in Accra, Ghana?

Mixed Methods Research Questions1. What is the correlation between mental health stigma and help seeking behavior among

teens with mental health problems in a low income neighborhood in Accra, Ghana?2. How do teens with mental health problem seek for help or mental heath services?

Research Design

Research method

What specific research method do you plan to use?

Meaning of the method

What is the method all about?

Appropriateness

Why do you think it is the most appropriate method?

Research Design

(Creswell, 2007; Creswell, Plano Clark, Gutmann, & Hanson, 2003; Keele, 2011)

Links to Diagrams Choosing an Appropriate

Quantitative Research Design

Choosing an Appropriate Qualitative Approach

Choosing an Appropriate Mixed Methods Design

Population and Sample

Characteristics of the population and sample

Who are your population and participants?

What are their characteristics?

Number of participants and the appropriateness

How many participants do you need for your study?

Why do you think the number is adequate?

Participants’ Qualification

Who qualifies to be part of the study?

What is your exclusion criteria?

Sampling technique implementation

What sampling technique do you plan to use?

How would you utilize it?

How would participants be recruited?

Appropriateness

Why you think the sampling technique is appropriate?

Population and Sample

Qualitative Study Quantitative Study

Number of participants

Enough to collect rich data to address the research question

Large enough to prevent committing Type II error (for inferential statistics)

Justification Using research approach, participants’ homogeneity, phenomenon under study, and point of saturation

Using the results of power analysis (Cohen's Power Tables and G* power)

Sampling technique

Convenience, purposive, random, stratified, and cluster sampling

Procedure(Presenting data collection process in a chronological manner)

Data collection strategy and source of data

What data collection strategy would you use?

Who or what would be the source of your data?

Data collection process

How would you collect the data?

How long would participants take to complete the interview or survey?

Data collection channel or location

What channel would you use to collect data (eg. Mail, face-to-face, skype, online)?

What will be your research location?

Your actions

What do you do in the data collection stage?

Participants’ actions

What would participants do in the data collection stage?

Traditional Criteria for Judging Quantitative Research

Alternative Criteria for Judging Qualitative Research

Internal validity (about cause-effect relationship)Credibility (Do the data and findings truly reflect

participants’ experience?)

External validity (about generalization)Transferability (Could the findings be transferred to

similar context?)

Reliability (about repeatability)Dependability (Would we arrive at similar results if

the procedures are followed?)

Objectivity (about the connection between

research and the researched)Confirmability (Could the finding be confirmed by

other method, participant, and/or researcher?)

Quality assurance

(Trochim, 2006; Yilmaz, 2013)

Quantitative Research Qualitative Research

Measure/instrument Interview questions

Variable being measured Content of the questions (they should be

consistent with research question)

Number of items Number of questions

Kinds of sub-scales Variables the sub-scales are

measuring Kinds of interview questions

Reliability results

Ability to elicit rich responses adequate to address the research question.

Instrumentation

Quantitative Research Qualitative Research

Analyzing demographic information Descriptive statistics

Frequencies, percentages, means, and standard deviations

Some of the demographic variables are such as age, gender, & educational level

Capturing participants’ characteristics Using attribute and descriptive coding methods to

capture participants’ characteristics (such as age, gender, and educational level) and their environment/setting (Saldana, 2013)

Testing hypothesis Inferential statistics

Such as correlations, regression, t test, Chi-square, ANOVA, and MANOVA

Addressing research question(s) Identify relevant information from the data Use specific coding method(s) to code the data

(Saldana, 2013) Code them by assigning labels to them Sort the codes to generate categories Develop themes to address the research question(s)

For more information go to: http://www.slideshare.net/kontorphilip/qualitative-analysis-coding-and-categorizing

Data Processing

• They are weaknesses related to decisions made in a study

• They are difficult to contain • Consequences associated with choices made in a study related

to:• Sampling technique

• Data collection strategy (i.e. interviews, focus groups, ...)

• Instrument used

• Population chosen (in terms of accessibility)

• Time and resources

• How would you be addressing expected challenges?

Limitations

(Simon, 2011)

• They can’t be totally controlled

• They need to exist for your study to be valid/essential/credible

• Truthfulness/honesty of participants’ response

• Representativeness of sample

• Homogeneity of participants characteristics

• Having knowledge of your assumptions

• Justifying their existence

Assumptions

(Simon, 2011)

• Delimitations are features in a study that can be controlled so as to determine the parameters or scope of the study

– Researchers have control over characteristics of the following:

• Research problem

• Research purpose

• Research question(s)

• Methodology

• Variables

• Population

Delimitations (Scope of the study)

(Simon, 2011)

Delimitations Limitations Assumptions

Essence To determine the parameters/scope of the study

To determine the weaknessassociated to decisions made in the study

To make a study relevant

Control There is a level of control over where to draw the boundaries

Difficult to control but some can be addressed in the study

Can’t be totallycontrolled but they should exist to make the study relevant

Location Chapter one Chapter 3 (dissertation proposal)

Chapter 5 (Final dissertation)

Chapter 3

Differences between Delimitations, Limitations, and Assumptions

(Simon, 2011)

Ethical Assurances

Protection of participant’s information

Risks involved

IRB approval

Participant’s control over

their narrative or information

How participant’s information will be

used

Consent form

Confidentiality of participant’s

information

Benefits involved

Anonymity of

participant

Summary

Purpose of the study

Main question

Main rationale

Research method

Participants

Data collection strategy

Quality assurance

Limitations

Data processing

Snapshot of the following (one sentence for each area)

References

Creswell, J. W. (2013). Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches (3rd). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Creswell, J. W., Plano Clark, V. L., Gutmann, M. L., & Hanson, W. E. (2003). Advanced mixed methods research designs. In A. Tashakkori & C. Teddlie (Eds.), Handbook of mixed methods in social and behavioral research (pp. 209–240). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Keele, R. (2011), Nursing research and evidence-based practice. MA: Jones & Bartlett, LLC.

Saldana, J. (2013). The coding manual for qualitative researchers. London: Sage

Simon, M. K. (2011). Dissertation and scholarly research: Recipes for success (2011 Ed.). Seattle, WA, Dissertation Success, LLC. http://dissertationrecipes.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/AssumptionslimitationsdelimitationsX.pdf

Trochim, W. M. (2006, October 20). Types of questions. Retrieved from Research methods knowledge base website: http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/qualval.php

Yilmaz, K. (2013). Comparison of quantitative and qualitative research traditions: Epistemological, theoretical, and methodological differences. European Journal of Education, 48(2), 311-325.

Philip Adu, Ph.D.

Methodology Expert

National Center for Academic & Dissertation Excellence (NCADE)

The Chicago School of Professional Psychology

[email protected]

You could reach Dr. Adu at [email protected] and @drphilipadu on twitter.