Research Methods

Michele Jackson

Argosy University

Professor Russo

December 11, 2013

1. Do the media influence adolescent girl’s body images?

2. Null Hypothesis: the media does not have an influence on adolescent girl’s body image. Alternate Hypothesis: the media does influence adolescent girl’s body image.

3. The correct sample size that will be used in the research is 385 adolescent girls. Determining the right sample size involves the calculation of the margin of error. The estimated margin of error at 95 percent confidence level that is a 5 percent chance that the results will be different is derived by 1/√N. N is the sample size. This means that a sample size of 10 will have a margin of error of 31.6 percent, but a sample size of 100 will have a 10 percent margin of error. This implies that the greater the N, the smaller the margin of error; therefore, the results of the research will useful (White & McBurney, 2013). A sample size of 385 participants is sufficiently large and is representative of the population, and limits extreme observations and the impacts of outliers. The inclusion characteristics include: they must be female, must be aged between 13 and 19 years and must be exposed to different forms of media. The exclusion characteristics are: history of any mental or personality disorder and history of drug use. The sample should be diverse. This is to make the sample representative of all adolescent girls.

4. The sampling technique that will be used in the study is random sampling. Random sampling is choosing a sample from the statistical population so that every sample that could be chosen has a predetermined chance of being chosen. This is the most appropriate sampling technique since it is the least unbiased of all sampling methods (Monsen et al, 2008). Additionally, there is no subjectivity is the technique because each member of the statistical population has an equal chance of being chosen. The sample will generalize to the entire adolescent girls’ population. This is the key advantage of random sampling because it is representative of the population. The only factor that can make the sample unrepresentative of the population is sampling error.

5. There are two variables in my study: the dependent and the independent variable. The dependent variable is the body image of adolescent girls, while the independent variable is the media. The body image of adolescent girls’ is the dependent variable because it is changed by factors such as the media. This is the variable being measured in the study. The independent variable is not affected by other factors or variables. The research is attempting to establish the relationship between media and adolescent girls’ body image. That is trying to see if media cause any kind of change in body image.

6. Body image refers to an individual’s feelings of the attractiveness and aesthetics of their body. Humans generally regard beauty as an important body image, and adolescent girls’ is the age that value their body image compared to other groups. Body image encompasses how the girls feel about their bodies, how they control their bodies in terms of movement and how they believe about their appearance. Media are all forms of mass communication comprising radio, television, internet and newspapers. These forms of media transmit news, education, entertainment and advertisement messages.

7. The depended variable in the research will be measured using ordinal scales. Using ordinal scales allows the variable to be rank-ordered. The impacts of media on the body image of adolescent girls will be ranked as either “least affected”, “somehow affected”, “affected”, “somehow more affected” and “very affected”. The items in the scale are ranked in order from the least affected to the most affected. From the effect ordering, it is meaningful to assert that one girl’s body image is more affected by media than others are. The reliability of the measures is determined if the results from the study are consistent (Hennink et al, 2011). The validity of the measure is if the test measures what is intended to measure.

8. The data collection technique that will be used in the research is survey. The data will be collected by use of questionnaires that utilize open-ended questions. The type of survey that will be used in cross-sectional survey. This type of survey is important in collecting data on a statistical population at s single point in time. The cross-sectional survey will use questionnaires that collect data regarding how adolescents perceive media as influencing their body image. Additionally, the survey will determine the views of adolescent girls regarding the relationship between their body image and media.

9. The research design used in the study is descriptive research design. A survey, which is the data collection method in this research, is a form descriptive research. Descriptive research design entails the collection of data without altering the context. This implies the variables are not manipulated. In essence, descriptive research is not truly experimental. It provides information regarding feelings, behaviors, attitudes and characteristics of a specific group. Considering that this research attempts to establish the relationship between media and adolescent girls’ body image, descriptive research is the most appropriate. Since the data collection method in this research study is survey, it means that it is a descriptive study because the researcher interacts with the research subjects. This is the most appropriate design for collecting information that shows relationships and describe the word as it is. Some of the questions that are answered by include “what was” and “what is”. According to Hennink et al (2011), this research is a qualitative study, which aims at description. Researchers may conduct follow-up analyses to determine the observations and the implications of the outcomes.

10. The procedure when conducting a research entails the development of the research questions; review of existing literature including definitions of terms used in the research; sampling, data collection; data analysis; and making inferences.

11. Various ethical issues can come up in this research. The first ethical concern is consent. Considering that the research subjects are adolescent girls, they may lack the capacity to take part in the research; therefore, parental consent may be required. Another consent issue is voluntariness. The subjects must choose out of their own will to take part in the research and have the right to pull out of the research at any point. The second ethical issue is harm. Adolescent girls may be exposed to psychological stress, humiliation or embarrassment, which are examples of harm. The third ethical issue concerns the privacy of the subjects. The fact that the girls took part in the study must be kept private and the information they give should not be linked to them. Infringing the privacy of the subject may lead to harm. These issues may be addressed by seeking parental consent for the girls’ participation, seeking the approval of an institutional review board, using the results of the study for the purposes of the study alone (Gregory, 2003).

References

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