Joseph Laycock’s “Where do they get these Ideas? Changing Ideas of Cults in the Mirror of Popular Culture” examines how new religious movements (NRMs) are affected by  popular culture, specifically movies and television, more than perhaps tv news stories. Laycock argues that this type of media is able to shape public discourse because it has the ability to create any type of story about NRMs. This therefor creates a population uninformed about the realities of NRMs. In the past, when researchers have looked into hypotheses concerning the media portrayal of NRMs or cults, they have only focused on the news media, but there is so much in today’s popular culture that discusses this topic as well. The author identifies three ways in which pop culture has influenced public perception of NRMs: medicalization, deviance amplification, and convergence. Medicalization applies to a process in which deviant behavior is defined as a medical problem to be treated within the medical profession. Most cults are accused of brainwashing their members, making them liable for medicalization. Deviance amplification refers to a media hype, where media has the ability to distort deviant behaviors into representations of a bigger social issue. Convergence draws a parallel between two or more activities that have been amplified, to make a problem appear even more widespread.

To  address his research topic, Laycock uses data from reports of acts, behaviors, and events, and perhaps some organizational data as well. To collect this data, he went into public records and literature concerning his topic of interest. He looked into public records of televised programs such as The Simpsons, The Manchurian Candidate , Get Smart, Family Guy, King of the Hill, Charmed, South Park, and Dollhouse. The author does recognize, in his conclusion, that to further this study, more quantitative should be done. This would allow for measurement of the effects of fictional narrative on public attitudes. That being said, most of his research is qualitative, looking at documented text, speech, and observable patterns. Overall, this article was really interesting! I do, however, agree with his concluding ideas of adding in some quantitative data to round out the research. I think this is an important subject to take on, given the negative ideas swarming around society as it pertains to cults and NRMs. It is essential to examine how public opinion is so greatly influenced by the media, especially the sectors that are given creative freedom.

Laycock, J. (2013). Where Do They Get These Ideas? Changing Ideas of Cults in the Mirror of Popular Culture. Journal of the American Academy of Religion,81(1), 80-106.

There is an article from the journal, “Criminal Justice and Behavior,” that begins to dive into a more specific segment of my research topic.  I am interested in researching crime and geography relationships and the article, “Linking different types of crime using geographical and temporal proximity,” does a good job of beginning to pull apart my research project using a more specific study. Basically what that means in lay persons’ terms is that the study is trying to analyze if there is a relationship between the type of crime that was committed, where and how far apart they are committed, and how long in between each crime. The number of days of time between each crime is the temporal proximity. The study also focused on specific types of crime. These types were violent, sexual, and property related crimes. The research question presented for this study is, is it possible to link different types of crime using simple aspects of offender behavior? The type of data elicited by this research question is reports of acts, behavior, or events because the researching is finding out what crimes people committed when and where. They did indeed find a relationship between these things in the research that they produced. While this study is a good one to beginning to narrow down such a broad topic of criminal behavior, it at the same time is a little messy. What I mean by messy is that it still leaves room to specify even more and focus the research a little harder. It allows for further research into the topic which is discussed and suggested at the end of the article.

Bond, John., Bull, Ray., Palmer, Emma., Tonkin, Matthew., Woodhams, Jessica. “Linking          Different Types   of Crime Using Geographical and Temporal Proximity.” Criminal Justice      and Behavior. vol.38,  no.11 (2011) November. 1069-1085.

Researcher Mehmet Şükrü Belliba of Adıyaman University researched the topic of student success based off of their socio-economic status, and the student’s home lives. The article written is titled. Who are the Most Disadvantaged? Factors Associated with the Achievement of Students with Low SocioEconomic Backgrounds. In the study Mehmet investigated a variety of applicable students, households, and school factors all aspects which were associated with the performance of students with distinct socio economic status (SES) backgrounds in Turkey. The study was designed to compare the most disadvantaged students with the most advantaged ones. The students were compared in the subjects of reading, mathematics, and science. Mehmet evaluated the students in both economic status in the above areas to check their achievement.

