Writing Homework Help

class: child development

Reflective Essay!!

PROMPT: Using at least two formal citations, describe each of the five Data Collection Techniques outlined at the end of this chapter. Compare and contrast them with each other. Create an example of something in the field of marriages, families, or relationships and explain how each of the different techniques might (or might not) be used in a research study about it. Which way do you think would be the best method for a researcher to use for the example you came up with?

Five data collection techniques: If you use any of this information below defining any of the 5 data collections it is from the BOOK and quote and cite it !!!!

1) Interviews, questionnaires and surveys-

The most common data-gathering technique in family research involves personally interviewing respondents or asking them to complete self-report questionnaires about their attitudes and past or present behaviors. When conduct-ing interviews, researchers ask questions in person or by telephone. Gallup polls use telephone surveys. Alterna-tively, a researcher may distribute paper-and-pencil or Web-based questionnaires that respondents complete by themselves. Increasingly viewed as comparable in reliability to paper-and-pencil questionnaires, Internet surveys use e-mail or Web-based formats (Coles, Cook, and Blake 2007). Examples of the latter can be found at Surveymonkey.com, which facilitates the design, distri-bution, and some analysis of online surveys ( from book ) page 49

2) Naturalistic Observation

“In naturalistic observation (also called “participant observation” or “field research”), the researcher spends extensive time with respondents and carefully records their activities, conversations, gestures, and other aspects of everyday life. This data-gathering technique often accompanies the interaction–constructionist theoretical perspective. The researcher attempts to discern family relationships and communica-tion patterns and to draw implications and conclusions for understanding family behavior in general. The study of women living in trailer parks employed naturalistic ob-servation as well as interviews. Over a period of sixteen months, researchers spent twelve to twenty hours in each woman’s home, sometimes taking part in family meals (Notter, MacTavish, and Shamah 2008)” ( from book) page 50

3) Focus groups

“A focus group is a form of qualitative research in which, in a group setting, a researcher asks a gathering of ten to twenty people about their attitudes or experiences regarding a situation (Stewart and Sham-dasani 2015). Researchers have used focus groups, for ex-ample, to explore how parents feel about their overweight children (Jones et al. 2009). Participants are free to talk with each other as well as to the researcher or group leader. Focus group sessions last between one and two hours and are typically electronically recorded and then transcribed or entered into a computer for later analysis. The study of Chinese and Korean immigrants, discussed earlier in this chapter, is based on data collected in eight San Francisco area focus groups (Wong, Yoo, and Stewart 2006).” ( from book) page 50

4) Experiments and laboratory observation

“In an ex-periment or in laboratory observation, behaviors are carefully monitored or measured under controlled con-ditions. In an experiment, subjects from a pool of similar participants are randomly assigned to groups (experimen-tal and control groups) that are subjected to different expe-riences (treatments). For example, families with children who are undergoing bone marrow transplants may be asked to participate in an experiment to determine how they may best be helped to cope with the situation. One group of families may be assigned to a support group in which the expression of feelings, even negative ones, is encouraged (the experimental group). A second group may receive no special intervention (the control group). If at the conclusion of the experiment the groups dif-fer according to measures of coping behavior, then the outcome is presumed to be a result of the experimental treatment. Because no other differences are presumed to exist among the randomly assigned groups, the results of the experiment provide evidence of the effects of thera-peutic intervention (Babbie 2014).”

page 51

Clinician’s case studies

“We also obtain information about families from case studies compiled by clinicians—psychologists, psychiatrists, marriage counselors, and social workers—who counsel people with marital and family problems.” page 51

BOOK: Marriages, Families, and Relationships: Making Choices in a Diverse Society

Lamanna, Mary Ann; Riedmann, Agnes; Stewart, Susan D