The Violent Behavior Theory - Assignment Example

Project al Affiliation) Project Case One A. The newspaper reporter came up with a headline thatread “Raising a child with both parents will do wonders for your childs future career success!” This headline depicts that raising a child with one parent meant that the child would not be as successful as it would be if they has been raised by both parents. This is a personal judgement that is believed to have arisen from the author of the newspaper article’s own reasoning as to the findings of the paper. The researcher, however, sought to find a relationship between two variables under investigation: the kind of parenting that a child had during upbringing, whether single parenting or with both parents present or no parent being there and the outcome of the upbringing (The success of the child in adulthood). However, the journalist has written his headline in a definite manner likely to suggest to the reader that the only way one can raise a child who will be successful in future is by ensuring that both parents are present when the child is growing up. The outcome of the researcher’s work is clear and concise; the individuals who were raised by both parents exhibited higher career success scores than individuals who were raised by one parent. The journalist ought to have taken the point that the research was not as explicit as the newspaper article was. In journalism, it is recommended that the writer of the story leaves it upon the audience to form independent opinions on the matter after reading the story. In this case, however, the writer seems to suggest to the reader a certain position, which might be taken to be offensive by the people affected, especially individuals who were raised by single parents. B. The researcher opted to post an advertisement online in a local advertising website in order to look for volunteers for his study. He then pays the participants $10 each for their participation and has them answer some question about their later career successes in life. In undertaking research in this manner, the researcher cannot guarantee the authenticity of the data he came up with. This is because by posting the advertisement online, the researcher was seeking for volunteers. When he decided to pay the individuals who participated in his survey, he might have drawn the attention of other individuals who just needed to get some money, with the information they gave out being compromised. With this in regard, the researcher failed to insulate the data he would receive against people who were more inclined towards getting the ten dollars than giving helpful results. The research method used by the researcher does not guarantee the authenticity of information issued by participants in the research. Secondly, the researcher does not give a particular number of people who participated in the research. In interviews and in the filling up of questionnaires, which are most likely the methods used by the researcher in his investigation, the group selected should be as representative of the entire population as possible so as to come up with results that can be more accurate. Without data that is close to accuracy, it becomes very difficult to come up with accurate conclusions to research problems. In this case, the researcher does not research on the individuals he picks to participate in the research. The people who knew about the research from the local advertising website may have been a group whose members share a lot in terms of age, expertise or even family structure, and as such that may have compromised the information given by the report. C. If the researcher decides to narrow down the number of people participating in the study from 600 to 300, then the researcher must consider whether the individuals have characteristics that fall within the required parameters. For instance, the researcher sought to find out the difference in career success between individuals brought up by a single parent and individuals brought up with a single parent. Such a research should not include individuals who were raised by foster parents or even orphans. This is because they are not the main focus of the study. Including them into the study would compromise the outcome, because their information was not covered in the research question. Secondly, the researcher should select a group of participants that represents the entire society as much as possible. The researcher should find out the composition of the society in which he wishes to undertake his study in. This will assist him in creating a model for the entire population making up the larger society. For instance, the researcher is expected the number of individuals in the society who were brought up by both parents and the number of people brought out by both parents and use that information to create models. Models should be as representative as possible because the researcher cannot involve all members of the society in the exercise. In light of that, the researcher should only be left with individuals who offer a true representation of the society’s structure and composition to take part in the study. D. In order to properly test the question: ‘Does being raised by two parents cause career success?’ an accurate database would be required. To begin with, research on the demography and its composition of individuals brought up by two parents and those who were raised by one parent. In doing this, the research work will be coming up with more accurate statistics due to the models created from the data being able to represent the composition of the society with more accuracy than random sampling, which does not guarantee the desired results. The collection of data should then be done with from the shortlisted participants only. This will narrow the margin of error that arises with the inclusion of individuals whose status has no relationship to the matter under examination. Once data from the model is collected, it becomes important that the analysis be done in an objective manner in order to come up with accurate results. The hypothesis for the research study should be clear and defined so that the researcher cannot deviate from the main issue of the investigation. With that being highlighted, it is potent to deduce that this research can be undertaken and practicably used in studies. This holds as true, because there is a proven relationship between the variables that are the number of parents who brought up their child and the outcome of the upbringing. E. While it would be important to recognize the relationship between an individual’s career success and their upbringing either by a single parent or by both parents, it would be equally potent to determine the specific effects that parental status have on the upbringing of an individual. A logical conclusion to make would be that indeed, individuals brought up with both parents are more successful with their careers than individuals who were brought up by a single parent. This is because an environment with both a father and a mother offers a child the opportunity to gain a better understanding of responsibilities and expectations that the society has of them. It becomes easier for the parents to raise funds for the education of the child when both of them are present than when one of them is not present. Secondly, individuals who grew up with both parents experience more guidance by sharing more time with their parents and as such are less exposed to acting without restraint. Single parents mostly double up as the only providers in most single parent homes. This seldom gives them the time to assist their children as much as it would be desired. Case Two A. The researcher’s hypothesis is: Playing video games with violent content contributes to criminal behavior among children B. The independent variable in this study is the playing of video games. The dependent variable is the behavior of children. C. The researcher divided the children onto two groups: one that plays video games with violent content for an hour every day and another group that plays video without violent content for an hour every day. This separation of test subjects into one of two groups was with the aim of finding out whether there would be an effect on the behavior of children who play video games with violent content and how it might be different from children who play video games without violent content every day. This method was successful at it gave the researcher additional information regarding the behavior of children and how it is affected by playing video games with both violent content and /or non- violent behavior. This information is important in determining whether playing video games for an hour only everyday regardless of the violent nature of the video game of lack thereof or whether the development of child behavior is different between children who play video games with violent content every day for an hour and the children who play video games without violent content for an hour every day. D. Interviews remain the most economical and widely used method of data collection. However, the use of interviews places limitations on the study and the interpretation of the results. To start with, interviewing the subjects will prove to be a difficult task owing to their age. It would be difficult for 1 year old children to accurately describe behavior that they have developed as a result of playing video games either with violent content or without violent content. It may even be difficult to collect information from these children by observation to come up with more accurate results for the study. In addition to that, interviewing children who are 12 years old does not give the interviewer the scientific information that is needed for this type of research. If the data is not accurate, then the interpretation of such data will definitely lead to inaccurate results. Interviewing the parents has higher chances of finding out accurate description of the effects of playing video games with both violent content and without violent content on the behavior of children. This is because parents spend a lot of time with their children and are therefore in a better position of noting any change in the behavior of their children. However, the time taken to interview the parents of the pupils used in the study may be a tedious task, considering factors like availability of the parents for the interview and their attitude towards the use of their children in the study. This might make the process of data collection long and tedious if the parents are not available for the interview. Without the input of the parents being accurate and complete, the interpretation of such information could lead to inaccurate results. Teachers are also well placed to notice any changes in the character of children brought about by the playing of video games with both violent content and non-violent content because of the time they spend with the children in a day. However, the limitation that may arise as a result of interviewing the teachers is that the teachers may form the notion that a child who has been exposed to violent culture has to exhibit violent traits and as such may have a biased opinion on the answers they give. This may have an effect of changing the outcome of the process of data analysis, as the data that would be under examination may be inaccurate and assumed. E. The practical issues that this study is likely to encounter include the following: 1. The interview may fail to determine the causal effects of the changes in behavior. There are many factors that affect the behavior of children in a typical environment. These factors include the environment in which the child is brought up, the behavior of the people in most contact with these children like parents and other children who may have an influence on the behavior of the child and the activities in which the child indulges such as exposure to violent television programs and the internet. Interviewing children, their teachers and their parents does not give the interviewer the scope that he needs in order to find out the main cause of the change in behavior in children. Other important variables that contribute to the change in behavior of the child are not considered therefore making the conclusions arising from the interviews in this research non- inclusive. 