Final Project: Introduction, Literature Review, and Methods Section & Final Research Paper (A+ Or Money Back Gaurantee Only Users)

Running Head: LASA 1: Final Project: Early Methods Section 1

USE AND MISUSE OF INFORMATION PRESENTED AS PERCENTAGE 2

LASA 1: Final Project: Early Methods Section

Name

Class

Instructor

School.

Date

1. What is your research question? My research question for this study is, what is the relationship between peer pressure and underage drinking?

2. at is your hypothesis or hypotheses? What is the null hypothesis? There is a positive correlation between peer pressure and underage drinking. My null hypothesis is There is no correlation between peer pressure and underage drinking.

3. How many participants would you like to use and why? What are the inclusion characteristics, i.e., what must they have in order to be included in your study (for example, gender, diagnosis, age, personality traits, etc.)? Are there any exclusion characteristics, i.e. are there certain characteristics that would exclude them from being in your study? Does the sample need to be diverse? Why or why not? For this study I think I would use about 200 students from 4 different schools in the same general area. I would get 25 students from each school, my inclusion characteristics would be female and male students ages 10-20, different social groups, grades levels, and those who have had an alcoholic drink. Some Exclusion characteristics would be kids who are too old, homeschooled, or have never had a drink. The sample for this study needs to be diverse because I don’t believe one could get an accurate reading and or estimation of which students are under the influence and which aren’t without a large population of samples. The samples do not need to be completely diverse however because I am still looking for a certain type of person in a limited group.

4. What sampling technique will be used to collect your sample? What population does your sample generalize to? The sampling technique which will be used to collect my sample is convenience sampling. Convenience sampling is a non-probability statistical method of drawing representative data by selecting people because of the ease of their volunteering or selecting units because of their availability or easy access. Convenience sampling is limited when generalizing. Since the sample is not representative of the population, the results of the study cannot speak for the entire population. This results to a low external validity of the study.

5. What are the variables in your study? The two variables in my study are peer pressure and underage drinking.

6. Provide operational definitions for each variable.

Peer pressure is the influence you feel from a person or group of people to do something you might not otherwise consider doing. Peer pressure isn’t always a negative thing. It can be a positive influence and help challenge or motivate you to do your best. However, it’s helpful to recognize that peer pressure can also be negative. It can result in you doing something that doesn’t fit with your sense of right and wrong. Peer pressure can be present at school or within a broader community. It can affect people of all ages and backgrounds. Peer pressure can affect you directly, indirectly, and individually.

7. How will you measure each variable? Discuss the reliability and validity of these measures in general terms.

I would use survey’s to measure peer pressure and age incidences of underage drinking. The Inventory I would use to would be one like Clasen & Brown. Clasen conducted a Peer Pressure Inventory in which teens were asked to rate how much pressure they felt from their peers in several areas such as school involvement, misconduct, and peer conformity. Several items on the Peer Values Measure were adapted from the Peer Pressure Inventory and others were generated by researchers of the current study. To measure underage drinking survey would include questions on when they first started to drink, how often they do it, how they feel when they drink, and the circumstances of how they started to drink.

8. What technique will be used for data collection (e.g., observation, survey, interview, archival, etc.)? I plan to use a survey or interview technique for data collection. Since its dealing with children it will be more about how comfortable they feel talking about it privately of filling out anonymous surveys.

9. What type of research design is being used? For this project I would use a Correlational Design for my research. Correlational research is also known as associational research. Relationships among two or more variables are studied without any attempt to influence them. Investigates the possibility of relationships between two variables. There is no manipulation of variables in correlational research Correlational studies describe the variable relationship via a correlation coefficient. Some advantages are it allows testing of expected relationships between and among variables and the making of predictions. Can assess these relationships in everyday life events. Disadvantages are that it cannot be used to draw inferences about the causal relationships between and among the variables.

10. Briefly discuss the procedure that would be followed when conducting the research. First I need to establish the aim of my research in this case it would be to find the correlation between peer pressure and underage drinking, then move on to research and determine my sample group. For this study since it about underage drinking all of my samples I would get from schools in a controlled neighborhood. Children as young as middle school age clear up until senior year of high school. Once I know who my target group is I need to work out the methodology of how I want to conduct the experiments whether it be face to face or by mail. For this study I am thinking I will possible use face to face interviews with the older kids and anonymous surveys with the younger children or vice versa. Surveys are the best bet because they take the least amount of time to collect plus most people feel more comfortable writing things like this down when they know that people can’t put a face to the name. Next would be structuring and designing my questionnaire and determining what types of questions to ask. Most of these questions would be things like, When did you have your first drink, who were you with, what was going through your mind when you took the first sip, did you feel pressured whether directly or indirectly to drink? Lastly I would Analyze my results and draw my conclusions about the information I gathered and what I learned.

11. What are some POTENTIAL ethical issues? How might they be addressed?

Since this study will be done on underage children they will need signed consent from their parents to participate in it. Many students might not be willing to be honest unless I promise confidentiality and the parents might not want that because they would want to know I their children are drinking or trying to coerce fellow students into it. The way I could address this is to accept the surveys anonymously from students who have informed consent.

Reference

Clasen, D. R., & Brown, B. B. (1985). The multidimensionality of peer pressure in adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 14, 451-468.