The Link Between Methodology and Human Development - Research Paper Example

?Running Head: THEORY, METHODOLOGY AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT Topic: Methodology and Human Development Social science deals with methods of observation and experimentation utilized in the physical and natural sciences. Social scientists thereby deal with human activities and societal institutions, which are not simply located in the controlled setting connected to scientific inquiry (Perry & Perry 2009). Social scientists should be ready to adapt their methods regularly, and they must inquire on questions that can grow alongside with their investigation of social phenomena. Majority of perceptions that we possess as adult regarding mentally ill persons and their roles were actually developed when we were children, mostly courtesy of the mass media and particularly the television (Babbie, 2008). With our children spending more and more time watching television and most importantly, imitating whatever they see, it is appropriate to argue that the mass media and particularly the television is significantly influencing the way we look and interact with the mentally ill persons amongst us. Therefore by interrogating the influence that the mass media has on our perception of mentally ill persons, we might be able to not only appreciate them but also reduce the extent to which the mass media portray them as violent and dangerous people. Also, considering how influential and important the media is to the society, and particularly when it comes shaping readers’ and viewers’ thoughts, it makes sense to research how it portrays sections of the society. This is of utmost importance particularly with regard to groups such as the mentally ill persons and other vulnerable groups. In interrogating this social issue, a social scientist ought to bare in mind a number of factors if he/she is to get appropriate responses that can assist him/her in coming up with applicable results. The best research question that we can come up with in my opinion is 1. How does the mass media portray the mentally ill persons? The appropriateness of this question in this entire research is evident. First, it satisfies the need for not being too broad or too narrow, which is an important characteristic of a scientific question in any research effort (Babbie, 2008). It also exhaustively summarizes the social issues at the crosshair of this research namely the portrayal of mentally ill person by the mass media. Summarizing a objective of the research in this regard involve ensuring that the final scientific question that a research settles on touches on all aspect of the social issue under discussion, which in our case has to do with the media portrayal of the mentally ill person. It is also important that the question that one has settled on be researchable. In our case here, there is no doubt that the issue of mass media portrayal of the mental ill persons is an issue that is quiet researchable. Another thing that has greatly affected this scientific question that we have settled on is the scope of information that will be required to gather in conclusively interrogating the issue at hand (Babbie, 2008). For instance, we might decide to look at media news on mentally ill person over the last couple of month or even ten years so in order that we can understand the kind of stories and news that the media prefer airing when it comes to the mentally ill person. There is no doubt that the length of time which also translates to the amount of information will greatly influence the ultimate research question. Therefore in our case, we can consider what we ought to be watching or reading, the period that we will be dedicating this watching/reading, and the hour per day that we will be doing it before coming up with the research question. This will also aid in the analysis of the data that we will end up collecting using this research question. The sources of the information that will be required in interrogating the issue at hand will also greatly influence the ultimate question. In the case of mass media portrayal of the mentally ill person sources of information might include; television, print and radio. Lastly, the problem of validity and reliability should be at the heart of any deliberations meant to come up with a research question. This is particularly because social science researches have come under attack ostensibly for lacking validity and reliability (Babbie, & Rubin, 2009). There are those who have rubbished the use of scientific methods in interrogating social phenomenon, claiming that there is nothing scientific with sociological issues, as the debate on the right methodology to be used in social science rages on (Babbie, 2008). However, I beg to differ because just as various natural science discovery have lead to a paradigm shift, various social relationship that have since been discovered via social scientific analysis have fundamentally precipitated a paradigm shift in the way we understand various social problem, even offering us guidelines on how to address such social problems. This, in my opinion is not different with the issue of the influence of mass media on how we perceive mentally ill person. In fact, looked at carefully, interrogating the influence of the mass media to our perception of mentally ill persons is no different from a scientific interrogation like looking at how to make better skyscraper as both seeks to improve the human condition, though in different way. This therefore puts social science and natural or physical science at par because just as Einstein observed “politic is definitely more difficult than chemistry or even physics and the world is more exposed to danger from bad politics than from bad chemistry or physics.” If anything, all knowledge is related and therefore we need to give social science issues the same importance that we give natural science’s issues as well. In our case here, the interrogation of a social science issues like the influence of mass media on the perception of the mentally ill persons is as important as the learning of physics (Babbie, & Rubin, 2009). In answering the social scientific question we need to interrogate at least four research problem questions. The four questions that in my opinion will assist us in answering the above research question are; 1. Does the portrayal of medically ill person by the media fit the medical model? 