Statistical Critique of an Article - Research Paper Example

The article clearly identifies the primary concepts/variables in the study and states its hypotheses. The main concepts are perceptions of self-efficacy and CM knowledge and skills. Authors defined these concepts and their applications to the study. Moreover, the study identifies clear independent and dependent variables. The independent variable is the CMT, while the dependent variables are participants’ perceived self-efficacy in managing conflict situations and conflict management knowledge and skills.

Aside from having explicit concepts, the article clearly states its hypotheses. Authors are fundamentally concerned of the relationship between CMT and learning. Learning is assessed based on changes in CMT knowledge and skills, as well as perceptions of self-efficacy. Moreover, authors are interested in maximizing self and peer/supervisory ratings. They want to use self, peer, and supervisory performance reviews as methods of broadly assessing the success of CMT in enhancing the CM skills.Aside from determining explicit variables, the study’s introduction provides relevant and sufficient background information that helps readers understand the skills and knowledge being studied because it includes a general introduction on the topic of conflict and discusses the definition of the concept of conflict, the conflicts that traffic officers face, benefits and costs of CMT, review of literature, basics of Hong Kong’s CMT program, theoretical framework, and the hypotheses of the study.

The introduction is exhaustive because it outlines the major concepts and elements that readers need to understand the literature on conflict in general, its relation to police work, and the basic components and goals of the CMT being examined. This section answers different “what” and “why” questions, which help readers, understand what the study is about and how it responds to the gap in existing literature. Apart from having a relevant and exhaustive introduction, the sampling strategy is appropriate to the small sampling and research question, though not fully discussed.

The study followed the train-the-trainer model, and so two groups of participants were assessed, primary level (PL) participants or the trainers for subordinate officers, and secondary level (SL) participants or the end learners of the CMT program. The article did not use random sampling strategy since all participants were assessed. This strategy enables the researchers to fully answer their research question. In addition, the objectives of the article required assessment of all participants.

Authors cannot fully understand if the CMT is effective for all participants, if it applied random sampling strategy only.After discussing sampling strategy, this paper notes that the article sufficiently uses descriptive and inferential statistics, as well as qualitative analysis, to present a comprehensive view,