Research methodology vs. research methods
The research methodology or design is the overall strategy and rationale that you used to carry out the research. Whereas, research methods are the specific tools and processes you use to gather and understand the data you need to test your hypothesis.
To further understand research methodology, let’s explore some examples of research methodology:
a. Qualitative research methodology example: A study exploring the impact of author branding on author popularity might utilize in-depth interviews to gather personal experiences and perspectives.
b. Quantitative research methodology example: A research project investigating the effects of a book promotion technique on book sales could employ a statistical analysis of profit margins and sales before and after the implementation of the method.
c. Mixed-Methods research methodology example: A study examining the relationship between social media use and academic performance might combine both qualitative and quantitative approaches. It could include surveys to quantitatively assess the frequency of social media usage and its correlation with grades, alongside focus groups or interviews to qualitatively explore students’ perceptions and experiences regarding how social media affects their study habits and academic engagement.
These examples highlight the meaning of methodology in research and how it guides the research process, from data collection to analysis, ensuring the study’s objectives are met efficiently.
When it comes to writing your study, the methodology in research papers or a dissertation plays a pivotal role. A well-crafted methodology section of a research paper or thesis not only enhances the credibility of your research but also provides a roadmap for others to replicate or build upon your work.
Wondering how to write the research methodology section? Follow these steps to create a strong methods chapter:
At the start of a research paper , you would have provided the background of your research and stated your hypothesis or research problem. In this section, you will elaborate on your research strategy.
Begin by restating your research question and proceed to explain what type of research you opted for to test it. Depending on your research, here are some questions you can consider:
a. Did you use qualitative or quantitative data to test the hypothesis?
b. Did you perform an experiment where you collected data or are you writing a dissertation that is descriptive/theoretical without data collection?
c. Did you use primary data that you collected or analyze secondary research data or existing data as part of your study?
These questions will help you establish the rationale for your study on a broader level, which you will follow by elaborating on the specific methods you used to collect and understand your data.
Now that you have told your reader what type of research you’ve undertaken for the dissertation, it’s time to dig into specifics. State what specific methods you used and explain the conditions and variables involved. Explain what the theoretical framework behind the method was, what samples you used for testing it, and what tools and materials you used to collect the data.
Once you have explained the data collection process, explain how you analyzed and studied the data. Here, your focus is simply to explain the methods of analysis rather than the results of the study.
Here are some questions you can answer at this stage:
a. What tools or software did you use to analyze your results?
b. What parameters or variables did you consider while understanding and studying the data you’ve collected?
c. Was your analysis based on a theoretical framework?
Your mode of analysis will change depending on whether you used a quantitative or qualitative research methodology in your study. If you’re working within the hard sciences or physical sciences, you are likely to use a quantitative research methodology (relying on numbers and hard data). If you’re doing a qualitative study, in the social sciences or humanities, your analysis may rely on understanding language and socio-political contexts around your topic. This is why it’s important to establish what kind of study you’re undertaking at the onset.
Now that you have gone through your research process in detail, you’ll also have to make a case for it. Justify your choice of methodology and methods, explaining why it is the best choice for your research question. This is especially important if you have chosen an unconventional approach or you’ve simply chosen to study an existing research problem from a different perspective. Compare it with other methodologies, especially ones attempted by previous researchers, and discuss what contributions using your methodology makes.
No matter how thorough a methodology is, it doesn’t come without its hurdles. This is a natural part of scientific research that is important to document so that your peers and future researchers are aware of it. Writing in a research paper about this aspect of your research process also tells your evaluator that you have actively worked to overcome the pitfalls that came your way and you have refined the research process.
1. Remember who you are writing for. Keeping sight of the reader/evaluator will help you know what to elaborate on and what information they are already likely to have. You’re condensing months’ work of research in just a few pages, so you should omit basic definitions and information about general phenomena people already know.
2. Do not give an overly elaborate explanation of every single condition in your study.
3. Skip details and findings irrelevant to the results.
4. Cite references that back your claim and choice of methodology.
5. Consistently emphasize the relationship between your research question and the methodology you adopted to study it.
To sum it up, what is methodology in research? It’s the blueprint of your research, essential for ensuring that your study is systematic, rigorous, and credible. Whether your focus is on qualitative research methodology, quantitative research methodology, or a combination of both, understanding and clearly defining your methodology is key to the success of your research.
Once you write the research methodology and complete writing the entire research paper, the next step is to edit your paper. As experts in research paper editing and proofreading services , we’d love to help you perfect your paper!
Here are some other articles that you might find useful:
What does research methodology mean, what types of research methodologies are there, what is qualitative research methodology, how to determine sample size in research methodology, what is action research methodology.
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This is very simplified and direct. Very helpful to understand the research methodology section of a dissertation
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In this chapter, we first describe how developing a command of research methods can assist you in your careers and personal lives. Second, we provide a brief definition of our topic of study in this book – communication research. Third we identify the predominant research and creative methods used in the field of Communication Studies. Fourth, we explain the academic roots of the diverse methods used in communication studies: the humanities and social sciences. Fifth, we explain the implicit and explicit relationships between theory and research methods. Sixth, we describe how the choice of research methods influences the results of a study. Sixth, we provide a preview of the remainder of the book, and finally, seventh, we describe our approach to writing this book.
If you want to learn practical skills relevant to your professional, personal and community life, learn research methods. Given that daily life is full of decision-making opportunities and challenges, knowing how to effectively do research is essential. Ideally, any decision you make is based on research, and rigorous methods enable you to conduct better research and make better decisions. People who know how to ethically use research methods quickly become leaders in their workplaces and communities. Research also can inform creative expression. If you understand why things work the way they do, you can make more thoughtful, creative choices.
Consider how you make choices in everyday life such as the following:
Or, how you address more complex questions such as whether dishonesty is ever warranted, or if there is a God?
Brainstorm all the ways in which you think you know something for one or more of the examples listed above.
If you are like previous students in this course, you may have responded: "read," "observe," "intuit," "faith," "advice," "physical senses," "test it out," "compare," "Google it" and more.
What does this activity reveal about how you come to know something?
We hope the activity above reveals you already are a researcher, and use some informal research methods every day of your life. You likely use more than one way to know something. Multiple methods construct knowledge. And being educated includes questioning the results of each method. For example, if you use Google or Wikipedia to find information, how do you know the source is reliable? What clues should you look for?
Research methods will help you be a better ....
For more specific ideas about how a command of research methods can broaden your life options, see the examples of practical research at Communication Currents: Knowledge for Communicating Well . It is a reader-friendly magazine where communication scholars discuss research about current social problems ( The National Communication Association - Communication Currents ). Also check out the National Communication Association website http://www.natcom.org/ for careers in communication.
You may have noticed we, the authors, use the singular form of the term communication to refer to the academic field of study on a wide variety of message types, rather than the plural form: communications. The distinction is a quick way to tell who understands communication is one specific field of study and who does not, so you will want to use the proper, singular form when referring to the field of study. Communications – plural is used only when referring to multiple media sources, as in "the communications news media" (Korn, Morreale, & Boileau, 2000).
The forms communication can take are nearly endless. They include, but are not limited to: language, nonverbal communication, one-on-one interpersonal communication, organizational communication, film, oral interpretations of prose or poetry, theatre, public speeches, public events, political campaigns, public relations campaigns, news media, Internet, social media, photography, television, social movements, performance in everyday life, journalistic writing, and more. Yet, the theme that runs through almost all Communication Studies research is that communication is more than a means to transmit information. Although it is used to transmit information and get things done, more importantly, communication is the means through which people make meaning and come to understand each other and the world.
Because of this, communication scholars tend to operate with the assumption that reality is a social construction, constructed through human beings' use of communication, both verbal and visual (Gergen, 1994). Thus, when communication scholars conduct research, they ask questions not only about how to make communication more precise and/or effective, but they also ask questions about how communication is being used in a particular context to shape individuals' and groups' world views.
Research, as a form of communication, contributes to the social construction of knowledge. Knowledge does not come out of a vacuum that is free of cultural values. Instead, research results, or what society calls knowledge, is influenced by the values, beliefs, methods choices, and interpretations of those in a given culture doing the research. Knowledge and one's reality are constructed through an interactive, interpretive process. Although scholars from a more traditional natural science view might argue there are absolute truths and set realities, in the study of human interaction, there are few universal truths about communication and what is seen as knowledge changes across cultures and over time. Unique cultural contexts, social roles, and inequities create a wide spectrum of behaviors ( Kim , http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/weber/ ). That is what makes miscommunication common and why research in our field is so much in demand. It is highly practical and relevant work.
Research refers to the systematic study of a topic and can include social science and creative work. Research, quite simply, refers to people's intellectual work of gathering, organizing, and analyzing data, which enables them to create meaning they can then present to others. Research is conducted to answer questions or solve problems in a systematic way. Being systematic means that the steps of the study are guided by principles and theory, rather than just chaotic wandering; the data used is representative and not just anecdotal or random. Being systematic in a way that can be replicated is usually emphasized more in natural and social science research, such as organizational and interpersonal communication research, than the humanities and fine arts, such as rhetorical studies and performance studies, but, rhetoric scholars and artists also rely on methods and theoretical training to guide their work.
Communication Studies research has several unique characteristics:
Whether one is doing Creative, qualitative, rhetorical or quantitative work, the methods share the above characteristics, as they are inherent in the very communication process being studied.
The term method refers to the processes that govern scholarly and creative work. Methods provide a framework for collecting, organizing, analyzing and presenting data. Scholars use a range of methods in Communication Studies: quantitative, qualitative, critical/rhetorical, and creative. This text focuses on the first three, but the authors note connections to creative work when relevant.
Quantitative Studies reduce data into measurable numerical units (quantities). An example would be a survey administered to determine the number of times first-year college students use social networking sites and for what purposes. Such a survey could provide general statistics on frequency and purpose of use. But, such a study also could be set up to determine if first and fourth year college students use social networks differently, or if students with smart phones spend more time on Facebook than students who rely on computers to check Facebook.
Qualitative Studies use more natural observations and interviews as data. An example would be a study about a workplace organization's leadership and communication patterns. A researcher could interview all the members of the business, and then also observe the members in action in their place of work. The researcher would then analyze the data to see if themes emerge, and if the interview and observational data results are similar. The researcher might then propose changes to the organization to enhance communication and performance for the organization.
Critical/Rhetorical Studies focus on texts as sources for data. The term texts is used loosely here to refer to any communication artifact --films, speeches, historical monuments, news stories, letters, tattoos, photos, etc. Here, the data collected is the text, and it is used by the researcher to support an argument about how the text participates in the construction of people's understanding of the world. An example would be an analysis of a presidential inaugural address to understand how the speech writers and speaker are attempting to reunite the nation after a hotly contested election and invest the new president with the powers of the office.
Creative Scholarship in the field of Communication Studies refers most often to work done in performance studies, film making, and computer digital imagery, such as Dreamweaver and Photoshop (e.g. Camp Multimedia Begins Two-Week Run ). Performance Studies is a wide umbrella term used to refer to several methods and products of scholarship. It is distinct from theater in that it is the study of performances in everyday life. It involves students in script writing, acting, and directing productions based upon oral history and ethnographic qualitative research, as well as personal experience and creative performance techniques used to tell a story more evocatively. Film Making can also include interviews, oral histories, and ethnographies, as well as learning aesthetic methods to effectively present verbal and visual images. Our colleague Karen Mitchell has used qualitative methods of interviewing and ethnography to script performances on topics from the lives of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. to romance novel readers (1996).
How is it that Communication Studies as an academic field came to embrace so many different methods, given most other disciplines tend to use only one, or maybe two? The answer lies in the history of the field.
Communication Studies is different from other academic fields because it is rooted in one of the oldest areas of scholarship (rhetoric is one of the original four liberal arts) and in several of the newest areas of scholarship (such as electronic media and intercultural communication). The study of rhetoric dates back to 350 B.C.E, the time of Aristotle and the formation of democratic governance in Greece. The study of intercultural communication dates back to the 1940s and emerged out of the commerce and political needs in the U.S. after World War II (Leeds-Hurwitz, 1990). The study of the Internet took shape in the 1990s as it became a popular medium for communication (Campbell, Martin & Fabos, 2010). Because the discipline of Communication Studies includes research on all forms of communication, the method of study needs to fit as the form of communication. However, just because new forms emerge (like social media), old forms (like public speaking) do not disappear. Thus, as students, future practitioners and scholars, we need to employ a wide range of scholarly approaches. (for more about the history of the field see: Communication Scholarship and the Humanities ) .
The diverse origins of Communication Studies mean its scholars use a range of methods from the humanities (e.g., rhetorical criticism and performance) and the social sciences (e.g., quantitative and qualitative research). Both focus on the study of society, but the humanities embrace a more holistic approach to knowledge and creativity. The humanities are those fields of study that focus on analytic and interpretive studies of human stories, ideas and words (rather than numbers), and include philosophy, English, religion, modern and classical languages, and Communication Studies. When Communication Studies scholars analyze how communicative acts (like speeches or photographs or letters) create social meaning, they do so from a perspective that emphasizes interpretation.
The social sciences use research methods borrowed from previously established and recognized fields of natural science study, such as biology and chemistry. Scientific methods of knowledge construction are accomplished through controlled observation and measurement or laboratory experiments, and generally use statistics to form conclusions (Kim, 2007). The social sciences apply scientific methods to study human behavior, for example scholars use surveys to find out about people's communication patterns or create laboratory experiments to observe interruption patterns in conversation. In addition to Communication Studies, examples of other social science fields include economics, geography, psychology, sociology, and political science.
