HBC201
Research Methods for the Social and Behavioural Sciences

INSTRUCTIONS TO STUDENTS:

1. This End-of-Course Assessment paper comprises 6 pages (including the cover page).

2. You are to include the following particulars in your submission: Course Code, Title of the ECA, SUSS PI No., Your Name, and Submission Date.

3. Ensure that you submit your End-of-Course Assessment by the deadline. After the 12-hour grace period, 10% of the total End-of-Course Assessment mark will be deducted for each 24-hour block or part thereof by which your submission is late. Submissions with more than 50 marks deducted will be awarded 0 marks.

4. You are allowed multiple submissions to Turnitin before the deadline. After the deadline, only one submission is allowed, and only if you have not already made a prior submission.

5. If you fail to submit your End-of-Course Assessment, you will be deemed to have withdrawn from the course.

IMPORTANT NOTE

ECA Submission Deadline: Wednesday, 29 March 2023 12:00 pm

ECA Submission Guidelines
Please read this information before you start working on your ECA.

This ECA carries 50% of the course marks and is a compulsory component. It is to be done individually and not collaboratively with other students. You must submit it on time.

Submission

You are to submit the end-of-course assessment (ECA) in exactly the same manner as your tutormarked assignments (TMA), i.e. using Canvas. Submission in any other manner such as hardcopy or any other means will not be accepted. Ensure that you submit your ECA by the deadline. After the 12-hour grace period, 10% of the total ECA mark will be deducted for every 24-hour block or part thereof by which your submission is late. Submissions with more than 50 marks deducted will be awarded 0 marks. You are allowed multiple submissions to Turnitin before the deadline, after which only one submission is allowed, and only if you have not already previously submitted. If you fail to submit your ECA, you will be deemed to have withdrawn from the course.

You are reminded that electronic transmission is not always immediate. It is possible that network traffic may be particularly heavy on the cut-off date, and connections to the system cannot be guaranteed. Hence, you are advised to submit your work no later than the day before the cut-off date in order to make sure that the submission is accepted and in good time.

Once you have submitted your ECA, the status is displayed on the computer screen. You will receive a digital acknowledgement message. Please note that it is the digital time-stamp—and not the acknowledgement message—that indicates that you have submitted your ECA. To ensure a timely submission and to have your ECA marked, you should therefore not jeopardise your course result by submitting your ECA at the last minute.

Do ensure that you have the correct file for submission. Any submission, extra files, missing appendices or corrections received separately after the submission of the ECA will not be considered in the grading of your ECA

Plagiarism and Collusion

The University takes a very serious view of plagiarism (passing off someone else’s ideas as your own, or recycling of contents from your own earlier marked TMA from the same course or another course) and collusion (submitting an assignment which is the same or very similar to another student’s). Both are forms of cheating, and neither is acceptable in any form in a student’s work, including this ECA.

Avoid plagiarism by giving yourself sufficient time to research and understand the material so that you can write up your assignment in your own words, and ensure that you provide appropriate references when necessary. You can avoid collusion by ensuring that your submission is based on your own individual effort.

Penalties for plagiarism and collusion are severe. Serious cases will normally result in the student being referred to SUSS’s Student Disciplinary Group. For other cases, significant marking penalties or expulsion from the course may be imposed. For more information about the University’s policies on plagiarism and collusion, refer to the Student Handbook (Section 5.2, paragraph 1.3).

Student’s Notes

This ECA should be written as an essay. Please take note of the following:
• You are required to address all parts described and label each part clearly in your ECA.
• Include in-text citations and bibliography properly in the American Psychological Association (APA) format. Using information from electronic or printed materials without proper citations is considered plagiarism.
• Refer to APA guidelines about how to quote or paraphrase information from electronic or printed materials properly.

The marks allocated to each part of the question should serve as a general guide to the relative importance of each part. Your ECA will be marked holistically. You are expected to apply concepts covered in this course and information from additional research to propose an appropriate study to address the research question you identify. It is important that you elaborate on your points and rationale clearly. Overall, your ECA should present a coherent research proposal, which addresses the five required parts in a logical and consistent manner.

Please use proper language and structure in writing your essay. Up to 5 marks can be deducted for grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors.

Also, citations and a reference section in APA format are expected. Up to 5 marks can be deducted for incorrect and/or inadequate citations and references.

The word limit of this ECA is 3,000 words, including in-text citations, but excluding references and appendices. Please provide a word count at the end of your ECA. Note that a further 5% of your final grade will be deducted if your ECA exceeds the word limit.

Resources
• You can refer to Purdue Online Writing Lab about APA format: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style _guide/general_format.html
• You can conduct additional research using databases available via SUSS library:
https://libguides.suss.edu.sg/az.php?a=s

(Full marks: 100)

Answer all questions in this section.

Read the following case study and answer subsequent questions.

Case Study

Researchers at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy have conducted a study about homelessness in Singapore. In addition to a street count of homeless people in Singapore, the study also involved in-depth interviews with homeless individuals who stayed at a shelter.

