Now that you have decided what you will do for your field research, it
is time to write the methods section to your revised research plan (this
will also be the methods section for your final paper, so it is
important that you write in past tense). As we have gone over in class,
you will present your methods in as much detail as possible. The goal is
for your research to be replicable--this means that another researcher
can easily repeat the steps of your research (remember the details from
the methodology sections of student papers that we deemed as more
successful). You should be able to describe and justify every step of
your research methodology. Explain what you did, what you asked, and
why.
Remember, these steps are flexible. You will likely need to make
adjustments based on what is necessary for your research area and
methodology. With that said, these steps are a great jumping off point
for writing an effective and detailed methodology section that is
replicable and viable for your final project.
Here are some steps to follow:
1. What type of study (interview, survey, observation/focus group) did
you conduct, and what was its purpose? {notice that this question along
with the others is in past tense, and I want your response to be in past
tense too- this will save you a load of time in the end because you
will not have to go back and make everything past tense}
Start with: I conducted a _______________ in order to __________________.
2.Where/with whom was your study conducted? Why did you pick this group?
Start with: I studied/observed/surveyed ______ # of people (adults/students) in __________ because ____________.
3.How did you chose your participants?
Example: My participants were chosen based on their willingness to
participate in my study and under the criteria that they had taken the
FCAT Writes exam and Composition I at UCF. I chose this criteria because
_______________.
4.What were you looking for in your study, or what types of questions did you ask your participants?
Start with: In my ___________ I asked questions regarding ____________. These questions were important because___________.
OR: I conducted a study that required my participants to ___________ because _____________.
5. Provide examples of your questions, and explain why these examples are important.
Start with: For example, I asked the question ______________ because
____________. Also, I asked ___________ because ____________.
6. If you asked additional questions or elaborated on any part of your
study, insert the phrase in parenthesis: (See Appendix A for a list of
all survey/interview/study questions).
7. What did you want to find out by conducting this study?
Start with: By conducting this study, I wanted to find out ____________________.
Example:
I conducted a survey in order to trace the factors that cause
Composition students to experience writer's block when writing their
papers for Composition class. I surveyed 60 Composition II students at
UCF who experience writer's block because these students had written
papers in Composition class and had experienced factors preventing them
from writing. My participants were chosen based on the criteria that
they had written papers for Composition class, and they claimed to
experience writer's block on a frequent basis.
In my survey, I asked questions regarding the students' writing habits
and fears about writing, in order to trace any similarities that may
cause writer's block for these students in their composition classes.
These questions were important because they allowed me to study both the
circumstances from which these students were being blocked from
writing, as well as the assignments that may have caused this anxiety.
For example, I asked the question, "What are you worried about before
you start writing your composition papers?" because I wanted to see the
fears students had in relation to writing. I also asked, "what types of
writing assignments do you find most stressful for you?" because I
wanted to see if similar assignments caused students to experience
writer's block within their composition courses (See Appendix A for a
list of all survey questions). By conducting this survey, I wanted to
explore the factors contributing to the writer's block experienced by
composition students, in order to see if and how these stresses can be
potentially addressed.
Methodology
ReplyDeleteI started an experiment to determine if meditation and/or dream journaling have any effect on ratings of mindfulness, dream recall, or lucid dream frequency. I studied 8 college students because these were the people I had access to. My participants were chosen based on their ability to participate. They were assigned to groups based on their survey answers and their FMI ratings. I asked my participants to rate their level of interest in both lucid dreaming and meditation in order to place them in a group which they would find interesting. I also wanted to assign them to groups fairly and evenly while also trying to satisfy them. In my study I asked my participants questions regarding their lucid dream and meditation experience so it would be easier to identify levels of experience. I also had them take the Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory before and after the experimentation period. I wanted to assign the participants to groups according to their respective experience levels evenly.
I then conducted a study which required some of my participants to keep dream journals, some to meditate, and some to do both. Some of them simply reported whether they were lucid or not daily. I formed four separate groups so as to create a distinction in the data collected. I wanted to isolate meditation to one group and dream journaling to another. This way I could compare the data from each group to each other and see what variable caused the effect. I wanted to discover if adding meditation practice to one’s routine can increase frequency of lucid dreams, mindfulness ratings or possibly both. I also wished to discover if dream journaling can increase dream recall. I also instructed the participants to report their sobriety upon falling asleep each night which I anticipated as a possible confounding variable. I considered that this may have an effect on some of the measurements I’d be taking. Perhaps dream memory may be inhibited by drunkenness I thought.
