CHAPTER ONE - INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 Research Context 1
1.3 Background to the problem 2
1.4 Problem Statement 2
1.5 Aim of the Study 3
1.6 Research Objectives 3
1.7 Research Questions 3
1.8 Hypothesis Testing 4
1.9 Format of the study 4
1.10 Rationale of the Study 5
1.11 Significance of the Study 5
1.12 Conclusion

CHAPTER 3 – RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 23

3.1 Introduction 23
3.2 Rationale of the Methodology 23
3.3 The Research Philosophy 23
3.3.1 Quantitative (Positivist) Research Strategy 24
3.4 The Research Design 24
3.4.1 Types of Research Design 25
3.4.1.1 Causal-comparative research 25
3.4.1.2 Correlational research 25
3.4.1.3 Explanatory research 25
3.4.1.4 Descriptive or survey research design 25
3.4.1.5 Exploratory research 25
3.5 Target Population 26
3.6 Sampling 27
3.6.1 Sampling Strategy 27
3.6.1.1 Probability Sampling 27
3.6.1.2 Non-Probability Sampling 27
 3.6.2 Sample size 27
3.6.3 Representative sample used 28
3.7 Data Collection 28
3.7.1 Research instrument 28
3.7.1.1 Questionnaire construction 29
3.7.1.2 Questionnaire items 29
3.7.1.3 Pilot Study 30
3.7.1.4 The Research Process 30
3.7.1.5 Administration of questionnaire 30
3.7.1.6 Collection of questionnaire 31
3.7.1.7 Data Analysis 31
3.8 Ensuring Validity and Reliability 32
3.9.1 Ensuring the Reliability of measurement 32
3.9.2 Ensuring the Validity of measurement 33
3.10 Limitation of the study 33
3.11 Ethical Consideration 34
3.11.1 Informed consent to participants 34
3.11.2 Ensuring no harm to participants 35
3.11.3 Ensuring confidentiality 35
3.11.4 Ensuring permission is obtained 35
3.11.5 Elimination of bias 35
3.11.5.1 Sampling bias 35
3.11.5.2 Procedural bias 35
3.11.5.3 Response bias 36
3..11.5.4 Reporting bias 36
3.12 Conclusion
Stating the Obvious: Writing Assumptions, Limitations, and
Delimitations

During the process of writing your thesis or dissertation, you might suddenly realize that your
research has inherent flaws. Don’t worry! Virtually all projects contain restrictions to your
research. However, being able to recognize and accurately describe these problems is the
difference between a true researcher and a grade-school kid with a science-fair project. Concerns
with truthful responding, access to participants, and survey instruments are just a few of
examples of restrictions on your research. In the following sections, the differences among
delimitations, limitations, and assumptions of a dissertation will be clarified.

Delimitations

Delimitations are the definitions you set as the boundaries of your own thesis or dissertation, so
delimitations are in your control. Delimitations are set so that your goals do not become
impossibly large to complete. Examples of delimitations include objectives, research questions,
variables, theoretical objectives that you have adopted, and populations chosen as targets to
study. When you are stating your delimitations, clearly inform readers why you chose this course
of study. The answer might simply be that you were curious about the topic and/or wanted to
improve standards of a professional field by revealing certain findings. In any case, you should
clearly list the other options available and the reasons why you did not choose these options
immediately after you list your delimitations. You might have avoided these options for reasons
of practicality, interest, or relativity to the study at hand. For example, you might have only
studied Hispanic mothers because they have the highest rate of obese babies. Delimitations are
often strongly related to your theory and research questions. If you were researching whether
there are different parenting styles between unmarried Asian, Caucasian, African American, and
Hispanic women, then a delimitation of your study would be the inclusion of only participants
with those demographics and the exclusion of participants from other demographics such as men,
married women, and all other ethnicities of single women (inclusion and exclusion criteria). A
further delimitation might be that you only included closed-ended Likert scale responses in the
survey, rather than including additional open-ended responses, which might make some people
more willing to take and complete your survey. Remember that delimitations are not good or
bad. They are simply a detailed description of the scope of interest for your study as it relates to
the research design. Don’t forget to describe the philosophical framework you used throughout
your study, which also delimits your study.

Limitations

Limitations of a dissertation are potential weaknesses in your study that are mostly out of your
control, given limited funding, choice of research design, statistical model constraints, or other
factors. In addition, a limitation is a restriction on your study that cannot be reasonably dismissed
and can affect your design and results. Do not worry about limitations because limitations affect
virtually all research projects, as well as most things in life. Even when you are going to your
favorite restaurant, you are limited by the menu choices. If you went to a restaurant that had a
menu that you were craving, you might not receive the service, price, or location that makes you
enjoy your favorite restaurant. If you studied participants’ responses to a survey, you might be
limited in your abilities to gain the exact type or geographic scope of participants you wanted.
The people whom you managed to get to take your survey may not truly be a random sample,
which is also a limitation. If you used a common test for data findings, your results are limited by
the reliability of the test. If your study was limited to a certain amount of time, your results are
affected by the operations of society during that time period (e.g., economy, social trends). It is
important for you to remember that limitations of a dissertation are often not something that can
be solved by the researcher. Also, remember that whatever limits you also limits other
researchers, whether they are the largest medical research companies or consumer habits
corporations. Certain kinds of limitations are often associated with the analytical approach you
take in your research, too. For example, some qualitative methods like heuristics or
phenomenology do not lend themselves well to replicability. Also, most of the commonly used
quantitative statistical models can only determine correlation, but not causation.

Assumptions

Assumptions are things that are accepted as true, or at least plausible, by researchers and peers
who will read your dissertation or thesis. In other words, any scholar reading your paper will
assume that certain aspects of your study is true given your population, statistical test, research
design, or other delimitations. For example, if you tell your friend that your favorite restaurant is
an Italian place, your friend will assume that you don’t go there for the sushi. It’s assumed that
you go there to eat Italian food. Because most assumptions are not discussed in-text, assumptions
that are discussed in-text are discussed in the context of the limitations of your study, which is
typically in the discussion section. This is important, because both assumptions and limitations
affect the inferences you can draw from your study. One of the more common assumptions made
in survey research is the assumption of honesty and truthful responses. However, for certain
sensitive questions this assumption may be more difficult to accept, in which case it would be
described as a limitation of the study. For example, asking people to report their criminal
behavior in a survey may not be as reliable as asking people to report their eating habits. It is
important to remember that your limitations and assumptions should not contradict one another.
For instance, if you state that generalizability is a limitation of your study given that your sample
was limited to one city in the United States, then you should not claim generalizability to the
United States population as an assumption of your study. Statistical models in quantitative
research designs are accompanied with assumptions as well, some more strict than others. These
assumptions generally refer to the characteristics of the data, such as distributions, correlational
trends, and variable type, just to name a few. Violating these assumptions can lead to drastically
invalid results, though this often depends on sample size and other considerations.