Methods of Social Investigation
Emma Woodmansee
'Describe how you would plan and undertake an investigation into why some of this College's students do not complete their degree courses.' (You have been given only 100 to finance the study; and one term's sabbatical.)
Define the variables in the given title
After a Research Statement has been formulated it is very important that the researcher defines any variables within it. A variable is any word whose meaning may be ambiguous or which could have several different meanings. This is a crucial stage in the planning process as a vague title renders any results at the end of the research without true meaning.
In this case, the Research Statement is the given title ‘Describe how you would plan and undertake an investigation into why some of this College's students do not complete their degree courses.' Within this Research Statement there are several variables : ‘college's', ‘students', ‘complete' and ‘degree courses'.
These variables will be defined as follows:
`College's' We will take this to mean students at Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, University of London.
`Students' Undergraduates on a first degree (excluding post graduates and so on).
`Complete' Graduate
`Degree courses' The course for which the student originally registered.
By defining the variables above there can be no confusion as to the meaning of the Research Statement. This process also helps the researcher to focus on the group of people that he wishes to study.
Decide on the purpose of the research
Having defined the variables in the Research Statement, the researcher now needs to focus his attention on the purpose of the research, and consequently lay down the Research Objectives. This part of the planning process allows the researcher time to consider what he hopes to achieve from the research and ensures that the research represents his objectives.
The purpose of our research is to identify the reasons for students failing to complete the degree course for which they were originally admitted (variables already identified). The results of the research would allow the college to take action to encourage students to continue their studies and could even be used to aid the selection process and perhaps prevent problems from the outset. This is the final purpose of the research.
Who is to be studied
The researcher needs to identify the group of people upon which to base the study. The process is made easier by the fact that we have already defined the variables in the Research Statement. The research group has been thus so far defined as those students of Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, University of London who did not graduate from the first degree course for which they
The main focus of this research proposal is to address the study of social psychology and the role it plays in helping one understand human social behavior. In this proposal, one will attempt to explain how the field of social psychology will evolve within the next 10 years. Allport, (1985) maintains that social psychology is the scientific study that seeks to understand the nature of individual’s behavior and how they think, feel, and are influenced by others. To understand the framework of this proposal, one will focus on human social behavior as it relates to research in social psychology.
Success in life is related to the achievement of individual goals, short and long term. Success has historically been related to the measurable cognitive functions such as IQ and talent. However in more modern time’s there has been a shift towards the idea that developmental non-cognitive factors, such as grit and self-control, may have an impact on the level of success that an individual achieves. Non-cognitive factors such as grit and self-control are somewhat related but also distinct from one another, they may have an important connection to levels of success throughout the stages of life from childhood to adulthood.
The job of the immune system is to keep “foreign” invaders out of the body, or if one gets in, to seek it out and kill it. These foreign invaders are called pathogens, which are tiny organisms that can cause an infection in the body. Pathogens can be bacteria, parasites, and fungi (http://www.niaid.nih.gov/topics/immuneSystem/pages/whatisimmunesystem.aspx).
To be able to determine which task the immune system needs to take to fight off the pathogen, it must be able to differentiate between self and non-self-substances. The immune system gets activated by the non-self-substances called antigens. The antigens attach to special receptor sites on defense cells which starts cell processes. If the body has come in contact with the antigen before, it will be able to respond to it more quickly (PubMed Health).