Studying human communication from the perspective of the social sciences differs in important ways from studying human communication from the perspective of the humanities. Social scientists typically are interested in studying shared everyday life experiences, such as turn-taking norms in conversation, how people build relationships through self-disclosure, and what behaviors contribute to a successful group, family or organizational culture. Social science researchers attempt to find generalizations about human behaviors based on extensive research that may be used to make predictions about that behavior. Take, for instance, research on communication in heterosexual married couples. Based on over twenty years of research, psychologist John Gottman found in 1994 he could predict with 94% accuracy which marriages will fail based on patterns of only five negative conflict behaviors among couples who ended in divorce(for updates on his work visit his website ( Research FAQs ). (Of course exceptions exist to generalizations, but for a social scientist, the exception to the rule may be ignored as an insignificant outliers, a random error.
Instead of seeking out generalizations about communication, scholars in the humanities tend to focus on the outliers, or what are considered distinctive human creations, such as Abraham Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address," Elizabeth Cady Stanton's "Solitude of Self," Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet , Lorraine Hansberry's Raisin in the Sun , Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, or Ani diFranco's "Dilate." Humanities scholars tend to focus on understanding how something happened or how someone attempted to evoke meanings and aesthetic reactions in the receivers of a message, rather than describing what occurred and predicting what will occur.
As an example of how diverse methods have been used to research a topic, consider how researchers who want to try to reduce intimate partner violence have approached the problem drawing on methods from across fields of study.
Quantitative researchers administered the National Survey on Violence Against Women and found 1.5 million women are physically or sexually assaulted by their domestic partners annually in the U.S. (Tjaden & Thoennes, 2000). The survey identified the difficult reality about the enormous extent of the problem. Qualitative researcher, Loren Olson (2010), wrote an autoethnography of her personal experience as a battered woman. By doing so she put a face on the problem and demonstrated a way in which she was able to reconstruct her identity after the abuse.
Performance studies scholar M. Heather Carver and ethnographic folklorist Elaine Lawless (2009) conducted a qualitative study with women who are surviving intimate violence and generated a creative performance script from their observations. The theatrical performance developed with creative methods literally help to give voice to the experiences of the women in the qualitative study, raises awareness about the problem, and may motivate audience members to address the problem in their personal or community lives.
Researchers also have critically analyzed the way domestic violence is communicated in various media. For example, Cathy Ferrand Bullock (2008) studied media framing in domestic violence news stories in Utah newspapers and rhetoric scholar Nathan Stormer (2003) studied the play, A Jury of Her Peers , to explore how collective memory is formed about acts of domestic violence. These samples of research into the complex social problem of domestic violence demonstrate how both humanities and social science approaches to scholarship are needed and valued. Because the social sciences and humanities provide different contributions to the construction of knowledge, together they create a fuller picture of a social problem or issue of study.
Given its multi-methodological research, Communication Studies is uniquely positioned to contribute to both of the two most prominent approaches to knowledge construction: humanistic and social scientific approaches. This is why, as the authors of this book, we believe Communication Studies provides a well-rounded education to prepare students to respond to the challenges and opportunities of the culturally, technologically, and economically complex 21st century.
Whether you approach a topic of study from a humanistic or social science perspective, you will necessarily work with two-components: theory (explanations that guide or evolve from a study) and methods (application of tools to analyze texts or data). Even though the two serve distinct research functions, there is great interdependence between theory and method. Theory informs methods, and methods enable theory construction and revision.
At its essence, a theory is simply a person's attempt to explain or understand something. Individuals use theories to help make sense of their world and everyday lives. An academic theory is different from everyday theories only in the degree of rigor and research used to develop it and the depth of explanation it provides. Academic theories are more formal, with detailed explanations of the parts that make up the theory, and are usually tested (West & Turner, 2010). But as with theories for everyday life, they are subject to change and refinement. DeFrancisco and Palczewski (2007) emphasize, "A theory is not an absolute truth, but an argument to see, order, and explain the world in a particular way" (p. 27). For any topic of study, multiple theories could explain it, and research can be used to determine which theory offers the best explanation. Communication theories tend to focus on helping explain how and why people interact as they do in interpersonal relationships, small groups, organizations, cultures, nations, publics, and mediated contexts. Theories can help people understand their own and others' communication.
When you make decisions in daily life, you probably use an informal theory. You might collect some data (or try and recall what information you have), you might discard data that comes from non-credible sources, and then you might assess your options. You will likely make your assessment based on hunches or underlying assumptions you have about what makes sense. Those hunches or assumptions are a lay person's theory. They help you make sense of things and inform your decisions.
Activity Consider the following questions to determine if you use theories in your daily life:
If you have ideas on the above topics, you are a theorist.
Now ask yourself: what do your answers to the specific questions consist of?
Likely your answers are a little of each.
A further question to ask yourself is:
Students have developed more than one way to survive on a college student's budget. For one thing, not all college students are living on a tight budget, many will survive through student loans and jobs, others may get allowances from their parents, have spouses or partners who are supporting them, etc. Some will delay gratification of purchases such as cars, I-Pads, smartphones, spring break trips, and more. Others may argue, "You only live once," and use credit cards to charge for their pleasures or life necessities. The point is people develop multiple theories for any topic of interest, and many are useful.
People develop theories through testing, academic debates, and scholarly/creative work. Natural science and social science researchers, in particular, believe that the best research is directed or driven by academic theory. This means the research methods chosen are not random but are firmly based in a credible theoretical approach that has been tested over time.
Theories often guide research. When studying presidential campaigns for example, scholars often use Thomas Burke's theories on how speakers create identification to explore the ways in which candidates create connections with their audience (Burke, 2002).
Sometimes the research will extend or challenge the legitimacy of the theory. For example, intercultural communication scholar, William Gudykunst extended Berger and Calabrese's (1975) assumed universal Uncertainty Reduction Theory (URT) regarding what people do to reduce uncertainty anxiety when communicating with strangers. During 30 years of research, Gudykunst tested URT in cross cultural interactions and developed a new intercultural theory, Anxiety/Uncertainty Management (AUM) with 47 axioms or specific distinctions that help explain the universal and cultural variances he found (2005). Contrary to the original URT, Gudykunst now proclaims cultures vary in terms of comfort with uncertainty and the methods they use to manage it. These cultural differences contribute to unique cultural identities and help explain communication problems with other groups.
In the field of gender studies in communication there are countless examples of research that has disproven the commonly held theoretical assumption that universal gender differences exist between all women and men (e.g. Tannen, 1990; or in the popular press: Men are from Mars and Women are from Venice (Gray, 1992). In fact, communication scholars Kathryn Dindia and Dan Canary (2006) published a series of quantitative meta-analyses (a statistical way to control for differences across studies to directly compare the results) on just about every presumed communication difference previous researchers have studied. What did they find? While some differences were present, the variances among women's behaviors and among men's behaviors were greater than those between the sexes, and furthermore, women and men communicate in many more ways that are similar rather than different. Finally, they found that the assumption of two distinct sets of behavior is far too simplistic. It ignores the fact that people have the ability to adjust their behaviors according to situational needs and that gender identity does not affect one's behavior alone. It is also influenced by one's race, ethnic, age, nationality, sexual orientation and more.
A useful way to think of the relationship between theory and scholarly/creative work is that it is synergistic – each influences the other, almost simultaneously. As the illustration below shows, the theories selected direct the types of research questions posed to guide a study, the questions dictate the appropriate research methods needed, which then affect the results produced, which in turn contributes to theory building, thus the cycle repeats.
Knowledge generally refers to a command of facts, theory and practical information. There is not one agreed upon approach for constructing knowledge as is illustrated in the above discussion of diverse research methods. Indeed, there is an entire field of philosophy, epistemology , which focuses on debates about how knowledge is attained. Epistemologists ask "how does one know something?" Is knowledge found or created? These are questions we encourage you to ask as you learn about the various research methods. The methods researchers use to construct knowledge are generally called methodology . The term simply means an approach being used to form knowledge is assumed to have both a theory and a method. Here again the interdependence between theory and method are evident.
Finally, throughout the research process the ability to think critically is essential. To be critical means to examine material in more depth, to peel back layers of meaning, to look beyond chunks of information to the context in which the information is presented, to look for multiple interpretations, to attempt to identify why a piece of information or perspective is important and/or not important. It requires doing a close reading or investigation of the topic of study in a more nuanced, systematic way. It does not mean to always be negative, but rather to question even common assumptions.
The research methods one chooses for a study are critical. The methods will largely determine the results or what is called knowledge. The influence of methods choices is more visible when comparing social science and humanities approaches to the construction of knowledge, as will be discussed in chapter 2. The two are designed to answer different types of research questions. Together, they will offer you a wealth of methods choices.
For example, consider the relatively simple task of measuring the floor area of a room. We assigned small groups of students to measure the square footage in a room. Each group was provided different measurement tools. One group used a tape measure 12 feet long, another used a tape measure 40 feet long, another group used their own feet, and another used a metric tape measure. As you can imagine, the groups' results differed every time. Some used feet rather than inches to calculate square feet, some did not measure the same exact places in the room, metric measurements produced different results than the U.S. measuring system, and human feet produced varying results. The point here is not that one method was superior to another or that the groups made errors. The point is that even a slight change in methods can produce significant changes in results (Turman, personal communication, January 27, 2010). (If you would like to see more on metrics versus U.S. units conversion, see for example, Metric to U.S. units conversion .
If diverse results can be produced when measuring the floor area of a room, imagine how different research methods may influence the study of processes as complex as human communication. Leslie Baxter has studied interpersonal relationship development and maintenance for nearly 20 years. Most of her early research was based on quantitative surveys of romantic partners in an attempt to identify the specific tensions or stresses in their relationship. By using standardized surveys she was able to identify three dominant tensions most couples struggled with: connection/independence, openness/closedness, and predictability/spontaneity. From this she developed what is now a well known theory in the field, Dialectic Tensions Theory. However, more recently she revised her theory based on qualitative studies of relational partners' conversations. Baxter now argues that by examining tensions in actual discourse rather than surveys, she is not only able to identify common tensions, but move beyond identification to see why some relationships successfully negotiate the tensions and why others do not (2011). We offer this example not to argue qualitative methods are superior to quantitative ones, but simply to make the point that the two serve different functions.
As you will learn in the coming chapters, each method used to collect data carries with it a different implied theory about how knowledge should be, or is formed. When researchers use surveys they value the ability to solicit a larger number of people and make generalizations from the responses. When researchers analyze conversations or use interviews, they value the ability to probe individual perspectives in more depth and are less concerned with generalizations. As teachers, scholars and practitioners, the authors of this book believe a command of research methods is central to developing one's unique expertise.
In this book, three general research approaches are included: quantitative social science research methods, qualitative social science research methods, and critical rhetorical research methods. This does not mean these three are the only approaches to knowledge construction used in the field of Communication Studies or that they are necessarily independent or opposite of each other. Communication Studies is a wonderfully diverse field of study. In addition to rhetorical methods, other humanities scholarship include performance studies and film making. Because of the extreme interdisciplinary nature of film-making and performance studies, no one research method or chapter is dedicated to them. Instead we integrate examples throughout the collection, and readers should keep in mind how such work pushes the boundaries of traditional academic fields. Below are summaries/previews of the remaining chapters in this book.
Chapter One Summary : In the present chapter, we overviewed the interdisciplinary nature of the field of Communication Studies and demonstrated how this provides a broader choice of research methods for students and faculty members in the field. We introduced basic concepts necessary to have a foundation for the study of research methods. Even though scholars use diverse research methods in the field, they are built on common premises. One is that knowledge is constructed. The way it is constructed is influenced by the theoretical approaches used and the related research methods chosen. Understanding these fundamental relationships will help students be more informed critical consumers and contributors to the field of Communication Studies, their chosen professions, and society.
Chapter Two: General Comparisons . In chapter two, we offer basic points of comparison for the research methods taught in this book. This comparison should help provide a structure to understand how the diverse methods are distinct from each other before you are introduced to the specifics of conducting research in each method in subsequent chapters. The comparison is based on the two general orientations to knowledge construction introduced in chapter one: humanistic and social scientific.
Chapter Three: Ethical Research, Writing, and Creative Work . In this chapter, we discuss the importance of researcher ethics. This chapter is placed at the front of the book to stress this importance. Regardless of the method chosen, researchers have ethical choices to make in writing honestly, citing other sources, and treating human subjects fairly. Good research is, at its core, based on ethical principles.
Chapter Four: Quantitative Methods . The first research approach presented is quantitative research methods from the social sciences. The rules involved in doing quantitative methods are very clear, with a linear research process. Reading this chapter will teach you how to plan and conduct a quantitative study, and make sense of your findings once you have collected your data.
Chapter Five: Qualitative Methods . Qualitative research methods can be placed in the middle of a continuum of research methods from the scientific to the humanistic. Qualitative methods are usually considered to be a social science approach, but in more recent years researchers have been pushing these boundaries to embrace multiple ways of knowing.
Chapter Six: Critical/Rhetorical Methods . The core assumption of rhetorical criticism is that symbolic action (the use of words, images, stories, and argument) are more than a means to transmit information, but actually construct social reality, or people's understanding of the world. Learning methods of rhetorical criticism enable you to critique the use of symbolic action and understand how it constructs a particular understanding of the world by framing a concept in one way rather than another. The more adept you become at analyzing others' messages, the more skilled you become at constructing your own.
