You have all been thinking about research recently, but have been
"forced" to think about particular research questions as groups. If you
could pick your own, what variables or phenomena would you have studied?
Once you have picked a topic, which of the research methods and
designs would you use?
If I could choose a phenomena for a research question, I would still stick with the topic of children and development, because that is what interests me the most. I would really like to learn more about Freud's psychoanalytic theory and the stages of development he created (oral, anal, etc). It would be interesting to see if what he theorized is really true and would work nowadays with developing children.
ReplyDeleteMy research question would be, "Can Freud's psychoanalytic theory and stages of development be applied to developing children today?" The research method I would use would be interviews, with the guardians of the children reporting on their children's behavior. The research design I would use would be longitudinal, so that the same participants could be studied for the length of their development. I would be able to ask the guardians' of the children monthly about their development in connection with Freud's steps of development. It would be hard to naturally observe the development of the children, because I wouldn't be seeing the development from day to day. The guardians would be with the children everyday, so they could better report the development of their own child. Using a longitudinal design is best, because it focuses on the same participants throughout their developmental stages.
One topic or phenomena I would chose to study would be child obesity. Obesity is an issue in America, and finding a way to improve child health is important. Many children who are obese will continue to be obese throughout there lifetime, and if there is a way to help with that, then it needs to be done. I would like to focus on screen time and how it correlates to obesity. My research question would be: Does more than 3 hours of screen time a day affect the weight of a child? I would be studying children that are between ages 10-12. The research method I would use would be a survey. I would have to rely on the honesty of participants, but this would ensure that I get enough data within a short period of time. The main questions the survey would be asking is how much time a child spends looking at a screen (i.e. iPad, phones, tablets, TVs) and then asking what their weight is. I would be using a correlational design, because I am seeing how screen time correlates to obesity/weight. I am not proving that screen time is the cause for obesity, but I am seeing how the two correlate to each other.
ReplyDeleteI would study the correlation between children being exposed to a social environment outside their home from birth to age 3 and the children being more outgoing in their adolescent years. The research method would be Naturalistic Observation as to not affect the children’s personalities or rearing in any way. To conduct an experiment would hinder the children that do not receive the social environment which is unethical. This research would be longitudinal in design because the children would need to be observed when they are in early childhood as well as when they reach adolescence.
ReplyDeleteMacKenzie this seems like a very interesting topic! I was just wondering what your research question would be? I personally would think that it would have an impact on how outgoing they are and how much time them spend in their social environments.
DeleteI think the research question could be formed as saying, “Can a child’s personality be affected in the sense of the child being more outgoing in adolescent years if they spend just 1 hour in a social environment from birth until the age of 3?”
DeleteI would study why boys do not make their toys "talk", and instead can play for hours with the same toys that girls play with using just sound effects. I have always been interested in why boys can play for hours without talking and be content. I would use a structured research method. There would be a room with the same exact toys, some girls and some boys. I would have one boy and one girl around the ages 5 and 6 go in separate rooms and see what unfolded with how they played. It would be a cross-sectional design since the kids would not have to be studied many years later.
ReplyDeleteI have always been curious about that too! What would you expect to find from your research? Do you think that boys play this way as a result of parental, societal, or maybe an outside pressure?
DeleteI've never really thought about this before. My sister and I could carry on full lives with our toys, while my brother just makes noises. But I wonder if the aspect that boys typically get toys like cars, trains, dinosaurs or things that usually don't talk (aside from TV) whereas girls are given Barbies, dolls, babies, or something along that line might play a factor? Something to consider!
DeleteIf I could pick a research question mine would be looking at the differences in social development between home schooled kids and kids who go to public schools. My research question would be "Do kids that are home schooled socially develop differently than kids who go to public schools?" I would use naturalistic observation along with a survey. The naturalistic observation would give me answers about how they interact with kids their age when they are around them. And the survey would show me what the kids and parents think about how they are socially. I would mainly focus on their interactions with other kids, specifically kids their own age. I would study them at school and away from schools such as at a park. I would just get volunteers all ages 5-16 from both home schooled environments and public schools and observe them for one to two years. My research design would be longitudinal because I would be assessing the same kids for a few years.
