Family Functioning and Weight Loss in a Sample of African Americans and Whites - Assignment Example

The strategy employed was designed to adopt a sampling strategy that restricted the weight loss goal as ≥4 kg in a sample of African Americans and Whites. (Carmen D. Samuel-Hodge, 2010)The researcher employed a sample of African Americans and Whites as his data source while evaluating six family functioning constructs completed by 291 participants in a trial of weight loss maintenance. The analysis was limited to 217 participants in households with at least one other family member, all providing final weight measurements.

(Carmen D. Samuel-Hodge, 2010)Weight-ing: The Experience of Waiting on Weight LossThe research as contained in the report ‘Weight-ing: The Experience of Waiting on Weight Loss’ was designed to explore the meaning of waiting on weight loss using Van Manen’s guide to phenomenological reflection and writing. (Glenn, 2012)The strategy employed was set up to analyze why the weight has become an increasing focus of contemporary culture, weight becoming synonymous with health status, and weight loss with “healthier.

” (Glenn, 2012)The data source employed was random as the report was grounded on human science research (i.e., herme­neutic phenomenology), the reflective study of pre-re­flective experience which was based on experiences of the common and uncommon, considering relations to time, body, space, and the other with the aim of evoking a felt, embodied, emotive understanding of the meaning of waiting on weight loss. (Glenn, 2012)The comparative and cumulative effects of a dietary restriction and exercise on weight lossThe research contained in ‘The comparative and cumulative effects of a dietary restriction and exercise on weight loss’ report was designed to assess the independence of changes made in diet and physical activity for weight loss, and to examine the comparative and cumulative effects of these behavioural changes on weight loss outcomes.

(CL Dunn, 2006)The strategy employed was to study the outcome variable of the body mass index (BMI) change from baseline to a 2-year follow-up while maintaining the primary independent variables which were changes in physical activity and dietary fat intake, assessed as continuous measures using the Paffenbarger Physical Activity Questionnaire and Block Fat Screener Questionnaire, respectively. The two-way ANCOVA was used to assess the relative effect on BMI of behavioural changes. (CL Dunn, 2006)The report was based on longitudinal data collected from 674 women and 288 men enrolled in a 2-year weight loss program introduced into a managed care setting.

(CL Dunn, 2006)The researcher in ‘The comparative and cumulative effects of a dietary restriction and exercise on weight loss’ report opened their mind to the different ways of conducting the research by realizing that there are different ways that they could test their theories. Variety ensured that they attracted accurate results because of the researcher as they had a wide database to draw from in forming their conclusions. (Geursen, 1998)AnalysisWhenever a researcher is faced with the dilemma of deciding what sort of design he is to employ to carry out his research, there are pertinent questions that should guide him.

Key among these is what questions he seeks to research on, i.e. what hypotheses he seeks to test during the research. The research design will be guided by the hypotheses so as to predetermine what sort of structure the research will adopt. After formulating the hypotheses, everything else flows from it. There are different kinds of sampling strategies. These include probabilistic and non-probabilistic sampling strategies. Probabilistic sampling is employed whenever it is important to have a representative sample of the data while non-probabilistic sampling as a strategy is used whenever the researcher would want to increase the number of conclusions drawn from the research.

Each strategy is important in its own respect but there would be a lot of bias in probabilistic sampling as opposed to non-probabilistic sampling because the researcher would have a preconceived data sample to draw from as opposed to just conducting the research and forming conclusions based on the observations derived from the field. Non-probabilistic sampling as a strategy could lead to an overestimating of the actual research considering that it does not employ any restrictions whatsoever in its approach, as opposed to probabilistic sampling which requires a predetermined sample, therefore, the probability of overestimating would be very small.

(Geursen, 1998)The measures to be employed are dependent on what the researcher intends to achieve during the research, i.e., the research design. In the very same way, the sources of data to be employed are wholly dependent on what type of research one intends to conduct, i.e. the research design and the accompanying hypotheses and theories. This is why it is very important to have a structure in your research as one step always flows into the other, leading to congruency. The type of data can be primary or secondary; primary data being actual data collected from the field while secondary data being data gotten from other sources other than from the main source, e.g. books, the internet.

(Kandace J. Landreneau, 2003)Of the three reports, the one that achieved accurate results as compared to the others was the report on ‘Weight-ing: The Experience of Waiting on Weight Loss’ as it employed a non-probabilistic approach as its strategy thus ensuring that there were no restrictions on the type of conclusions that were to be collected. (Glenn, 2012)