Research Example #4

Valentino, Nicholas A. ; Brader, Ted ; Jardina, Ashley E. “Immigration Opposition Among U.S. Whites: General Ethnocentrism or Media Priming of Attitudes About Latinos?” Political Psychology. April 2013, Vol.34(2), pp.149-166.

This article talks about how ethnocentrism is a powerful component for an immigration opinion. They predict group-specific affect, not general ethnocentrism, should most powerfully shape immigration policy opinion in the contemporary United States. They test this expectation with content analysis of news coverage, survey data from 1992-2008, a survey experiment, and official statistics. They find evidence of of mentions of Latinos in media news coverage has increased, and outpace mentions of other groups starting in 1994, the year Prop 187 was passed, bringing an end to social welfare and educational assistance to undocumented immigrants. They also find that policies are being passed which are concerned with demographics concerning where immigrants are coming from. This is a peer reviewed article, and covers the heart and soul of what I want my research project to focus on.

Research Example 4

Caldwell, C., & Hibbert, S. (2002). The influence of music tempo and musical preference on bbbbbirestaurant patrons’ behavior. Psychology and Marketing, 19(11), 895–917. bbbbbihttps://doi.org/10.1002/mar.10043

The article reports research into the effect of music tempo and musical preference on consumer behavior in a restaurant. The research investigates the extent to which these two variables influence actual and perceived time spent dining, the amount of money spent, and outcomes in terms of enjoyment of the experience and future behavioral intentions”(Abstract Caldwell). Caldwell and Hibbert’s article is on restaurant patron behavior when it comes to music tempo and musical preference. The research question used is how does the music tempo and musical preference influence patrons time spent, money spent, and enjoyed time dining? This source used acts, behavior, and events as data, detached observation to collect the data and they analyzed this data by comparing the patterns between the variables and the behaviors regarding the variables since the data collected was qualitative data. At the end of this research, the researchers stated that in fact the tempo had little to no effect on the restaurant patron’s behavior but more so their music preference. This is significant to me because my research question was how does tempo affect people’s behavior in their writing. With this new information I now am changing the factor of tempo in my research question to minor and major chords. Since minor and major chords in music are more connected to behavior, emotion, and people’s preference in music (major producing a happier lighter tone and minor producing a darker sad tone) I believe that using those rather than simply tempo and how fast the music is will produce a better range of results in behavior. I think the readers will be interested in the same way I was, that the tempo of music did not have the direct effect on the behavior of people as anticipated.

Research Example #4

Cutter, S. L., Boruff, B. J. and Shirley, W. L. (2003), “Social Vulnerability to Environmental Hazards*”. Social Science Quarterly, 84: 242-261

This publication lays out the research design and conclusions made by Susan L. Cutter, Bryan J. Boruff, and W. Lynn Shirley that looked to analyze the geography of social vulnerability as it pertains to natural disasters and other environmental hazards. They narrowed factors of social vulnerability across all U.S. counties to 11 independent variables: personal wealth; age; density of built environment; single-sector economic dependence; housing stock and tenancy; race (African American); ethnicity (Hispanic); ethnicity (Native American); race (Asian); Occupation; and infrastructure dependence. By running this data to test for social vulnerability, they found that counties in the lower half of the U.S. were the most vulnerable, stating “stretching from south Florida to California—regions with greater ethnic and racial inequalities as well as rapid population growth.” (255) are at greater risk in the event of natural disaster. The researchers declare, “The factors identified in the statistical analysis are consistent with the broader hazards literature and not only demonstrate the geographic variability in social vulnerability, but also the range in the underlying causes of that vulnerability.” (257). This research aims to drive further research and analysis of factors of social vulnerability as it pertains to preparing for and recovering from natural disasters, and wishes to be used as an index factor for other analyses such as biophysical risk data in order to better help vulnerable counties and communities affected by such hazards. This research is extremely helpful to my cause, as it lays out its own research methodology that seeks to answer social and economic inequalities of disenfranchised and marginalized communities that are put at risk more so than wealthy and homogenous communities whose wealth already serves as an additional layer of protection that many communities lack.

 

 

Blog post #3

Penninckx, M., Vanhoof, J., & Van Petegem, P. (n.d.). Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Professional Development Program on Pupil Well-being in Primary Schools. Studia Paedagogica, Retrieved from 19(4), 81–100.

This article was written By Maarten Pennincky, Jan vannhoof, and Peter Van Petegem, who are all involved with the University of Antwerp’s research unit in Edubron, Belgium. They focused their study on assessing professional development programs effectiveness within primary schools. To do this they split students into two groups, one group received a quasi-experiment and the other group was the control. After the program was over they used feedback sheets, interviews, and focus groups to evaluate the effects of the program. In order to keep it uniform, they evaluated based on four levels the first is reaction, second is learning, third is behavior, and the fourth is results. However, this study’s conclusions did not support their hypothesis. They agreed that this may have been a fault of how short the program was, along with the fact that the program did not have much effect on the behavior of the school. This is an interesting study because their main hypothesis was similar to many of my other articles, yet the outcome was exponentially different from most other conclusions. This, easy to read, article is important for anyone who is trying to understand CTE programs from all angles in order to find the best way to improve it. Their conclusions about the effects on the behavior of the school prompted me to explore how to start the implementation of these programs in order to achieve the best results. I believe this to be credible because it is a peer-reviewed journal so therefore other scholars have agreed to publish this work.