ReplyDeleteMy topic of choice would be "If music has any effect on lowering stress levels of college student and if it does what types of music are most effective. In college or any academic school, stress is rampant. If there are ways to lower stress as a college student than the many would find use with the findings. I would use a "survey" method with a "correlation" design so that I could receive the most amount of information form many participants. I would ask "Does music help lower your stress level?, what type of music do you listen to?, and how do you listen to your music (headphones, speakers, etc)?" The participants I would study would be all Montana Tech college students who are currently enrolled. Hopefully I would find out that music does lower stress levels and then find out if a specific type helps more than others.
ReplyDeleteFascinating topic, Brett! I too have often wondered if listening to a certain type of music could lower stress. If this kind of data could be gathered, I think it would be a great tool to give to college students especially. It would be hard, however I think to actually pin down a select few types of music that are better than others for reducing stress because this is so heavily reliant upon opinion. For example, I know several people who like listening to heavy metal music, and they say that is helps calm them down and focus. I, on the other hand, would probably become way more stressed out if I listened to heavy metal music. I think it really comes down to individual personalities that affect whether or not different types of music help reduce stress. Having said that, I do completely agree with you that music plays a huge part in our society today, and it would be fascinating to learn more about how it can help reduce stress.
DeleteHaving discussed many topics on parenting and environmental effects on children, I would like to learn more about the biological side of development. A research topic I would like to look into is; does birth order attribute to certain personality traits? I would hypothesize that birth order would play a role in certain traits but it’s hard to say whether it would be a naturally occurring trait or something that is developed based on their placement into that role. Interviews would be conducted with families of one, two and three children of varying ages around 5-16. I chose these family sizes because they contain all the roles that would need to be looked at. Interviewing each child individually, asking them personality based questions to see if the birth order correlates to any specific traits. I would choose a cross sectional design, interviewing children of different ages to see if similar traits are developed or if they are naturally occurring.
ReplyDeleteIf I could pick my own topic to study, the question I would have come up with and chosen would be how does family involvement affect academic achievement in elementary and junior high aged students? This is an interesting topic to me and something I would like to study more because academics and how well children do at school as well as families and their involvement in children's lives play a big role in their overall development. With this being my topic the research methods I would use would be surveys/interviews. I believe this would work the best because survey/interview would be the easiest way to get the desired information from parents/siblings/and the students themselves on how involved in eachothers lives they are, how much time they spend together as a family, and family activities they participate in together. I would also be able to ask questions about how well the student does in school such as their grades, their GPA, and how involved they are in the classroom. On top of this information coming in from surveys from families and students, school information could also come from teachers. The research design I would use would be a correlational design. With this design type, I would be able to see the relationship between amount of time spent with family and how that correlates to how well a student does in school.
ReplyDeleteAn opportunity to pick our own research topic and include the designs and methods we think would be best to use, sounds somewhat suspicious to me; I have a feeling we might need/have to use these later. Nonetheless, a research topic that especially interests me (and I hope we might get to discuss it in class at some point) would be to investigate the long-term effects of the death of a parent at a young age. This is something that affected my sister and I rather severely in our early childhoods, and is something I would love to be able to have some answers for. I would employ a cross-sectional study, as it would save some money, and interview both children between the ages of 6-18, and interview the widowed parent of the children and see if they can detect a change in the child(ren) after the death. I would make a note as to how long ago the death occurred, whether it was sudden or something that happened overtime (terminal illness), and how old the kid(s) were when it happened. Results could be achieved more quickly if done in a cross-sectional, rather than doing so in longitudinal design.
ReplyDeleteI have always been fascinated with the different education children receive and how that influences their ability to excel in college. Particularly, I would like to compare children who have been homeschooled to those who have gone to public school. Having been homeschooled myself, I have always wondered if homeschooling has either helped or hindered my ability to be prepared for college and, if so, in what ways. The way in which I would probably go about researching this question would be via interviews or possibly surveys. I would go to a college campus to interview seniors and would ask questions like the following: were you homeschooled throughout your middle school and high school years? If not, were you public schooled? How do you think your approach to education (either homeschooling or public schooling) prepared you for college from very strongly to very negatively? I would also gather my evidence from a student's grades in specific courses and their overall GPA. This would hopefully tell me in what areas of study do the different types of education help with the most. It would have a correlational design because I am trying to find some connection with a type of education and the ability to excel in college. My hypothesis would probably be that the different educational approaches would help with different areas of study, but it would be fascinating to find out if there is actually some correlation.
