An Anthropological Dissertation by Victoria Reyes-Garca - Coursework Example

CRJ 715 TEST 2 Instructions: EXAM PLEASE PROVIDE AN ESSAY TYPE RESPONSE (APPROX PGE. FOR EACH QUESTION) TO THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS. THIS EXAM COUNTS 30% (EACH QUESTION IS WORTH 7.5) OF THE GRADE. THE GRADE IS BASED ON THE QUALITY OF RESPONSES, WHICH INCLUDES THE STRENGTH OF YOUR VOICE. DO NOT CUT AND PASTE FROM THE WEB THIS IS AN UNACCEPTABLE RESPONSE. ANSWER THE ENTIRE QUESTION. 1. Identify a research site and develop a research design allowing for an anthropological study. Identify how you will gain access to the population, the types of data, and how you will analyze your data. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of your study. An anthropological dissertation by Victoria Reyes-García (2001) entitled “Indigenous People, Ethnobotanical Knowledge, and Market Economy. A Case Study of the Tsimane’s Amerindians in Lowland Bolivia” approaches the issues set by the researcher with a variety of general methods, like quantitative, qualitative ones, and case study, and special anthropological methods like panel data. An anthropological study about “Indigenous People, Spiritual Life, Well-Being, and Market Economy. A Case Study of the Tsimane’s Amerindians in Lowland Bolivia” can be designed with the following features. The aim will be to learn about interconnection among indigenous people, their current spiritual beliefs, their overal well-being, including the emotional and socioeconomical well-being, and their integration to the modern market economy with globalization as its main characteristic, taking as a case study the Tsimane’s Amerindians in Lowland Bolivia. In this anthropological study there is an obvious need of implementing several research methods. It will be conducted through a participatory fielwork styudy, living in the community during 6 months as an external participant researcher. The research design will include a qualitative dimension with non-random unstructured interviews to 50 representative indigenous people of the community from a multi-disciplinary viewpoint including the fields of psychology, theology, philosophy, economics, politics, sociology, anthropology, etc. There will be also a comprehensive content analysis of literature review of books, magazines, journals, websites, newspapers about the Tsimanes. There will also be conducted an anthropological panel data, gatherind direct information from all kind of people in the community. The panel data results can be quantifiable, and they will shed light about all of the variables of the study. The interviews and the panel data will provide primary data, and the literature review will provide secondary data. The antropological study will be an exploratory/formulative study aimed at finding the interconnection of all of the variables involved, especially how the Tsimanes’ religious beliefs have been impacted throughout time, and how the global market has been impacting their lives and their overall well-being. It will be also longitudinal during a period of six months from July 1st to December 31st. The survey mode of data collection will be through unstructured questions and answers. The nature of the relationship among the variables will be descriptive/relational looking for associations or patterns of behavior among the indegenous people under study, trying to learn about their everyday life. In addition to a mixed-method approach (qualitative and quantitative), there is also the need of conducting a case study, especially designed to give a comprehensive picture of the Tsimanes, their integration to the market economy, their religious beliefs and their overall well-being. The strengths of this research design lies in the wide variety of methods that will be implemented at the same time. The individual members of each group will be encourage to participate actively asking them pertinent questions, keeping in mind key ethical research issues like using treating them with respect and dignity, keeping the privacy and confidentiality of all of the community members, avoiding bias, and showing respect for the different points of views that will arise. The weaknesses of this anthropological study relate to the enormous amount of time, effort, and money required to undergo the project. Another common weakness is the risk of conflict or bias arising from the cultural differences among the researchers as participants and the community members. 2. Identify a research site and develop a research design allowing for a quantitative study. Identify how you will gain access to the population, methods of sampling and data collection, the types of data you will collect, and how you will analyze your data. Discuss issues relevant to quantitative study such as sample size and generalizability, how will you analyze of your findings. