Research Methods in Social Sciences - Essay Example

Through this content analysis, the researchers identified that the members of the African American have been depicted in a negative manner and these depictions are stereotypical in nature. The researcher states that the population being studied has been depicted as mammy, coon, and brute. The researcher states that the term brute means “criminal.”3 The researcher even states that these images are very hard to change even if the African American society members try their best to operate in an opposite manner to the way they are depicted. 4. Studying prison recidivism ratesWhat was the author’s research question?

The research questions that were the basis of this research are as follows:“What factors influence recidivism rates?”4What is the probability of a prisoner committing a crime and return back to prison once he/she is released?Whether the factors of an individual’s age, as well as gender, impact their probability of returning back to prison?How was the data collected and analyzed?In order to conduct this study, information regarding those prisoners who were released from different jails of the region of Florida was obtained and a questionnaire was used to identify the factors related to the returning offenders.

The questionnaire comprised of several factors including the age as well as the gender of the inmate. What was the finding?The researchers identified that the probability of inmates returning back to jail was “33.9%.”5 The researchers further identified that the leading factors that were closely related to the increase in recidivism rates were “a serious crime in inmate history and custody.”610. Studying environmental public opinionHow was the data collected and analyzed?

The researcher states that the data for this research was collected through the means of a “telephone survey.”7 The collected data was interpreted by the researchers in order to identify the changes in public opinion regarding the changes in the climatic conditions. The researcher even used the data to interpret whether these changes in opinion occur due to changes in season or not. For this purpose, the previous year’s data was compared to recent data.What primary and secondary sources were used?

The data was collected in a primary manner as the researchers directly contacted the sample through phone calls in order to obtain their responses for a questionnaire. The researcher states that the data was collected through “individual households.”What was the finding?The researcher states that “65% of Americans reported that there is solid evidence of climate change.”9 Furthermore, the researchers figured out that 26% of the surveyed population did not believe that the earth was becoming warmer.