Research Exercise #3

Raglio, Alfredo, Giuseppe Bellelli, Daniela Traficante, Marta Gianotti, Maria Chiara Ubezio, bbbbbiDaniele Villani, and Marco Trabucchi. “Efficacy of music therapy in the treatment of and psychiatric symptoms of dementia.” Alzheimer Disease & Associated bbbbbiDisorders 22, no. 2 (2008): 158-162.

 

This source reports how music therapy affects the behavioral and psychiatric symptoms of dementia and detached observation. *Abstract, “Music therapy (MT) has been proposed as valid approach for behavioral and psychologic symptoms (BPSD) of dementia. However, studies demonstrating the effectiveness of this approach are lacking” (Raglio). Raglio uses music therapy in his research by using subjects with dementia to see if the music input affects the subjects symptoms of dementia. This research asks the question of can musical therapy reduce BPSD in subjects with dementia. Raglio used an experiment and observed acts, behaviors, and events to get the data accounts of if the music therapy reduced BPSD. Musical therapy in this research opened my eyes to really how much it affects the behavior of people. I Dementia is extremely powerful and if music can reduce BPSD in dementia subjects, then I know that if I choose my music properly that there is a good possibility that the results could be astounding. Then with that there is also the possibility of my music choice doing the opposite. Reviewing this research gave me the idea of instead of using tempo, using major and minor chords because those may affect mood and behavior more than tempo. What I think that others will find interesting with this source is the same thing that I found interesting as well. That music has the power to reach deep parts of your brain without you even knowing it, and we have that whole strength of music at the tips of our fingers.

Research Example #3

Governance, wealth, and scientific capacity all affect a country’s ability to deal with biodiversity issues. This study analyzes how developing countries often lack the scientific capacity to study their biodiversity. Another correlation established in this paper argues that biodiverse developing countries in Africa have a trend of low governance and high wealth. The nexus between biodiversity and the institutional factors will help illustrate how the financial insecurities suffered by developing countries trickle into environmental impacts.

To study the relationship between these variables, the authors created five indices to measure each factor in relation to its country. This paper defines biodiversity as the number of species on land in a country and leaves marine biodiversity as an afterthought. After measuring each variable through an index, the indices were all plotted against each other on graphs to calculate Pearson’s coefficient for each one. The data analysis determined that biodiversity correlates positively with scientific capacity and wealth (although the correlation with wealth is insignificant), and negatively with governance, just as explained earlier. Both the unit of observation and the unit of analysis were countries because the indices reflected measurements of certain countries and examining countries still analyzed the results. The conclusion details that the indices yielded very complicated answers; despite the discovery of some correlations, the implications of the cause are too vague to define. Improving the scale resolution or changing the makeup of the indices would improve the analysis in replications of this study. Including marine species in the definition of biodiversity would also improve the study because a lot of countries with well-managed fisheries have higher incomes. Since this paper seeks to find the connection between wealth and biodiversity, marine biodiversity would fit incorporate more aspects of the economy into the research.

A Plague Of Delicious Purple Urchins Is Taking Over The California Coast And It’s Our Duty To Eat Them

Laugan Miller

Jim Spickard

Research Methods

2/10/19

 

A Plague Of Delicious Purple Urchins Is Taking Over The California Coast And It’s Our Duty To Eat Them

 

A newer solution to the increased sea urchin populations is to use the often looked down upon even larger hungry population of humans ready to jump on new trends. In just the past four years 90 percent of the coastal kelp in San Francisco to Oregon has been removed mainly due to the 6,000 percent increase in purple sea urchins. Last year the CDFW stopped recreational abalone fishing due to the lack of kelp forests leaving no food for the abalone and causing a dive in population number. This method of using the sea urchins as a source of food for humans was able to reduce many sea urchin barrens that had been around for a long time in the late 19th century. Purple urchins are small and only get to around 3 or 4 inches but what they hold on the inside can be used in many different ways.  I think this article is amazing because it really shows that more people than just scientists can combat environmental problems and in so many unique ways. In addition, the demand for hunting and collecting will hopefully result in availability of jobs. To take this farther I would look at how many restaurants are putting sea urchins into their menus and people’s responses.

 

 

Bouzari, Ali. “A Plague of Delicious Purple Urchins Is Taking Over the California Coast and It’s Our Duty to Eat Them.” SAVEUR, www.saveur.com/sea-urchins-in-mendocino#page-8.

Research Example #3

Relationship Between Organizational Culture, Leadership Behavior and Job Satisfaction

Yafang Tsai (BMC Health Serv Res. 2011; 11: 98.) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3123547/

Organizational culture refers to the beliefs and values that have existed in an organization for a long time, and to the beliefs of the staff and the foreseen value of their work that will influence their attitudes and behavior. Administrators usually adjust their leadership behavior to accomplish the mission of the organization, and this could influence the employees’ job satisfaction. It is therefore essential to understand the relationship between organizational culture, leadership behavior and job satisfaction of employees. Results found that organizational cultures were significantly (positively) correlated with leadership behavior and job satisfaction, and leadership behavior was significantly (positively) correlated with job satisfaction.