ReplyDeleteThe developmental research question I would propose is:
ReplyDeleteAre children between the ages of 2-5 more or less likely to behave with the absense of their parents.
I am choosing this because it seems as though parents go through a power struggle with their kids during this time (the terrible twos or threes) and maybe these results could come to a consenssus as to when children should or are socially ready to leave the home and become enrolled in daycare/kindergarten without suffering separation anxiety etc.
Method: Structured observation.
Essencially, we would have the parents "in on" the observation by giving them a list of things to tell their child to do in an environment that would otherwise be stimulating to the child. i.e. a store or at the park where there is the temptation to play and or desire everything around them.
then we would repeat the situation by explaining to them that there will be another adult taking them to the park etc. Here the alternative adult will ask the child to obey the same rules as they did with their parents. Both situations will be observed from researches in the environment with them.
My hypothesis is that the child will be more obediant to the alternative adult.
Room for Possible errors: this study doesn't take into account the level of familiarity the child has the the adult (that being their parent or alternate adult fugure.) With that being said, the kid could become more complacent with the alternative adult in the future and be just as misbehaved as seen with the parents.
Option for a plot B which would be a longitudinal study where we track the two types of behaviors through the first 4 years of entering daycare/ kindergarten and see if they become either more independent from their parents or if they often become homesick away from their parent.
If I could pick my own research question, I would choose one concerning how to help memory when suffering from dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. I find this very interesting because I have some family members that suffer from dementia. I want to find how or If it is possible to prevent it with certain brain tasks as people get older. Being that dementia and Alzheimer’s runs in families makes it of high interest to me. My research question would be “Can playing word searches, matching games, and recollection tasks during early signs of dementia help with memory?” The research method I would use would be an experiment. The research design would be longitudinal. This experiment would consist of interviewers providing information to the participant and then asking them questions about what they just told them. (There would also be a control group that does not do the games, and is just asked the questions). They would then record how many they got right. Following this the interviewer would tell the participant to play one of the three games for 5 minutes and then do the same as before when they gave information and following that were asked questions about that information. After this they would record the amount of correct answers once again. After the first session, the participants would be told to do one of the games for five minutes every morning. Then at the next interview they would not play the game, the interviewer would just state information and the participants asked more questions.
ReplyDeleteSocial media has become a huge thing in this day and age, and is used by most people in some form. Along the lines of social media, a research question I have thought of and think about relating to myself quite often is, “Does the amount of time spent on social media; Instagram, Facebook, twitter, etc. have an impact on a person’s happiness?” I would hypothesize that yes; a person’s level of happiness can be impacted by the amount of time they spend on social media. For this study I would use an experimental research design. Two groups of participants (assuming they spend much time on social media) around the same age would be needed. One group would be instructed to use social media as they normally would, while the other group will have a limit on amount of time spent on social media per day. The method of research would be surveys which will be given to the participants over time, asking questions relating to their happiness and the way they feel. Some other questions asked may be what they do with their time when they are not using social media. This would be conducted over the course of several months to analyze whether or not social media plays a role in how happy a person feels.
ReplyDeleteCameron, I like your research question because this phenomenon effects a huge number of the population. I think in a way social media can be bad for you, but depends on your own personal self esteem going into it. I think a lot of people find a decrease in self-esteem due to comparisons of other people lives through social media.
DeleteResearch Question:
ReplyDeleteMy research question would be, "Do children who eat breakfast perform better in school than those who do not eat breakfast?" I would choose this question to research because I have had several friends tell me that they can't eat breakfast because it makes them sick. I personally have to eat breakfast if I don't want to get sick. I am curious to see if consuming breakfast can affect school performance. My hypothesis is that students will perform better when they eat breakfast.
