Friday, September 23, 2011

Research Methods: Closed Ended Questions

us department homeland security immigration

us government immigration
Research Methods : Closed form question types.

  1. Do you think the US government is doing enough to regulate the entry of illegal immigrants?
  2. Do you think the US government should increase the amount of money spent on deportation of illegal immigrants?
  3. Do you think the US government should decrease the amount of money spent on deportation of illegal immigrants?
  4. How much money do you think the US government spends on illegal immigrants in the criminal justice system annually?
    1. $0-$25,000
    2. $25,001-$50,000
    3. $50,001-$75,000
    4. $75,001-$100,000
    5. $100,001+
  5. Do you think deportation of illegal immigrants is an effective way to handle the criminal offenses committed by these individuals?
  6. Do you think illegal immigrants commit a higher ratio of violent crimes compared to legal immigrants or US citizens?
  7. Do you think there are ways to decrease the amount of money spent on illegal immigrants in the criminal justice system?
  8. In your opinion, what percentage of inmates in US prisons are illegal immigrants?
    1. 0%-25%
    2. 26%-50%
    3. 51%-75%
    4. 76%-100%
  9. Do you think most illegal immigrants in the criminal justice system are from:
    1. Mexico or South America
    2. Russia
    3. Canada
    4. Eastern Europe
    5. China
    6. Vietnam
    7. Other
  10. Do you think the US fairly handles illegal immigrants in the criminal justice system?

The methodology I would use for this survey is through e-mail or mail. The closed ended questions allow for concrete responses that can be easily calculated. It is all based on opinion and allows yes or no answers for most, or offers a range of responses that includes multiple options. This survey would be useful because I would like to find out the opinions people have on the topic I study. By gathering opinions, I can find out if these opinions are based in any fact or are false beliefs. I would like to survey a diverse pool of people in order to get a wide range of demographics. I would prefer to ask all adults from any age group, any gender, any social class, etc. By having a diverse pool of subjects I believe I can gather more accurate data about public opinions regarding this topic.

See:

us immigration lawyers

Monday, September 12, 2011

Research Method Question Types

Research Methods
  1. Are we spending too much, too little, or about the right amount on Law enforcement?
Are we spending too much, too little, or about the right amount on National defense?
Both from GSS – URL:

  1. Self-administered questionnaire revised questions:
Are we spending too much on law enforcement?
Are we spending too little on law enforcement?
Are we spending the right amount on law enforcement?
Are we spending too much on national defense?
Are we spending too little on national defense?
Are we spending the right amount on national defense?

3) A self-administered survey requires questions that have clear-cut responses.
The responses need to be “this” or “that” answers, such as yes or no, in order to accurately calculate responses. The questions have to be closed ended in order to utilize the function of a self-administered survey. The revised questions are well formatted because they are closed ended and the only responses could be yes or no.

4) These questions are trying to illicit responses about how the interviewees feel
about law enforcement and national defense fund allocations. The questions each ask specific values whether it is “too much” or “too little” in regards to the amount of money spent. By having closed ended questions, the surveyor is able to find out exactly how the interviewees feel about the questions and their responses.

5) In an interview type of setting fewer questions would be necessary to illicit an
accurate response. The initial questions found on the GSS webpage would be suitable to an interview type of survey. Asking the self-administered questionnaire questions would be redundant and condescending. Fewer questions would be acceptable for an interview and would maintain the reliability and validity of the data collected.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

US government | jurisdiction to require all Americans to have health insurance

Research Methods


Regarding Garry’s research idea:

I find your subject very interesting. Investigating whether or not the US government even has jurisdiction to require all Americans to have health insurance is an interesting idea. Also looking at the economic impacts of a law that requires healthcare for all can definitely help answer the question for individuals on how they feel about the current events surrounding this topic. In addition, exploring the various sections of healthcare, as you proposed in your everyday questions, can easily help look at healthcare as a whole. I think you have a narrowed enough research idea, but be careful of getting too broad in your foundation for your research. There is a great deal of information out there that you can get lost in. Have you looked at the variables, both independent and dependent, that you will be looking at? I see you are looking at demographics in your questions that are attached. Good start for that. Hope I can also assist you along the way. This should be very interesting since we both took unique subjects but are looking at them from economic standpoints.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Deportation: is it effective?

