The research study I found this week is from the book called, “Changes in Mental Illness Stigma in California During the Statewide Stigma and Discrimination Reduction Initiative.” This book was written by a various of authors including, Rebecca Collins, Eunice Wong, Elizabeth Roth, Jennifer Cerully, and Joyce Marks.

Collins, Rebecca L., Eunice C. Wong, Elizabeth Roth, Jennifer L. Cerully, and Joyce S. Marks. “Changes in Mental Illness Stigma in California During the Statewide Stigma and Discrimination Reduction Initiative.” In Changes in Mental Illness Stigma in California During the Statewide Stigma and Discrimination Reduction Initiative, 1-10. RAND Corporation, 2015. http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.redlands.edu/stable/10.7249/j.ctt15sk8gd.1.

A big part in change toward the mentally ill in general is changing the stigma around it. This book focuses on taking a small step toward change by trying to implement initiatives in California toward mental illness. This study included finding about what Californians knew about ways to help the mentally ill and to further inform them to hopefully make mentally ill people more socially accepted in society instead of outcasted. The research question in this piece is “How many Californians know about mentally ill programs to help change their stigmas?” The type of data needed for this project is shallow opinions and attitudes. In order to obtain this type of data they will need to contact a series of surveys – they chose to do phone surveys at random to adults 18 and older. This requires qualitative data analysis because people are sharing their opinions and they need to be interpreted since everyone has different thoughts. I believe this research project was conducted well. They chose a sample at random throughout the entire state and even accounted for different races, which I thought was interesting, but a nice touch.

Hosp, John L., and Daniel J. Reschly. “Referral Rates for Intervention or Assessment.” The Journal of Special Education, vol. 37, no. 2, 2003, pp. 67–80.,doi:10.1177/00224669030370020201.

Hosp and Reschly analyzed literature that looks at the referral rates for special education testing and assessment based on students racial groups. They looked at three groups: Caucasian, African American, and Hispanic. They identify the referral stage as being the most important, and so their study focuses on this part. Their goal, like my own research, is to determine disproportionality in special education based on racial identity.

They sought to answer the research question of whether students of different racial or ethnic groups are disproportionately identified for special education services. This is a meta-analysis which looked at other research studies. They also looked at quantitative demographic information within the United States. Data was collected after 1975 from all kinds of publications. The information was then coded and analyzed.

This research seems thorough and vast. There was a lot of statistical analysis involved in the processing of data that I did not understand most of. My concern for this study was just how vast the research was. I think I would have liked more information about their sample populations, since each research study they used had a different way of choosing their population and had a different population. I also wonder if they were able to know if they repeated any populations, which would have changed the data.

They found that there was no significant difference between the referral rates of Hispanic students and Caucasian students. They also found that there was more disproportionality with students who were African American and Caucasian.

In researching for my research proposal, I came across an article that related directly to my research topic: “Reducing Academic Achievement Gaps: The role of Community Service and Service -Learning” (Scales et al., 2006). This article’s topic focuses on strategies to promote student achievement and equity for student achievement in different social groups, specifically in regards to community service and service learning. While this article asked many research questions, the one that encompassed the article was: Does service and service learning play a role in improving achievement among low-income students? The type of data gathered was organization/ demographic data from the 2001-2002 Common Core of Data public school universe file. This data reported the instructional level of classrooms, urbanity of the school, average class sizes, and minority status. This study also used aggregate data from a sample of US middle and high school students, looking at measures of: “40 developmental assets, 10 risk behavior patterns, 5 developmental deficits, and 8 thriving behaviors” (Scales et al., 2006). The sample was weighed by race and ethnicity and urbanity proportions. Another type of data gathered reports of acts, behaviors, and events, taken from a survey administered to a sample of middle and high school students in Colorado Springs. The data gathering methods consisted of public and private records and surveys administered to middle/ high school students. The data analysis method was ordinal and interval/ ratio data. The survey questions asked the participants to rank a statement, which was the ordinal data. For example, the survey asked principles if they though the impact of service-learning on factors identified by the researchers was “very positive,” “somewhat positive,” etc. The surveys also asked participants to report hours spent on community projects, which would be interval/ ratio data. The results found service-learning was valuable for student engagement and achievement, specifically in urban, nonwhite, high poverty schools (Scales et al., 2006).