Research Methods:
I would conduct an experiment, using the population of children from grades 3-12 in the United States. My sample would be a random selection of 100 students from the population. I will then randomly select 50 of them to eat breakfast and 50 of them to abstain from eating breakfast. At the beginning of the study I will conduct a test to determine the baseline performance of the students. After three months of eating or abstaining from breakfast, I will give the students the test again. I will then compare the first test scores with the second test scores and record the results.
Maggie,
DeleteI think that this is very interesting study. How would you know if the children were not eat and were eating. Would it just be and honesty thing? I agree with you that eating breakfast will make you preform better throughout the day. But I am one of those people that cannot eat breakfast or anything for atleast 2-3 hours after I wake up. I wonder if this is due to how they were raised as a child. Maybe they werent given breakfast so now they arent not use to eating when they wake up. I think it would be very interesting to figure out if eating breakfast made you preform better.
Rae Tiner
Maggie,
DeleteI am interested in your study. Personally I am not a person who can eat breakfast until hours after I wake up. I have gotten used to not eating breakfast and personally don't feel like it interferes with my preformance because I'm not hungry. Very good study to test!
My research question is one that really has me wondering as to how to study it. I think it would a very difficult study to have people being honest when conducting this research
ReplyDeleteMy research question is Why are some couples in a relationship more violent than others?
I thibk that is a very broad question and it could be narrowed down. I think that some couple are more violent because of what they are wanting in the realtionship. Some want power, control, love. They arent getting this and maybe that is why they are being violent. I would try and study this by observation. I would bring a group of 30 people in. Ideally 15 girls and 15 boys. I would try to find some that were violent adn some that didnt have any history of being violent.
My research question that has always interested me was at which stage of Freud's psychosexual development would an abnormality cause a person to shoot up a school, or even become a serial killer. Because this isn’t a normal characteristic of any everyday child, I believe that a case study would be the most appropriate for this research. Another question I hope to find the answer to with this study is what signs parents should look out for so that they can seek professional help for their children when needed.
ReplyDeleteOne phenomenon that is intriguing in psychology is the development of gender identity in humans. The idea that gender is measured on a spectrum and heavily influenced by culture are two major reasons that this phenomenon piques my interest. My research question would be "Does parental bias effect the age in which gender is fully developed in a child" My hypothesis is that gender identity will form later in children whose gender identity opposes their parents' bias. A longitudinal study would likely be the best method to study this phenomenon. Once a properly sized group of parents with new born babies agreed to participate in the study, I would ask the parents a series of questions. The purpose of these questions would be to try and determine if they have a bias on what gender their child will identify with and if they might act to influence this. I would then follow the children until their gender identity is fully formed and look for any correlation between the parent’s answers and the age at which these children fully develop.
ReplyDeleteJeramiah,
DeleteI have also found development of gender identity in humans to be just as interesting. On your hypothesis I don't know if a child's parent have anything to do with what gender they distinguish with. Although I like how you have your experiment set up. Then only thing I could truly add for your questions is possibly talking about genetic and brain chemistry. I believe that most of the decision making in gender identity is in how the brain chemistry consist of.
My research project will be studying the phenomenon of "Does engaging in physical activity before taking an exam help you do better". I would do this research project because I remember in Elementary School, teachers would make us go outside and run around before we took important tests.
ReplyDeleteMy hypothesis is, kids will perform better on exams when the exam is followed by physical activity. I see the physical activity as a brain warm up.
My sample will be a fifth grade class from Whittier Elementary School, 2018 - 2019 school year.
I will give the kids in the class an exam and make sure none of them do physical activity before taking it. A few months later I will take the same kids that tested last time and bring them outside to play tag (I picked the game tag because it requires a lot of physical activity). After the game, I will give the kids a different test from the test they took a few months back, but the test will be the same level of difficulty. And see the difference in the scores.
My research is design will be using experimental design because I am controlling the amount of physical activity the kids have before taking the test. But also will make sure their teacher is administering the test and this kids are taking it in their own classroom. Therefore, they will not be testing differently than they normally would. If I tested them in a Laboratory, test anxiety may increase.
My research question: Can music increase visual and motor skills in children?