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of your study. Eurobarometer (2006) published the report on the quantitative study conducted between December 7th, 2005, and January 11th, 2006, entitled “Safer Internet. Survey Study”, published in May, 2006. It aims at analysing the general Internet usage in Europe, then the use by children; the extent and the locations where children have come across harmful or illegal content on the Internet; and the measures taken by parents to protect their children when using the Internet, and awareness and information about safer Internet. A quantitative study about “Safer Internet for Children in the United States” can be designed with the following features. The aim will be to learn about the awareness of parents and caretakers of children under the age of 18 about issues of safety related to Internet surfing, as well as the measures that they have taken in order to provide a safer online experience for their children, especially on the risk of children having access to adult websites. The positivist methodology will be conducted through an online survey with a minimum amount of 10,000 respondents (parents and caretakers) and a maximum time of 6 months through a questionnaire of 20 questions to be answered by parents or caretakers with children under the age of 18 who frequently have access to the Internet. The aim of this quantitative study will be to learn about the general usage of the Internet in the United States, to find out the extent and the locations where children under the age of 18 come across adult websites, the extent of the effectiveness of the preventive measures undertaken by parents and caretakers to avoid the exporsure of children under the age of 18 to adult material over the Internet. The questionnaire will be available on a random basis on a website especially created to collect the data and to encourage parents and caretakers to answer its questions. So this is a non-randomized statistical, exploratory, insight-oriented, co-relational study aimed at finding the impact of preventive measures against the access to adult websites by children under the age of 18 and the measures taken by their parents and caretakers. Since the respondents will answer the questionnaire online this is a field study, and they will provide primary data that will be statiscally analysed in order to find patterns of associations and co-relation. It will also be a cross sectional study during a period of six months from July 1st to December 31st, 2008, since the data will be gathered from different respondents at one time. The survey mode of data collection will be through structured questions, keeping the focus on the online preventive measures undertaken by parents and caretakers of children under 18. The manipulation of the variables will be ex post facto grounded on statistical analysis of the data. The nature of the relationship among the variables will be descriptive/relational looking for associations or co-relation patterns of the impact of preventive measures against improper use of the Internet by children under 18, trying to learn about the most effective and successful measures that can be implemented by parents and caretakers, so this is an empirical study with an emphasis on being an action research, which means that it is focused on finding workable solutions to the issues at hand with the help of the research findings. In this sense, it is a decision-oriented study with a preplanned statistical design. Its operational design will have advance decisions about procedure according to its statistical analysis nature. This quantiative study will be conducted according to the guidelines of action research implementing its two stages: diagnostic stage for the analysis of the problems and the development of hypothesis, and the therapeutic stage for experimenting and testing the hypothesis. The triangulation method to be implemented will be longitudinal in time, a cross cultural study in space, interactive and collective as discussion groups or panels, and it will implement different methods on the same object of study, such as open discussions and unstructured interviews. One of the objectives of this research study is to find generalizable results that can help parents and caretakers in their preventive efforts regarding the usage of the Internet by their children under 18. The strengths of this research design lies in the useful data that will be translated into statistical, measurable numbers, keeping in mind key ethical research issues like using appropriate language, keeping the privacy and confidentiality of all of the respondents, avoiding bias, etc. Another advantage is that valid and reliable hypothesis can be developed after analysing the collected data. These hypotheses can serve policy makers, as well as parents and caretakers, in their efforts to keep children away from adult websites over the Internet. The weaknesses of this quantitative study relate to uncertainty about co-relations and causal relationships since the scope of this study is very limited on its design. It lacks the rigorous and rigid design of an experimental research study. Besides that, there could be a serious distortion due to a flaw in the margin of error in the statistical analysis. Another weakness about this quantitative research is the fact that it costs more and it takes more time and effort than a qualitative study. 3. Identify a research site and develop a research design allowing for a qualitative study. Identify how you will gain access to the population, methods of sampling and data collection, the types of data you will collect, and how you will analyze your data. Discuss issues relevant to qualitative study, such as triangulation and the importance of triangulation to qualitative research. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of your study. Eurobarometer (2007) published the report on the qualitative study conducted between March and May, 2007, entitled “Safer Internet for Children. Qualitative Study in 29 European Countries”. It aims at knowing about the internet usage by children, boys and girls aged 9-10, and 12-14, as well as mobile phones usage of those who have access to them; their online behavior; and their perceptions of risk and safety-related questions. A qualitative study about “Safer Internet for Children in the United States” can be designed with the following features. The aim will be to learn about the awareness of children, boys and girls aged 10-15, about issues of safety related to Internet surfing, as well as the measures that can be taken in order to provide a safer online experience for children, especially on the risk of children having access to adult websites. The phenomenological methodology will be conducted through 20 online discussion groups of 10 members each (10 groups of girls and 10 groups of boys), unstructured interviews (40 interviews, selecting 2 members of each group according to their higher level of usage of the Internet during the month), and content analysis of literature review of books, magazines, journals, websites, newspapers. The discussion groups and the interviews will provide primary data, and the literature review secondary data. The focus groups will be selected on the basis of their exposure to Internet activity during an average month. So this is a non-random study. The members of the discussion groups will be pre-screened before being accepted into the groups. All of them should be savvy users of the Internet. It will be an exploratory/formulative study aimed at finding better ways of protecting children from having access to adult sites over the Internet. Since the members of the discussion groups (panels) will interact online with each other and the researcher this is a field study. It will be also longitudinal during a period of two months from July 1st to August 31st. The survey mode of data collection will be through unstructured questions and answers in the discussion groups and the interviews, keeping the focus on the online surfing behavior of the members of the groups. The manipulation of the variables will be ex post facto. This method accounts for an open and flexible analysis of the data through inductive reasoning. The nature of the relationship among the variables will be descriptive/relational looking for associations or patterns of behavior among the children under study, trying to learn about their usage of Internet, and how to avoid their access to adult websites, so this is an empirical study with an emphasis on being an action research, which means that it will be flexible, interactive, looking for solutions from the perspective of the same children and the findings of the literature review in order to suggest prevention measures about safe surfing over the Internet for children in general. In this sense, it is a decision-oriented study with not preplanned statistical design. Its operational design will also be flexible, with no fixed decisions, based on the situational context (focus groups) in which it will be conducted. The triangulation method to be implemented will be longitudinal in time, a cross cultural study in space, interactive and collective as discussion groups or panels, and it will implement different methods on the same object of study, such as open discussions and unstructured interviews. This triangulation method or mixed method approach will help the researcher in analysing the data with a higher degree of flexibility, trying to come up with valid and reliable insights on the issues at hand. A special website will be launched over the Internet to form the focus groups on a voluntary basis from different backgrounds: ethnicity, social groups, religious beliefs, etc. The strengths of this research design lies in its openness and flexibility due to the unstructured format. The individual members of each group will be encourage to participate actively asking them pertinent questions about their Internet-surfing behavior, keeping in mind key ethical research issues like using appropriate words, keeping the privacy and confidentiality of all of the group members, avoiding bias, and showing respect for the different points of views that will arise. Another advantage of this research study is the fact that it takes less time and money to be conducted in relation to a quantitative research. The weaknesses of this qualitative study relate to the lack of cause-effect answers about the children’s behavior when surfing the Internet, the limited scope of this study since few valid and reliable hypothesis can be made out of its findings so it won’t shed much light about correlations or rigid explanations about the Internet behavior of children under study. In other words, there are no definite conclusions about the findings. 