Posted: June 23rd, 2022

CRCJ 5309 Research Methods

Assignment 1

This assignment has several parts. In part I, you will come up with a hypothesis that is amenable to the scientific method of research. In other words, think of something you are interested in and write a concise hypothesis that taps that area of interest. Also, make sure to identify the dependent variable and the independent variable. Some examples are listed below.

PART I
Examples

Research area: The effect of poverty on criminal behavior
Research question: Do individuals who live below the poverty line (as defined by the U.S. Government) commit more criminal acts as compared to individuals who do not live below the poverty line?

Research area: The effectiveness of evidence-based policies
Research question: Do policies created based on empirical evidence exhibit more favorable results (i.e., the policy works) as compared to policies not based on empirical evidence?

Research area: The gender gap in science
Hypothesis: Males report more interest in academic disciplines such as mathematics and engineering as compared to females

1. Your Research Question:

2. Your Research Hypothesis:

3. Dependent variable:

4. Independent variable:

PART II

4. Using a path diagram, DRAW the anticipated relationship between your independent variable and your dependent variable. Be sure to indicate the anticipated DIRECTION of the relationship. This may be done using shapes or simple utilizing arrows (i.e., ) showing me which direction the variables go in.

PART III

The final part to this assignment will introduce you to scholarly writing by having you read a short academic journal article. Read the article by Gwilym and colleagues (2005) and then answer the questions below.

7. Identify the hypothesis addressed in the article:

8. Identify the dependent variable in the article:

9. Identify the independent variable in the article:

10. Briefly describe the main conclusion drawn from the article:

CRCJ 5309 Research Methods
Name
Institution
Date

1. Research Question
Topic: The effects of social media on student’s concentration span
Question: It’s quite evident that social media is having a massive impact on the modern society, which makes it inevitable to ignore its effects. These effects intercede into almost all aspects of our lives in numerous ways. Decreased student attention spans in recent history have heavily been attributed to increased use of social media platforms such as Twitter. According to Dijck (2013), students tend to be distracted by increased use of social media such that by the time this distraction is eliminated, it becomes very difficult to regain or retain their attention. As a consequence, the effectiveness of retainable and valuable education becomes greatly diminished. This study has an important question to answer, which is: What are the effects of daily twitter use have on student’s concentration spans?
2. Research Hypothesis
According to British novelist Howard Johnson, people are unable to remember things or connect what they have read previously with the information they are acquiring now due to the effects of social media (Bulman, 2017). Johnson argues this situation exists because social media tends to target our short term memory directly while at the same time scattering how our brains tend to remember information. As a consequence of this scattered manner of remembering information, our brains become affected even outside social media (Bulman, 2017). In other words, even without our computers or phones, our brains or thoughts become scattered with this distraction stemming from the mind. Based on this understanding, this study hypothesis that increased use of social media platforms such as Twitter leads to decreased student attention spans.
3. Dependent Variable
In this study, the dependent variable is the student’s concentration span because it is the changing factor that has to be tested. In other words, this study aims to establish how the concentration span is affected by the period or length of time students spend on social media.
4. Independent Variable
The independent variables will be the period students spend on their social media platforms. In this case, the main independent variable is the daily twitter use to determine whether students who are fully engaged on twitter daily have a lower attention span compared to those who spend less time. This variable will be compared to students who don’t use twitter at all and those that use it sparingly. These independent variables will contribute to determining the expected outcome of the dependent variable.
PART II: PATH DIAGRAM

PART III: SCHOLARLY WRITING
The Hypothesis Addressed in the Article
The research described in the article aimed to establish the impact of the Harry Potter Book Series on traumatic injuries in children during their use peak. The hypothesis advanced in this study includes:
(a) That the Harry Potter Book Series reduces the incidences of children’s traumatic injuries.
(b) Once the Harry Potter Book Series are realized, the number of children attending the emergence departments will decrease significantly.
(c) Distraction therapy can successfully be used in distraction settings like painful clinical procedures to good effect.
The Dependent Variable in the Article
The dependent variable in this article is traumatic childhood injuries, which have become a serious source of increased morbidity and mortality.
The Independent Variable in the Article
A high number of traumatic childhood injuries tend to occur during warm weather, periods with the longest daylight and during school holidays. As such the independent variable in this study includes;
The Harry Potter series of books, specifically, the Order of the Phoenix1 and The Half-Blood Prince2, which were resealed on Saturday, June 21, 2003, and Saturday, July 16, 2005, respectively.
Weather conditions recorded at the weekends when these books were released.
The Main Conclusion Drawn From the Article
The main conclusion drawn from the article appears to agree with the hypothesis advanced about the study. It established that Harry Potter books appear to protect children from suffering from traumatic injuries. This finding leads to the conclusion that craze or fashionable activities appear to make significant contributions to at least two million children attending emergency departments every year with traumatic injuries. However, the article notes that organizations like the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents UK and Child Accident Prevention Trust UK are yet to establish the huge potential benefits associated with this new pursuit of using Harry Potter books to protect children from suffering traumatic injuries.
The study also confirmed the second hypothesis that once the Harry Potter Book Series are realized, the number of children attending the emergence departments decreases significantly. The observations made were that there was a huge fall in the number of individuals attending the emergence departments over the weekends when the Order of the Phoenix1 and The Half-Blood Prince2, which were resealed. Moreover, it was also established that these two books realizes happened in mid-summer when there was good weather.
Finally, the key conclusion drawn from this article is that previous research studies have failed to address the idea of distraction therapy being used as a remedy for prevention against traumatic injuries. Instead, alternative therapies like pharmacological modifications and restrain therapy have been considered but abandoned on the grounds of ethical concerns. This study established that distraction therapy can successfully be used in distraction settings like painful clinical procedures to good effect.
Based on these findings, the study recommends that a committee made up of safety-conscious and talented writers should be established since they will be able to come up with high-quality books meant to prevent injuries. However, the main concern with such a project would be that it would result in unpredictable increases in obesity in children, rickets or losses in cardiovascular fitness.
References
Bulman, M. (2017, August 21). Twitter will make children illiterate in 20 years, says Howard Jacobson. Retrieved from https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/twitter-children-illiterate-20-years-howard-jacobson-novelis
t-social-media-booker-prize-winner-a7904291.html
Dijck, J. V. (2013). The culture of connectivity: A critical history of social media. Oxford University Press.
Gwilym, S., Howard, D. P., Davies, N., & Willett, K. (2005). Harry Potter casts a spell on accident-prone children. BMJ, 331(7531), 1505-1506. doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7531.1505

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