Mehmet posed the following research question; What is the achievement gap between low-SES and high-SES students in Turkey, controlling for various student and school factors, as well as for student characteristics? To answer this question a multiple regression was used. Students’ scores in each subject (reading, math, and science) were set as a dependent variable, SES levels (low-SES and high-SES), as well as other variables such as, gender, language, mothers education, perseverance, home educational resources, quality of school educational resources and physical infrastructures, class size, and total school enrolment, were used as independent variables.

The data for research originates from the most current PISA (Program for International Student Assessment), which was taken by the International Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2012. PISA intentions for the study were to assess 15-year-old students’ skills in three dominate school subjects—mathematics, science, and reading.

For the study, Mehmet used a quantitative method in which he applied inferential statistics. Inferential statistics is described by Mehmet as “a part of general linear model and includes several methods, such as t-test, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and regression.” The research article goes on to state that for this research, multiple regression model were used. Simply meaning the section, “starts with an articulation of the data sources and the sample used in the study. It then introduces dependent and independent variables. Lastly, it lays out details concerning the analysis of the data” (Mehmet 2015, 696).

The research study seems to be well though and laid out. Some of the terminology was foreign to me, however Mehmet did a good job of going into detail about certain terms that not every reader may have understood. I found those portions of the article to be very beneficial.

In reading the article I thought many of the terms used would come up during later class instructions, and being able to read ahead and have been given explanation as to what the terms meant will benefit me in the future, and possibly my classmates as well.

DOI:

10.12738/estp.2016.2.0257

The Case for Pay to Quit written by Theresa M. Marteau and Eleni Mantzari in Nature is about a randomized trial testing to see the rates of cigarette smokers being able to quit from smoking if given a financial incentive. Four different trials were observed during the research. Two trials gave people the opportunity to gain eight hundred US dollars if they had quit smoking. One was for individuals, and the second was group-based. Similarly, there were individual and group-based observances for a required refundable one hundred fifty US dollar deposit, and then a six hundred fifty US dollar reward if they were successful in quitting. Results showed that there was a ninety percent more acceptance rate for the straight cash rewards than for those who had to deposit their own money. In comparison with individual and group-based trials, there was no difference. Ultimately, results showed that there was an overall quit rate ranging from nine to sixteen percent. This was higher than the usual six percent success rate when done with what the authors name “usual-care.”

Within this article, the topic was financial incentives for cigarette smokers, and the research question was asking about the success rate of giving these smokers a monetary inventive for quitting. To answer this question, the researchers needed acts and behavior and they did this by simple observation. They did mention that they checked cotinine levels in saliva to validate whether a person had quit or not, and so reports and observation would work for that also. Lastly, comparison between two different types of incentive trials was the method for analyzing the data.

In my opinion, I think this is a new and smart idea to influencing people to quit smoking. Everyone can use extra cash and so if given the opportunity to gain some and also become a healthier person, you would think there would be an obvious answer. The only problem that I see with this is how the smoke-free public might take it. This ultimately incentivizes smokers for smoking in the first place and so there would need to be serious discussion if implemented into society.

Chickadees are selfish group members when it comes to food caching

The topic of the article I chose focused on the particular caching habits of Chickadees, and if cache pilferage occurred in these populations. Specifically, the question asked was, “How do the caching habits of Chickadees change when in the presence of a familiar observers of the same group and an unfamiliar conspecific observers?” 22 mountain chickadees were captured in September 2009 in Tahoe National Forest over 11km at feeders spaced widely enough to find specimens of different social groups. The experiment placed caching specimens with an observer of the same social group, one familiar and one unfamiliar observer, and with no observers. Results showed Chickadees try to minimize cache pilferage among all observers by going out of site of each observer when caching. The data required was information on how chickadees cache their food, which are acts or events. The method of gathering was direct observation, the researches observed how caching habits changed in each specific setting. This was simply comparing habits of chickadees, non-numerical data, and it was purely researcher-centered analysis, for the researchers compared how far and to what extent chickadees would cache their foods with intent of secrecy. Overall I think this research was successful, the methods seemed straightforward and uncomplicated which I believe to provide thorough research. I thought it was interesting the study noted there were no changes in rate of caching, indicating there was no perceived threat of aggression from the point of view of the caching chickadee.

