HBC201 Research Methods for the Social and Behavioural Sciences End-of-Course Assessment 2026 | SUSS, Singapore

HBC201 End-of-Course Assessment

Question 1

Case Study Education Minister Desmond Lee has said that the Ministry of Education will look to strengthen school policies on bullying and harmful behaviour, as part of the Comprehensive Action Review against bullying, which was initiated in 2025. Several high-profile incidents of bullying have been reported in the media, highlighting the need for greater attention to the issue and strengthening of policies to address the issue. Bullying has been associated with many adverse outcomes including mental health issues, behavioural problems, and physical consequences, which can have lasting effects on individuals in the long term. As stated by Minister Lee, there is no one clear-cut approach to addressing the complex issue of bullying, which requires the involvement of multiple parties, including the school system, educators, and parents.

Source: Schools to get stronger anti-bullying policies, review of discipline framework: Desmond Lee. (2025, August 27). Channel News Asia. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/bullying-schools-discipline- moe-desmond-lee-5317211

Suppose the Singapore government would like to find out more about bullying in Singapore. 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.

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)

Background and Literature Review

Examine relevant literature on an issue related to bullying in Singapore 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 bullying in Singapore. You should also discuss the importance of the study you have proposed.

• You can choose to study any topic related to bullying in Singapore. The key is that you can 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 bullying incidents in Singapore, consequences of bullying, impact of an initiative that aims to reduce bullying in Singapore etc.
• 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)

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 a 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 a 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, youths aged 13-18), 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 questions that you propose to use in the Appendix.
• Describe the procedure of administering the survey or conducting the 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)

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)

Limitations of Research

Discuss at least two limitations of your proposed study in understanding the chosen topic about bullying 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 limitations of the chosen methodology to address the research question of your proposal and should be limitations that cannot be resolved in your proposed study.

(10 marks)

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. 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.
• The marks allocated to each part of the question should serve as a general guide to the relative importance of each part. In-text citations and a reference section in American Psychological Association (APA7) format are expected. Up to 5 marks can be deducted for incorrect and/or inadequate citations and references. Using information from electronic or printed materials without proper citations is considered plagiarism.

Refer to APA7 guidelines about how to quote or paraphrase information from electronic or printed materials properly. Please use proper language and structure in writing your essay. Up to 5 marks can be deducted for grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors. 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.