2. The results that the interviewer may come up with may not be generalized across the entire group under examination. There are chances that some children may not change their behavior to adopt violent tendencies, while others will rapidly change their character. In this scenario, the interviewer is faced with a situation where similar tests give varying results. This makes it difficult for the interviewer to make sensible deductions because it would not be professional to discard undesired returns, while at the same time it would not be potent to make a sensible and straight forward conclusion to the matter either in support of the hypothesis or against the hypothesis if the data shows wide variations such that the interviewer cannot draw a conclusion within the stipulated margin of error and standard deviation. 3. The process of training interviewers, performing the interviews and documenting the data collected may take up a lot of time and money. This particular research involves many individuals, and so will require a significant number of interviewers to undertake the interviews with the children, the parents and the teachers. These interviewers need to be equipped with the knowledge of conducting interviews so that they are undertaken with professionalism in order not to repulse the subjects. This training is expensive and may take a long time. The time taken to conduct the interviews may also end up being an expensive affair, because the cost of materials for conducting an interview of this nature is high. Travelling to other locations also involves costs such as travelling costs. It may force the interviewers to look for the parents of the children for interviews because they may not be near the school, and inviting them to the school could be a tedious process and an inconvenience to both the parents and the teachers. Telephone interviews also come at a cost. Items such as airtime or telephone charges are costly, especially when the time taken to conduct an interview is considered. 4. The process of data analysis is complex and consumes a lot of time. This is because of the expertise involved in the analysis of data. For data to be accurately analyzed, it has to be examined more than once to see if there are any variables or factors that might have been missed. Analysis by the use of special software could also be costly as the software will have to be purchased. The process of data analysis is even made more complex by the formulas involved in the process. Data analysis is a scientific process that involves mathematical approach. This requires a lot of expertise and experience in order to be undertaken with the accuracy required. F. 1. The interviewer has to obtain the consent of the subject before allowing them to be used for the experiment. For children below the age where they can make their own decisions, such consent has to be obtained from the parents or their guardians. The participant should be given enough time to assess the costs, risks and the benefits of taking part in the research and allowed to ask any pertinent questions before their participation is guaranteed. Informed consent should be regarded as a continuous process as opposed to being viewed as a mere formality or as a singular event. 2. The investigator has to have the safety of the participants as his primary concern. It is the responsibility of the researcher to find out the risks/benefit ratio and consider all the information that is available in order to come up with an accurate assessment of the risks and benefits that the participants face. The researcher is also prevailed upon to continually observe the process of research as it proceeds. G. Internal Validity Issues These are the questions asked pertaining to the procedures used in undertaking research work in order to obtain the required information. For instance, the researcher may have to assess the effect of history. In this regard, the possibility of an occurrence taking place that may have had an effect on a sample group that may have the effect of differentiating it from the other sample groups. For instance, in this case, playing video games with violent content around a parent or a guardian may not affect the behavior of the child as opposed to playing among peers with no adult supervision. Another issue is differential selection. The people that the researcher may pick to participate in the research may not be representative of the entire population. External Validity Issues External validity issues assess how the information learned from a study can be applied in general to all similar cases. An example is biases in selection and interaction. A particular treatment may only apply to the selected group and as such cannot be applied in general; due to reasons such as the environment in which the selected group was put in. another example is the multiple treatment interference. When more than one treatment is applied, it becomes difficult to know which one made the difference and to which extent. H. The conclusion that boys who play video games with violent content exhibit more violent behavior after the experiment compared to those who play non-violent video games is not extendable to girls. This is because there is a difference in biology. Boys have more testosterone levels than girls; hence they are more likely to express vigor in their behavior in reaction to the violence in the video games. Girls on the other hand are not as vigorous as boys are when it comes to video games by nature due to their low testosterone levels. I. It is not prudent to conclude that boys who exhibit violent behavior after playing video