Mixed Analysis -Environmental Impact of Aviation (Noise Pollution) - Assignment Example

4/20 Assignment WA42 Research Topic: Environmental impact of Aviation noise on people 2. Purpose of the Study: The purpose of the study is to determine impact of aircraft noise on wellbeing of communities that are exposed to the noise.3. Overarching Research Question: Does adverse exposure to aircraft noise reduce quality of life of populations to which it is exposed? 4. Specific Research Questions: Does the noise coming from the aircrafts disturb your daily activities? What health effects of aircraft noise have you experienced?

How does the effects manifest? What level of aviation noise do you normally experience? What is the rate of overall annoyance from the aircraft noise that you experience?What is the level of effects of aircraft noise on your quality of life? 5. Type of Study: Mixed research 6. Variables: Independent: Aircraft noise levels Dependent: Health of the community exposed to the aircraft noise.7. Qualitative Research Method: Phenomenology and survey designs 8. Instrument(s) analysis: The study will rely on research participants’ experience with aircraft noise.

Based on the experience, and from the participants’ perspectives, questions will be asked on the participants’ attitudes towards the form of noise and effects with which the participants have associated the noise (Wertz, et al., 2011). The Osgood’s sematic differential will be used to inform the participants’ relative opinions towards the noise, level of noise, and effects of the noise. Overall level of annoyance and degree of health effects, based on a scale of between 0-10, will measure aspects of the participants’ experience.

In the opinion scaled used, zero will denote no annoyance or no health effects while ten will show completely annoyed or adverse health effect (Heise, 2010). Perceptions on effects of the noise on quality of life and attitude towards the noise will however be described from open-ended questions. 9. Procedure: Stratified random sampling will be used to sample participants. Residence and work location will be the bases for stratification. A sample of 115 participants, with at least 30 percent of participants from each stratum, will be used for the quantitative aspect.

Twenty-three of the participants, 16 people living in the affected areas, and 7 people working in the affected areas will then be selected from the sample, for the qualitative aspects of the study. Questionnaires will be used to collect data on closed-ended questions while focus groups will be used to collect data on open-ended questions. The strata will form two focus groups. Rigor: Reliance on participants’ experiences and informed consent will ensure credibility and dependability of results and conclusion of the study.

Incorporated quantitative approach and large sample size will induce reliability and validity to inform transferability of the results. 10. Data analysis: The researcher will use participants’ perspective to develop meaning from collected qualitative data and researcher’s rationale and background knowledge on the subject will help to bridge gaps within a participant’s responses. Regression analysis will however evaluate the quantitative aspects of the study 11. Consent: The study will target communities that are exposed to aircraft noise by virtue of living or working near the source of the noise.

Each respondent will be informed of the scope of the study. Respondents’ consent will then be sought, in writing, by asking them if they can participate in the study. Obtaining informed consent ensures that only willing people participates in a study and therefore facilitate sincere responses towards credibility of responses (Heise, 2010).DiscussionThe overall purpose of the research has changed from the environment impact of aviation to a more focused study on effects of aircraft noise on health communities that are exposed to the noise.

The questions to be used are therefore both open ended and closed-ended to ensure that desired responses are obtained. It is worth noting that the phenomenology approach used in the qualitative study allows for the comprehensive conveyance of the opinion of the participants on the issues being investigated. Moreover, it is not easy to deal with the various covariates and confounding factors associated with the impact of noise on health and the wider scope of qualitative methods that develops in-depth information on a subject will overcome this weakness.

Triangulation also expands developed knowledge and develops confidence in the results. ReferencesHeise, D. (2010). Surveying Cultures: Discovering Shared Conceptions and Sentiments. Hoboken NJ: Wiley.Wertz, F. et al. (2011). Five ways of doing qualitative research: Phenomenological psychology, grounded theory, discourse analysis, narrative research, and intuition. New York, NY: Guilford Press.