The research proposal I decided to look at as an example falls under my same research topic, yet is a drastically different research project/proposal. The research proposal I looked into on the topic of crime was titled, From Barrio Street Gangs to Transnational Criminal Organizations: A Qualitative Analysis of Eighteenth Street and Mara Salvatrucha. While it has to do with crime it focuses more specifically on gangs and details surrounding particular issues of a particular one. While it is laid out slightly differently than my own, both research proposals have all of the same information regarding the research project and how it will be carried out. The proposal I examined broke theirs down into eight different parts. These parts were: research topic, background, research objective, core research question, research methods and approach, personals motivation, and timeline. These eight parts encompass all the necessary information that should be presented in a proposal and was carefully thought out.

In the first section research topic the authors briefly explains the topic that they are looking into surrounding the gangs and why it is interesting and worth researching. In the background, the longest section, the author talks about what is already know about the topic they want to research. Research that has already been done and relevant information to know about the topic before engaging in research. This is the section in our proposal where we, “search the literature.” Following this the next section research objective does exactly what it says. It gives an overall objective that the research is trying to accomplish. I found this to be just a more general version of overview of that actual research question. The next section the core research question is where the author presents there specific research question. In this case, the author’s research question was, to identify the catalysts which have facilitated the global expansion of these two gangs, and what this expansion means to the gang itself. The author also went more in depth explaining the question after they presented it. In the research methods and approach section is where the author explains what type of data, and data gathering methods that will be used for the research project. In this case is was interviews and government hearings and reports. The personal motivation sections is just where the author of the proposal explains why this research projected was interesting to them and why they wanted to pursue it. The final section timeline is just that, a timeline of when different sections of the research process will be conducted. Overall the proposal presented all the necessary information well and in an organized way that was easy to follow which is the point and sign of a successful proposal.

http://www.urop.uci.edu/SURP/sample_proposals/SURP%20Social%20Sciences%206.pdf

Effect of Infant’s Perceived Gender on Adolescents’ Ratings of the Infant is a research proposal done by, Douglas Degelman, Veronika Dvorak, and Julie Ann Homutoff at Vanguard University of Southern California. This research proposal aims to explore stereotypical sex role appropriate traits. The researchers aim to explore that idea by having 36 junior high students (18 boys and 18 girls) view a photo of a 3-month-old infant. Then, the students will be told that the baby’s name is Larry, Laurie, or they will not be told the infants name. After viewing the photo and name or no name, the students are asked to rate the infant on a few bipolar adjective scales: firm/soft/big/little, strong/weak, hardy/delicate, well coordinated/awkward, and beautiful/plain. The researchers predict that both the name assigned to the infant and the students’ gender will affect the ratings. This study is important because stereotyped expectations may influence gender role socialization and the acquiring of sex-typed behavior. Another reason as to why this study is important is because preconceived gender-based expectations can cause the parent to elicit expected behavior from the infant and to reinforce the expected behavior when it occurs. Several studies have been done before to explain this type of behavior, however, this study also aims to see whether or not males and females have different preconceived notions on infants depending on if they are boys or girls. For instance, a man may see a picture of a female baby and choose that that baby is delicate and/or weak but if they were to see that same photo and are told that the baby is a male the man may then choose the adjectives hardy and/or strong, directly showing gender stereotypes that are ever prevalent. Overall, this study proposes the idea that adult responses coincide with culturally specified sex stereotypes related with the gender label assigned to an infant and independent of actual infant gender differences. Lastly, the type of data needed for this research proposal is shallow opinions and attitudes, the researchers plan on using surveys as their type of data collection method and once the results are in they plan to read their results by comparing each of the dependent variables with the independent variable, which would be a type of categorical data. I found this research proposal to be very thought-provoking and would make for very fascinating results, I would not change anything about it. I believe that my classmates would agree with that as well and would be interested in seeing the results.

Link to proposal: http://www.vanguard.edu/psychology/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/proposal.pdf

All three of the authors look into the role of the perceived gender of an infant and the gender of an adolescent on ratings of the infant.  To do so, thirty-six junior high students; eighteen boys and eighteen girls; will view a photo of a 3-month-old infant.  The students will receive a name for the infant or not.  The names that are received will either be Larry or Laurie.  The students will tan rate the infant on a scale of firm/soft, big/little, strong/weak, hardy/delicate, well coordinated/awkward, and beautiful/plain. The scale that will be used is 1-5.  For example, for big/little 1 would be big and little would be 5. The same scale was used for each pairing. It was predicted that both the name that was given to the infant and the students’ gender would affect the ratings.  The study was motivated by how sex-stereotyped perceptions of infants change during the time of adolescents.  Another prediction is that males and females will rate the infant differently regardless of the name given.  Lastly, it was predicted that the effect of the infants’ perceived gender depends on the adolescents’ gender.  If they find that the results are what they predicted than the generality of sex-stereotyped perceptions of infants will be extended to adolescents.  One limitation they find is the use of only one photograph of one infant of a specific age.  An interesting aspect of the study is that they expect to find girls to rate infants more beautiful than boys do.  I think that the study may find challenges in how the setting in the photo will affect the perceptions of the infant. 