Research Methods

Issue: The financial impact illegal immigrants have on our criminal justice system.

Everyday questions:
How many illegal immigrants commit crime in the US annually?
What types of crimes are being committed by illegal immigrants?
Are these crimes not considered crimes in their home countries?
Where are these illegal immigrants originating from?
Are their actions crimes of necessity (i.e. stealing to feed their family?)?
What’s the percentage of caught/convicted illegal immigrants from each country?
Is immediate deportation a solution? What about the countries we don’t deport to.
How can we reduce government spending on illegal immigrants?
How much money is spent on the prosecution & detention of illegal immigrants?
How many illegal immigrants commit crimes but are never caught?
How many illegal immigrants are convicted but are never incarcerated?
Variables that can be measured/tested:
Percentages of illegal immigrants convicted v. legal immigrants.
Percentage of illegal immigrants in Immigration Custody Enforcement facilities.
Types of crimes are illegal immigrants being convicted of.
Origin of the majority of criminal illegal immigrants.
Amount of money that is spent on incarcerating of illegal immigrants annually.
Deportation: is it effective?
Reported number of illegal immigrants that re-enter and re-offend.
Research question:
How financially draining is the prosecution, detention, and deportation of illegal immigrants on local economies?
Justification:
During the harsh economic times we currently find ourselves in, governments across the nation are looking for new ways to save money in the long run. Washington State has recently passed a law requiring deportable illegal immigrants to be deported at a much faster rate than was previously occurring. Is this a solution? Is this an area that is costing state governments a large amount of money each year? Will earlier deportation, or even proposed prevention methods stopping illegal immigrants from entering the US, help save money long term?

Friday, September 9, 2011

Research Methods Team Study

Research Methods


There are many challenges that would face a research team attempting to study children who have prolonged exposure to health care settings. The first obvious obstacle would be the reliability of the children as research subjects. Children are not necessarily the most articulate beings, as they are still developing their vocabulary. They are also very emotional beings as they are younger because they are also still learning how to separate their emotions from the facts of their surroundings. Whether they are in a hospital setting for themselves or for an ill family member, the child will be more likely to tell you how they feel about the situation, which makes it very difficult to measure. The second challenge I can foresee is whether or not the children’s parents would give consent for the children to be studied. Since the research is about exploring hard facts (numbers, circumstances, and experiences) regarding children who are frequently in a health care setting, the parents will be less likely to want to further expose and potentially traumatize their children. This is more likely to happen to children who have a terminally ill family member or if the child themselves are gravely ill. The parent would not want to have a random person involved in their children’s lives during this critical time because the child is already experiencing enough negativity and stress, why add to it. The third challenge that comes to mind is whether or not the research is even ethical. If the child, for example, is terminally ill or is seriously ill is it ethical for researchers to potentially further upset the child into discussing how they feel or the details of what is happening. Children react similarly, but also differently, than adults do in situations such as this. The difference is, society as a whole, and definitely the children’s parents, want to protect their child as much as they can from situations that can cause emotional or physical harm. Since the child may be ill, the parent cannot stop the physical harm but have control over the emotional harm. Inversely, if the parent is ill and the child is present, the parent cannot stop the emotional harm but can block any potential physical harm that may result from increased stress (adding to the already present stress of an ill parent) due to the study. Ethical issues arise as to whether or not children have the potential to be harmed during this study.
In order to overcome these obstacles, one would need to carefully plan and articulate how the research will be conducted. For example, for the first obstacle of lack of information from a developing child, the researchers could and should include children’s specialists on their research team in order to know how to effectively interact with children in order to elicit the types of responses desired. A child psychologist and/or pediatrician would be beneficial to the research team. By adding members with specialties working with children, this can help ease the second obstacle: the parents. If there are professionals affiliated with the research whose primary knowledge is about children and the researchers clearly articulate how the research will be conducted, why it is being conducted, and the likely impact it will have on their children, parents will be more likely to allow their children’s involvement in the study. If there are no surprises, parents feel more comfortable their children will be safe physically and mentally during the course of the study. And for the third obstacle, by including the professionals who are most familiar with this test group, the issue of ethics is combated because the professionals will be able to know when the ethical boundaries are coming close and when they have been crossed. Having more than one professional from the field of working with children will be beneficial, maybe having two child psychologists and at least one pediatrician will help bridge the gap between the research and ethical concerns that may arise along the way.