4. Identify a research site and develop an experimental design. Identify how you will gain access to the population, and the treatment you will give to the experimental group. How long will the experiment last, what types of data will you collect, how will you collect your data, and how you will analyze your data? Identify the strengths and weaknesses of your study. Bering, J.M., & Bjorklund (2006). The Natural Emergence of “Afterlife” Reasoning as a Developmental Regularity.University of Arkansas and Florida Atlantic University. Retrieved May 12, 2008, from http://artsci.wustl.edu/~pboyer/RelCogWebSite/BeringBjorklund.pdf Bering and Bjorklund (2006) published the results of the experimental study entitle “The Natural Emergence of “Afterlife” Reasoning as a Developmental Regularity”Eurobarometer (2006), which consisted of a series of experiments dealing with the issue of the common belief in life after death since an early age throughout adulthood. An experimental study can be designed with less experiments and less research questions as the ones researched by Bering and Bjorklund. The experimental study will be comprised of two experiments in the developmental psychology field. The first experiment will be based on a simple questionnaire about biological and psychological discontinuities after death. The second experiment will be based on a simple questionnaire about the almost universal belief in life after death from a multi-disciplinary perspective. Both experiments will be conducted randomly in at least 50 countries around the world with different religious systems and different socioeconomical backgrounds with at least 10,000 respondents selected randomly of all the age groups. The questionnaire will be available on a random basis on a website especially created to collect the data and to encourage a cross-cultural participation of respondents all over the world. So this is a randomized statistical study aimed at finding any kind of cause-effect relationship in the respondents from a developmental psychology standpoint. Since the respondents will answer the questionnaire online this is a field study, and they will provide primary data that will be statiscally analysed in order to find patterns of associations and causation. It will also be a cross sectional study during a period of six months from July 1st to December 31st, 2008, since the data will be gathered from different respondents at one time. The survey mode of data collection will be through structured questions. One of the objectives of this research study is to develop hypothesis that can be further applied discretionaly in the new field of Neuro-Psychology. The strengths of this research design lies in the useful data that will be translated into statistical, measurable numbers, keeping in mind key ethical research issues like respecting the religious beliefs of all of the respondents, keeping the privacy and confidentiality of all of the respondents, avoiding bias, etc. The weaknesses of this experimental study relate to speculative nature of its findings that can be misinterpreted as being true scientific knowledge. References Bering, J.M., & Bjorklund (2006). The Natural Emergence of “Afterlife” Reasoning as a Developmental Regularity. University of Arkansas and Florida Atlantic University. Retrieved May 12, 2008, from http://artsci.wustl.edu/~pboyer/RelCogWebSite/BeringBjorklund.pdf Eurobarometer. (2007, May). Safer Internet for Children. Qualitative Study 2007. European Commission. Information Society. Retrieved May 12, 2008, from http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/sip/docs/eurobarometer/qualitative_study_2007/summary_report_en.pdf Eurobarometer. (2006, May). Safer Internet. Quantitative Survey. European Commission. Information Society. Retrieved May 12, 2008, from http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/sip/docs/eurobarometer/eurobarometer_2005_25_ms.pdf Johnson, B., & Christensen, L. (2007). Educational Research. Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Approaches. University of South Alabama. Retrieved May 12, 2008, from http://www.southalabama.edu/coe/bset/johnson/dr_johnson/ Key, J.P. (1997a). Qualitative. Research Design in Occupational Education. Oklahoma State University. Retrieved May 12, 2008, from http://www.okstate.edu/ag/agedcm4h/academic/aged5980a/5980/newpage21.htm Key, J.P. (1997b). Experimental. Research Design in Occupational Education. Oklahoma State University. Retrieved May 12, 2008, from http://www.okstate.edu/ag/agedcm4h/academic/aged5980a/5980/newpage2.htm Oescher, J. (2006, Jan 24). Introduction to the Field of Educational Research. Retrieved May 12, 2008, from http://ed.uno.edu/faculty/joescher/EDFR6700/resources/r1/outline1.html#o1a Pearson Education, Inc. (1995-2008). Introduction to Research in Education. Retrieved May 12, 2008, from http://wps.ablongman.com/ab_mcmillan_edresearch_4/16/4150/1062448.cw/index.html QualQuant.Net. (2008). NSF Summer Field Training in Methods of Data Collection in Cultural Anthropology: Bolivia. Supported by the National Science Foundation. Retrieved May 12, 2008, from http://www.qualquant.net/training/sftm.htm Reyes-García, V. (2001). Indigenous People, Ethnobotanical Knowledge, and Market Economy. A Case Study of the Tsimane’s Amerindians in Lowland Bolivia. Graduate School of the University of Florida. Retrieved May 14, 2008, from http://people.brandeis.edu/%7Ergodoy/publications/Indigenous%20people.pdf Sridhar, M.S. (2007). Research Methodology. Part 3. Research Design and Plan. Head, Library and Documentation. ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore. Retrieved May 12, 2008, from http://eprints.rclis.org/archive/00010170/01/RESMETH3.pdf The Center for Public Education. (2007, June 20). Consumers Guide to Education Research. Retrieved May 12, 2008, from http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/site/c.kjJXJ5MPIwE/b.2821449/k.87C3/Consumers_guide_to_education_research.htm Trochim, W.M.K. (1996). Web Center for Social Research Methods. Cornell University. Retrieved May 12, 2008, from http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/ Read More