Scales, P.C., Roehlkepartain, E.C., Neal, M., Kielsmeier, J.C., & Benson P.L. (2006). Reducing academic achievement gaps: The role of community service and service-learning. Journal of Experiential Education, 29(1), 38-60.

I found an article from BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, a peer-reviewed journal that has articles about different studies related to pregnancy and childbirth. The article is called “Exploration of Perceptions and Decision-Making Processes Related to Childbirth in Rural Sierra Leone” and it is by Laura Treacy and Mette Sagbakken. The article explains a study that was done in rural Sierra Leone to understand how women decide how to give birth. The topic of the article is childbirth decisions in rural areas, and the research question is asking how women and their communities in rural Sierra Leone make decisions about childbirth. The article is primary literature. 

The type of data needed for this study is deep opinions and attitudes. The data was collected from focus groups and interviews. The researchers maintained diaries while in the field that recorded observed data in order to help formulate interview questions and later find social patterns. All of the data was analyzed in tables to compare different views.

The study concluded that the women of Sierra Leone have very complicated ways of making decisions about childbirth, and that they are all quite different. The study also concluded that women make their decisions with their community as opposed to on their own, which I found very fascinating.

The study is very helpful for my own research. Since it is so similar to my research proposal it was helpful to read something that could potentially guide my research design. I appreciate that all of the possible ethical conflicts and concerns were disclosed at the end of the study, because working with focus groups and interviews can definitely bring up ethical issues. I also appreciate that this study was done in a small, rural area because it shed light on a place that many people probably do not know much about. I like learning more about how women make these decisions in different parts of the world.

Citation:

Treacy, Laura and Mette Sagbakken. 2015. “Exploration of Perceptions and Decision-Making Processes Related to Childbirth in Rural Sierra Leone.” BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth15(87).

Moav, Omer, and Zvika Neeman. “Saving rates and poverty: the role of conspicuous consumption and human capital.” The Economic Journal, September 2012, 933-56. Accessed March 11, 2018.

For this research example, I chose to find an article from Google Scholar. The article I chose is called, Saving Rates and Poverty: The Role of Conspicuous Consumption and Human Capital. It is published in The Economic Journal by Omer Moav and Zvika Neeman. This article is about the conspicuous consumption behavior of low-income individuals. The authors suggest that some lower-income individuals care about economic status, and interpret this behavior as conspicuous consumption intended to provide a status symbol. According to the authors, they show that “If human capital is observable and correlated with income, then a signalling equilibrium in which poor individuals tend to spend a large fraction of their income on conspicuous consumption can emerge.” The article offers a different perspective on saving rates and income, and why those who have a higher income and professional title do not feel the need to purchase conspicuous goods as much as those who make significantly less and do not have a certified accomplishment that conveys social status.

The article’s topic is about conspicuous consumption and human capital, and it’s research question is, “What is the relationship between human capital and an individual’s choice to spend more of their income on conspicuous goods? As this research was published in an economic journal, the type of data that is needed to answer this question is economic. The authors created a model showing the relationship between income and conspicuous spending, and included proofs. To access the type of data they needed, the authors used public and private records to find their economic data. Since the data used is numerical, the method of data analysis is quantitative. I think this research seems legitimate and well thought out. I think since the research was published in an economic journal that it is valid and the authors can be trusted as reliable researchers in their field. However, I do not have a background or a proficiency in economics, therefore the model showing the relationship between income and conspicuous spending did not make much sense to me and I’m not sure how to understand the mathematics behind it. Nonetheless, I think this article was very interesting because it shed a new (mathematical) light on why some low-income people spend more on goods that do not help alleviate poverty, but rather display a symbol of status. It goes to show how important status is in our society, and how important it can be for those who do not have access to education, a high paying job, etc.