Degelman , Douglas , Veronika Dvorak, and Julie Ann Homutoff. 2010. “Effect of Infant’s Perceived Gender on Adolescents’ Ratings of the Infant.” Vanguard University of Southern California. Accessed March 12, 2017. http:/www.vanguard.edu/psychology/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/proposal.pdf. 

Title: The Value of Comparisons in Street Gang Research

Author: Malcom W. Klein

Klein, Malcom W. 2005. “The Value of Comparisons in Street Gang Research.” Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice 21 (2): 135-152. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1043986204272911

This is a research proposal lays out the foundation for a research project that wants to compare studies in street gang research. Some of the studies the author lays out that he wants to compare are gang member’s vs non-gang youth, cross gang-comparisons, comparisons across locations, and historical comparisons.  The research question for this proposal I believe is “Is gang research more productive if it has comparisons to other research?”  The author believes that gang research is much more productive when you can compare different researches. The type of data that Malcom will be using Expert Knowledge, Hidden Social Patterns, Acts Behaviors and Events, and Demographic data. He will use all these types so of data because he is comparing different studies and those studies have different types of data. His colleagues wrote articles about gang members and non-gang youth, this would be considered expert knowledge. He used Demographic data to look comparisons across gang locations. Meaning that he looked at gangs from different locations like Los Angeles and Boston. The different data collection methods that he used is Ethnography, Public and Private records, and In-depth interviews. The author has already found these methods for his sources. He has This proposal is useful because it gives me an idea on how to do the proposal myself. The author of this proposal starts out with his research question and what he is going to try and accomplish. Then he lays out the five topics that he will discuss and underneath those topics he puts the resources that he will use to support his ideas. Once he does the actual research it will be easy for him to do because he has a path that he has planned.

PREDICTORS OF TERTIARY LEVEL PERFORMANCE IN NON-ENGLISH SPEAKING BACKGROUND STUDENTS

Candidate: Richard Hewison, Dr. Elaine Chapman (Principal Supervisor) Prof. Tom O’Donoghue (Co-Supervisor)

Chapman, E., & O’Donoghue, T. Predictors of TERTIARY LEVEL Performance IN Non-English Speaking Background Students.

This research proposal, presented by Richard Hewison of the University of Western Australia, proposes to identify factors that predict academic performance of Non-English Speaking Background (NELB) international students in Australian tertiary education. The grounds for the purpose of the study reside with the myriad universities, which receive important financial contributions from international students, thus they have an obligation to identify the sources of the problems faced by students and to provide those students with appropriate and effective academic support. The research question designed for this topic asks, “to what extent do formalized English language Proficiency (ELP) scores act as predictors of academic performance in students’ first year of study in an Australian education system?”

The type of data necessary to answer the correlational research question consisted of demographic data, specifically relating to personal university profile; previous education; study stream and course units; university offer status; age; nationality; gender; and English Language Proficiency scores. The proposal also inquired for data about personal and psychological traits, and deeply held opinions and attitudes regarding self-efficacy, anxiety, beliefs about knowledge and learning, and personal learning styles and strategies. The former type of data were gathered from private records, with the data collection site being an unnamed, private tertiary education college specializing in business, information and mass communications courses in Western Australia. After extracted and coding the data into Excel spreadsheet files, the data was imported to SPSS for analysis, and a canonical correlation analysis was performed on the data with both the ELP levels and the demographic variables (age, gender, level of education previously attempted) entered as predictors. The latter type of data previously mentioned were proposed to be collected by sending out four modified surveys, the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FCLAS), Schommer scale, Approaches to Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST) survey, and the Self-Efficacy Scale. A three-panel model path analysis and cluster analysis was the proposed method to analyze this data.

This research proposal includes all necessary aspects of a quality research proposal, as well as considering and potentially addressing all possible ethical issues. What impressed me the most was the extensive description of the potential limitations, the significance of the study, and he even including an estimated cost and timeline of the study, which is something I never would have thought to include.

