Proposed preliminary research design - Essay Example

Therefore, defining the scope of romance that will be studied is the first task of the study. In creating a study that examines romance and the way in which it is constructed within social relationships that have a sexual component, creating a methodology that allows for subjective considerations will be necessary in order to develop research. In creating a study that is called The Anatomy of Romance, a built in metaphor will guide the way in which the study is constructed. In creating the concept, providing a bone structure, an internal ‘metabolism’, a pumping heart, the brain, the sex organs, and eventually the flesh that creates a living, breathing organism that is the romantic life of a couple will provide a basis for a framework and a foundation on which to build the study in context.

According to Shank (2006), framing a topic within a metaphor allows for the research to present a new way of looking at the topic (p. 124). By starting with this foundation, the study can use a multitude of references in order to build a well structured One approach toward this study might be to see the work through ethnography. However, in order to do that, broad strokes of intention about the context of romance within the culture would then diminish the actual perceptions of romance. Romance seems to be an individual creation that is birthed between two people.

Although there are generalities that infiltrate a culture, such as the American traditions of flowers, candy, and jewelry, romance is far more interesting beneath the surface of ethnographic generalizations - which admittedly would be far deeper than the example - but would attempt to represent a culture, rather than the concept itself as an entity of a relationship. Defining romance by its cultural adaptations rather than by the singularity in which it exists between two people is too broad a scope in which to examine