The article I found this week comes from the William & Mary Journal of Women and the Law. Written by Flyn L. Fresher, “Cross-Gender Supervision in Prison and the Constitutional Right of Prisoners to Remain Free from Rape”, examines cross-gender supervision in prisons as a lead cause of sexual assault, especially towards women, and the political actors that may hinder a prisoner from reporting their assault. This search took a more meta-analysis form in the sense that it pulled from previous research as well as public records and demographic data in order to explain the gender make up of prison staff and the reasons that allow for cross-gender supervision. The article explains that the problem with cross-gender supervision is that it exacerbates the problem by placing women in situations in which they cannot escape their attacker. Additionally, pat frisks and body cavity checks are more traumatizing for women, since a majority percentage of women prisoners have a history of sexual abuse. Furthermore, certain laws, like the Prison Litigation Reform Act, restrict prisoners from what they can and cannot litigate in court. This, in my opinion, not only takes away certain rights from prisoners, but discourages them from reporting events of assault and other conditions. The article concludes that there should be set laws that actually address the issue of sexual assault in prisons and make it concrete that it should not happen especially by male staff who are supposed to uphold the law. It is this absence of a law that specifically addresses sexual assault in prison that allows for male prison staff to continue their abuse and makes it difficult to hold them accountable.

Flyn L. Flesher. “CROSS-GENDER SUPERVISION IN PRISONS AND THE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT OF PRISONERS TO REMAIN FREE FROM RAPE.” William & Mary Journal of Women and the Law 13 (April 1, 2007): 841–867.

This case study examines the repatriation of three Native American shields discovered in 1926 in Utah. The shields were eventually acquired by the Capitol Reef National Park. After the passing of NAGPRA, the question was raised if these shields would qualify as sacred or ceremonial objects. The national park began consultations with local tribes and it soon became apparent that there would be competing claims for the shields. The shields were eventually repatriated to the Navajo Nation because of proof of cultural affiliation through storytelling evidence. This case study examines how multiple claims for repatriation can cause an increase in tensions between local tribes. It also examines the relationship between law and archeology.
The researcher’s research question was, “How did the disconnection between legal and anthropological determinations of cultural affiliation effect the dispute over the Capitol Reef National Park shields?” The topic of the article was repatriation disputes of cultural objects post-NAGPRA. She used a case study research logic. She utilized reports of acts, behaviors, and events and collected them through public and private records. Threedy analyzed the data in a qualitative analysis.
This was an interesting case study, and I think the researcher provided thorough analyses of the data. She compared the shields case with the famous Kennewick Man case and explained how competing tribes differ than a tribe competing against scientists for ownership of an object or human remain. Threedy provided historical evidence of division between the Navajo and the Utes and how this case further intensified their relationship. She also gently critiqued some sections of NAGPRA.

Threedy, Debora, Claiming the Shields: Law, Anthropology, and the Role of Storytelling in a NAGPRA Repatriation Case Study (2009). Journal of Land, Resources & Environmental Law, Vol. 29, No. 1, p. 91, 2009. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1531700

Tomkinson, Sian, and Tauel Harper. 2015 “The Position of Women in Video Game Culture: Perez and Day’s Twitter Incident.” Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies 29 (4): 617-634. doi: 10.1080/10304312.2015.1025362.