Chapter Seven: Presenting Your Results . This chapter teaches you how to present the results of your study, regardless of the choice made among the three methods. Writing in academics has a basic form and style that you will want to learn not only to report your own research, but also to enhance your skills at reading original research published in academic journals. Beyond the basic academic style of report writing, there are specific, often unwritten assumptions about how quantitative, qualitative, and rhetorical studies should be organized and the information they should contain. In this chapter students will learn about the functions of each part of a report (e.g. introduction, methods and data description, and critical conclusion) and find useful criteria to help guide the writing of each part in a research report.
When the faculty in the UNI Department of Communication Studies decided to make research methods a required course for all students majoring in the department (starting Fall, 2010), we searched for a textbook that equitably covered methods used in the humanities and social sciences. We could not find one, so we decided to write our own. This resource book is the product of a collaborative effort by faculty in the department. Although five of us wrote and organized the chapters, everyone in the department was invited to contribute ideas and examples.
The result is not a traditional textbook. For one thing, rather than one voice, the authors hope you will hear their distinct voices in each chapter influenced, in part, by the methods chosen and the values these methods reflect. The differing styles should help prepare you for the differing writing styles you will find when you read original research in journals that feature quantitative, qualitative, or critical/rhetorical studies. Consequently, the citation systems we use to document sources differ across chapters. In chapters on social science research (quantitative and qualitative research methods) we use the American Psychological Association (APA) (2010) style, because it is the format of choice for most journals publishing social science research. In the chapters on ethics and rhetorical methods we use the format prescribed by the Modern Language Association (MLA) (2009) because rhetoric is rooted in the Humanities, and rhetorical research often is published in journals that also include scholarship from performance studies, English literature and the fine arts. As one reads the coming chapters, it can be insightful to attempt to identify how the methods and values are reflected in the writing styles.
Another distinction is that because the text is digital, rather than paper, we are able to make the book more interactive, including additional websites and other resources to hopefully help make the methods come alive. Perhaps most importantly for you as a student, using a digital delivery system means far less expense. The digital delivery system also means we have the ability to update material continuously.
Through this book, we hope you will become excited by the possibilities of participating in the construction of knowledge in Communication Studies. We also hope to help demystify the research process and reveal underlying assumptions of each process. Contrary to what some public figures, educators and media sources would have the public believe, most knowledge is not absolute. We invite your critical voice to this learning process.
American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Baxter, L. (2011). Voicing relationships: A dialogic perspective . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
Berger, C. R., & Calabrese, R. (1975). Some explorations in initial interactions and beyond: Toward a development theory of interpersonal communication. Human Communication Research , 1, 99-112.
Bullock, C. F. (2008). Official sources dominate domestic violence reporting. Newspaper Research Journal , 29(2), 6-22.
Burke, K. (1966). Language as symbolic action: Essays on life, literature, and method . Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Burke, T. (2002). Lawyers, lawsuits and legal rights: The battle over litigation in American society . Berkeley, CA: University of California.
Campbell, R., Martin, C. R., & Fabos, B. (2010). Media & culture: An introduction to mass communication (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's.
Carver, M. H., & Lawless, E. J. (2009). Troubling violence: A performance project . Jackson, MI: University of Mississippi Press.
DeFrancisco, V. P., & Palczewski, C. H. (2007). Communicating gender diversity: A critical approach . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Dindia, K., & Canary, D. J. (Eds.). (2006). Sex differences and similarities in communication (2nd edition). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Dues, M., & Brown, M. (2004). Boxing Plato' s shadow: An introduction to the study of human communication . Boston, MA: McGraw Hill.
Gergen, K. J. (1994). Realities and relationships: Soundings in social construction . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Gray, J. (1992). Men are from Mars, women are from Venus: A practical guide for improving communication and getting what you want in your relationship . New York: HarperCollins.
Gottman, J. M. (1994). What predicts divorce? The relationship between marital processes and marital outcomes . Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Gudykunst, W. B. (2005). An anxiety/uncertainty management (AUM) theory of effective communication: Making the mesh of the net finer. In W. B. Gudykunst (Ed.), Theorizing about intercultural communication (pp. 281-322). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Keyton, J. (2011). Communicating research: Asking questions, finding answers (3rd ed). New York: McGraw Hill.
Kim, B. (n.d.) Social constructivism. In M. Orey (Ed.), Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching, and technology . Department of Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology, University of Georgia. Retrieved from http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Social_Constructivism
Kim, S. H. (2007). Max Weber. Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy . Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/weber/
Korn, C.J., Morreale, S.P., and Boileau, D.M. (2000). Defining the field: Revisiting the ACA 1995 definition of communication studies. Journal of the Association for Communication Administration , 29, 40-52.
Leeds-Hurwitz, W. (1990). Notes in the history of intercultural communication: The foreign service institute and the mandate for intercultural training. Quarterly Journal of Speech , 76, 262-281.
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year 2006. (2006). Merriam-Webster Online. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/info/06words.htm
Mitchell, K. S. (1996). Ever after: Reading the women who read (and re-write) romance. Theatre Topics 6.1 (1996) 51-69
The Modern Language Association. (2009). MLA handbook for writers of research papers (7th ed.). New York: The Modern Language Association of America.
National Communication Association. (2007). Communication scholarship and the humanities: A white paper sponsored by the National Communication Association. Retrieved from http://www.natcom.org/uploadedFiles/Resources_For/Policy_Makers/PDF-Communication_Scholarship_and_the_Humanities_A_White_Paper_by_NCA.pdf
Olson, L. N. (2010). The role of voice in the (re)construction of a battered woman's identity: An autoethnography of one woman's experiences of abuse. Women's Studies in Communication 27(1), 1-33. DOI: 10.1080/0749/409-2004.10162464
Stormer, N. (2003). To remember, to act, to forget: Tracing collective remembrance through "A Jury of Her Peers". Communication Studies , 54(4), 510-529.
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Tannen, D. (1990). You just don't understand: Women and men in conversation . New York: William Morrow.
Tjaden, P. & Thoennes, N. (2000, July). Extent, nature and consequences of intimate partner violence: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey. (NCJ 181867). Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved from http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/181867.pdf
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Chapter 1 playlist.
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Chapter 1 introduces the research problem and the evidence supporting the existence of the problem. It outlines an initial review of the literature on the study topic and articulates the purpose of the study. The definitions of any technical terms necessary for the reader to understand are essential. Chapter 1 also presents the research questions and theoretical foundation (Ph.D.) or conceptual framework (Applied Doctorate) and provides an overview of the research methods (qualitative or quantitative) being used in the study.
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As we discuss in the video, every research methodology will be different, depending on the research aims, objectives and research questions. Therefore, you’ll need to tailor your literature review to suit your specific context.
You can learn more about the basics of writing a research methodology chapter here .
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Case study : student apprehension regarding research methods.
Research Study
Understanding and Measuring Student Apprehension in Criminal Justice Research Methods Courses 1
Research Question
How do we measure disinterest, relevance argumentation, and math anxiety experienced by students enrolled in research methods courses?
Methodology
It is said that �misery loves company,� so you are not alone in your apprehension and anxiety regarding your research methods course. The problem of student apprehension and anxiety related to taking a research methods course is not new and has been studied for over 25 years. Previously, such apprehension and anxiety appeared to be caused by math anxiety, especially as it applies to statistics. The authors of this article believe that student apprehension goes beyond math anxiety; that math anxiety is too simplistic of an explanation of student fear of research methods courses. Besides math anxiety, the researchers think that apprehension is caused by student indifference to the subject matter and irrelevance of the course because it does not apply to the �real world.� They state that student apprehension in research methods and statistics courses is due to three main factors:
Disinterest (D.);
Relevance Argumentation (RA.), and;
Math Anxiety (MA.).
Taken together, the reconceptualization is known as D.RA.MA., and the combination of these three factors constitutes the D.RA.MA. scale for research methods and statistics courses.
The researchers developed the D.RA.MA. scale by constructing survey questions to measure each factor in the scale (i.e., disinterest, relevance argumentation, and math anxiety). After they developed the survey, they tested it by distributing the survey to three criminal justice classes, totaling 80 students, from a midsized regional comprehensive university in the southern region of the United States. Higher scale scores demonstrate more disinterest, more relevance argumentation, or more math anxiety.
The D.RA.MA. scale consists of 20 survey questions. Ten questions were borrowed from an existing Math Anxiety scale developed by Betz 2 . The researchers then created five items to assess Disinterest and five items intended to measure Relevance Argumentation. The items for the D.RA.MA. scale are illustrated below.
Math Anxiety 3
I usually have been at ease in math classes.
Math does not scare me at all.
I am no good at math.
I don�t think that I could do advanced math.
Generally, I have been secure about attempting math.
For some reason, even though I study, math seems unusually hard for me.
Math has been my worst subject.
My mind goes blank and I am unable to think clearly when working in mathematics.
I think I could handle more difficult math.
I am not the type to do well in mathematics.
Relevance Argumentation 4
I will need research methods for my future work.
I view research methods as a subject that I will rarely use.
Research methods is not really useful for students who intend to work in Criminal Justice.
Knowing research methods will help me earn a living.
Research methods does not reflect the �real world.�
Research Disinterest 5
I am excited about taking research methods.
It would not bother me at all to take more research methods courses.
I expect a research methods class to be boring.
I don�t expect to learn much in research methods.
I really don�t care if I learn anything in research methods, as long as I get the requirement completed.
The Math Anxiety Scale responses for the 80 students ranged from 0 to 30 with a mean of 14, demonstrating a moderate level of math anxiety among the study participants. The responses for Relevance Argumentation ranged from 0 to 12 with a mean of 5.4 while those for Disinterest ranged from 1 to 15 with a mean of 7.0, demonstrating a moderate level of disinterest and relevance argumentation among students regarding research methods. Based on these findings, the study demonstrated that student apprehension regarding research methods courses goes beyond math anxiety and includes two additional factors; disinterest in the subject matter and irrelevance of research methods to the �real world.�
Limitations with the Study Procedure
This research study was designed to develop a broader measure of student apprehension in criminal justice research methods courses. Moving beyond just math anxiety, the researchers accomplished their objective by developing the D.RA.MA. scale; adding disinterest and relevance argumentation to the understanding of student apprehension regarding research methods. As is true for all research, this study is not without limitations. The biggest limitation of this study is the limited sample size. Only 80 students completed the survey. Although this is certainly a good start, similar research (i.e., replication) needs to be completed with larger student samples in different locations throughout the country before the actual quality of the D.RA.MA. scale can be determined.
Impact on Criminal Justice
The D.RA.MA. scale developed in this study identifies disinterest and relevance argumentation, in addition to math anxiety, as part of student apprehension and resistance to research methods. A variety of instructional strategies can be inferred from the D.RA.MA. survey. However, it is important for professors to recognize that no single approach will reduce research methods resistance and apprehension for all students. For example, discussing research methods in a popular culture framework may resonate with students and lead to engaged students who are more interested in the subject matter and identify with the relevance of research methods to criminal justice in general and the future careers of students, in particular. This approach may provide an effective means for combating student disinterest and relevance argumentation in criminal justice research methods courses. At a minimum, it is critical for professors to explain the relevance of research methods to the policies and practices of police, courts, and corrections. Students need to realize that research methods are essential tools for assessing agency policies and practices. Professors will always have D.RA.MA.-plagued students, but recognizing the problem and then developing effective strategies to connect with these students is the challenge all professors face. Experimenting with a multitude of teaching strategies to alleviate the math anxiety, relevance argumentation, and disinterest of criminal justice research methods students will result in more effective teaching and learning.
What research is and why it is important to be an informed consumer of research
The sources of knowledge development and problems with each
How research methods can dispel myths about crime and the criminal justice system
The steps in the research process
How research has impacted criminal justice operations
As noted in the chapter opening case study, it is expected that you have some anxiety and apprehension about taking this criminal justice research methods course. But, you have taken a significant step toward success in this course by opening up your research methods book, so congratulations are in order. You might have opened this book for a number of reasons. Perhaps it is the first day of class and you are ready to get started on the course material. Perhaps you have a quiz or exam soon. Perhaps the book has been gathering dust on your shelf since the first day of class and you are not doing well in your research methods class and are looking for the book to help with course improvement. Perhaps you are taking a research methods class in the future and are seeing if all the chatter among students is true.
No matter how you got here, two things are probably true. First, you are taking this research methods course because it is a requirement for your major. The bottom line is that most of the students who read this text are required to take a research methods course. While you may think studying research methods is irrelevant to your career goals, unnecessary, overly academic, or perhaps even intimidating, you probably must finish this course in order to graduate. Second, you have heard negative comments about this course. The negative comments mention the difficulty of the course and the relevance of the course (e.g., �I am going to be a police officer, so why do I need to take a research methods course?�). If you are like most students we have experienced in our research methods courses in the past, you are not initially interested in this course and are concerned about whether you will do well in it.
If you are concerned about the course, realize that you are not alone because most students are anxious about taking a research methods course. Also realize that your professor is well aware of student anxiety and apprehension regarding research methods. So, relax and do not think about the entire course and the entire book. Take the course content one chapter, one week at a time. One of the advantages of taking a research methods course is that you learn about the process of research methods. Each chapter builds upon the previous chapters, illustrating and discussing more about the research process. This is certainly an advantage, but it is also critical that you understand the initial chapters in this book so you are not confused with the content discussed in later chapters. In addition to anxiety and apprehension over the course material, research methods can be boring if you only read and learn about it with no particular purpose in mind. Although examples are prevalent throughout the book, as you read this material, it is recommended that you think about the relevancy and application of the topics covered in this book to your specific criminal justice interests. As you continue to read the book, think about how you might use the information you are reading in your current position or your intended profession.
