My Reseach Proposal

The research question for this study is, " What is the association between dog ownership and physical activity?"Based on previous research on the association between pet ownership and heart health, particularly as it relates to dogs over cats, it is hypothesized that increased physical activity caused by dog ownership has a stronger influence on cardiovascular health than cat ownership.

I need help with the following sections. This research will be done online using college students in my research methods in Psychology class. Looking for specific suggestions.

Proposed Methodology: Participants?

In your procedure, you are not obtaining a random sample - you cannot randomly sample from the general population (this is impossible). Be clear about which sampling technique you are using instead.

Proposed Methodology: Materials?

If you create the materials, you need to provide sufficient information that one could replicate what you did. What parameters and resources (including references) are you using to create the questions? What are the question types? How will they be ordered? etc.

Proposed Methodology: Procedures?

When describing your procedures, since you are presenting multiple stimuli whose presentation order could affect one another, you should be counterbalancing the order to avoid such carry-over effects. Also, you should have the demographics come last. Unless there is a reason to present them earlier, research shows that they should be last as answering such question could prime other responses, raising validity issues.