Family Counseling for Parents of Children with Special Needs in the Bolgatanga Municipality in Ghana

  SECTION THREE: METHODS
The purpose of this section is to describe and explain your research design. This can be the hardest
part of the proposal for some students; therefore, do not wait until the last minute to write this
section. When writing this section, imagine that you have received millions of dollars from a federal
agency or a private company to study your topic. You have unlimited resources for your research
design. Since you will not actually perform the research be creative, but appropriate, with your
design.
 In a brief introduction, precisely restate your research problem(s)/question(s).
 Discuss the ways in which your research will fulfill any of the purposes of research
mentioned in class and in the text. Which purpose is most important to your topic?
 Indicate the following elements of your research design:
o What is your mode of observation? How will you collect your data? Examples: If
you are designing a survey, what types of questions will you ask? If you are going to
perform in-depth interviews, what will you ask of your interviewees?
o What is your population of interest? Do you have a sampling frame? If so, what is it?
How will you select your sample? What kind of sampling technique will you use?
o How will you analyze your data? What unit of analysis best fits your project, and
why?
o What type of time dimension is best for studying your topic, and why?
 If you plan to conduct qualitative research, discuss the following issues (be as detailed and
specific as possible):
o Clearly define the theoretical constructs you will be using.
o What is the main concept you are investigating? What other concepts will be
examined (note the concepts’ potential structures, processes, causes, and
consequences)?
o What type(s) of qualitative analysis will you conduct?
 If you plan to conduct quantitative research, discuss the following issues (be as detailed
and specific as possible):
o Clearly state your hypotheses.
o Identify and operationalize your variables. What are the levels of measurements of
the variables? Discuss the causal relationships between the variables; that is,
identify the independent variables and the dependent variable.
 Identify the strengths and weaknesses of your design.
 Finally, write a concluding paragraph that summarizes the research design and proposal.