As video game culture becomes more mainstream and attracts a larger player base both male and female, the tensions between the genders increased, manifested by misogynistic acts against females. Video games are normatively framed as a hypermasculine space by the men who dominates it. These men call women to “degender” themselves to achieve equal opportunity, and those who don’t are labelled “fake” and harassed. This article is a historical research revolving one incident particularly where the female video game celebrity Felicia Day was attacked online by video games journalist Ryan Perez and other online posters. The authors’ research question asks whether this ‘Twitter Incident” and the events following it were acts of catharsis or a watershed that signals that females in gaming culture and industries could experience an evolution in gender relationships. The type of data the researchers gathered were reports of events that they gathered from various articles. These reports paint the story of how the gaming space were gendered, how games marketed to females failed, and how men reacted when females joined their space and played games marketed for male. They also did research on Felicia Day’s history as she became an iconic actress and content creator in the gaming industry, a representative of females in game culture, and all the events leading up to the “Twitter Incident.” The also did research in all the events that happened following the incidents, how Destructoid, the gaming journal and Ryan Perez’s employer, apologized to Day, how people came to her defense and call out the misogyny in the industry. The analysis was qualitative and the authors showed in their analysis that the incident was a watershed for gender relationships that promotes a crackdown on misogynistic tendencies and a change of attitude when Perez was condemned by the community, and it was also an act of catharsis, where the community feels their guilt about the misogyny were cleansed. This article paints a clear and detailed picture of the history of misogyny in video games culture and how the community have started to move forward with a more open attitude towards women who play games.

Research Example 3:

The title of this peer reviewed journal is called “Construction Management and Economics”. The article within this journal is called “Integral Sustainable Design”.

This article talks about how sustainability is a trendy area in many different jobs. It starts by discussing different ways of implementing sustainable design into jobs. An integral approach to sustainable design needs to be a mix of beauty (art+design), ethics of design and science of design. In order to do this, there needs to be perspectives on design. Four key perspectives named in this article are system perspectives, behavior perspectives, experience perspectives and cultures perspectives. These four “perspectives” are imperative for people to know, if they are thinking about using sustainable design in their lines of work.

The topic of this article is sustainable design. The question posed in this article is, “what do people using sustainable design in their line of work needs to know about sustainability?”. In order to answer this question, you would need expert knowledge.  In order to gather this data, you would collect surveys and do in depth interviews with engineers and experts in the field of sustainability. You would need to ask them what they believe is most important points in their field.

I think this research was very interesting. It is very modern and a new way to look at the future with sustainability. I like how it helped narrow down the most important aspects of sustainable design and gave suggestions on how to make if more affective.

I think my classmates would find it interesting that “sustainability” has become more popular, because it is seen specifically as a way to improve people’s relationship with nature. People feel as though pure nature no longer exists, and that people need to be reminded how to interact with it once again.

This is a secondary source because it uses data that already existed.

Citation: Soibelman, L. (2013). Integral Sustainable Design. Construction Management and Economics, 31(2), 202–203. doi:10.1080/01446193.2012.735368

This article in the peer-reviewed journal, Socialism and Democracy was written to encourage solidarity with the anti-apartheid movement in Palestine. It was written by Haidar Eid, a professor at Gaza’s al-Aqsa University. The article is cited as:

Eid, Haidar. 2014. “Solidarity with Anti-Apartheid Resistance in Post-Oslo Palestine.” Socialism and Democracy 28 (1): 113-22. doi: 10.1080/08854300.2013.869870.

Eid argues that the most urgent questions about the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip and West Bank deal with international solidarity and how other countries can support Palestinians. He also addresses colonial Zionism and its relationship with apartheid South Africa. The topic of this article is international solidarity with Palestine. Eid’s research question is: What should be the nature of international solidarity, and how can it support Palestinian struggles? The types of data used are cultural knowledge and deeply held opinions and attitudes. He uses ethnography and content analysis to collect data. The method of data analysis is qualitative. I think this article is extremely well-written, and it speaks volumes about calls for action. Eid’s writing is definitely biased, but it is clear that he is knowledgeable about the anti-apartheid struggle as someone living in the Gaza Strip. I think some people may be interested in the similarity between the segregation seen in Israeli-occupied territories and the era of segregation in America. There are direct correlations between the two, and it’s interesting that people on the other side of the world are still being treated as non-human.