The immune system, which is composed of cells, proteins, tissues, and organs, is the body’s innate defense against foreign particles that may show to be harmful or infectious to us. Through a series of steps called the immune response, the immune system attacks potentially dangerous organisms and substances that invade our systems. (Durani, Y., 2012) The immune system’s key players include leukocytes, the lymphoid organs, and the lymphatic vessels. Leukocytes are white blood cells that recognize and destroy the harmful invaders. Lymphoid organs (lymph nodes, bone marrow, thymus, and spleen) make and/or store the leukocytes, and lymphatic vessels are a network of tissues that allow for the leukocytes to circulate through blood or the various lymphoid organs. (Durani, Y., 2012)
The third line of defence in the body's immune response is the specific response. If there are still any pathogens in the body after the first responses have occurred they are targeted according to their type by the third defence. This third defence is a specific immune response, and it produces and binds protein molecules know as an antibodies to specifically target an antigen - which is typically a pathogen itself or a marker molecule on the surface of the pathogen. When the body becomes infected with a pathogen, certain antibodies are created by the third defence to attack that pathogen. Once these antibodies have been produced to fight off specific antigens they are remembered by the body and if the same antigen tries to invade again, it is instantly targeted and destroyed, as the body is now
Adaptive immune system happens much quicker to the presence of an “infection creating potent mechanisms for neutralizing or eliminating the microbes. There are two types of adaptive immune responses: humeral immunity, mediated by antibodies produced by B lymphocytes, and cell-mediated immunity, mediated by T lymphocytes.”
The lymphatic system is a link of tissues and organs that help clear the poisonous toxins, waste and further unwanted elements that are inside the human body. The key function of the lymphatic system is to transport lymph which is a watery fluid substance holding infection that are fighting white blood cells, all over the human body.
To gain my secondary information I used such sources as the Internet, books and midwifery journals. My secondary information will consist of the benefits of breast-feeding for the mother and baby, the benefits of bottle-feeding for the mother and baby as well as statistics on breast-feeding. All information that I have gained for my secondary data is all reliable, because it has come from recommended sites, books and journals that have been approved from the Government or from hospitals and doctors themselves.
Stanley Milgram, a social psychologist, conducted an experiment in 1963 about human obedience that was deemed as one of the most controversial social psychology experiments ever (Blass). Ian Parker, a writer for the New Yorker and Human Sciences, and Diana Baumrind, a psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley, responded to Stanley Milgram’s experiment. These articles represent how the scientific community reviews and scrutinizes each other’s work to authenticate experiment results. Baumrind focuses on the moral and ethical dilemma while, Parker focuses more on the experiment’s actual application.
“A family can be defined as a set of people related by blood, marriage or in some other agreed upon relationship, or adoption, who share primary responsibility for reproduction and caring for member of society". (Schaefer, 2009, p. 288) This leads to a wide open range of interpretation on the exact definition of how a family is truly made up. Depending on your culture, religion, or geographical location a family may represent and be comprised of many different ideals and social norms. There are many theoretical perspectives that have their own interpretations on the subject of what a family is and how it is perceived. I will attempt to expound on three of these perspectives; Functionalism, Conflict, and Interactionalism.
Bullying is a growing problem in schools all around the world today. Over one-third of school-aged children are bullied, which translates to over 8 million children (NCES, 2011). Children impacted by bullying have been linked to higher instances of anger, aggression, violence, hyperactivity, and externalizing problems as well as to later delinquency and criminality (Olweus, 1993a). Due to the negative impact it has on students socially, psychologically and academically, bullying has increasingly become a very significant topic of study for research (Ryan & Smith, 2009). The prevalence of this phenomenon has made researchers, parents, teachers, and schools become increasingly aware that bullying is a problem that needs to be addressed. In attempts to address this issue, a variety of antibullying prevention and intervention programs have been made. However, traditio...
Family is a fundamental social institution in society, the family, is considered the primary and most important agent of socialization. Family typically consists of a man and woman and their children or two or more people who usually reside in the same home and share same goals and values. Traditionally, in all societies, the family has always been seen as a social institution; that has the biggest impact on society.
Family is arguably the most important social institution in an individual's life. A family is defined as a group of individuals that are related through blood ties, adoption or marriage, that form an economic unit, where the adult members are responsible
The development point of view of social psychology has changed the understanding of human nature in relation to social contexts. Social psychology is the study of how individuals act, think, and feel in relation to the context of society. Furthermore, social psychology concentrates on how other people influence an individual’s behavior, thoughts, and feelings. Basically, social psychology has changed our understanding of human nature as it investigates how an individual’s behavior influences a groups’ behavior or internal mechanisms; attitude or self-concepts. Post-World War 2(WW2), researchers were curious to investigate the reasonings for why people follow orders, despite the potential repercussions of those actions. Furthermore, social experiments are usually applied to demonstrate key