The article topic is the relationship between organizational culture and leadership behavior in employees. The research question is “How does a company’s organizational culture affect an employee’s leadership behavior and job satisfaction?”

The type of data needed to answer this question is shallow opinions and attitudes, as well as reports of acts and events. A cross-sectional study was undertaken that focused on hospital nurses in Taiwan. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire; 300 questionnaires were distributed and 200 valid questionnaires were returned. Correlation analysis was used on the relationships between organizational cultures, leadership behavior and job satisfaction.

Ordinal data was the method of data analysis used. The researchers asked the participants to rate (1-5) how strongly they agreed or disagreed with each statement.

I think that this research is pretty good. I think that their sample size was a large enough size to have reliable results. I think that this source was very helpful in preparing me for writing my own research project. Because this source focused primarily on nurses, I think it would be interesting to repeat this test in several other occupations to see how the results differ.

Research Example #3

Comerio, Mary C. “Disaster Recovery and Community Renewal: Housing Approaches.” Cityscape 16, no. 2 (2014): 51-68.

In her article, “Disaster Recovery and Community Renewal: Housing Approaches”, Mary C. Comerio addresses the social and economic impact of natural disasters on communities and focuses on ways to improve post-disaster recovery for and by community citizens. Using the key-term “disaster resilience”, Comerio looks at different forms of disaster recovery programs that are currently in place and asserts that the necessity of viewing resilience from an intersectional lens. By using a multifaced approach that looks at social, economic, infrastructural, ecological and community factors that are impacted by natural disasters, community resilience can be improved and made more efficient and beneficial for those in need. In preparation for proposals that support growing community resilience to disasters, she addresses existing problems within local and federal government programs for disaster relief. Noting that city governments rarely have existing policies that prepare for structural and economic redevelopment or new housing models in the event of a disaster, she urges restructuring current and outdated policies that are better prepared and funded to respond to disasters. She also notes the limitations of government funding that do not extend beyond public infrastructure to meet the needs of those who are affected by disasters and require assistance that will most likely not be covered by government programs or insurance claims. Looking at the different responses and recovery management done by private and public sectors, she emphasizes the recovery of public infrastructure which is managed by governments, as opposed to privately owned property which is often left unmanaged. She asserts, “Housing recovery, however, is critically interdependent with recovery of those public-sector facilities.” (53), meaning that while housing redevelopment is thrust upon communities of citizens and owners, their own redevelopment and recovery is tied to the (long) recovery of public structures that they are excluded from, therefore creating more obstacles for community resilience and redevelopment. Additionally, before the phases of recovery and reconstruction, many shadow renters, those who reside in short-term and/or single-room rentals that may be low income, squatters or undocumented immigrants are put in more danger during disasters as many of them are not granted status in government programs. For many, this leaves churches and NGOs as the only other options for disaster relief and aid. She emphasizes the threats for those at risk, “in what has become a highly urbanized society, multifamily losses will leave many renters homeless while builders make investment decisions that may not include replacement housing.” (54). She concludes by reiterating the importance of restructuring government relief programs to provide adequate assistance to communities and individuals who are the most affected by the damage of natural disasters, transparency of recovery goals and information to citizens, and using the National Disaster Recovery Framework to better serve the needs of disaster victims. This article is relevant to my research in that it addresses many existing government roadblocks to disaster and community recovery, and looks closely at community citizens as the forefront of disaster recovery, rather than casting them aside in favor for new developments and gentrifying processes.

Blog Post 2/24/19

Shu‐Mei Tseng, (2010) “The correlation between organizational culture and knowledge conversion on corporate performance”,Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 14 Issue: 2, pp.269-284, https://doi.org/10.1108/13673271011032409

Organizational culture can significantly promote or hinder the success of knowledge management initiatives. This study seeks to develop and test empirically a conceptual framework to investigate the correlation between organizational culture and knowledge conversion on corporate performance. The results of the questionnaire analyses indicate that an adhocracy culture enables knowledge conversion and enhances corporate performance more than clan and hierarchy cultures.

The research topic is the correlation between corporate culture and knowledge conversion on corporate performance. The research question is “How does a company’s corporate culture affect the company’s performance?” The type of data that was collected is shallow opinion and attitudes, as well as cultural knowledge. The data gathering method includes questionnaire and statistical analytical techniques to gain the best exploration on organizational culture, knowledge conversion and corporate performance. The method of data analysis for this particular study is qualitative data.

I think that this study captures the correlation between corporate culture and corporate performance very well. But it is important to understand the limitations of this study. AS the authors write, “The research investigates the correlation between organizational culture and knowledge conversion on corporate performance under a Chinese‐centric set of societal, cultural and linguistic attitudes and behaviors. However, different countries have different cultures. Future research could extend this study to other regions of the world with a different set of attitudes and behaviors”.