By conducting this study I wanted to find out if dream journaling can increase dream recall, if meditation can improve mindfulness and/or lucid dream frequency, and if combining both methods could yield significant results in LD frequency, mindfulness, and dream recall.
I conducted an interview in order to get credible answers on how a significant minimum wage increase would have effects on a higher-end restaurant versus a fast-casual restaurant. The interviewees were a manager of a higher-end restaurant and a manager of a fast-casual restaurant. I also interviewed the owner of a high-end restaurant and one server from each sector. I chose these people because combined they have more than 50 years of experience in all levels of the restaurant industry. They continue to work in the industry and have current, credible answers. My standards for choosing each person were: minimum of 10 years experience in the restaurant industry, at least 2 being fast-casual and 3 being higher-end fine dining.
ReplyDeleteIn my interview I asked question regarding the potential effects of a raised minimum wage in both sectors of the restaurant industry to compare the differences and analyze what effect it would have on the economy. These questions were important because they allowed me to see the potential effects of a raise on the consumer, the producer, and factors in between such as employees, food prices, etc.. For example, I asked the question, “Would a minimum wage boost effect the high-end dining industry in a better or worse way than it would fast-casual dining?” to see the perspective of a high-end restaurant and learn how it would affect food cost, menu pricing, and employment opportunities. I also asked, “How would a minimum wage boost affect your income with gratuity in the fast-casual sector?” because it allowed me to hear the side of a minimum wage employee whose income would be directly affected (See Appendix A for a list of all interview questions). By conducting these interviews, I wanted to find out and compare the effects of a minimum wage boost in fine-dining and in fast-casual dining and in turn, find a common ground for both sectors.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pWTk-YmxtxGUAUAe8euDxGGexDESNu2M7M8V4Zg3HwI/edit?usp=sharing
ReplyDeleteI conducted a survey in order to find out if students (and adults) knew about the impact of propaganda and how they might be either absorbing it or further spreading it. I surveyed X people who were (Students/Adults) at the University of Central Florida. My participants were chosen based on their willingness to participate in my study and under the criteria that they were enrolled or recently graduated from the University of Central Florida. I chose this criteria because the college campus is considered a small society.
DeleteIn my survey I asked questions regarding propaganda. These questions were important because I was trying to determine whether or not the average social media understands what propaganda is and how they can spot it and reject its influence. For example, I asked about the subjects views and opinions on certain pieces of propaganda in history. Also, I asked about their views on Greek life and other stereotypes I believed were misconstrued by media outlets. See the Appendix for a list of all survey questions. By conducting this survey, I wanted to find out the average student/professor’s opinions or views on propaganda. This included stereotypes, hate movements and even health campaigns, all forms of propaganda - negative and positive.
In order for the messages of animal rights campaigns to be successfully communicated, it seems as if more research needs to be done on how the general public reacts to different campaigning methods. Many animal rights activists use similar approaches and methods in their campaigns. However, there is a lack of direct information of how the general public reacts to campaigns. In an attempt to find further information regarding animal rights campaigns, the following research question was developed:
ReplyDeleteWhich animal rights campaigns are effective and why?
In an attempt to answer this question a group of ten random students at the University of Central Florida were selected. They were shown multiple images from current animal rights organizations which included; People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), Stop Animal Exploitation NOW! (SAEN), American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), World Wildlife Foundation (WWF), and Last Chance for Animals (LCA). After the research subjects were shown the campaigns they were be given a short written survey which asked what exactly worked or did not work for them in regard to the campaigns they were shown. The survey includes ‘yes or no’ questions as well a question with an opinion based answer. The questions asked included the following:
1. Was the message of the campaign clear?
2. Did you find the imaging effective?
3. Did you find any part of the campaign too
graphic?
After the different campaigns were displayed and the post-viewing interviews were conducted the data was then analyzed by looking for patterns in the interview transcripts. After evaluating feedback from the ten research subjects, campaigning methods that may be most and least effective for students here at the University of Central Florida were analyzed.