In her research proposal “Social Support, Stress, and Adaptation in Immigrant Youth”, author Mary J. Levitt proposes a study to adress deficiencies in knowledge surrounding the adaptation of migrant students to the environment of US schools, particularly expressing concern in the lack of longitudinal data. To delve into the topic on the emotional, academic, and behavioral adaptation of immigrants, she proposes to endeavor to answer the research question: “Are higher levels of family stress and lower levels of social support associated with poor adjustment?”.  This question calls for a wide range of data. Levitt suggests she will collect demographic data, organizational data, and data from surveys and interviews, using data gathering methods ranging from in-depth interviews to the use of public and private records. To collect this data, Levitt explains she will take a random sample of 200 children, evenly divided between genders, from grades 3, 6, and 9. She will interview them at the beginning of the first year, at school in a private location, then make a follow up interview two years later. She will also collect academic performance indicators from school records, background information, and psychological and adaptation ratings from teachers. Following the three year period of collecting data, she proposes to use a multiple regression analysis to search for the answer to her research question.

I was impressed by the thurough nature of the proposal, especially as Levitt already had an idea of the size of the sample she would need, the duration of the study, and the specific evaluations she would ask the teachers to make, though I would be curious to see what, if any, changes she made when it came time to perform the actual study. I was also impressed with the extensive safeguards she specified in order to ensure that the confidentiality of participants would be maintained. The one concern which stood out to me, however, was Levitt’s proposal to give the students each an age- appropriate gift for participation. Though I am not an expert, I understand that researchers are not allowed to offer undue enticement to participants, and I cannot help but wonder if offering a gift for participation might fall within those parameters.

Mary J. Levitt, Florida International University

The proposal titled “An Investigation of Guns, Masculinity, and Nationalism” is written by Professor Bill Rocque of the University of Redlands staff. The purpose of this study is to examine gun enthusiasm and gun culture and their relationship to masculinity and nationalism in the United States. Professor Rocque also aims to better understand the ways in which guns are important in the lives of the people who own and use them, the meanings people make from guns and shooting, as well as the ways in which guns function in discourses at the center on freedom, democracy, and citizenship. Professor Rocque also examines gun violence and the regulative attempts that raise important sociopolitical issues. The research on gun ownership and gun shooting provides an exploration of this largely male practice. The topic of this research is connecting guns, masculinity, and nationalism to the political, legal, and social debate. Professor Rocque provides several research questions, such as “How do boys and men use guns to construct themselves as men, and what social, emotional, and psychological payoffs are there for them in the process?”, “What are the narratives that circulate in American culture about guns, freedom, manhood, safety, and power?”, “How do these narratives contribute to the construction of a national manhood?”, among a few others about gun violence, gender, and gun regulations.

The type of data needed to answer these research questions are acts/behaviors/events, reports of acts/behavior/events, deeply held opinions and attitudes, and cultural knowledge. These data types show that qualitative methods are employed to assess the symbolic and material relationships between guns, masculinity, and nationalism in the United States. The data collection methods that are essential for this research are in-depth interviews, participant observation, and discourse analysis. Professor Rocque attends gun shows, shoots at ranges, enrolls in gun training courses, and discusses guns with owners of gun related businesses. He engages in the gun culture in the most common ways that gun enthusiasts in America do today. Since he aims to describe a particular population of people, namely males and gun owners, the research requires a non-random sample. To recruit participants, he utilizes snowball sampling methods, internet, email, telephone, and in-person solicitation. The data analysis method employed in this research is coding. Professor Rocque aims to internally code the interview transcripts to identify patterns that the interviewees describe as pertinent. Along with internal coding, Professor Rocque analyzes cultural texts such as social media, films, magazine articles, and websites to contextualize the interview data.

I think this research is well-thought out and successfully utilizes various data types to provide extensive background on the topic of guns, masculinity, and nationalism. Since Professor Rocque is using multiple data types and data collection methods, the research may take a significant amount of time to complete. I think it is interesting that his goal is to help gender theorists better understand the processes of masculinity, role of guns and media in these processes, and the connection between masculinity and violence. If we can improve understanding about gender construction of boys and men who engage in gun violence, then we might eventually reduce it.

This proposal was made to the National Science Foundation Dissertation Development Grant Competition in 2002. This proposal seeks to learn about people’s reactions to levels of water scarcity in a community in Bolivia called Villa Israel. This proposal outlines five main research objectives: the first being to document the influence on this society in general which would involve the development and testing of a scale to measure water consumption, as well as conducting interviews to document the difference of water use in households. The second was to find out how a lack of water influences interactions in the same sample of homes over a nine-month period. The third research goal was to determine the amount of social exchanges between house holds, and if there is some kind of community norm for dealing with someone withdrawing from more frequent interactions. And the last goal was to determine if the withdrawals of the households from exchanges and social relationships because of the norms (if they are present).

