Methodology and resources

My topic is the research behind how low SES as limited access to healthy food options continues to effect rising obesity rates. My focus population is Chester, Pennsylvania and I am open to any methodology use. Below is the clip from my syllabus.

Chapter 3: Methodology
Items followed by * will not be in the research proposal, but rather are added after data is
collected and analyzed. In addition, other sections may be modified after data collection,
to reflect how the study evolved.
• Introduction (1-2 paragraphs)
• Research design
• Target population and sampling procedure
• Limitations, delimitations, and assumptions
• Invitation and informed consent, if applicable, in appendix
• Addressing ethical and human subjects considerations
• Data collection and instrumentation (include final version of instrumentsin
appendix)
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• Adjustments that were made during data collection
• Sample demographics*
• Evaluation of sample adequacy and representativeness*
• For qualitative, discussion of how the codebook was developed (include the
codebook or a representative portion of it in an appendix)*
• Reliability and validity; for qualitative, inter-rater reliability for addressing
propositions*
• Analysis procedure for each hypothesis (in research proposal, but shifted to
Chapter 4 in final report)
• Procedures used to scrub data and exploratory data analysis*
• Summary and segue to Chapter 4 (1-2 paragraphs)
This chapter discusses the design of the research, and the detailed procedures used to
conduct and analyze the research. When writing the research proposal, the student may
write this chapter in the past tense so that the verbs do not need to be changed after the
research has been conducted. However, if procedural changes are made while conducting
the research, this chapter will need to be revised accordingly. Reasons for changes should
be provided along with the timing of changes, if not all data were collected under the
same conditions.
Another change that may take place in Chapter 3 upon completion of the research is that
discussion of any pilot testing done will be reduced or eliminated.
You may assume that the reader is familiar with statistical testing procedures. See the
quantitative research checklist and qualitative research checklist (Appendix E and
Appendix F) for further information specific to these types of research.
It is your responsibility to become expert in the sampling, data collection, and analysis
procedures used in your research. This requires reading specialized research books as
well as critiquing empirical research articles. Your committee members provide guidance
but expect you to understand and be able to conduct basic research and analysis. You
must be sufficiently knowledgeable that you can defend the sampling, data collection, and
analysis procedures selected. Many students have found Laerd.com to be an excellent
statistical analysis resource.
Limitations are aspects of the situation or research design, which may adversely impact
the generalizability of findings. Delimitations are the boundaries the researcher has placed
on the research. That is to say, what is included and what is excluded? Assumptions are
sample or data collection aspects the study is taking for granted. There should be a brief
explanation about why you believe these assumptions to be reasonable.
After completing the research, evidence should be provided that the sample obtained was
representative of the population and the sample size was sufficient. If the sample is
biased, discuss how that might have influenced the results and impacted validity.
Sometimes it is possible to conduct statistical analyses to estimate the extent to which
sample bias may have distorted your results. For example, were late responders different
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from early responders? Were responses different depending on education level, etc.?
In qualitative research methodology, it is necessary to indicate the method and rationale
used to select the participants, groups, sites, etc., that were included in the study. In
qualitative research, usually a purposive sample is used rather than a random sample.
Various reasons can be used to select sampling units, such as their being typical, extreme,
or important. Usually the sample size is small, and there is no attempt to use inferential
statistics to generalize the results to a larger population. Rather, similarity of results with
previous studies and/or agreement with the theoretical foundation of the study are used as
bases for positing generalizability.
If an adopted instrument was used, it must be properly cited and referenced, as should
student developed instruments that substantially use the ideas of other researchers.
(Remember you must seek written permission to use instruments developed by others. If
you plan to make modifications to the instrument, including changing the scale, you must
obtain permission for these modifications. Occasionally, there may be a fee or restrictions
required by the authors.) Any instruments used in the study should be included in the
appendices. It is not necessary to describe pilot studies in detail.

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