ReplyDeleteHypothesis: Yes, being able to read and or play an instrument requires the brain to quickly translate the note into certain body movement to preform a certain notes or rhythms.
Sample: Two groups, Looking for specifically 10 year olds. Each child will be timed during the each task.
Group one would consist of 10 children then can read and or play music since the age of eight years old.
Group two would consist of 10 children that have never seen sheet music and have never played an instrument.
Research method- Have each group independently perform a number of tasks such as puzzles, shooting basketballs into hoops, and distinguishing certain animals on flash cards. The group that average is the fastest time will distinguish if the hypothesis above is correct or not.
Research design: This would consider to be an experimental research project due to having to observe and time each child performed tasks.
Throughout an individual’s time in college they must deal with large amounts of stress. Nicotine is often used to lower stress levels. With all the different forms nicotine it is become easier to use tobacco more discreetly. E-cigarettes for instance can be hidden and leave no distinct tobacco odor. My research question would be “do you use or have used some form of nicotine to deal with the stress of school”. I would use a survey method to gather information on the percentage of students at Montana tech that use this “crutch” to cope with stress levels. I would post the survey on Mtech.edu to reach the largest amount of tech students.
ReplyDeleteBeing a college student studying is a huge part of my everyday routine. The question I always have is when is the right time to study? I have witnessed people study all day or some just study right before bed. I am curious if the the time of day you study reflects your test grades.
ReplyDeleteResearch Question:
Does studying before bed help you retain the information better the next day?
Hypothesis:
Studying before bed will help you remember the information better.
Research Method:
I would be using a experimental design for this study. Then I have the freedom to control the variables I need. I would choose 20 random people out of the Chemistry 121 class at Montana Tech. 10 of these participants would study during the day for one hour only before 1pm. The other 10 participants would be told to study one hour before bed. The following day the participants would all be given the same exam (about 20 questions) over the material they have studied (only being aloud 1 hour to study). Based off of the grades of the tests I will be able to tell which study method works better.
I really like this Research question! Studying in college is really hard, especially when you are taking several hard classes at once. Time management with all of that seems to be very tricky. I would personally like to know about study times and the effects it has. Out of curiosity, would you choose to do this experiment right after you have all finished going over the material in class as a group, or would you start before hand?
DeleteIf I could pick my own research topic, I would pick the effect custody battle has on kids. I think there will be many variables that would go into the research. Such as, peaceful custody battle vs nasty custody battles. I am curious if there is a big different between those two on the impacts it has on the kids, how it effects them and how it changes their lifestyle.
ReplyDeleteThe experimental method I would use for this would be case studies on many different families that are going through custody battle or already went through it. I think it would be hard to do an observation method on this because this is a personal thing and it takes more than just observing families. For the research design, I would do the correlation design so I can compare and examine the relationship between the effects on kids going through a custody battle.
A research question that I find of interest and would want to learn more about is how the different parenting styles affect how children respond to authority figures in their late teen years. I would study 100 males and 100 females ages 15-18 that are from the state of Montana. To gather information about the parenting styles that these teens grew up with I would use a structured interview on the parental figures. This would determine which parenting style each teen grew up with and then the teens would be seperated into groups based off the parenting style. From there each teen would be put into a situation where they would be observed when dealing with an authority figure. The results from each parenting style group then be compared.
ReplyDeleteResearch Question: Is the youngest child more likely to choose a career where he/she will work independently seeing as he/she most likely had less attention as a child?
ReplyDeleteThe research method that I would use is a survey. On it, I would ask if he/she has older or younger brothers and/or sisters. If the answer was yes, the survey would continue and begin asking about what kind of career this person has, what his/her responsibilities are, and if he/she would consider himself/herself as “independent”.
The research design that I would use would be cross-sectional because I would take a sample of 200 different “middle children” across the United States at one point in time. It would not need to be longitudinal because data does not need to be taken at several points in time.
A research question that I've always found interesting is why do twins create their own form of communication known as idioglossia, and why is this different than that of communication patterns established amongst other types of siblings?