Pravosudov, V. V., Roth, T.C., LaDage, L.D. (2010, July-September). Chickadees are selfish group members when it comes to food caching. Animal Behavior, 80, 175-180.

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Volume 96 Number 5

Identity Fusion: The Interplay of Personal and Social Identities in Extreme Group Behavior

Authors: William B. Swann Jr., Angel Gomez, D. Connor Seyle, J. Fransisco Morales, and Carmen Huici

This article is about “The authors purpose that when people become fused with a group, their personal and social identities become functionally equivalent. Two hypotheses follow from this proposition. First, activating either personal or social identities of fused persons should increase their willingness to endorse extreme behaviors on behalf of the group. Second, because personal as well as social identities support group related behaviors of fused person”.  I think the research topic for this article is seeing how people interact when they get infused with a certain group of people. So, the research question would be Do personal identities get influenced negatively by the people you associate yourself with? The type of data needed for this research question is Personal and Psychological Traits, Self-Identity, and Deeply Held Opinions and Attitudes. These types have to do with Identity and that is what the research question is trying to get at. The type of methods the authors use surveys and questionnaires, psychological scales, and focus groups. The data analysis method they used is ordinal and categorical data. I think the authors did a great job with their research. They conducted a lot of good studies to back up what they were trying to prove. I think it is helpful to have more than one author so you can conduct more research and get different point of views on the topic you are looking at. They did a great job at following the six research steps.

The article Contribution of Antarctica to past and future sea-level rise by Robert M. DeConto and David Pollard is about the ice caps in Antarctica melting at a rapid rate. The extensive ice shelves in the Ross and Weddell Seas are about 1km thick at the grounding line and around a few hundred meters thick near the calving front. These ice sheets are eroding fast due to the oceans warming. The oceans are warming at rates faster than 10 meters per year. These ice shelves are also effected by atmospheric warming, causing meltwater on the ice-shelf surfaces which leads to thinning of the ice because of percolation. The Antarctica ice sheets are melting rapidly causing habitat loss to many species.

The question the authors are asking in this article is, will atmospheric warming soon become the dominant driver of ice loss? To collect the data the scientists used a model coupling ice sheet and climate dynamics which would be reports of acts and behaviors. The data analysis method is interval and ratio data. This research article was well written and easy enough for anyone to understand. The authors did a good job covering all the different ways that climate change is effecting the Antarctic ice sheets and there were no bias opinions. I found this research article very interesting but the part that stood out to me the most is how fast the sea ice is melting. This has so many effects of animals and organisms but it also affects us as humans because the more ice that melts, the more the sea level will rise.

The title of this article in Ecological Restoration also happens to be a research question: “Should Coral Fragments Collected for Restoration be Subdivided to Create More, Smaller Pieces for Transplanting?” Rephrased a bit to tell the researcher more about data, it would be “Do smaller coral fragments have a higher success rate for reef restoration than larger fragments?” The topic is reef restoration, and the data they were seeking was coral growth, which is an event/act, which they gathered by detached observation. Going more in-depth, they gathered fragments of coral that had already been broken off of their original colonies by storms, and transplanted them to a different reef. To compare larger versus smaller fragment growth, they matched their fragments by size and split one half of the pair into several small pieces and left the other intact, then attached them close together on the new reef, tagging each individual fragment. They measured the surface area of each fragment after three and twelve months. They analyzed this data comparatively by cross-tabulating the amounts of experimental coral versus control coral that survived, and found that in their experiment the smaller fragments were less likely to survive than the larger ones.