games with violent content will be involved in criminal behavior in the long run. This is because video games are virtual machinations that may appeal to the senses of the user and affect their character to a certain degree, but they do not have a bearing on the overall behavior of an individual. As an individual grows up into adulthood, there are many factors that may lead them to get involved in criminal activities, video games not being one of them. These factors range from poverty to an individual’s history with physical violence. Unless an individual develops an obsession with the violence in video games, there is no connection between violent video games and criminal behavior by individuals. J. The researcher did not attempt to investigate the impacts of playing video games both with violent and non- violent content over the long term because of the reactive and the interactive effects of undertaking tests. Giving a pre- experiment test to the children in this research may have an impact on their performance during the process of observation. The pretest has the interaction effect, which limits the application of the information to the whole population since the test was not taken by the entire population. Another reason is the delay in conducting the post- experiment interviews is so as to allow the researcher to find the effects of the pretest on the posttest. If the subjects gain some sense of familiarity with the instrument, they may affect the results of the post- experiment. K. The fact that the playing of video games with violent content has an effect on the behavior of the individual, making them more likely to have long term violent behavior leads to the formulation of the Theory of Violent Behavior. This theory stipulates that the exposure of an individual to acts of violence either in physical or in virtual form (through video games) leads to development of violent behavior in an individual in the long run. The development of such behavior can be attributed to the individual accepting that violence is a way of solving the issues that one faces as displayed in the video games. Case Three The Violent Behavior Theory The development of this theory is based on the observation and interviews of young people who have been involved in crime. In the society, young people are increasingly being arrested. Of concern, however, is how they perceive their actions to be. Young people who have faced criminal cases do not view their behavior as unacceptable; rather they think it is a way of showing their maturity in engaging in crime. This indicates why more young people end up being repeat offenders, with some being incarcerated for long durations of time due to their non- conformity to what the society requires of them. This theory also posits that with counseling, these young individuals can desist from violence and crime if they are assisted through counseling at an early stage, before they develop into cold criminals. Novice criminals have shown positive reaction to counseling. This is because the counseling programs prescribed for young people who are beginning to involve themselves in crime and violence provide them with an insight into the effects that their behavior has on their future, the lives of their loved ones and the society as a whole. Threats of incarceration are usually not taken seriously by many young people with the inner need to become violent or engage in criminal activities. Research Design The hypothesis for the testing of this theory is that counseling has the effect of providing a stronger deterrence to committing a crime than the threat of incarceration. This study shall be undertaken through interviews involving a selected number of young people residing in urban areas, across the races and between the ages of 12 and 25. A number of 20 individuals with the history of violence or crime were picked for the exercise. These people would be randomly selected from rehabilitation centers within the urban areas and juvenile detention centers. Among the independent variables in this study are the age of the subject, history of the subject with relation to violence, influential people in the environment in which the subject resides and the level of education of the subject. The data shall be collected through conducting interviews with individuals who have a history with criminal activities at a young age and are not incarcerated, young individuals currently serving time in juvenile centres and rehabilitation at different correctional facilities and officials who deal with young people who are involved in crime, who shall also be requested to provide records that are relevant to the study. This study shall employ the use of descriptive statistics for the quantitative data that will be collected. In seeking more clarification into the topic, this study shall also look into qualitative data in order to examine the effects of previous efforts to administer counselling services to young people who exhibit violent behaviour or have been involved in crime in the society. In addition to that, this study shall look into the contrasting views held by the subjects in regard to incarceration and counselling. These are the methods that will be used in analysing the data. The limitations expected to be encountered include apathy from the young people to be interviewed coupled with resistance by officers who would not want to provide official records for scrutiny, which will affect the outcome of this research. Another limitation likely to be encountered is a wide variation in the data collected, for example some subjects may exhibit positive response to rehabilitation and counselling while others may not change their behaviour even after counselling has been administered. This will make the process of data analysis difficult to undertake, and may affect the eventual outcome of the study. Reference Maxfield, M and Babbie, E., Basics of Research Methods for Criminal Justice and Criminology, Cengage Learning; 2011. Print Read More