8 responses

A good response to others is not something like "I agree." Please find something that you can analyze, add to, critique, explain, disagree with, or something. It should be a few cogent sentences. It should contain something that shows your knowledge of the subject, as well as additional materials you might bring from the web and elsewhere.

Apply theories or materials correctly. Apply relevant professional, personal, or other real-world experiences. Supports position with applicable knowledge

You should create substantial responses to your peers. Think of this as your opportunity to teach. Create substantial responses which expand on a point and present information on the topic. Your responses should demonstrate your critical thinking on the topic.

Respond to the following discussions (8X). Write how you would respond to their discussions with approximately 100 words or more each. Be thoughtful and insightful and it must demonstrate critical thinking and analysis.

What indexes and scales do you plan on utilizing to support your inquiry methods for your research proposal? How will these help in answering your research questions? What limitations might these impose as you conduct your research.

1. My report is on the legalization of marijuana in America. The indexes I would start out

with would be: age broken down in 10-year segments starting at age 18-24 and then

every 10 years after that. Next, I would have to ask if they were male or female, have

they ever used marijuana, should recreational marijuana be legal, what political party do

they identify with. Then I would look at education level, annual income and what state

they reside in. These are all individual questions for the index to build the scale and see

the bigger picture. (Babbie, 2017, pp. 163-164)

The topics for the scale would then be taken from the actual questions. I think the

Likert scale would provide the quickest way to get the basics of how people feel on the

issue. (Trochim, 2016) If you want a truly in-depth scale on people’s attitudes of the

topic then I would go more with a Thurstone scaling style. (Trochim, 2016)

 

 Under types or typology, I could use the intersection of political affiliation with should

marijuana be legal or not. I could also show how annual income and education level

relate to their stance on the issue. (Babbie, 2017, pp. 169-171)

2. According to (Babbie, 2017), “index is a type of composite measurement that summarizes and rank-orders several specific observations while scales are composed of several items that have logical or empirical structure among them”. Both are ordinal measures of variables. That is, they both rank-order the units of analysis in terms of specific variables. 

For my study, I’ll be utilizing secondary statistical data in order to make my observations. Because my information is based off the findings of other researchers, indexes and scales are, for the most part, included in the data already. I have no need to devote energy and resources to this phase of research. However, I do need to understand what ordinal measure of variables were utilized by the researchers that conducted the original study. Once I achieve this, I can move on to spending most of my time analyzing the data instead of getting it ready for analysis.

Due to the nature of the data that I am analyzing, there are several limitations that may compromise the integrity of my study if I am not careful. First, the statistics that I have collected may reflect the biases of its originators limiting what I can find out about the specific topic. Additionally, there may be an issue with representativeness if the data gathered only focuses on a specific region given that I’m trying to capture the use of capital punishment and its effectiveness at an international level. I will be looking out for these as I analyze my data.

3. Its stated that indexes and scales come up in most if not all researches while working well together with a quite a few similarities. In my research, one scale that I find useful and stuck out to me was a social distance scale. I think this will be helpful because if it gives a point of view of one who wants to be a part of a group, this can lead to them committing crimes or having criminal behavior to be accepted. I was also looking at using the Likert scale which seems quite simple for the participants that are involved in the research. This scale allows one to answer questions that are already formed for them with a simple “agree”, “disagree”, or “neither”. I think the advantages of this is may allow them to answer freely without divulging too much information they may not want to share that may incriminate them in the future. I think the pitfalls of this would be you may want to ask additional questions that aren’t apart of the research. I think this scale also allows the participants to share how they feel about different reasons why they do what they do criminally and the people that are associated with what they do. I do understand with this scale that you may not get more in-depth answers but I feel like I can formulate substantial questions to get the information needed.

4. The yes/no format has many limitations. What are they? How do you analyze the results of this scale as it is presented? Any thoughts anyone?

What sampling methods will you employ in your research design that will enable you to generalize future findings to events, items and/or people not observed? What are the benefits and drawbacks of these sampling methods?

5. For my report I will be using the technique of probability sampling. (Babbie, 2017, p. 199) This type of sampling is best when we want precise statistics for large-scale surveys. These surveys must be sent a diversified group of individuals in order to get an accurate feeling of the “public opinion”.

 Nonprobability sampling would not give me the best results and may possibly leave a needed group out of the survey. Doing this would create a false sense of accuracy in the data. A researcher needs to ensure there is no conscious or unconscious bias sampling. To do the most accurate sampling possible it is imperative to use the Equal Probability of Selection Method (EPSEM). (Babbie, 2017, p. 210) This will allow the equal representation from everyone in the population chosen.

The full premise of my probability sampling must be done by random selection into a certain size population or the results could have a reverse effect. There also must be an understanding that some surveys will come with false answers from people trying to sway the results. The final statement is that no survey is guaranteed to provide 100 percent accuracy be is intended to find a general consensus on the topic

6. In my research design I will try to employ different types of sampling methods which include more of the cluster sampling. Cluster sampling is “a multi stage sampling in which natural groups are sampled initially, with the members of each selected group being subsampled after” (Babbie, 2017 p.223). Why I chose this way of sampling is this would allow my questioning to go deeper. With testing a group then sampling those inside the group who lets say relating my topic of mental stability would be those seeking therapy. Of those who show signs were they able to come back with a full recovery into the field. Focusing on this sampling of people we can get a idea how therapeutic measures can have on a person. Unfortunately, with this type of sampling since there are double the stages of sampling it could also mean double the sample of errors. With my results in the sampling if my first group results in an error and not realized when I move on into the second stage this will automatically throw a red flag and more errors into my research

7. How can you prevent errors in sampling? Any thoughts anyone? 

8. What limitations do you see with quota sampling? Any thoughts anyone?  Here are the basic sampling methods in sociology:

Every piece of research requires a sample, and there are many ways of finding a suitable sample. Before choosing a method the researcher must find a ‘sampling frame’, this is the collection of people the researcher will then choose their sample from. An example of this could be school or college.

Random sampling – an example of random sampling would be picking names out of a hat. In random sampling everyone in the population has the same chance of getting chosen. This is easy because it is quick and can even be performed by a computer. However, because it is down to chance you could end up with a unrepresentative sample, perhaps with one demographic being missed out.

Systematic sampling – an example of a systematic sample would be picking every 10th person on a list or register. This carries the same risk of being unrepresentative as random sampling as, for example, every 10th person could be a girl.

Stratified sampling – this method attempts to make the sample as representative as possible, avoiding the problems that could be caused by using a completely random sample. To do this the sample frame will be divided into a number of smaller groups, such as social class, age, gender, ethnicity etc. Individuals are then drawn at random from these groups. If you are observing doctors and you had split the sample frame into ethnic groups you would draw 8% of the participants from the Asian group, as you know that 8% of doctors in Britain are Asian.

Quota sampling – In this method researchers will be told to ensure the sample fits with certain quotas, for example they might be told to find 90 participants, with 30 of them being unemployed. The researcher might then find these 30 by going to a job centre. The problem of representativeness is again a problem with the quota sampling method.

Cluster sampling – This is taking a random sample at various stages of the sampling process. For example you might take a random county, take random schools from this county and take random pupils from this school to find your sample.

Snowball sampling – With this method, researchers might find a few participants, and then ask them to find participants themselves and so on. This is useful when a sample is difficult to obtain. For example Laurie Taylor used this method when investigating criminals. It would be difficult for him to find a sample as he didn’t know many criminals; however these criminals know a lot of people who would be willing to participate, so it is more efficient to use the snowball method.