2. Is it mediated by gender? 3. Is it mediated by age? 4. Is it mediated by the type of crime committed? One of the main reasons why it is appropriate to interrogated whether the portrayal of medically ill persons by the media fit the medical model is because empirical evidence suggest that in general, there have been a decline, generally, of homicide cases carried out by mentally ill persons over the last forty or so years. However, this appears as if it is not being reflected in the mass media reportage if their reference to this group over the same period is anything to go by. In this regard, the media reference to mentally ill persons appear at least once every week, with this reference appearing to emphasis on the propensity of this group to be violent, dangerous and criminal. Therefore there is a high probability that the media has been overemphasizing the probability of this group executing violent crimes. According to Pustilnik (2005), there are two models that are concerned with the way mentally ill offenders are taken within the eyes of the public. The two are the medical model and the punitive models. In regard to punitive model, mental sickness is represented in an unsympathetic style. The sickness is taken in the same manner as a failing on the part of the mentally ill person. To people, it is a product of failure of a person’s individual responsibility, but not a concrete medical condition. According to Pustilnik (2005), this explains the high rate of incarceration of this group both in Europe and America. Therefore by interrogating which of these two models the media portrayal in this case falls in, we will be able to confirm or reject the assumption that indeed the media portrayal of this section of the population is biased. Noteworthy is that fact that this portrayal is best investigated using the framework of the scientific method. Lately, there have been a noticeable tread of branding female offenders, and especially those who commit crimes involving violence, as mentally ill. It also appears as if female violence is being over-reported by the media, even though male violence far outstrips female violence (Clark. Monahan & Silver, 2003). Often, the female violent criminal is portrayed as comparably more unstable than her male counterpart. For instance, a study by Cavaglion (2008) in Israel found that a woman who kills her kid is more likely to be considered more insane than a man who does the same to his kid. Therefore, it can be argued that the portrayal of female offenders as being comparably more unstable than men can be traced back to medical model, which we can easily and appropriately investigate using the framework of the scientific method. Cases abound of the media portrayal of young offenders in bad light. According to Jewkes (2004), the best example of this portrayal can be found in Jamie Bulger case. In this particular case, two underage kids who were arrested of killing another child were tried as grown-ups in spite of their age. Morrissey et al (2007) points this bias in reporting by assembling a total of 247 press cuttings that appears to compare these underage offenders to Saddam Hussein and Myra Hindley, the infamous serial killer. Therefore, it can be argued that the media portrayal of young offenders is still struck in accordance with medical models, which we can easily and appropriately investigate using the framework of the scientific method. In this regard, we can take newspaper cuttings from several media houses and use words like “mental illness, “mad”, “abuse” among others in our data collection and analyze them using a scientific method. The interrogation of social issues like the one we are discussing is best accomplished by using the scientific methods, just as it is understood in the physical and natural sciences. In fact, the use of scientific methods is arguably the most important tool that you can have in interrogation social sciences essentially because it enables you to learn the lesson of individual science while also enabling you to go beyond it and understand the synthesis of social sciences. There are people who might be opposed to the use of scientific methods in interrogating social issues with claim of lack of objectivity as compared to physical sciences. However, one thing that stands out with all social science issues is that the changing of current thinking or the so-called paradigm shift, which is an important part of social science, is also an integral part of scientific method (Manski, 1995). In a nutshell, there might be several research methods of approaching a research question. The social scientific analysis research methods required for the formulated question and the scientific methods as understood in the ordinary or physical sciences. These two methods approach a research problem or questions from different angles but more or less they give similar results. Reference Babbie, R., E. & Rubin, A. (2009). Research Methods for Social Work. Stamford: Cengage learning. Babbie, R., E. (2008). The Basics of Social Research. New York: Thomas Learning. Cavaglion, G. (2008). Bad, Mad or Sad? Crime Media Culture, 4(2), 271-278. Clark-Robbins, P., Monahan, J., & Silver, E. (2003). Mental Disorder, Violence and Gender. Law and Human Behavior, 27(6), 561 – 571. Jewkes, Y. (2004). Media and Crime. New York: Sage Publications Ltd. Manski, F., C. (1995). Identification Problems in Social Sciences. Boston: Harvard University Press. Morrissey, J. P., Meyer, P., & Cuddeback, G. (2007). Extending ACT to Criminal Justice Settings: Community Mental Health Journal, 43(5), 527–544 Perry, J., & Perry E. (2009). Contemporary society: An introduction to social science. Boston, MA: Pearson. Pustilnik, A. (2005). Prisons of the Mind. The Journal of Law and Criminology, 96(1), 217-266. Read More