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ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteMethodology
To uncover more information relating to the effectiveness of these strategies, I conducted an online survey of 20 participants that collected their opinions and perceptions relating to certain pro-environmental behaviors and strategies. In total, the survey consisted of 9 questions where 8 of them included an essay portion that asked applicants to provide a brief response explaining their choice. Since I only needed data from the general public, participants were chosen at complete random with no preferences towards, age, gender, ethnicity or any other characteristics. Since the survey was posted in only two locations, my personal Facebook profile page and on the UCF class of 2020 Facebook page, most of the respondents were college students who live near or on UCF campus. I was still able to achieve a sample with a diverse age range by posting the survey to my personal profile page where many of my friends and relatives ranging from ages 16 to 70 have access to the survey.
My survey was created through an online program called Survey Monkey where participants can simply follow a link and take the survey online. There, respondents were asked questions such as “do you think that recycling paper, plastic and aluminum makes a major impact on reducing solid waste in our environment?”, “do you think the government should implement a tax that charges you for plastic bag use? or “how likely are you to commit to a sustainable lifestyle choice such as riding your bike for short distance trips rather than using a car?”. The responses to these questions contained the information that disclosed people’s attitudes and opinions relating to different strategies for encouraging pro-environmental behavior. With this data, I was able to address the questions that remained unanswered from previous research on various pro-environmental strategies. For example, knowing the likelihood individuals will compost their food scraps allowed me to predict whether a strategy encouraging this behavior would be easy or difficult to implement. This type of feedback gave me a better understanding on how the general public perceives these strategies.
My research method, though, did have some limitations. The participants of the study were mostly from the central Florida area with some participants from various locations around the United States. My survey would have been more accurate if I was able to use responses from participants around the world since people from different countries hold different values and opinions. If I would have included this data, I would have received a more accurate depiction of the general public’s thoughts. However, the survey yielded enough information for me to contribute to the conversation.
In addition to the survey, I also analyzed eight sources that relate to this field of study such as the works of Maria Ojala, Susumu Ohnuma, and Shoji Ohtomo. I conducted this analysis in order to measure how well these sources described the feasibility and effectiveness of their method. To collect this data, I read each article and ranked how well they addressed these four questions: “is the method easy to implement on a broad scale?”, “are the materials the and labor costs relating to this strategy expensive?”, “will people perceive engaging in the tasks required by the strategy as difficult?” and “will the effects of the strategy on the participants be long term?”. For each question, the article was given a score out of five points. All of this information was then compiled in a report card for each article that included the title, names of the authors, the ranking for the four categories, and a brief description explaining why I assigned the rankings. This analysis gave me information relating to how confident the researchers were with their strategy and how well they researched the effectiveness of their method.
To find my answer, I decided the best way was to interview people at different places in the school system and someone who has completed it. What better way to find an opinion on the higher education system then to ask people who are in it or have gone through it? I also wanted to know what perceived knowledge and stereotypes high school seniors have on post-secondary education. I conducted face to face and video chat interviews with seven people in total: a high school senior, high school graduate, college freshman, college sophomore, college junior, college senior, and a college graduate. My interviewees, both male and female, came from a variety of different backgrounds. Some came from my hometown, Galesburg, IL, and some attend University of Central Florida. Their ages range from 17 years old to 49 years old. The diversity of my participants gave me different perspectives rather than interviewing a group that all came from the same background.
ReplyDeleteAlthough there was some overlap of questions, some were tailored to each person regarding their place in the higher education system, Questions that overlapped were broad, open ended questions like, “Do you feel college is worth it?” After asking certain questions, I provided the participant with some background information that helped them understand why I asked the question. For example, I brought up college dropout rates after asking, “Have you ever considered dropping out of college,” and “How many students do you know that have dropped out?” I wanted to see if their opinions lined up with what is going on and how these people’s personal situations relate to the statistics that are out there about college.
To further my research, I could have interviewed more people from each group since my original sample is small. Getting answers from more people would give me more insight into why people feel college makes one the most successful. In hindsight, I could have asked other questions that would help answer my research inquiry.
I conducted an interview on 30 undergraduate students at the University of Central Florida in order to find out their thoughts on the effectiveness of feedback. The undergraduate students that I selected for this experiment are students that experienced criticisms in the past pertaining to their academics. These selected students have some sort of experience with positive and negative feedback from professors. This will further increase the accuracy of my experiment.