This research was relatively easy to match to the six research design steps, and the method was easy to follow, knowing a little bit about coral propagation. It seems like a very easy and replicable experiment, but the actual work of transplanting and monitoring takes up a lot of resources. Also, it would have been better to check back on the coral after several years as well as several months, because as it is, they only learned about oral survival, and not whether smaller or larger fragments grew quicker, as coral is very slow-growing. For short-term restoration, at least, larger fragments seem to definitely be better.

Forrester, G., Dauksis, R., & Ferguson, M. (2013). Should Coral Fragments Collected for Restoration be Subdivided to Create More, Smaller Pieces for Transplanting? Ecological Restoration, 31(1), 4-7. doi:10.3368/er.31.1.4

The article I found is titled “The Poetics of a School Shooter: Decoding Political Signification in Cho Seung-Hui’s Multimedia Manifesto” by Edward J. Carvalho. This article is published in The Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies journal. The topic centers around the Virginia Tech school shooting and the social, political, and cultural factors involved. The research question is “What socioeconomic factors contributed to Cho Seung-Hui’s violent response at Virginia Tech, including the creation of his manifesto?” The article discusses Cho Seung-Hui’s familial background of emigration and how the class tensions led to his identity formation, isolation, alienation, bullying, and rage. His manifesto illustrates the failure of society to listen and understand the disaffected youths. This research question requires descriptive research to understand the dynamics of the situation and to describe the event in detail. A case study was utilized by Carvalho to focus on the details and examine a single instance to shed light on a wider social trend. Since the research requires the understanding of how general social processes work in a particular setting, the type of data utilized by Carvalho are reports of acts, behaviors, events and hidden social patterns. The data collection methods of content and discourse analysis provide an examination of the text in the manifesto, interviews, and other media sources to identify patterns in the way the violent act is portrayed to analyze the implicit cultural assumptions. The way the interviewees and Cho-Seung-Hui himself describe the violent act reveal how Cho-Seung-Hui is shaped by systems of social and political power. Therefore, the data collection sites include Cho Seung-Hui’s 23-page PDF manifesto, follow-up reports, televised interviews, documentaries, and other mainstream media sources. The research suggests that the data analysis method is coding because the researcher analyzes interviews and transcripts to discover patterns. I think the research is thorough and provides a detailed account of the factors that led Cho Seung-Hui to commit a tremendously violent act. It is interesting that Carvalho attempts to apply social and cultural logical to a seemingly indiscriminate and illogical action.

Carvalho, E.J. (2010). The Poetics of a School Shooter: Decoding Political Signification in Cho Seung-Hui’s Multimedia Manifesto. Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural    Studies, 32(4-5), 403-430. Doi:10.1080/10714413.2010.510355.

Learning Disabilities and Anxiety: A Meta-Analysis by Jason M. Nelson and Hannah Harwood digs into the hypothesis that school aged students with learning disabilities also frequently have anxiety. Their study showed that students with learning disabilities have higher mean scores of anxiety than their peers who do not have learning disabilities. They also backed their research up with the fact that learning disabilities and emotional problems have been associated since the first conceptualizations of learning disabilities in the early 1900s, not to mention the theoretical explanations linking the two together. The research question asked if students with learning disabilities also have a high level of anxiety and if the two are somehow linked to one another, which they later found was true. The type of data needed to answer Nelson and Harwood’s research question would be demographic data because they obtained their data from different studies. The data gathering method for this research would be through public and private records since the research was obtained through 533 studies through the database search and references list reviews. Similarly, the method of data analysis would then be numeric since the research came from counting of already gathered statistics. I believe this is a very good research strategy and different from all of the others that I have looked into since it is focused on compiling previously collected data instead of gathering new data. I found the results of this study to be very interesting as well as the way in which the researchers compiled their data.

Nelson, Jason M., Harwood, Hannah. (2011). Learning Disabilities and Anxiety: A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Learning Disabilities, Vol. 44, No. 1, pp.1-96.