It will be also longitudinal during a period of six months from July 1st to December 31st. The survey mode of data collection will be through unstructured questions and answers. The nature of the relationship among the variables will be descriptive/relational looking for associations or patterns of behavior among the indegenous people under study, trying to learn about their everyday life. In addition to a mixed-method approach (qualitative and quantitative), there is also the need of conducting a case study, especially designed to give a comprehensive picture of the Tsimanes, their integration to the market economy, their religious beliefs and their overall well-being.

The strengths of this research design lies in the wide variety of methods that will be implemented at the same time. The individual members of each group will be encourage to participate actively asking them pertinent questions, keeping in mind key ethical research issues like using treating them with respect and dignity, keeping the privacy and confidentiality of all of the community members, avoiding bias, and showing respect for the different points of views that will arise. The weaknesses of this anthropological study relate to the enormous amount of time, effort, and money required to undergo the project.

Another common weakness is the risk of conflict or bias arising from the cultural differences among the researchers as participants and the community members. 2. Identify a research site and develop a research design allowing for a quantitative study. Identify how you will gain access to the population, methods of sampling and data collection, the types of data you will collect, and how you will analyze your data. Discuss issues relevant to quantitative study such as sample size and generalizability, how will you analyze of your findings.

Identify the strengths and weaknesses of your study. Eurobarometer (2006) published the report on the quantitative study conducted between December 7th, 2005, and January 11th, 2006, entitled “Safer Internet. Survey Study”, published in May, 2006. It aims at analysing the general Internet usage in Europe, then the use by children; the extent and the locations where children have come across harmful or illegal content on the Internet; and the measures taken by parents to protect their children when using the Internet, and awareness and information about safer Internet.

A quantitative study about “Safer Internet for Children in the United States” can be designed with the following features. The aim will be to learn about the awareness of parents and caretakers of children under the age of 18 about issues of safety related to Internet surfing, as well as the measures that they have taken in order to provide a safer online experience for their children, especially on the risk of children having access to adult websites. The positivist methodology will be conducted through an online survey with a minimum amount of 10,000 respondents (parents and caretakers) and a maximum time of 6 months through a questionnaire of 20 questions to be answered by parents or caretakers with children under the age of 18 who frequently have access to the Internet.

The aim of this quantitative study will be to learn about the general usage of the Internet in the United States, to find out the extent and the locations where children under the age of 18 come across adult websites, the extent of the effectiveness of the preventive measures undertaken by parents and caretakers to avoid the exporsure of children under the age of 18 to adult material over the Internet. The questionnaire will be available on a random basis on a website especially created to collect the data and to encourage parents and caretakers to answer its questions.

So this is a non-randomized statistical, exploratory, insight-oriented, co-relational study aimed at finding the impact of preventive measures against the access to adult websites by children under the age of 18 and the measures taken by their parents and caretakers.

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