The study has identified two new groups of homeless people during the Covid-19 pandemic. The first group (i.e., “Newly homeless”) consists of homeless people who had not slept on the streets before the pandemic. This group includes people who lost their jobs during the pandemic and could not afford to rent a place on the open market. The second group (i.e., “Transnational homeless”) comprises mainly Singaporean males who live in Indonesia or Malaysia and used to commute to Singapore for work. Due to border control and travel restrictions during the pandemic, they could not travel back home and thus sleep on the streets in Singapore.

The study also identified a third group of people who have been homeless before the pandemic (i.e., “Long-term homeless”). These homeless individuals live in “extreme poverty” and some of them have been on the streets for many years.

The researchers reported common issues that these three groups of homeless people might face, such as having low-wage and insecure jobs, poor health conditions, family conflict and estrangement.

Source: Tan, T., & Ang, S. (2022, August 11). Those made jobless during Covid-19 pandemic among new groups of homeless people: Study. The Straits Times.
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/community/those-made-jobless-among-new-groups-of-homelesspeople-study

Suppose the Singapore government would like to know more about homelessness in Singapore (Note: Both rough sleepers and individuals staying in homeless shelters are usually considered as homeless). You are tasked to submit a research proposal that will elaborate on how you can apply relevant concepts and research methods to study the topic. Your proposal should be written as an essay and include the following five parts.

(a) Title and Abstract of Research Proposal
Propose a title that fits your research proposal. Also, include an abstract that properly describes and summarises your proposed study. The abstract must not exceed 150 words.
• Both the title and abstract should be included in your total word count.
• The title should clearly indicate what your proposed study is about.
(5 marks)

(b) Background and Literature Review
Examine relevant literature on an issue related to homelessness that you would like to study. Analyse the identified literature, examine the research methods used in the existing studies, and critique the strengths or weaknesses of these studies.

Following your literature review, you should propose a specific and clear research question that you would like to study. The research question should be about homelessness in Singapore. You should also discuss the importance of the study you have proposed.
• You can choose to study any topic related to homelessness in Singapore. The key is that you clearly describe the topic you would like to study based on your literature review. Examples of possible topics include the following: factors that may contribute to homelessness in Singapore, experiences of being homeless in Singapore, impact of a specific intervention that aims to help homeless people in Singapore and so on.
• For your literature review, you need to include at least five academic journal articles that are relevant to the topic of your choice. It is acceptable if one or more journal articles that you have selected are not done in Singapore. The key is that you should explain explicitly how the selected journal articles inform your proposed research.
• In your literature review, you should critically evaluate the strengths or weaknesses of the selected journal articles, rather than merely present the methods or findings of these previous studies in a descriptive manner. Based on your literature review, discuss the importance of the study you propose, such as how your proposed study addresses a specific limitation of the past studies, any theoretical or practical contribution(s) your research finding(s) may make, etc.
(35 marks)

(c) Research Design
Apply relevant concepts and propose a research design to address your research question with respect to the following aspects: (i) explain whether you plan to use quantitative or qualitative method and why, (ii) briefly describe your proposed method and discuss critical elements in your research procedure, and (iii) discuss possible threats to the validity of your research and explain how you will address these threats.
• You should first explain whether you plan to use quantitative or qualitative method. Provide at least two reasons to explain why you choose one method over another. If you choose to use both quantitative and qualitative methods, provide at least two reasons to justify your choice too.
• Next, discuss the critical elements in the research procedure. You are required to at least describe your sampling strategy, data collection method(s), and procedure of data collection.
• For sampling strategy, at a minimum specify the population your study targets (for example, individuals who stay in homeless shelters and are between the ages of 21 and 65), the number of participants you will recruit, and how you will recruit participants for your study.
• For data collection method(s), if you choose to use a quantitative method, you need to include the survey. If you choose to use a qualitative method, you need to include the interview (either semi-structured interview or focus group) questions. You should explain clearly whether you plan to develop the survey/interview questions from scratch, use existing survey/interview questions, or adapt existing survey/interview questions to study your research question. You need to include all survey or interview questions that you propose to use in the Appendix.
• Describe the procedure of administering the survey or conducting interviews.
• You should also discuss at least two possible concerns in the use of survey or interview method that may threaten the validity of your research. Explain how you will address these concerns.
(40 marks)

(d) Ethical Issues
Recognise and appreciate at least two ethical issues in your proposed study that concern research participants. Discuss action(s) you will take to address each issue, to ensure that your proposed study will be conducted ethically.
• The two ethical issues that concern research participants (for example, protection of participants’ autonomy) should be discussed specifically in the context of your proposed study.
(10 marks)

(e) Limitations of Research
Discuss at least two limitations of your proposed study in understanding the chosen topic about homelessness in Singapore.
• Examples of possible limitations you can discuss include: the planned sampling strategy, limitations in the chosen data collection method(s), etc. The discussion should focus on the limitations of the chosen methodology to address the research question of your proposal.