research methods online course
Reference:
Dorsten, Linda Eberst & Lawrence Hotchkiss. Research Methods and Society:
Foundations of Social Inquiry. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Methods in behavioral research

Research Methods

  1. State general hypothesis(es). Identify dependent variable and independent variable.
The hypotheses for this study are as follows:
  • Men show signs of stress/distress in more obvious ways, such as anti-social behavior, through physical and/or verbal hostility.
  • Women show signs of stress/distress in less observable ways, such as depression, anxiety, etc., and physical pains related to stress.
  • Men are more likely to attribute their stress to financial issues.
  • Women are more likely to attribute their stress to interpersonal relationship issues.
Dependent variable: what each category’s stressor is self-reported to be and the
outcomes (hostility or anxiety, for example)
Independent variable: gender categories - men and women

  1. Qualitative or quantitative? Why?
This is an example of qualitative research because by definition qualitative research is “a relatively unstructured approach to social science, involving an interpretive, naturalistic method, attempting to make sense of, or interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them” (Dorsten, p.64). The researchers look at the sex of the individual and what they individually attribute their stress to. The researchers also look at what the results of their stressors are, such as physical ailments or behavioral issues. This research did not generate a set of raw numbers to be interpreted and analyzed, thus making it qualitative research.

  1. Summarize findings.
Within the research parameters, the results of this study followed the hypotheses closely. Men were found to be more likely to report stress as a result of financial situations, but also work issues were reported to be a stressor for men (which was not originally hypothesized). In addition, women reportedly were more affected by family problems in a negative capacity. It was also found that women were not stressed by issues concerning their network of friends. Regarding the type of stressor, financial concerns were reported to elevate hostility in men more so than in women. It was also found that women reported somatic responses to financial stresses.

research methods in psychology


Reference:
Dorsten, Linda Eberst & Lawrence Hotchkiss. Research Methods and Society:
Foundations of Social Inquiry. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Research Study

Research Methods

Research Study

Social Issues: How to research

1) Illegal Immigrants
2) Drug Importation
3) Current Healthcare reform discussions
4) Recently passed Deportation Law in Washington State


Why would these social issues make good research topics?
Research On
1) Illegal Immigrants: America is founded on immigration, but there has be increasing controversy regarding the illegal immigrants and their impact on American economy and public services.

2) Drug Importation: With the increasing media coverage, and the potential increasing of the drug trade in Mexico, we are hearing about drug cartels and their violence spilling over onto American soil. The question is, is the drug trade violence increasing or is the media providing more coverage and publicity of it?

3) Current Healthcare reform discussions: There are so many issues revolving around the current healthcare form plans and revisions. This is a fundamental issue to the foundation of American society.

4) Recently passed Deportation Law in Washington State: To help ease the budge deficit in Washington State, lawmakers passed a deportation law that requires illegal immigrants to be deported at a much faster rate than had previously been occurring. It would be interesting to find out if this law will be as effective as the intent was planned.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Primary and secondary research methods

Research Methods

primary and secondary research methods

Most species have a natural drive to learn. Humans, especially children, are inherently curious about their surroundings. A small child will learn by interacting with their environment. The child will touch things to see how they feel, smell things to learn the different scents, and taste things to find out whether or not they are pleasant. The very young children will participate in all of these activities, but at such an early age may not have all of the words to describe their experiences. A young child will pet a dog to see how the dog’s fur feels, or might touch a hot stove and find out that it hurts, maybe not knowing it actually burns. Either way, the child takes away some knowledge from both experiences and files it away in their brains for later use. 
Research methods qualitative 
 
These methods of learning do not escape us as we grow older. The same senses are used to learn as humans mature. New words are learned and new results from new “experiments” and environmental tests are discovered. As adults, we still learn through the utilization of our five senses. We still taste things to find out if we like a new food. We still smell things to find out if it is a scent we would like for an air freshener for our homes. We still touch things such as fabrics to find out if the blanket we want to purchase is soft enough. research study methods 

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