The goal of this research methods book is to develop you into an informed consumer of research. Most, if not all, of your fellow classmates will never conduct their own research studies. However, every one of you will be exposed to research findings in your professional and personal lives for the remainder of your lives. You are exposed to research findings in the media (e.g., television, newspapers, and online), in personal interaction with others (e.g., friends and family, doctors, and professors), as well as in class. You should challenge yourself for this semester to keep a journal and document exposure to research in your daily life outside of college whether through the nightly news, newspapers, magazine articles, Internet, personal conversations, or other means. At the end of the semester, you will be amazed at the amount of research you are exposed to in a short period of time. This book is focused on research exposure and assisting you to become an educated consumer of research by providing you the skills necessary to differentiate between good and not so good research. Why should you believe research findings if the study is faulty? Without being an educated consumer of research, you will not be able to differentiate between useful and not useful research. This book is designed to remedy this problem.
This book was written to make your first encounter with research methods relevant and successful while providing you the tools necessary to become an educated consumer of research. Therefore, this book is written with the assumption that students have not had a prior class on research methods. In addition, this book assumes that practical and evaluative knowledge of research methods is more useful than theoretical knowledge of the development of research methods and the relationship between theory and research. Since the focus of this book is on consumerism, not researcher training, practical and evaluative knowledge is more useful than theoretical knowledge.
It is also important to understand that the professors who design academic programs in criminal justice at the associate and bachelor level believe that an understanding of research methods is important for students. That is why, more than likely, this research methods course is a required course in your degree program. These professors understand that a solid understanding of research methods will enrich the qualifications of students for employment and performance in their criminal justice careers.
As previously stated, the basic goal of this book is to make students, as future and possibly even current practitioners in the criminal justice system, better informed and more capable consumers of the results of criminal justice research. This goal is based on the belief that an understanding of research methods allows criminal justice practitioners to be better able to make use of the results of research as it applies to their work-related duties. In fact, thousands of research questions are asked and answered each year in research involving criminal justice and criminological topics. In addition, thousands of articles are published, papers presented at conferences, and reports prepared that provide answers to these questions. The ability to understand research gives practitioners knowledge of the most current information in their respective fields and the ability to use this knowledge to improve the effectiveness of criminal justice agencies.
The reality is the understanding of crime and criminal justice system operations by the public is frequently the product of misguided assumptions, distorted interpretations, outright myths, and hardened ideological positions. 6 This is a bold statement that basically contends that most people�s knowledge of crime and criminal justice is inaccurate. But, how do these inaccuracies occur? Most people have learned what they know about crime and criminal justice system operations through some other means besides scientific research results and findings. Some of that knowledge is based on personal experience and common sense. Much of it is based on the information and images supported by politicians, governmental agencies, and especially the media. This section will discuss the mechanisms used to understand crime and criminal justice operations by the public. It is important to note that although this section will focus on the failings of these knowledge sources, they each can be, and certainly are, accurate at times, and thus are valuable sources of knowledge.
Knowledge from Authority
We gain knowledge from parents, teachers, experts, and others who are in positions of authority in our lives. When we accept something as being correct and true just because someone in a position of authority says it is true, we are using what is referred to as authority knowledge as a means of knowing. Authorities often expend significant time and effort to learn something, and we can benefit from their experience and work.
However, relying on authority as a means of knowing has limitations. It is easy to overestimate the expertise of other people. A person�s expertise is typically limited to a few core areas of significant knowledge; a person is not an expert in all areas. More specifically, criminal justice professors are not experts on all topics related to criminal justice. One professor may be an expert on corrections but know little about policing. If this professor discusses topics in policing in which he is not an expert, we may still assume he is right when he may be wrong. Authority figures may speak on fields they know little about. They can be completely wrong but we may believe them because of their status as an expert. Furthermore, an expert in one area may try to use his authority in an unrelated area. Other times, we have no idea of how the experts arrived at their knowledge. We just know they are experts in the topic area.
As I am writing this, I recall an example of authority knowledge that was wrong during my police academy training in the late 1980s. My academy training was about four years after the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Tennessee v. Garner. 7 In this case, the Court limited the use of deadly force by police to defense of life situations and incidents where the suspect committed a violent offense. Prior to the decision, the police in several states could use deadly force on any fleeing suspect accused of a felony offense. One day, the academy class was practicing mock traffic stops. During one of my mock traffic stops, I received information that the vehicle I stopped was stolen. The driver and passenger exited the vehicle and fled on foot. I did not use deadly force (this was a training exercise so was not real) against the suspects and was chastised by my instructor who insisted that I should have shot the suspects as they were fleeing. Training instructors, just like professors, convey authority knowledge but, in this case, the instructor was wrong. I was not legally authorized to use deadly force in the traffic stop scenario despite the insistence of my instructor to the contrary.
Politicians are sometimes taken as a source of authority knowledge about the law, crime, and criminal justice issues. Since they enact laws that directly impact the operations of the criminal justice system, we may assume they are an authority on crime and criminal justice. More specifically, we may assume that politicians know best about how to reduce crime and increase the effectiveness of the criminal justice system. However, history is rife with laws that sounded good on paper but had no impact on crime. For example, there is little evidence that sex offender registration protects the public from sexual predators or acts as a deterrent to repeat sex offenders even though every state has a law requiring convicted sex offenders to register with local authorities. Perhaps politicians are not the criminal justice experts some perceive them to be.
History is also full of criminal justice authorities that we now see as being misinformed. For example, Cesare Lombroso is the father of the positivist school of criminology. He is most readily recognized for his idea that some individuals are born criminal. He stated that criminals have certain unique biological characteristics, including large protruding jaws, high foreheads, flattened noses, and asymmetrical faces, to name a few. 8 These characteristics were similar to those found in primitive humans. Therefore, Lombroso argued that some individuals were genetic �throwbacks� to a more primitive time and were less evolved than other people and thus, were more likely to be criminals. Lombroso�s research has been discredited because he failed to compare criminals with noncriminals. By studying only criminals, he found characteristics that were common to criminals. However, if Lombroso had studied a group of noncriminals, he would have discovered that these biological characteristics are just as prevalent among noncriminals. This example involves authority knowledge that is supported by research but the research methods used were flawed. The errors of Lombroso seem obvious now, but what do we know today through authority knowledge that is inaccurate or will be proven wrong in the future?
In addition to authority knowledge, people often rely on tradition for knowledge. Tradition knowledge relies on the knowledge of the past. Individuals accept something as true because that is the way things have always been so it must be right. A good example of tradition knowledge is preventive/random patrol. Ever since vehicles were brought into the police patrol function, police administrators assumed that having patrol officers drive around randomly in the communities they serve, while they are not answering calls for service, would prevent crime. If you were a patrol officer in the early 1970s and asked your supervisor, �Why do I drive around randomly throughout my assigned area when I am not answering a call for service?� the answer would have been, �That is the way we have always done patrol and random patrol reduces crime through deterrence.� The Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment challenged the tradition knowledge that preventive/random patrol reduces crime. The results of the study made it clear that the traditional practice of preventive/random patrol had little to no impact on reducing crime. This allowed police departments to develop other patrol deployment strategies such as directed patrol and �hot spots� policing since preventive patrol was seen as ineffective. The development of effective patrol deployment strategies continues today.
We frequently rely on common sense knowledge for what we know about crime and the criminal justice system because it �just makes sense.� For example, it �just makes sense� that if we send juvenile delinquents on a field trip to prison where they will see first hand the prison environment as well as be yelled at by actual prisoners, they will refrain from future delinquency. That is exactly what the program Scared Straight, originally developed in the 1970s, is designed to do. Scared Straight programs are still in existence today and are even the premise for the television show Beyond Scared Straight on the A&E television network. As originally created, the program was designed to decrease juvenile delinquency by bringing at-risk and delinquent juveniles into prison where they would be �scared straight� by inmates serving life sentences. Participants in the program were talked to and yelled at by the inmates in an effort to scare them. It was believed that the fear felt by the participants would lead to a discontinuation of their delinquent behavior so that they would not end up in prison themselves. This sounds like a good idea. It makes sense, and the program was initially touted as a success due to anecdotal evidence based on a few delinquents who turned their lives around after participation in the program.
However, evaluations of the program and others like it showed that the program was in fact unsuccessful. In the initial evaluation of the Scared Straight program, Finckenauer used a classic experimental design (discussed in Chapter 5), to evaluate the original �Lifer�s Program� at Rahway State Prison in New Jersey where the program was initially developed. 13 Juveniles were randomly assigned to an experimental group that attended the Scared Straight program and a control group that did not participate in the program. Results of the evaluation were not positive. Post-test measures revealed that juveniles who were assigned to the experimental group and participated in the program were actually more seriously delinquent afterwards than those who did not participate in the program. Also using an experimental design with random assignment, Yarborough evaluated the �Juvenile Offenders Learn Truth� (JOLT) program at the State Prison of Southern Michigan at Jackson. 14 This program was similar to that of the �Lifer�s Program,� only with fewer obscenities used by inmates. Post-test measurements were taken at two intervals, three and six months after program completion. Again, results were not positive. Findings revealed no significant differences in delinquency between those juveniles who attended the program and those who did not. Other experiments conducted on Scared Straight- type programs further revealed their inability to deter juveniles from further delinquency. 15 Despite the common sense popularity of these programs, the evaluations showed that Scared Straight programs do not reduce delinquency and, in some instances, may actually increase delinquency. The programs may actually do more harm than good. I guess that begs the question, �Why do we still do these types of programs?�
Scared Straight programs and other widely held common sense beliefs about crime and the criminal justice system are questionable, based on the available research evidence. Common sense is important in our daily lives and is frequently correct, but, at times, it also contains inaccuracies, misinformation, and even prejudice.
Is It Safe to Put Felons on Probation?
Research Study 9
In the mid-1970s, the number of offenders on probation began to significantly increase. By the mid-1980s, probation was the most frequently used sentence in most states and its use was becoming more common for felons, whereas previously, probation was typically limited to misdemeanor crimes and offenses committed by juveniles. Increasing numbers of felony offenders were being placed on probation because judges had no other alternative forms of punishment. Prisons were already operating above capacity due to rising crime rates. Despite the increase in the use of probation in the 1980s, few empirical studies of probation (particularly its use with felony offenders) had been published. In the early 1980s, the Rand Corporation conducted an extensive study of probation to learn more about the offenders sentenced to probation and the effectiveness of probation as a criminal sanction. At the time the study began, over one-third of California�s probation population were convicted felons. 10 This was the first large-scale study of felony probation.
Is it safe to put felons on probation?
Data for the study were obtained from the California Board of Prison Terms (CBPT). The Board had been collecting comprehensive data on all offenders sentenced to prison since 1978 and on a sample of adult males from 17 counties who received probation. From these two data sources, researchers selected a sample of male offenders who had been convicted of the following crimes: robbery, assault, burglary, theft, forgery, and drug offenses. These crimes were selected because an offender could receive either prison or probation if convicted. Approximately 16,500 male felony offenders were included in the study. For each offender, researchers had access to their personal characteristics, information on their crimes, court proceedings, and disposition.
Two main research questions were answered in this study. First, what were the recidivism rates for felony offenders who received probation? When assessing recidivism rates, the study found that the majority of offenders sentenced to probation recidivated during the follow-up period, which averaged 31 months. Overall, 65% of the sample of probationers were re-arrested and 51 % were charged with and convicted of another offense. A total of 18% were convicted of a violent crime.
The second research question asked, what were the characteristics of the probationers who recidivated? Property offenders were more likely to recidivate compared to violent or drug offenders. Researchers also discovered that probationers tended to recidivate by committing the same crime that placed them on probation. Rand researchers included time to recidivism in their analysis and found that property and violent offenders recidivated sooner than drug offenders. The median time to the first filed charge was five months for property offenders and eight months for violent offenders.
The issue of whether or not the findings would generalize to other counties in California and to other states was raised. Data for the study came from probation and prison records from two counties in California. These two counties were not randomly selected, but were chosen because of their large probation populations and the willingness of departments to provide information. Further, the probation departments in these counties had experienced significant budget cuts. Supervision may have become compromised as a result and this could have explained why these counties had high rates of recidivism. Studies of probation recidivism in other states have found recidivism rates to be much lower, suggesting the Rand results may not have applied elsewhere. 11 Several studies examining the effectiveness of probation and the factors correlated with probation outcomes were published after 1985. Much of this research failed to produce results consistent with the Rand study.
The Rand study of felony probation received a considerable amount of attention within the field of corrections. According to one scholar, the study was acclaimed as �the most important criminological research to be reported since World War II.� 12 The National Institute of Justice disseminated the report to criminal justice agencies across the country and even highlighted the study in their monthly newsletter. Today, the study remains one of the most highly cited pieces of corrections research.
According to Rand researchers, these findings raised serious doubts about the effectiveness of probation for felony offenders. Most of the felons sentenced to probation recidivated and researchers were unable to develop an accurate prediction model to improve the courts� decision-making. The continued use of probation as a sanction for felony offenders appeared to be putting the public at risk. However, without adequate prison space, the courts had no other alternatives besides probation when sentencing offenders.
