CRITIQUE OF RESEARCH METHODS
1
Critique of Research Methods
By name
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Qualitative – Illicit use of prescription ADHD Medications on a college Campus
This study was conducted in the summer of 2006 using both the quantitative and qualitative approaches of data collection. For the qualitative study, they used an interview. This interview consisted of 175 full-time undergraduate student. This sample size is appropriate for the study because it was large enough to capture most of the students. It was also within a manageable level, which translates to low data collection costs and helps save time during the data collection process (Thomas, 2006).
This study consisted of the full-time undergraduate university students at the Kentucky University in Lexington. The students volunteered to take part in the research and the team concealed the student’s identity by adopting pseudonyms in an effort to protect their privacy. The study was not gender-based and all the students were free to participate in the study.
The population consisted of only the full-time undergraduate students at the university. The study strategically selected the undergraduate interviewers, which would help develop the confidence among the participants. To enhance the outcome, they assigned interviewers to certain demographic segments of the population in the campus. For instance, the men interviewed the male students.
The interview process used undergraduate students who had were certified by the university institutional review board. These six selected students randomly selected the students to take part in the interview process. Random sampling gives every member of the population a chance to be selected and hence improves the quality of the responses. All the students took part in the study and the sample size is good. This is because it is within a 95 percent confidence level and the shows the underlying event rate in the population. However, the sample size is too large and may be difficult to interview each of them (Creswell, 2014)
Part 2
Quantitative research: Psychological distress and Help-seeking among Taiwanese college students: the role of gender and student status
In this study, the researcher used a sample size of 1039 first year Chinese college students in a private university in the south of Taiwan. The sample size is ideal in this study as it is a true reflection of the sample population and relied on responses from the entire population. According to Creswell, (2014) a study, which consists of the entire population, yields to better-unbiased results. The sample size was reduced to 961 students after 78 did not qualify for the study owing to missing data. For the demographic aspect of the study, the gender equality was a huge consideration. The male respondents were 403 attributing to 41.92 percent while the females were 558 accounting for 58.08 percent. The mean age of the study group was 19 and ranged from 17 to 50 years. The study also classified student into two categories i.e. traditional and the non-traditional ones at a ratio of 85.12:14.88.
The population only consists of the first year students in the university between the ages of 17-50. Most of the students are not married and the married accounted for a 1.35 percent. The recruitment process focussed on all the first year students and the ones with missing data were left out. The participants voluntarily filled a packet of psychological instruments in 2004. The packets include the Beck Depression Inventory, the Back Anxiety Inventory and the Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Scale Form (ATSPPHSF). As this is a survey, the sample size is large enough to yield better results. However, the data may not be an actual representation of the students within universities because they only relied on the first year students. The sampling technique was wrong and it should involve all the students to get better results (Leonard & Ambrose, 2012).
Part 3
Intra-subject design: Model-based assessment of learning-dependent change within a two-semester class
For this study, it used an intra-subject design in a bid to establish the learner’s progress. The sample size was 31 students who did not have any experience in empirical research methods at the beginning of their studies. The sample size of 31 is a not a good size and does not have the true representation of the total population and hence the results will not be biased (Creswell, 2014).
There were no demographic variables within the population, the participants were just students, and other attributes such as gender race never accounted for anything.
The research took place at five intervals within the 7-month period of the entire study. The first was at the beginning of the first semester, the second in the middle of the first semester and third at the end of the semester. They were then assessed at the start of their second semester and finally in the middle of their second semester. For the external criteria, a group of advanced learners was used. This group consisted of 32 students and their models had been assessed from a previous study.
The participants were a sample of the novice students yet to understand empirical research methods. All the recruited students took part in the researcher. The sample size of this study is not adequate enough as it is a small representation of the novice students undertaking the lesson research methods. A small sample size yield to low confidence levels which translates to biased results (Leonard, & Ambrose, 2012).
The study took place in the computer rooms of the department of education in Freiburg. The data was collected anonymously from working across their computers undertaking the assignment.
This design is not reliable as it yields to the carryover effects. This means that participation in one condition may affect the outcome in another condition and creates an extraneous variable, which is different from the independent variable (Suen & Ary, 2014).
References
Creswell, W. (2014). Research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.
Suen, H. K., and Ary, D. (2014). Analyzing quantitative behavioral observation data. Psychology Press.
Thomas, D. R. (2006). A general inductive approach for analyzing qualitative evaluation data. American journal of evaluation, 27(2), 237-246.
Leonard, N., and Ambrose, G. (2012). Design Research (pp. 34-78). 1000 Lausanne: Ava Publishing SA. (pp. 34-78)