ReplyDeleteDuring my interview, I asked questions about their feelings regarding the grade that they received on a test. By doing this, I can evaluate the students that view feedback as a way to improve vs. the students who look at feedback as discouragement. These questions were actually helpful because I can continue to understand the regulatory focus theory which stresses the idea of self-representation. I asked questions like “How do you feel about professors’ comments on graded papers” or “Is feedback really necessary especially for students that are excellent writers”?
By conducting one on one interviews I can interact personally with these students and understand some of the experiences they had as an undergraduate. This part of my methodology is a piece of my overall study that assess success and failure in academia.
I conducted a survey in order to find out whether or not student believe their personality types affect the ways they get involved on campus. In my survey, I studied 10 students at the University of Central Florida, because that is the area of which I am studying for this research. My participants were chosen at random, the only thing required for this study, was that they had to be involved on campus in some way.
ReplyDeleteIn my survey, I asked questions about the student’s personalities, and whether or not they believe it affected how they got involved. These questions are important because it provides a background for me to begin my research into the topic of personality types and involvement on campus. For example, I asked the question “How would you describe your personality, and do you think it impacted the way you chose to get involved on campus?” because I wanted to get the student’s feedback on the topic. (See Appendix A for all survey questions). By doing this research, I wanted to find out whether or not there is a link between personality type and involvement on campus.
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ReplyDeleteMethodology
ReplyDeleteI conducted a survey in order to effectively measure the perceived realism of participants with sub-genre video games, these including role-playing, racing, and action-adventure. I studied 10 undergraduate UCF students because of their relevance to the topic. This age group (18-25) is a very effective group for this study because video game technology is known to be correlated with a younger audience. My participants were chosen based on their willingness to participate and under the criteria that they were somewhat familiar with video games and realism associated with them. While the participants were expected to have some knowledge of video games, not very much background knowledge is needed because a brief introduction section will bring them up to speed on the controls.
Before the survey was conducted, each participant completed a sort of testing session. This testing session involved playing the three-different tested sub-genre games. As previously stated, in the introduction (or training), each game was allowed a period where I taught the participant how to play game. For example, using the controls and telling them about the purpose of the game. Next, they had a brief 20 minutes to play through the game however they liked, whether completing missions or just free roaming through the game. As they played, they were not being recorded in any way, as the focus of this test is for the survey portion. After this period was over they were asked to complete the survey.
The survey questioned the participants regarding the topic of realism, immersion, and enjoyment, the three main points of my study. For example, for each game the survey will ask how real, immersive, and enjoyable it is on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the lowest and 10 the highest. Also, it will ask some sub-topic points related to sound, look, and interaction involved with the games. These questions will allow me to make correlations between different realism, immersion, and enjoyment effects. They will also further the studies knowledge on how people receive realism in video games, specifically sub-genre video games that were not tested by Steven Malliet and Ribbens Wannes. By conducting this survey, I wanted to find out how individuals perceive these three factors (realism, immersion, enjoyment) when playing different sub-genre video games, and bring correlations between them.
Methods Section
ReplyDeleteI conducted two experiments, a survey that asks a series of questions to determine if digital technology has a direct correlation to students cognitive functions and learning capabilities, and a test to show how they are affected. Twenty randomly selected students between the ages of 18-23 will be tested and asked about information on how they uses their personal digital technology. I chose these participants because this age group has the most collective time spent on technology, which statistics have shown. Also, they tend to have more than 3 social media accounts. Digital technology is including [but not limited to] smartphones, tablets, laptops and any other portable multi-use devices. Popular social media accounts are Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, YouTube and Facebook, having the most amount of monthly visitor ranging from 300 million to 2 billion but not limited to other smaller accounts like Tumblr, Pinterest, and Reddit.
In my interview, I asked the participants questions regarding how digital technology have impacted their lives by time consumption, lazy cognitive functions, social costs and the retrogression of critical thinking. Then, they were tested on simple math problems and puzzles and how many times they go to AutoCorrect/Predictive Texts to spell a word or finish a sentence based on if the have on this too. They answered various questions pertaining to, how many times they spent sleeping, how do they feel about online browsing, how much time is spent on cell phones and other devices and how does social media impact how they see themselves and the world. These questions are important because they will allow me to find a correlation between how much time is spent on these devices and how that affects them. For example, I asked the question, “About how much hours a day do you use your digital devices?” because this tells me the most important answer for my experiment to directly see the time utilization on these devices. Also, I asked, “Do you think that constant uses for digital technology has an impact on how you live, learn, and see the word?” because if we choose to believe it or not, the vast and rapid distributions of information, ideas, and people does have an impacts on everything we do and believe and this experience is different for everyone so this is why this question necessary to the interview. By conducting this experiment, i tend to uncover the noticeable correlation between the constant growing usage it has on today's adolescents.