The researchers made several recommendations to address the limitations of using probation for felony offenders. First, it was recommended that states formally acknowledge that the purpose of probation had changed. Probation was originally used as a means of furthering the goal of rehabilitation in the correctional system. As the United States moved away from that goal in the late 1960s, the expectations of probation changed. Probation was now used as a way to exercise �restrictive supervision� over more serious offenders. Second, probation departments needed to redefine the responsibilities of their probation officers. Probation officers were now expected to be surveillance officers instead of treatment personnel, which required specialized training. In addition, states needed to explore the possibility of broadening the legal authority of its probation officers by allowing them to act as law enforcement officers if necessary. Third, states were advised to adopt a formal client management system that included risk/need assessments of every client. Such a system would help establish uniform, consistent treatment of those on probation and would also help departments allocate their resources efficiently and effectively. Fourth, researchers encouraged states to develop alternative forms of community punishment that offered more public protection than regular probation, which led to the development and use of intensive supervision probation, house arrest, electronic monitoring, day reporting centers, and other intermediate punishments.
If you personally see something or if it actually happens to you, then you are likely to accept it as true and gain knowledge from the experience. Gaining knowledge through actual experiences is known as personal experience knowledge, and it has a powerful and lasting impact on everyone. Personal experiences are essential building blocks of knowledge and of what we believe to be true. The problem with knowledge gained from personal experiences is that personal experiences can be unique and unreliable, which can distort reality and lead us to believe things that are actually false.
How can events that someone personally experienced be wrong? The events are not wrong. Instead, the knowledge gained from the experience is wrong. For example, the research consistently shows that a person�s demeanor significantly impacts the decision-making of police officers. During a traffic stop, if a person is rude, disrespectful, and uncooperative to the officer, then the driver is more likely to receive a traffic citation than a warning. That is what the research on police discretion shows. However, if a person was rude and uncooperative to a police officer during a traffic stop and was let go without a citation, the person will gain knowledge from this personal experience. The knowledge gained may include that being disrespectful during future traffic stops will get this person out of future tickets. Not likely. The event is not wrong. Instead, the knowledge gained from the experience is wrong because being disrespectful to the police usually leads to more enforcement action taken by the police, not less.
As a student in criminal justice, you have probably experienced something similar in interaction with friends, relatives, and neighbors. Your knowledge of criminal justice that you have developed in your criminal justice classes is trumped by one experience your friend, relative, or neighbor had with the criminal justice system. They believe they are right because they experienced it. However, there are four errors that occur in the knowledge gained from personal experiences: overgeneralization, selective observation, illogical reasoning, and resistance to change.
Overgeneralization happens when people conclude that what they have observed in one or a few cases is true for all cases. For example, you may see that a wealthy businesswomen in your community is acquitted of bribery and may conclude that �wealthy people, especially women, are never convicted in our criminal justice system,� which is an overgeneralization. It is common to draw conclusions about people and society from our personal interactions, but, in reality, our experiences are limited because we interact with just a small percentage of people in society.
The same is true for practitioners in the criminal justice system. Practitioners have a tendency to believe that because something was done a particular way in their agency, it is done that way in all agencies. That may not be true. Although there are certainly operational similarities across criminal justice agencies, there are also nuances that exist across the over 50,000 criminal justice agencies in the United States. Believing that just because it was that way in your agency, it must be that way in all agencies leads to overgeneralization.
Selective observation is choosing, either consciously or unconsciously, to pay attention to and remember events that support our personal preferences and beliefs. In fact, with selective observation, we will seek out evidence that confirms what we believe to be true and ignore the events that provide contradictory evidence. We are more likely to notice pieces of evidence that reinforce and support our ideology. As applied to the criminal justice system, when we are inclined to be critical of the criminal justice system, it is pretty easy to notice its every failing and ignore its successes. For example, if someone believes the police commonly use excessive force, the person is more likely to pay attention to and remember a police brutality allegation on the nightly news than a police pursuit that led to the apprehension of the suspect without incident on the same nightly news. As another example, if you believe treatment efforts on sex offenders are futile, you will pay attention to and remember each sex offender you hear about that recidivates but will pay little attention to any successes. It is easy to find instances that confirm our beliefs, but with selective observation, the complete picture is not being viewed. Therefore, if we only acknowledge the events that confirm our beliefs and ignore those that challenge them, we are falling victim to selective observation.
Besides selective observation, some of our observations may simply be wrong. Consider eyewitness identification. It is a common practice in the criminal justice system, but research has consistently demonstrated inaccuracies in eyewitness identification. The witness feels certain that the person viewed is the person who committed the offense, but sometimes the witness is wrong. Even when our senses of sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell are fully operational, our minds have to interpret what we have sensed, which may lead to an inaccurate observation.
When Your Criminal Past Isn�t Yours 16
The business of background checks on prospective employees is increasing significantly. According to the Society for Human Resource Management, since the events of September 11, 2001, the percentage of companies that conduct criminal history checks during the hiring process has risen past 90%. Employers spend at least $2 billion a year to look into the pasts of their prospective employees. Problems with the business of background checks were identified through research that included a review of thousands of pages of court filings and interviews with dozens of court officials, data providers, lawyers, victims, and regulators.
The business of background checks is a system weakened by the conversion to digital files and compromised by the significant number of private companies that profit by amassing public records and selling them to employers. The private companies create a system in which a computer program scrapes the public files of court systems around the country to retrieve personal data. Basically, these are automated data-mining programs. Today, half the courts in the United States put criminal records on their public websites. So, the data are there for the taking, but the records that are retrieved typically are not checked for errors�errors that would be obvious to human eyes.
The errors can start with a mistake entered into the logs of a law enforcement agency or a court file. The biggest culprits, though, are companies that compile databases using public information. In some instances, their automated formulas misinterpret the information provided them. Other times, records wind up assigned to the wrong people with a common name. Furthermore, when a government agency erases a criminal conviction after a designated period of good behavior, many of the commercial databases don�t perform the updates required to purge offenses that have been removed from public record. It is clear that these errors can have substantial ramifications, including damaged reputations and loss of job opportunities.
Illogical reasoning occurs when someone jumps to premature conclusions or presents an argument that is based on invalid assumptions. Premature conclusions occur when we feel we have the answer based on a few pieces of evidence and do not need to seek additional information that may invalidate our conclusion. Think of a detective who, after examining only a few pieces of evidence, quickly narrows in on a murder suspect. It is common for a detective to assess the initial evidence and make an initial determination of who committed the murder. However, it is hoped that the detective will continue to sort through all the evidence for confirmation or rejection of his original conclusion regarding the murder suspect. Illogical reasoning by jumping to premature conclusions is common in everyday life. We look for evidence to confirm or reject our beliefs and stop when a small amount of evidence is present; we jump to conclusions. If a person states, �I know four people who have dropped out of high school, and each one of them ended up addicted to drugs, so all dropouts abuse drugs,� the person is jumping to conclusions.
Illogical reasoning also occurs when an argument, based on invalid assumptions, is presented. Let�s revisit the Scared Straight example previously discussed. Program developers assumed that brief exposure to the harsh realities of prison would deter juveniles from future delinquency. The Scared Straight program is an example of illogical reasoning. Four hours of exposure to prison life is not going to counteract years of delinquency and turn a delinquent into a nondelinquent. The program is based on a false assumption and fails to recognize the substantial risk factors present in the lives of most delinquents that must be mediated before the juvenile can live a crime-free lifestyle. A fear of prison, developed through brief exposure, is not enough to counteract the risk factors present in the lives of most delinquents. Although the Scared Straight program sounds good, it is illogical to assume that a brief experience with prison life will have a stronger impact on the decisions made by delinquents than peer support for delinquency, drug abuse, lack of education, poor parental supervision, and other factors that influence delinquency.
Resistance to change is the reluctance to change our beliefs in light of new, accurate, and valid information to the contrary. Resistance to change is common and it occurs for several reasons. First, even though our personal experience may be counter to our belief system, it is hard to admit we were wrong after we have taken a position on an issue. Even when the research evidence shows otherwise, people who work within programs may still believe they are effective. As previously stated, even though the research evidence shows otherwise, Scared Straight programs still exist and there is even a television show devoted to the program. Second, too much devotion to tradition and the argument that this is the way it has always been done inhibits change and hinders our ability to accept new directions and develop new knowledge. Third, uncritical agreement with authority inhibits change. Although authority knowledge is certainly an important means of gaining knowledge, we must critically evaluate the ideas, beliefs, and statements of those in positions of authority and be willing to challenge those statements where necessary. However, people often accept the beliefs of those in positions of authority without question, which hinders change.
Television shows, movies, websites, newspapers, and magazine articles are important sources of information. This is especially true for information about crime and the criminal justice system since most people have not had much contact with criminals or the criminal justice system. Instead of gaining knowledge about the criminal justice system through personal experience, most people learn about crime and the operations of the criminal justice system through media outlets. Since the primary goal of many of these media outlets is to entertain, they may not accurately reflect the reality of crime and criminal justice. Despite their inaccuracies, the media has a substantial impact on what people know about crime and the criminal justice system. Most people know what they know about crime and criminal justice through the media, and this knowledge even has an impact on criminal justice system operations.
An example of the potential impact of the media on the actual operations of the criminal justice system involves the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation television shows. The shows have been criticized for their unrealistic portrayal of the role of forensic science in solving criminal cases. Critics claim that CSI viewers accept what they see on the show as an accurate representation of how forensic science works. When summoned for jury duty, they bring with them unrealistic expectations of the forensic evidence they will see in trial. When the expected sophisticated forensic evidence is not presented in the real trial, the juror is more likely to vote to acquit the defendant. This phenomenon is known as the CSI Effect. Has the research shown that the CSI Effect exists and is impacting the criminal justice system? Most of the research shows that the CSI Effect does not exist and thus does not impact juror decision-making, but other research has shown that viewers of CSI have higher expectations related to evidence presented at trial. 17
There are several instances in which media attention on a particular topic created the idea that a major problem existed when it did not. An example is Halloween sadism. Halloween sadism is the practice of giving contaminated treats to children during trick or treating. 18 In 1985, Joel Best wrote an article entitled, �The Myth of the Halloween Sadist.� 19 His article reviewed press coverage of Halloween sadism in the leading papers in the three largest metropolitan areas ( New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Chicago Tribune ) from 1958�1984. Although the belief in Halloween sadism is widespread, Best found few reported incidents and few reports of children being injured by Halloween sadism. Follow-ups on these reported incidents led to the conclusion that most of these reports were hoaxes. Best concluded, �I have been unable to find a substantiated report of a child being killed or seriously injured by a contaminated treat picked up in the course of trick or treating.� 20 Since 1985, Best has kept his research up to date and has come to the same conclusion. Halloween sadism is an urban legend; it is a story that is told as true, even though there is little or no evidence that the events in the story ever occurred.
In the prior section, sources of knowledge were discussed along with the limitations of each. A researcher (e.g., criminologist), ideally, takes no knowledge claim for granted, but instead relies on research methods to discover the truth. In the attempt to generate new knowledge, a researcher is skeptical of knowledge that is generated by the sources discussed in the prior section, and this skepticism leads to the questioning of conventional thinking. Through this process, existing knowledge claims are discredited, modified, or substantiated. Research methods provide the researcher with the tools necessary to test current knowledge and discover new knowledge.
Although knowledge developed through research methods is by no means perfect and infallible, it is definitely a more systematic, structured, precise, and evidence-based process than the knowledge sources previously discussed. However, researchers should not dismiss all knowledge from the prior sources discussed, because, as mentioned, these sources of knowledge are sometimes accurate and certainly have their place in the development of knowledge. Researchers should guard against an elitist mind-set in which all knowledge, unless it is research-based knowledge, is dismissed.
To further discuss the importance of research methods in the development of knowledge, this section will discuss myths about crime and criminal justice. Myths are beliefs that are based on emotion rather than rigorous analysis. Take the myth of the Halloween sadist previously discussed. Many believe that there are real examples of children being harmed by razor blades, poison, or other nefarious objects placed in Halloween candy. This belief has changed the practices of many parents on Halloween; not allowing their children to trick-or-treat in their neighborhood and forbidding them from going to the doors of strangers. After careful analysis by Best, there is not a single, known example of children being seriously injured or killed by contaminated candy given by strangers. The Halloween sadist is a myth but it is still perpetuated today, and as the definition states, it is a belief based upon emotion rather than rigorous analysis. People accept myths as accurate knowledge of reality when, in fact, the knowledge is false.
The power of research is the ability to dispel myths. If someone were to assess the research literature on a myth or do their own research, she would find that the knowledge based on the myth is wrong. Perceived reality is contradicted by the facts developed through research. But that does not mean that the myth still doesn�t exist. It is important to keep in mind that the perpetuation and acceptance of myths by the public, politicians, and criminal justice personnel has contributed to the failure of criminal justice practices and policies designed to reduce crime and improve the operations of the criminal justice system. In this section, a detailed example of a myth about crime, police, courts, and corrections will be presented to demonstrate how the myth has been dispelled through research. In addition, several additional myths about crime, police, courts, and corrections will be briefly presented.
The Health Benefits of Alcohol Consumption 21
The press release from Oregon State University is titled �Beer Compound Shows Potent Promise in Prostate Cancer Battle.� The press release leads to several newspaper articles throughout the country written on the preventative nature of drinking beer on prostate cancer development with titles such as �Beer Protects Your Prostate� and �Beer May Help Men Ward Off Prostate Cancer.� By the titles alone, this sounds great; one of the main ingredients in beer appears to thwart prostate cancer.
