This case study will illustrate the "steps" in the research process, as illustrated on page 15 of our text, or in the "hourglass" graphic.  In reality, one tends to jump around in this process, e.g., beginning with a question, looking at some readily available data, talking to people, reaching some tentative conclusions, redefning the focus, then operationalizing and gathering data.  Right now (September 2000) we are ready to operationalize (create a questionnaire), collect some data, and analyze it.  I will give you some documents that illustrate the process.  This is the project we will be working on in the Methods class.

• First, where did the idea come from.  As is often the case, the idea for this conference came from a sponsor.  This could be thought of as "applied research" in that responds to the needs of a client.  In this case, I received the following email from Richard Harris, director of the Rand Institute on campus:
• Subject: Rand fellowship

Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2000 10:50:33 -0400
From: Richard Harris <raharris@camden.rutgers.edu>
To: goertzel@camden.rutgers.edu

Ted:

    I am trying to pull together applications for Rand fellowships for
next year and thought you might be interested in one possibility that I
would very much like to fund. I would like to have a survey done on
"regional identity" in South Jersey. The Fellowship is $4000 plus a
grad. assistant, though I'd be willing to find some mor expense money if
necessary.

    This is a follow-up to the Summit on the Future of South Jersey we
did with the Courier-Post. At that event (over 250 folks from across the
region showed up) a critical issue that emerged was the question of how
South jersey could promote itself as a region, and underlying that was
the problem of what exactly our regional identity is. Lots of
individuals talked about characteristcs, but there was no clear
notion...it maybe that there is no basis for South Jersey being a region
other than its not Philadelphia or North Jersey, but that is an
empirical question. It may also be that South Jersey is several
regions...also an empirical question. It would be interesting, moreover
to compare views of the  region held by elites and citizens.

    In any event, I'd like to invite you to submit a proposal for such
an assessment, which I would find very useful. You can drp off by e-mail
if you like. Interested?

Rich Harris
 

• I decided to submit a brief proposal, which was accepted with some modifications.
• I then approached the Eagleton Institute's Center for Public Interest Polling at Rutgers New Brunswick, and obtained some survey data from them.  My preliminary analysis of this data showed that SJ did not differ greatly from the rest of the region.  However, sample sizes were small and it was not possible to break down the SJ region into sub-regions (Burlington-Camden-Gloucester Counties; Salem-Cumberland;  Cape May-Atlantic).
• I hired Jason Leonardis, who had just graduated Rutgers, to assist me in working over the summer doing qualitative interviews with SJ residents, county officials, business leaders and others.  These interviews will be ongoing.  Based on these interviews we reached some tenative conclusions which I outlined in a memo.
• We decided that SJ has a "latent identity" which is strongest in the "Down Jersey" area.  What is lacking is promotion for SJ as a region.  Jason and I developed a list of SJ attractions which are family oriented and in some way distinctive to SJ as a culture.  Jason prepared a poster-map that could be used to promote South Jersey.
• I asked the students in this class to write essays on "What I Like Most about Living in South Jersey."
• Some of the essays fitted our theme
• Most, however, seem to be emphasizing the fact that SJ is close to other places, e.g. Mandy Quinn said:
• The aspect that I like most about living in South Jersey
       is definitely the accessibility to all of the major
       cities and shore points surrounding it.  I like the fact
       the I can drive to Philadelphia in less than 20 minutes
       or NYC in under two hours.  I also like being able to
       reach almost any of the shore points in NJ within a two
       hour driving span.
• The Next Step is to develop a questionnaire.  This requires some conceptualization, exactly what are we trying to measure?
• One way to get at this is to look at other studies, such as the General Social Survey.  To find their items, we can go to Main Codebook Pages by Subject and click on Residence).  Are they useful?
• Here are some possible items.