What would it take to make the following into research? Choose either (a) or (b) and describe how you would take this idea and transform it into research and connect it to the definition of research. (a) Jaime thinks that he and his friends experience less stress in life because they get their aggression out playing first person shooter video games. He looks around at his friends and thinks they are pretty relaxed. (b) Sarah thinks the students in her morning class are more engaged in class than those in her afternoon class and compares their grades. Her morning class is a French literature class that she has to take for General Education and her afternoon class is a Research Methods for Psychology Majors.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Ans: Research is defined as a systematic investigation designed to contribute to generalizable knowledge. For (a) to be research, Jaime would need to design a systematic investigation that does not just involve his friends, and he would need to plan on doing something with the resulting knowledge once he gained it. So, he might set up a study in his school’s research laboratory where students signed up to participate and were then randomly placed into groups: first-person shooter games, nonviolent video games, and a control group that read a book. He would systematically measure stress levels before and after the gaming (or reading) sessions. If his research resulted in significant results, he could then consider submitting his work to a conference or an undergraduate journal. In doing so, he would be contributing to the knowledge base out there and perhaps helping future students deal with stress. For (b) to be research, Sarah would need to be more systematic in her choice of classes. As it stands now, the courses she has chosen do not just differ based on time of day, but also by type of class and probably the class rank of the students in the courses. She would also need to perhaps consider classes that she herself is not a member of so she does not influence the results with her presence. She would also need to clearly operationally define what is meant be engaged. If she found another French literature class that met in the afternoon (a higher likelihood since not all schools have varying offerings for research methods), she could compare how many pages of notes were taken during the morning versus the afternoon. Then, if she found significant results, she too could consider presenting those findings at a conference and adding to the generalizable knowledge.