The study that generated these headlines was conducted by a group of researchers at Oregon State University using cultured cells with purified compounds in a laboratory setting. The research showed that xanthohumol, a compound found in hops, slowed the growth of prostate cancer cells and also the growth of cells that cause enlarged prostates. But you would have to drink more than 17 pints of beer to consume a medically effective dose of xanthohumol, which is almost a case of beer. In addition, although the research is promising, further study is necessary to determine xanthohumol�s true impact on prostate cancer.
These are the types of headlines that people pay attention to and want to believe as true, even if disproven by later research. People want to believe that there are health benefits to alcohol consumption. You have probably heard about the health benefits of drinking red wine, but here is something you should consider. Recently, the University of Connecticut released a statement describing an extensive research misconduct investigation involving a member of its faculty. The investigation was sparked by an anonymous allegation of research irregularities. The comprehensive report of the investigation, which totals approximately 60,000 pages, concludes that the professor is guilty of 145 counts of fabrication and falsification of data. The professor had gained international notoriety for his research into the beneficial properties of resveratrol, which is found in red wine, especially its impact on aging. Obviously, this throws his research conclusions, that red wine has a beneficial impact on the aging process, into question.
The myth of drug users as violent offenders continues to be perpetuated by media accounts of violent drug users. The public sees drug users as violent offenders who commit violent crimes to get money for drugs or who commit violent crimes while under the intoxicating properties of drugs. The public also recognizes the violent nature of the drug business with gangs and cartels using violence to protect their turf. In May 2012, extensive media attention was given to the case of the Miami man who ate the face of a homeless man for an agonizing 18 minutes until police shot and killed the suspect. The police believed that the suspect was high on the street drug known as �bath salts.� This horrific case definitely leaves the image in the public�s mind about the relationship between violence and drug use.
In recent years, media reports have focused on the relationship between methamphetamine use and violence; before then it was crack cocaine use and violence. 32 However, media portrayals regarding the violent tendencies of drug users date back to the 1930s and the release of Reefer Madness. In 1985, Goldstein suggested that drugs and violence could be related in three different ways:
1. violence could be the direct result of drug ingestion;
2. violence could be a product of the instability of drug market activity; and
3. violence could be the consequence of people having a compulsive need for drugs or money for drugs. 33
So, what does the research show? Studies have found that homicides related to crack cocaine were usually the product of the instability of drug market activity (i.e., buying and selling drugs can be a violent activity) and rarely the result of drug ingestion. 34 After an extensive review of research studies on alcohol, drugs, and violence, Parker and Auerhahn concluded, �Despite a number of published statements to the contrary, we find no significant evidence suggesting that drug use is associated with violence. There is substantial evidence to suggest that alcohol use is significantly associated with violence of all kinds.� 35 The reality is not everyone who uses drugs becomes violent and users who do become violent do not do so every time they use drugs; therefore, the relationship between violence and drug use is a myth.
Some additional myths about crime that research does not support include:
�Crime statistics accurately show what crimes are being committed and what crimes are most harmful. 22
�Most criminals�especially the dangerous ones�are mentally ill. 23
�White-collar crime is only about financial loss and does not hurt anyone. 24
�Serial murderers are middle-aged, white males. 25
�Criminals are significantly different from noncriminals. 26
�People are more likely to be a victim of violent crime committed by a stranger than by someone they know. 27
�Older adults are more likely to be victimized than people in any other age group. 28
�Sex offender registration protects the public from sexual predators. 29
�Juvenile crime rates are significantly increasing. 30
�Only the most violent juveniles are tried as adults. 31
Female police officers still face the myth that they cannot perform as well as male police officers. Throughout history, females have faced significant difficulties even becoming police officers. In the past, it was common for police agencies to require all police applicants to meet a minimum height requirement to be considered for employment. The minimum height requirement was 5?8? for most agencies, which limited the ability of females to successfully meet the minimum standards to become a police officer. Even if women could meet the minimum height requirements, they were typically faced with a physical-abilities test that emphasized upper body strength (e.g., push-ups and bench presses). Women failed these tests more often than men, and thus were not eligible to be police officers. Minimum height requirements are no longer used in law enforcement, but the perception that female police officers are not as good as males still exists. Today, the myth that women cannot be effective police officers is based largely on the belief that the need to demonstrate superior physical strength is a daily, common occurrence in law enforcement along with the belief that police work is routinely dangerous, violent, and crime-related.
So, what does the research show? On occasion, it is useful for police officers to be able to overpower suspects by demonstrating superior physical strength, but those types of activities are rare in law enforcement. In addition, it is fairly rare for a police officer to have to deal with a dangerous and violent encounter or even an incident involving a crime. The Police Services Study conducted in the 1970s analyzed 26,418 calls for service in three metropolitan areas and found that only 19% of calls for service involve crime and only 2% of the total calls for service involve violent crime. 43 This research study was among the first to assess the types of calls for service received by police agencies.
Despite the belief that women do not make good police officers, consistent research findings show that women are extremely capable as police officers, and in some respects, outperform their male counterparts. 44 Research has demonstrated several advantages to the hiring, retention, and promotion of women in law enforcement. First, female officers are as competent as their male counterparts. Research does not show any consistent differences in how male and female patrol officers perform their duties. Second, female officers are less likely to use excessive force. Research has shown that female patrol officers are less likely to be involved in high-speed pursuits, incidents of deadly force, and the use of excessive force. Female officers are more capable at calming potentially violent situations through communication and also demonstrate heightened levels of caution. Third, female officers can help implement community-oriented policing. Studies have shown that female officers are more supportive of the community-policing philosophy than are their male counterparts. Fourth, female officers can improve law enforcement�s response to violence against women. Studies have shown that female officers are more patient and understanding in handling domestic violence calls, and female victims of domestic violence are more likely to provide positive evaluations of female officers than their male counterparts. 52
Some additional myths about the police that research does not support include:
�Police target minorities for traffic stops and arrests. 36
�Most crimes are solved through forensic science. 37
�COMPSTAT reduces crime. 38
�Intensive law enforcement efforts at the street level will lead to the control of illicit drug use and abuse. 39
�Police work primarily entails responding to crimes in progress or crimes that have just occurred. 40
�Police presence reduces crime. 41
�Detectives are most responsible for solving crimes and arresting offenders. 42
According to a recent Gallup poll, 52% of Americans say the death penalty is applied fairly in the United States, the lowest mark in almost 40 years. 53 The issue of fairness and the death penalty typically concerns whether the punishment is equally imposed on offenders who are equally deserving based on legal factors (i.e., similar offense, similar prior criminal history, similar aggravating circumstances, and similar mitigating circumstances). 54 Unfairness can be shown if similarly situated offenders are more or less likely to receive death sentences based on age, gender, and race.
So, what does the research show? First, has research shown that a defendant�s age influences his or her chances of being sentenced to death? A study of about 5,000 homicides, controlling for legally relevant variables, found that defendants over the age of 25 were more than twice as likely to receive the death penalty in comparison to those 25 years of age or younger. 55
Second, has research shown that a defendant�s gender influences his or her chance of being sentenced to death? Capital punishment is almost exclusively reserved for male defendants. On December 31, 2010, there were 3,158 prisoners under a sentence of death in the United States: 58 were women, or 1.8%. 56 However, women account for 10�12% of all murders in the United States. 57 One research study found that male defendants were 2.6 times more likely than females to receive a death sentence after controlling for legally relevant factors. 58
Third, has research shown that a defendant�s race influences his or her chance of being sentenced to death? Most of the research on the biased nature of the death penalty has focused on racial inequities in the sentence. Although some research has shown that a defendant�s race has an impact on the likelihood of receiving a death sentence, a significant amount of research has shown that the race of the victim has the most substantial impact on death sentences. The research evidence clearly shows that offenders who murder white victims are more likely to receive a death sentence than offenders who murder black victims. 59 When assessing the race of both the victim and offender, the composition most likely to receive the death penalty is when a black offender murders a white victim. 60
Some additional myths about courts that research does not support include:
�Many criminals escape justice because of the exclusionary rule. 45
�Subjecting juvenile offenders to harsh punishments can reduce crime committed by juveniles. 46
�Public opinion is overwhelmingly in favor of imprisonment and harsh punishment for offenders. 47
�The death penalty brings closure and a sense of justice to the family and friends of murder victims. 48
�Insanity is a common verdict in criminal courts in the United States. 49
�Eyewitness identification is reliable evidence. 50
�Most people who commit crimes based on hatred, bias, or discrimination face hate crime charges and longer sentencing. 51
It seems clear that besides the death penalty, the most severe punishment available in our criminal justice system is to lock up offenders in prison. On a continuum, it is perceived that sentence severity increases as one moves from fines, to probation, to intermediate sanctions such as boot camps, and finally, to incarceration in prison. The public and politicians support this perception as well.
So, what does the research show? What do criminals think is the most severe form of punishment? A growing body of research has assessed how convicted offenders perceive and experience the severity of sentences in our criminal justice system. 61 Research suggests that alternatives to incarceration in prison (i.e., probation and intermediate sanctions) are perceived by many offenders as more severe due to a greater risk of program failure (e.g., probation revocation). In comparison, serving prison time is easier. 62 �
For example, one study found that about one-third of nonviolent offenders given the option of participating in an Intensive Supervision Probation (ISP) program, chose prison instead because the prospects of working every day and submitting to random drug tests was more punitive than serving time in prison. 73 Prisoners also stated that they would likely be caught violating probation conditions (i.e., high risk of program failure) and be sent to prison anyway. 74 In another research study involving survey responses from 415 inmates serving a brief prison sentence for a nonviolent crime, prison was considered the eighth most severe sanction, with only community service and probation seen as less punitive. Electronic monitoring (seventh), intensive supervision probation (sixth), halfway house (fifth), intermittent incarceration (fourth), day reporting (third), county jail (second), and boot camp (first) were all rated by inmates as more severe sanctions than prison. 75
Some additional myths about corrections that research does not support include:
�Punishing criminals reduces crime. 63
�Prisons are too lenient in their day-to-day operations (prisons as country clubs). 64
�Prisons can be self-supporting if only prisoners were forced to work. 65
�Private prisons are more cost effective than state-run prisons. 66
�Focus of community corrections is rehabilitation rather than punishment. 67
�Correctional rehabilitation does not work. 68
�Drug offenders are treated leniently by the criminal justice system. 69
�Most death row inmates will be executed eventually. 70
�If correctional sanctions are severe enough, people will think twice about committing crimes. 71
�Sexual violence against and exploitation of inmates of the same gender are primarily the result of lack of heterosexual opportunities. 72
We probably should have started the chapter with the question �What is research?� but we wanted to initially lay a foundation for the question with a discussion of the problems with how knowledge is developed and the power of research in discovering the truth. Research methods are tools that allow criminology and criminal justice researchers to systematically study crime and the criminal justice system. The study of research methods is the study of the basic rules, appropriate techniques, and relevant procedures for conducting research. Research methods provide the tools necessary to approach issues in criminal justice from a rigorous standpoint and challenge opinions based solely on nonscientific observations and experiences. Similarly, research is the scientific investigation of an issue, problem, or subject utilizing research methods. Research is a means of knowledge development that is designed to assist in discovering answers to research questions and leads to the creation of new questions.
Previously, sources of knowledge development were discussed, including authority, tradition, common sense, personal experience, and media portrayals. The problems generated by each knowledge source were also discussed. Research is another source of knowledge development, but it is different than those previously discussed in several ways. First, research relies on logical and systematic methods and observations to answer questions. Researchers use systematic, well-established research practices to seek answers to their questions. The methods and observations are completed in such a way that others can inspect and assess the methods and observations and offer feedback and criticism. Researchers develop, refine, and report their understanding of crime and the criminal justice system more systematically than the public does through casual observation. Those who conduct scientific research employ much more rigorous methods to gather the information/knowledge they are seeking.
Second, in order to prove that a research finding is correct, a researcher must be able to replicate the finding using the same methods. Only through replication can we have confidence in our original finding. For researchers, it may be important to replicate findings many times over so that we are assured our original finding was not a coincidence or chance occurrence. The Minneapolis Domestic Violence Experiment is an example of this and will be discussed in detail in Chapter 5. In the experiment, the researchers found that arrests for domestic violence lead to fewer repeat incidences in comparison to separation of the people involved and mediation. Five replication studies were conducted and none were able to replicate the findings in the Minneapolis study. In fact, three of the replications found that those arrested for domestic violence had higher levels of continued domestic violence, so arrest did not have the deterrent effect found in the Minneapolis study.
Third, research is objective. Objectivity indicates a neutral and nonbiased perspective when conducting research. Although there are examples to the contrary, the researcher should not have a vested interest in what findings are discovered from the research. The researcher is expected to remain objective and report the findings of the study regardless of whether the findings support their personal opinion or agenda. In addition, research ensures objectivity by allowing others to examine and be critical of the methodology, findings, and results of research studies.
It should be clear that using research methods to answer questions about crime and the criminal justice system will greatly reduce the errors in the development of knowledge previously discussed. For example, research methods reduces the likelihood of overgeneralization by using systematic procedures for selecting individuals or groups to study that are representative of the individuals or groups that we wish to generalize. This is the topic of Chapter 3, which covers sampling procedures. In addition, research methods reduces the risk of selective observation by requiring that we measure and observe our research subjects systematically.
Criminal justice and criminological research is important for several reasons. First, it can provide better and more objective information. Second, it can promote better decision-making. Today, more than ever, we live in a world driven by data and in which there is an increasing dependence on the assessment of data when making decisions. As well as possible, research ensures that our decisions are based on data and not on an arbitrary or personal basis. Third, it allows for the objective assessment of programs. Fourth, it has often been the source of innovation within criminal justice agencies. Fifth, it can be directly relevant to criminal justice practice and have a significant impact on criminal justice operations.