ReplyDeleteI would use a longitudinal design to see how the twins communication develops over the years as well as the other types of siblings communication develops. I would also use some type of interview to see how well they communicate and how they choose to communicate. The sample I will use is 50 pairs of fraternal twins, and 50 pairs of 2 siblings that are 1 year apart, all from the state of Montana. These interviews will start at the age of 2 and go until the age of 25. I chose age 2 because this is really when kids can talk but not in sentences, so it gives me a way to see how they communicate before they can actually talk to one another. I chose the age 25 to end the interviews because by that age they most likely aren't living with each other and haven't been for a few years.
I'm not sure if this is the best method to use to conduct this research topic, but it's all I could come up with. If you have any suggestions please feel free to let me know!
One research topic that I find very interesting would be about the impact that video game violence has on children. Over the years, video games have become more violent and tend to cause a more aggressive behavior in children that play these video games on a regular basis. The more interaction children have with aggressive games, they lose their empathy and have difficulty distinguishing between right and wrong. They essentially can lose touch with the real world and this can cause serious behavioral problems.
ReplyDeleteFor this study I would do a Longitudinal design with 20 kids ages 11-15, boys and girls. This age group is roughly the time that kids begin to play more violent video games. I would take 10 kids that play video games on a daily basis and 10 that don't play video games at all. By doing a longitudinal design, I could see the effects it has on personality and certain behaviors over a 4 or 5 year period. My research method would have to be a naturalistic observation. I feel the best way would be to observe the children in their natural state at home.
If I had to pick a question and do a study regarding child development, I would chose to study how having siblings causes children to have different social skills than an only child and what social skills those may be.
ReplyDeleteFor this study I would do a structured observation for my research method. The reason why I would use a structured observation is so I could produce different scenarios and see how each child or different age groups (3-18 years), some with siblings and some without, performed different reactions towards other people when something did not go their way. For example, I would have a child around the same age as the participant cheat in a board game or steal a toy to see how the child's behavior that is being tested would react.
My research design would consist of an experimental design. This particular question would be in a controlled environment and is used to test children's behavior. The researcher is able to manipulate variables and each child has an equal opportunity to perform their own behavior.
If I were to pick a topic to research, I would choose to study whether children who are raised with siblings in a similar age group handle social situations better than those who are not. The hypothesis would be: “If children are raised with siblings in their same age group, then they are better equipped to handle social situations.” I would define “similar age group” as one to three years apart. This would be a cross-sectional study and would use naturalistic observation of young adults aged eighteen to twenty-two from backgrounds with siblings in their age group, with siblings outside their age group, and without siblings. We could examine whether they displayed signs of discomfort engaging with others, how quick they are to converse with a stranger, and their level of openness with others. I grew up with a sister two years younger than me and we had several sets of neighbor kids with varying age gaps among them. It was always interesting to watch how well they treated each other and try to compare how well we got along.
ReplyDeleteI always found birth order of siblings to be very interesting. I see articles saying that the first born is always the most driven (most intelligent), the middle is the most depreciated, and the youngest is the most level headed? I don't believe this is necessarily true.I do think it's interesting though how researches have come up with these statistics. I think my research topic would be if birth order has anything to do with intelligence. Are first-borns more likely to graduate college? or vice versa?
ReplyDeleteI think for my research method I would probably pick a survey. I would send out surveys to 100 individuals that had siblings and ask them a series of questions such as, their birth order and what their continued education was/or if any.
I would also do a cross sectional design for this survey. I would collect the data from the population and hope to have a good enough pole.
One phenomena that I find interesting is the affects of preschool on children. My research question would be "Do children who attend preschool perform better in school than those who do not attend preschool?" The research design I would use is longitudinal so I can follow the same students throughout their education. I would use self report to see how well the students are performing. To conduct the experiment I would find 20 children in kindergarten that have attended preschool, and 20 that have not. I would follow these students until their senior year, gathering grades after each year of school. I would compare the grades of the students who attended preschool to the grades of students who did not attend preschool to find out if going to preschool increases a child's performance in school. This design would be correlational because I am not manipulating variables, and I am not proving that preschool does/doesn't cause better grades.