The data types that would be used in this research are: cultural knowledge, behavior or reports of behavior,  and hidden social patterns, as well as some observational type data to measure the water levels. The data collection methods that would have been used to find the necessary data are sampling and choosing key informants so that the researcher can be sure that the sample households are being honest and not putting up a front that would prevent the study from getting necessary data. The researcher would conduct a measurement of water availability for each of the selected households being used in the study and for the community in general. In order to gain the opinion and knowledge based information she (the researcher) would conduct household interviews with each of the families. And the last data collection method proposed was an experimental game where,

“The game is an anonymous, one-time interaction between two people that uses real money. The player A is given a sum equal to one day’s labor, and the option to keep the money or send some of it to the player B. If the money is sent to player B, it triples and player B determines how much of the money should be returned to player A. The amount of money offered by player A indicates how much A trusts B, and the amount B returns to A is a measure of reciprocation”  (7, Wutich).

The analysis of this data would determine when and how social ties are effected when a vital recourse becomes scarce and how the people in the society have learned to cope with the challenges brought up. Three analysis methods used to compile and sort the data were : Data entry and coding, Inferential statistics and analysis of ethnographic data.

Wutich, Amber. “The Effects of Water Scarcity on Reciprocity and Sociability in Bolivia.”

This research proposal was written by Stacy Philpott  from the University of Toledo in the United States, Ohio. The purpose of this research is to bring new ideas and concepts to the table of ecological studies by introducing a more practical approach of studying agroecosystems. As stated in the proposal this will be done by studying twig nesting ants in a coffee field the reason behind using twig nesting ants as the focus organism is that they are relatively easy to manipulate and monitor compared to other congregating organisms. The main purpose for these studies to make the field of agroecology more accessible by explored the driving forces behind community assembly in tropical twig-nesting ant communities. Since this is a research proposal based around testing hypotheses  there are multiple research question that could used for this study, such as “examine changes in relative abundance of ants in years following a large-scale disturbance and correlate any observed changes with life history traits of individual species in the twig-nesting ant community”. To answer most of the research questions offered in this proposal one would need acts, behavior, or events as the data main type of data a couple other type of data that are helpful but not necessarily mandatory would be expert knowledge because the history of the twig-nesting ants helps in determining any significant changes to the twig-nesting ants behaviors. The method of analysis for the collected data would be a quantitative analysis due to monitoring nest size and how the other factors influence the total size of a colony or if those factors cause the colony to move or reduce its size. Overall this research proposal is well put together in part due to having a range of good research questions so different groups can potentially be interested in the research in some way or another. As well as the inclusion of well thought out explanation of the logical structure which at first I was confused by because the proposal in almost a two part proposal in the way of the research is suppose to open up the field of agroecology as well as being an study on twig-nesting ants. I think there is plenty of information on this research proposal that most of my classmates could find something interesting because it combines ecology and agriculture together so there is quite a bit variety in this proposal.

Link to proposal PDF: www.utoledo.edu/research/pdfs/Philpott-NSF-AntsAndAgroecosystem.pdf

The research proposal was made to the National Welfare Grants, Health and Welfare Canada. The study aims to shed light on people with HIV/AIDS and how they navigate social service agencies. So much of people’s lives with HIV/AIDS is based on their access to health care, in the proposal referring it  as their “lifework.” The study is unique in that it’s from the perspective of the people receiving the services and their interactions with social service workers. The study would like to explore the “legislation, regulation, policy directives, and standard paperwork practices that organize the interface between people with HIV/AIDS and social agencies from the institutional side.” The questions they ask are: “What characteristic problems emerge? How are such problems generated by the interplay between the HIV/AIDS configuration of life problems and the institutional structure within which social service agency employees work? How do the conditions of the everyday work of living with HIV/AIDS, the organization of that work, and its relation to social service agencies vary with different social locations (e.g class, gender, injection drug use, ethnicity, race..) of these people? And lastly what effect does the stage of someone’s illness have on this organizational matrix?”

The data that would be used for the study are: focus groups, in depth interviews, archival research, and textual analysis. The form of the study is an institutional ethnography because it would explore how the social service agencies operate in relation to HIV/AID patients. Overall interviews would be conducted from major community based AID organizations,  organizational data would include general welfare assistance to housing agencies etc, and documents would include legislation, agency applications, and other bureaucratic forms. The analysis used for this study would examine the “social relations” as an “investigational technique for locating and describing the social form of people’s activities over time.” The researcher would examine “empirically how people’s activities are reflexively/recursively knitted together into particular forms of organization” The research proposal was clear with its focus. It also offers a new discussion on recipients of social service agencies. However, the proposal is from 1990 and thus the treatment and social services of HIV/AIDS has changed since then so if we were to carry out the study today it would produce differing results.

Smith, Dorothy E. Institutional ethnography as practice. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2010.