Before we apply research results to practices in the criminal justice system, and before we even accept those research results as reasonable, we need to be able to know whether or not they are worthwhile. In other words, should we believe the results of the study? Research has its own limitations, so we need to evaluate research results and the methods used to produce them, and we do so through critical evaluation. Critical evaluation involves identifying both positive and negative aspects of the research study�both the good and the bad. Critical evaluation involves comparing the methodology used in the research with the standards established in research methods.
Through critical evaluation, consumers of research break studies down into their essential elements. What are the research questions and hypotheses? What were the independent and dependent variables? What research design was used? Was probability sampling used? What data-gathering procedures were employed? What type of data analysis was conducted and what conclusions were made? These are some of the questions that are asked by informed consumers of research. The evaluation of research ranges from the manner in which one obtains an idea to the ways in which one writes about the research results, and understanding each step in the research process is useful in our attempts to consume research conducted by others. Located between these two activities are issues concerning ethics, sampling, research design, data analyses, and interpretations.
The research design and procedures are typically the most critically evaluated aspects of research and will likewise receive the greatest amount of attention in this text. Informed consumers of research don�t just take the results of a research study at face value because the study is in an academic journal or written by someone with a Ph.D. Instead, informed consumers critically evaluate research. Taking what is learned throughout this text, critical evaluation of research is covered in Chapter 8, and upon completing this text, it is hoped that you will be an informed consumer of research and will put your research knowledge to use throughout your career.
Although many students will never undertake their own research, all will be governed by policies based upon research and exposed to research findings in their chosen professional positions. Most government agencies, including the criminal justice system, as well as private industry, routinely rely on data analysis. Criminal justice students employed with these agencies will be challenged if not prepared for quantitative tasks. Unfortunately, it is not unusual to find students as well as professionals in criminal justice who are unable to fully understand research reports and journal articles in their own field.
Beyond our criminal justice careers, we are all exposed to and use research to help us understand issues and to make personal decisions. For example, we know that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer and has other significant health impacts, so we don�t smoke. Your doctor tells you that your cholesterol is too high and you need to limit your red meat intake because research shows that consumption of red meat raises cholesterol; so, you quit eating red meat. That is why not all the examples in this text are criminal justice research examples. Some come from the medical field while others come from psychology and other disciplines. This is to remind you that you are probably exposed to much more research than you thought on day one of this class.
Overall, knowledge of research methods will allow you to more appropriately consider and consume information that is important to your career in criminal justice. It will help you better understand the process of asking and answering a question systematically and be a better consumer of the kind of information that you really need to be the best criminal justice professional you can. Once familiar with research methods, your anxiety about reviewing technical reports and research findings can be minimized. As discussed in the next section, research methods involve a process and once you understand the process, you can apply your knowledge to any research study, even those in other disciplines.
One of the nice things about studying research methods is it is about learning a process. Research methods can be seen as a sequential process with the first step being followed by the second step, and so on. There are certainly times when the order of the steps may be modified, but researchers typically follow the same process for each research study they complete regardless of the research topic (as depicted in Figure 2.1 in Chapter 2). Very simply, a research problem or question is identified, and a methodology is selected, developed, and implemented to answer the research question. This sequential process is one of the advantages of understanding research methods, because once you understand the process, you can apply that process to any research question that interests you. In addition, research methods are the same across disciplines. So, sampling is the same in business as it is in health education and as it is in criminal justice. Certainly the use of a particular method will be more common in one discipline in comparison to another, but the protocol for implementing the method to complete the research study is the same. For example, field research (discussed in Chapter 6) is used much more frequently in anthropology than in criminal justice. However, the research protocol to implement field research is the same whether you are studying an indigenous Indian tribe in South America in anthropology or a group of heroin users in St. Louis in criminal justice.
Some authors have presented the research process as a wheel or circle, with no specific beginning or end. Typically, the research process begins with the selection of a research problem and the development of research questions or hypotheses (discussed further in Chapter 2). It is common for the results of previous research to generate new research questions and hypotheses for the researcher. This suggests that research is cyclical, a vibrant and continuous process. When a research study answers one question, the result is often the generation of additional questions, which plunges the researcher right back into the research process to complete additional research to answer these new questions.
In this section, a brief overview of the research process will be presented. The chapters that follow address various aspects of the research process, but it is critical that you keep in mind the overall research process as you read this book, which is why is it presented here. Although you will probably not be expected to conduct a research study on your own, it is important for an educated consumer of research to understand the steps in the research process. The steps are presented in chronological order and appear neatly ordered. In practice, the researcher can go back and forth between the steps in the research process.
The first step in the research process is typically the identification of a problem or topic that the researcher is interested in studying. Research topics can arise from a wide variety of sources, including the findings of a current study, a question that a criminal justice agency needs to have answered, or the result of intellectual curiosity. Once the researcher has identified a particular problem or topic, the researcher assesses the current state of the literature related to the problem or topic. The researcher will often spend a considerable amount of time in determining what the existing literature has to say about the topic. Has the topic already been studied to the point that the questions in which the researcher is interested have been sufficiently answered? If so, can the researcher approach the subject from a previously unexamined perspective? Many times, research topics have been previously explored but not brought to completion. If this is the case, it is certainly reasonable to examine the topic again. It is even appropriate to replicate a previous study to determine whether the findings reported in the prior research continue to be true in different settings with different participants. This step in the research process is also discussed in Chapter 2.
After a topic has been identified and a comprehensive literature review has been completed on the topic, the next step is the development of a research question or questions. The research question marks the beginning of your research study and is critical to the remaining steps in the research process. The research question determines the research plan and methodology that will be employed in the study, the data that will be collected, and the data analysis that will be performed. Basically, the remaining steps in the process are completed in order to answer the research question or questions established in this step. The development of research questions is discussed in more detail in Chapter 2.
After the research questions have been established, the next step is the formulation of hypotheses, which are statements about the expected relationship between two variables. For example, a hypothesis may state that there is no relationship between heavy metal music preference and violent delinquency. The two variables stated in the hypothesis are music preference and violent delinquency. Hypothesis development is discussed in more detail in Chapter 2.
Operationalization involves the process of giving the concepts in your study a working definition and determining how each concept in your study will be measured. For example, in Step 3, the variables were music preference and violent delinquency. The process of operationalization involves determining how music preference and violent delinquency will be measured. Operationalization is further discussed in Chapter 2.
The next step is to develop the methodology that will be employed to answer the research questions and test the hypotheses. The research methodology is the blueprint for the study, which outlines how the research is to be conducted. The research questions will determine the appropriate methodology for the study. The research design selected should be driven by the research questions asked. In other words, the research questions dictate the methods used to answer them. The methodology is basically a research plan on how the research questions will be answered and will detail:
1. What group, subjects, or population will be studied and selected? Sampling will be discussed in Chapter 3.
2 . What research design will be used to collect data to answer the research questions? Various research designs will be covered in Chapters 4�7.
You need to have familiarity with all research designs so that you can become an educated consumer of research. A survey cannot answer all research questions, so knowing a lot about surveys but not other research designs will not serve you well as you assess research studies. There are several common designs used in criminal justice and criminology research. Brief descriptions of several common research designs are presented below, but each is discussed in detail in later chapters.
Survey research is one of the most common research designs employed in criminal justice research. It obtains data directly from research participants by asking them questions and is often conducted through self-administered questionnaires and personal interviews. For example, a professor might have her students complete a survey during class to understand the relationship between drug use and self-esteem. Survey research is discussed in Chapter 4.
Experimental designs are used when researchers are interested in determining whether a program, policy, practice, or intervention is effective. For example, a researcher may use an experimental design to determine if boot camps are effective at reducing juvenile delinquency. Experimental design is discussed in Chapter 5.
Field research involves researchers studying individuals or groups of individuals in their natural environment. The researcher is observing closely or acting as part of the group under study and is able to describe in depth not only the subject�s behaviors, but also consider the motivations that drive those behaviors. For example, if a researcher wanted to learn more about gangs and their activities, he may �hang out� with a gang in order to observe their behavior. Field research is discussed in Chapter 6.
A case study is an in-depth analysis of one or a few illustrative cases. This design allows the story behind an individual, a particular offender, to be told and then information from cases studies can be extrapolated to a larger group. Often these studies require the review and analysis of documents such as police reports and court records and interviews with the offender and others. For example, a researcher may explore the life history of a serial killer to try and understand why the offender killed. Case studies are discussed in Chapter 6.
Secondary data analysis occurs when researchers obtain and reanalyze data that was originally collected for a different purpose. This can include reanalyzing data collected from a prior research study, using criminal justice agency records to answer a research question, or historical research. For example, a researcher using secondary data analysis may analyze inmate files from a nearby prison to understand the relationship between custody level assignment and disciplinary violations inside prison. Secondary data analysis is discussed in Chapter 7.
Content analysis requires the assessment of content contained in mass communication outlets such as newspapers, television, magazines, and the like. In this research design, documents, publications, or presentations are reviewed and analyzed. For example, a researcher utilizing content analysis might review true crime books involving murder to see how the characteristics of the offender and victim in the true crime books match reality as depicted in the FBI�s Supplemental Homicide Reports. Content analysis is discussed in Chapter 7.
Despite the options these designs offer, other research designs are available and will be discussed later in the text. Ultimately, the design used will depend on the nature of the study and the research questions asked.
The next step in the research process is the collection of the data based on the research design developed. For example, if a survey is developed to study the relationship between gang membership and violent delinquency, the distribution and collection of surveys from a group of high school students would occur in this step. Data collection is discussed in several chapters throughout this text.
After the data have been collected, the next phase in the research process involves analyzing the data through various and appropriate statistical techniques. The most common means for data analysis today is through the use of a computer and statistically oriented software. Data analysis and statistics are discussed in Chapter 9.
Reporting and interpreting the results of the study make up the final step in the research process. The findings and results of the study can be communicated through reports, journals, books, or computer presentations. At this step, the results are reported and the research questions are answered. In addition, an assessment is made regarding the support or lack of support for the hypotheses tested. It is also at this stage that the researcher can pose additional research questions that may now need to be answered as a result of the research study. In addition, the limitations of the study, as well as the impact those limitations may have on the results of the study, will be described by the researcher. All research has limitations, so it is incumbent on the researcher to identify those limitations for the reader. The process of assessing the quality of research will be discussed in Chapter 8.
Research in the criminal justice system has had significant impacts on its operations. The following sections provide an example of research that has significantly impacted each of the three main components of the criminal justice system: police, courts, and corrections. The purpose of this section is to demonstrate that research has aided the positive development and progression of the criminal justice system.
The efforts of criminal justice researchers in policing have been important and have created the initial and critical foundation necessary for the further development of effective and productive law enforcement. One seminal study asked: How important is it for the police to respond quickly when a citizen calls? The importance of rapid response was conveyed in a 1973 National Commission on Productivity Report despite the fact that there was very little empirical evidence upon which to base this assumption. In fact, the Commission stated �there is no definitive relationship between response time and deterrence, but professional judgment and logic do suggest that the two are related in a strong enough manner to make more rapid response important.� 77 Basically the Commission members were stating that we don�t have any research evidence that response times are important, but we �know� that they are. Police departments allocated substantial resources to the patrol function and deployed officers in an effort to improve response time through the use of the 9-1-1 telephone number, computer-assisted dispatch, and beat assignment systems. Officers were typically assigned to a patrol beat. When the officers were not answering calls for service, they remained in their assigned beats so they could immediately respond to an emergency.
The data for the project were collected as part of a larger experiment on preventive patrol carried out in Kansas City, Missouri, between October 1972 and September 1973. 78 To determine the impact of response time, researchers speculated that the following variables would be influenced by response time: 1) the outcome of the response, 2) citizen satisfaction with response time, and 3) citizen satisfaction with the responding officer. Several data sources were used in the study. First, surveys were completed after all citizen-initiated calls (excluding automobile accidents) that involved contact with a police officer. The survey instrument consisted of questions to assess the length of time to respond to a call and the outcome of the call (i.e., arrest). Over 1,100 surveys were completed. Second, a follow-up survey was mailed to citizens whom the police had contacted during their response. These surveys asked questions to assess citizen satisfaction with response time and outcome. Over 425 of these surveys were returned.
The data collected during the study showed that response time did not determine whether or not the police made an arrest or recovered stolen property. This was the most surprising finding from the study because it challenged one of the basic underlying principles of police patrol. Researchers attributed the lack of significance to the fact that most citizens waited before calling the police. Rapid response simply did not matter in situations where citizens delayed in reporting the crime.
Rapid response time was not only believed to be important in determining the outcome of a response (i.e., more likely to lead to an arrest), it was also considered an important predictor of citizen satisfaction. Data from the study showed that when the police arrived sooner than expected, citizens were more satisfied with response time. However, subsequent research has shown that citizens are also satisfied with a delayed response as long as the dispatcher sets a reasonable expectation for when the patrol officer will arrive. Response time was also the best predictor of how satisfied a citizen was with the responding officer. It was further revealed that citizens became dissatisfied with the police when they were not informed of the outcome (i.e., someone was arrested). Again, these findings indicate the need for dispatchers and patrol officers to communicate with complainants regarding when they should expect an officer to arrive and the outcome of the call.