I used an intersectional approach to research. This was the first attempt to intersectional research that utilized a social identity lens to describe it. Students often group themselves to people or organizations that hold the same values as their own. I uncovered which organizations are the most knowledgeable on intersectionality by assessing different niches around the University of Central Florida. This data helped me identify what exposures people had to make them knowledgeable on intersectionality.
ReplyDeleteThe first step was to contact various groups that belonged to distinct social identities. The identities I concentrated on include: paid memberships, political associations, cultural clubs, and social justice groups. Paid memberships are the organizations where students pay a large fee to remain a member. For example, greek organizations and the Student Government Organization. Political organizations include any that promote a specific political affiliation or support for a candidate, such as, College Republicans and College Democrats. Clubs like Latin American Student Association (LASA) and Caribbean Student association (CSA) fall under cultural clubs. Social justice groups include organizations that advocate for social change, such as, National Organization for Women at UCF.
The next step was to reach out to 5 random participants from each lens and ask them to fill out a survey. The survey covered their basic knowledge of intersectionality and feminism and it attempted to determine their privilege status. The survey was then reviewed and statistics were analyzed from the data. The data contributing directly to my results are: knowledge comparisons between the organizations within an individual lens, knowledge comparisons between all four lens, ratio for the knowledge of UCF as a whole, and finally a privilege comparison between all four lens. The results can be used to develop new research questions that can fill gaps in intersectionality research. The survey used was comprised of three sections:(1) personal background, (2) Determining privilege, (3) Feminism and Intersectionality.
Diving into the personal background of each individual was helpful to categorize participants into different cultural or social identities. When the data was collected I used the personal info to determine why the participants got the results they received. Possible factors could be age, gender, ethnicity, organization, socioeconomic status, exposure to discrimination, prior exposure to basic social justice knowledge, emotional stability, education, etc. These factors were tracked to see if people’s experiences set a trend on whether or not they knew about intersectionality.
The second portion of the survey helped me determine the privilege status of the participant. The results of this section were compared to the individual lens as a whole and then compared to the four other lenses. I then scaled the four lens from least privileged to greatest privileged using measures that could sway how much advantage a person has over others. Race, sexual orientation, sex, and socioeconomic status are four pillars of society that influence privilege. The results of this section will be under investigation to help determine why the participant received the result.
Section three asked questions that determined the participants' prior knowledge on feminism and intersectionality. This gave insight about their knowledge base for these topics and what their views/beliefs are for each. In this section, I also provided a brief definition of the concept and asked for specific questions about their thoughts on intersectionality. This helped determine whether awareness of intersectional concepts on campus were beneficial to the campus social equality progression.To see the survey in it's entirety, visit Appendix A.
Methodology
ReplyDeleteAfter analyzing the works of other researchers, what is missing from the conversation is evident. In order for the messages of animal rights campaigns to be successfully communicated, it seems as if more research needs to be done on how the general public reacts to different campaigning methods. Many animal rights activists use similar approaches and methods in their campaigns. However, there is a lack of direct information of how the general public reacts to campaigns. In an attempt to find further information regarding animal rights campaigns, the following research question was developed:
Which animal rights campaigns are effective and why?
In an attempt to answer this question a group of ten random students at the University of Central Florida were selected. They were shown multiple images from current animal rights organizations which included; People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), Stop Animal Exploitation NOW! (SAEN), American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), World Wildlife Foundation (WWF), and Last Chance for Animals (LCA). After the research subjects were shown the campaigns they were be given a short written survey which asked what exactly worked or did not work for them in regard to the campaigns they were shown. The survey includes ‘yes or no’ questions as well a question with an opinion based answer. The questions asked included the following:
Was the message of the campaign clear?
Did you find the imaging effective?
Did you find any part of the campaign too graphic?
After the different campaigns were displayed and the post-viewing interviews were conducted the data was then analyzed by looking for patterns in the interview transcripts. After evaluating feedback from the ten research subjects, campaigning methods that may be most and least effective for students here at the University of Central Florida were analyzed.