ReplyDeleteIf I was able to pick a research question to study I would base mine off of Freud's stages of development particularly the anal stages. This stage is from the ages of one to three years old. The reason I am interested in this stage of development is because the outcome could be "anal compulsive" or "anal expulsive" according to Freud. I am interested in creating another study on the effect of potty training and whether or not the parents can influence the behaviors of the child in the future. According to Freud, anal compulsive people will be strict, ordered, regimented, potentially develop OCD, overly controlled, and extremely conscientiousness. "Anal expulsive" people are messy, not caring, and disorderly. The research method I would use would be a naturalistic observation and my research design would be a longitudinal study. In my study my population would be 20 children randomly selected from the United States. My sample would be 10 boys and 10 girls within the state of Montana beginning at the age of one. I would follow these children through their toilet training, specifically looking at how strict their parent or guardian acted and how the child adapted to the new control over their body. Until the age of three there will be monthly visits. I will then follow the study up with a survey each year until the child turns 18. This surveys would include questions about how their child handles their new independence and control. As the child ages I would ask how the child acts, their organization skills, manners, and attitudes towards cleanliness and order. I would take these results and compare them to Freud's theories and try to see if his theories apply to children in the twenty first century as well.
ReplyDeleteA topic that I find interesting would be the impact that bullying has on children and their academic achievements. Are bullied students more likely to have grades that are worse than their non-bullied peers? I think that bullying and the severity of bullying on students will have a big impact on their schooling and academic achievements.
ReplyDeleteFor this study, the research method I would use would be an observational case study with 40 students ages 11-14. I picked this age because I think this is age gap where bullying starts to become a huge problem in schools. Half of these students have not experienced bullying and the other half of the students experience bullying. The course of the study would be 3 years and all of their test scores over that time period would help determine whether or not bullying has an impact on children's academic achievements.
A research question I would like to study would be- do young teens who receive a cell phone in middle school have an affect on their over all performance in school? Young teens entering middle school are in the puberty stage and are beginning to associate themselves more with their peers and friends. They are finding more interest in finding connections and discovering where they fit in. Therefore, my hypothesis would be- Yes, young teens that receive a cell phone in middle school tend to perform more poorly in school than those who do not receive a cell phone. My research method would involve interviews. I would conduct several interviews over a multitude of middle school parents and teachers throughout the state of Montana. I would ask parents at what age did their child(ren) receive a cell phone. I would then ask the teachers how the young teens performance was in school. My research would be a correlational design to see whether cells phones really do have an affect on young teens school performance.
ReplyDeleteOne topic I’ve been curious about studying is what age do children start showing racist behaviors. I’ve been very curious about what age this behavior starts occurring or starts to show. I am testing for racist behaviors in children such as if they show a preference towards one race vs the other or make derogatory remarks. I would study this by means of structured observation. I would inform the children of different scenarios and ask what their reaction would be ( threatened, concerned, safe, etc). My research design would be longitudinal design becuase we would interview the participants several times and see if there was any differences in their reactions.
ReplyDeleteA topic I would like to study would revolve around children that have bipolar disorder and their choice to take medicine for the disease. My research question would be "If a child (starting at the age of approx. 14, to avoid the major hormone changes that go along with puberty) with bipolar disorder chose to take medicine, would they think the medicine helped with the condition, kept it the same, or made it worse?" I think that more research is necessary to help this condition be controlled. Bipolar disorder is a disease that needs to be managed to some degree and I think that medicine is a really good option for management. I also believe that with more research, parents that may be opposed to medicine would be more comfortable with it. The research methods would be a structured interview and surveys could also be used. These would be best because you need people's honest opinions and the answers you need have to be precise. For a research design, longitudinal would be used. Longitudinal design would work best because you would need to track the same child over a period of time in order to get accurate results.
ReplyDeleteAfter learning that in Freud's developmental theories it is essential for children to have both a mother and a father i would like to study more into that. My research question would be, do children with no father in their lives grow up to have serious psychological and behavioral problems.
ReplyDeleteThe research design i would use would be a correlational design or clinical interviews. If i used a correlational design i would more likely be able to determine if there is a relationship between my variables. If i did clinical interviews i could interview people that see a therapist or psychologist that did not have a father in their lives. It might be harder to prove that not having a father was the only factor that contributed to their physiological/behavior problems.