Based on the results of the response time study, the researchers concluded that rapid response was not as important as police administrators had thought. Response time was not related to an officer�s ability to make an arrest or recover stolen property. Results from the response time study challenged traditional beliefs about the allocation of patrol in our communities. Based on tradition knowledge, as previously discussed, rapidly responding to calls for service is what the police had always done since they started using patrol vehicles. In addition, common sense, as previously discussed, played a role in the practice of rapid response to calls for service; it just made sense that if a patrol officer arrives sooner, she will be more likely to make an arrest.
Prior to the research, police departments operated under the assumption that rapid response was a crucial factor in the ability of an officer to solve a crime and an important predictor of citizen satisfaction. In response to the research on rapid response, many police departments changed the way they responded to calls for service. Many departments adopted a differential police response approach. Differential police response protocols allow police departments to prioritize calls and rapidly dispatch an officer only when an immediate response is needed (i.e., crimes in progress). For crimes in progress, rapid response is critical and may reduce the injuries sustained by the victim as well, but these emergency calls usually account for less than 2% of all 9-1-1 calls for police service. For nonemergency calls, an officer is either dispatched at a later time when the officer is available or a report is taken over the phone or through some other means. Differential police response has been shown to save departments money and give patrol officers more time to engage in community-oriented and proactive policing activities. The benefits for a department are not at the expense of the public. In fact, a study by Robert Worden found a high degree of citizen satisfaction with differential police response. 79
Research on the courts component of the criminal justice system, while far from complete, has produced direct effects on the operations of the criminal justice system. The study reviewed in this section asked the following research question: Are jurors able to understand different legal rules for establishing a defendant�s criminal responsibility? The study described below explored the issue of criminal responsibility as it applies to the insanity defense in the United States. For several years, the M � Naghten rule was the legal rule applied in all courts of the United States. Under M � Naghten, criminal responsibility was absent when the offender did not understand the nature of his actions due to failure to distinguish �right� from �wrong.� This is known as the �right/wrong test� for criminal responsibility. The case of Durham v. United States was heard in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and offered an alternative test for criminal responsibility and insanity. The legal rule emerging from Durham was that criminal responsibility was absent if the offense was a product of mental disease or defect. This ruling provided psychiatrists with a more important role at trial because of the requirement that the behavior be linked to a mental disorder that only a psychiatrist could officially determine.
At the time of Simon�s 1967 study, most courts across the country still followed the M � Naghten rule. Questions arose, however, regarding whether juries differed in their understanding of M � Naghten versus Durham and, in turn, whether this resulted in differences in their ability to make informed decisions regarding criminal responsibility in cases involving the insanity defense. The study was designed to determine the effect of different legal rules on jurors� decision-making in cases where the defense was insanity. There was a question of whether there was a difference between the rules to the extent that jurors understood each rule and could capably apply it.
Simon conducted an experimental study on jury deliberations in cases where the only defense was insanity. 81 Utilizing a mock jury approach, Simon took the transcripts of two actual trials with one reflecting the use of the M � Naghten rule and the other the Durham rule. Both cases were renamed and the transcripts were edited to constitute a trial of 60�90 minutes in length. These edited transcripts were then recorded, with University of Chicago Law School faculty as the attorneys, judges, and witnesses involved in each case. Groups of 12 jurors listened to each trial with instruction provided at the end regarding the particular rule of law ( M � Naghten or Durham) for determining criminal responsibility. Each juror submitted a written statement with his or her initial decision on the case before jury deliberations, and the juries� final decisions after deliberation were also reported.
Simon found significant differences in the verdicts across the two groups ( M � Naghten rule applied and Durham rule applied) even when the case was the same. For the M � Naghten version of the case, the psychiatrists stated that the defendant was mentally ill yet knew right from wrong during the crime. These statements/instructions should have led to a guilty verdict on the part of the mock jury. As expected, the M � Naghten juries delivered guilty verdicts in 19 of the 20 trials, with one hung jury. For the Durham version of the case, the psychiatrists stated that the crime resulted from the defendant�s mental illness, which should have lead to acquittal. However, the defendant was acquitted in only five of the 26 Durham trials. Twenty-six groups of 12 jurors were exposed to the Durham version of the trial and the case was the same each time. Simon interpreted these results as suggesting that jurors were unambiguous in their interpretations and applications of M � Naghten (due to the consistency in guilty verdicts), but they were less clear on the elements of Durham and how to apply it (reflected by the mix of guilty, not guilty, and hung verdicts). 82
After Simon�s study, most states rejected the Durham test. Recall her finding that the Durham rule produced inconsistent verdicts. She interpreted this finding as Durham being no better than providing no guidance to jurors on how to decide the issue of insanity. The observation helped to fuel arguments against the use of Durham, which, in turn, contributed to its demise as a legal rule. Today, only New Hampshire uses a version of the Durham rule in insanity cases.
The Punishment Cost of Being Young, Black, and Male
Steffensmeier, Ulmer, and Kramer 83 hypothesized that African Americans overall were not likely to be treated more harshly than white defendants by the courts because it was only particular subgroups of minority defendants that fit with court actors� stereotypes of �more dangerous� offenders. In particular, they argued that younger African American males not only fulfilled this stereotype more than any other age, race, and gender combination, they were also more likely to be perceived by judges as being able to handle incarceration better than other subgroups.
In order to test their hypotheses, the researchers examined sentencing data from Pennsylvania spanning four years (1989�1992). Almost 139,000 cases were examined. The sentences they examined included whether a convicted defendant was incarcerated in prison or jail, and the length of incarceration in prison or jail. The researchers found that offense severity and prior record were the most important predictors of whether a convicted defendant was incarcerated and the length of incarceration. The authors found that the highest likelihood of incarceration and the longest sentences for males were distributed to African Americans aged 18�29 years. Their analysis of females revealed that white females were much less likely than African American females to be incarcerated, regardless of the age group examined. Taken altogether, the analysis revealed that African American males aged 18�29 years maintained the highest odds of incarceration and the longest sentences relative to any other race, sex, and age group.
Overall, this research showed that judges focused primarily on legal factors (offense severity and prior record) when determining the sentences of convicted offenders. These are the factors we expect judges to consider when making sentencing decisions. However, the research also found that judges base their decisions in part on extralegal factors, particularly the interaction of a defendant�s age, race, and gender. This research expanded our knowledge beyond the impact of singular factors on sentencing to expose the interaction effects of several variables (race, gender, and age). Court personnel are aware of these interaction effects based on this study, and others that followed, as well as their personal experiences in the criminal justice system. Identification and recognition of inequities in our justice system (in this case that young, African American males are punished more severely in our justice system) is the first step in mitigating this inequity.
Although the research in corrections is far from complete, it has contributed greatly to the development of innovative programs and the professional development of correctional personnel. The contributions of academic and policy-oriented research can be seen across the whole range of correctional functions from pretrial services through probation, institutional corrections, and parole.
Rehabilitation remained the goal of our correctional system until the early 1970s, when the efficacy of rehabilitation was questioned. Violent crime was on the rise, and many politicians placed the blame on the criminal justice system. Some believed the system was too lenient on offenders. Interest in researching the effectiveness of correctional treatment remained low until 1974 when an article written by Robert Martinson and published in Public Interest titled �What Works? Questions and Answers about Prison Reform� generated enormous political and public attention to the effectiveness of correctional treatment. 85
Over a six-month period, Martinson and his colleagues reviewed all of the existing literature on correctional treatment published in English from 1945 to 1967. Each of the articles was evaluated according to traditional standards of social science research. Only studies that utilized an experimental design, included a sufficient sample size, and could be replicated were selected for review. A total of 231 studies examining a variety of different types of treatment were chosen, including educational and vocational training, individual and group counseling, therapeutic milieus, medical treatment, differences in length and type of incarceration, and community corrections. All of the treatment studies included at least one measure of offender recidivism, such as whether or not offenders were rearrested or violated their parole. The recidivism measures were used to examine the success or failure of a program in terms of reducing crime.
After reviewing all 231 studies, Martinson reported that there was no consistent evidence that correctional treatment reduced recidivism. Specifically, he wrote, �with few and isolated exceptions, the rehabilitative efforts that have been reported so far have had no appreciable effect on recidivism.� 86 Martinson further indicated that the lack of empirical support for correctional treatment could be a consequence of poorly implemented programs. If the quality of the programs were improved, the results may have proved more favorable, but this conclusion was for the most part ignored by the media and policy-makers.
Martinson�s report became commonly referred to as �nothing works� and was subsequently used as the definitive study detailing the failures of rehabilitation. The article had implications beyond questioning whether or not specific types of correctional treatment reduced recidivism. The entire philosophy of rehabilitation was now in doubt because of Martinson�s conclusion that �our present strategies … cannot overcome, or even appreciably reduce, the powerful tendencies of offenders to continue in criminal behavior.� 87
Martinson�s article provided policy makers the evidence to justify spending cuts on rehabilitative programs. Furthermore, it allowed politicians to respond to growing concerns about crime with punitive, get-tough strategies. States began implementing strict mandatory sentences that resulted in more criminals being sent to prison and for longer periods of time. Over the next several years, Martinson�s article was used over and over to support abandoning efforts to treat offenders until rehabilitation became virtually nonexistent in our correctional system.
This chapter began with a discussion of sources of knowledge development and the problems with each. To depict the importance of research methods in knowledge development, myths about crime and the criminal justice system were reviewed along with research studies that have dispelled myths. As the introductory chapter in this text, this chapter also provided an overview of the steps in the research process from selecting a topic and conducting a literature review at the beginning of a research study to reporting findings, results, and limitations at the end of the study. Examples of actual research studies in the areas of police, courts, and corrections were also provided in this chapter to demonstrate the research process in action and to illustrate how research has significantly impacted practices within the criminal justice system. In addition, this chapter demonstrated the critical importance of becoming an informed consumer of research in both your personal and professional lives.
1. What are the primary sources of knowledge development, and what are the problems with each?
2. How is knowledge developed through research methods different from other sources of knowledge?
3. What myths about crime and criminal justice have been dispelled through research? Give an example of a research study that dispelled a myth.
4. Why is it important to be an informed consumer of research?
5. What are the steps in the research process, and what activities occur at each step?
authority knowledge: Knowledge developed when we accept something as being correct and true just because someone in a position of authority says it is true
case study: An in-depth analysis of one or a few illustrative cases
common sense knowledge: Knowledge developed when the information �just makes sense�
content analysis: A method requiring the analyzing of content contained in mass communication outlets such as newspapers, television, magazines, and the like
CSI Effect: Due to the unrealistic portrayal of the role of forensic science in solving criminal cases in television shows, jurors are more likely to vote to acquit a defendant when the expected sophisticated forensic evidence is not presented
differential police response: Methods that allow police departments to prioritize calls and rapidly dispatch an officer only when an immediate response is needed (i.e., crimes in progress)
experimental designs: Used when researchers are interested in determining whether a program, policy, practice, or intervention is effective
field research: Research that involves researchers studying individuals or groups of individuals in their natural environment
Halloween sadism: The practice of giving contaminated treats to children during trick or treating
hypotheses: Statements about the expected relationship between two concepts
illogical reasoning: Occurs when someone jumps to premature conclusions or presents an argument that is based on invalid assumptions
myths: Beliefs that are based on emotion rather than rigorous analysis
operationalization: The process of giving a concept a working definition; determining how each concept in your study will be measured
overgeneralization: Occurs when people conclude that what they have observed in one or a few cases is true for all cases
personal experience knowledge: Knowledge developed through actual experiences
research: The scientific investigation of an issue, problem, or subject utilizing research methods
research methods: The tools that allow criminology and criminal justice researchers to systematically study crime and the criminal justice system and include the basic rules, appropriate techniques, and relevant procedures for conducting research
resistance to change: The reluctance to change our beliefs in light of new, accurate, and valid information to the contrary
secondary data analysis: Occurs when researchers obtain and reanalyze data that were originally collected for a different purpose
selective observation: Choosing, either consciously or unconsciously, to pay attention to and remember events that support our personal preferences and beliefs
survey research: Obtaining data directly from research participants by asking them questions, often conducted through self-administered questionnaires and personal interviews
tradition knowledge: Knowledge developed when we accept something as true because that is the way things have always been, so it must be right
variables: Concepts that have been given a working definition and can take on different values
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3 Briggs, et al., 2009, p. 221.
4 Ibid, p. 221.
5 Ibid, p. 221.
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7 Tennessee v. Gamer, 471 U.S. 1 (1985).
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9 This study was included in Amy B. Thistlethwaite and John D. Wooldredge. (2010). Forty studies that changed criminal justice: Explorations into the history of criminal justice research. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
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44 Lersch, Kim. �The myth of policewomen on patrol.� 89�96 in Bohm, Robert M., and Jeffrey T. Walker. (2006). Demystifying crime and criminal justice. Los Angeles: Roxbury.
45 Janikowski, Richard. �The myth that the exclusionary rule allows many criminals to escape justice.� 132�139 in Bohm, Robert M., and Jeffrey T. Walker. (2006). Demystifying crime and criminal justice. Los Angeles: Roxbury.
46 Bishop, Donna M. �The myth that harsh punishments reduce juvenile crime.� 140�148 in Bohm, Robert M., and Jeffrey T. Walker. (2006). Demystifying crime and criminal justice. Los Angeles: Roxbury.
47 Immarigeon, Russ. �The myth that public attitudes are punitive.� 149�157 in Bohm, Robert M., and Jeffrey T. Walker. (2006). Demystifying crime and criminal justice. Los Angeles: Roxbury.
48 Acker, James R. �The myth of closure and capital punishment.� 167�175 in Bohm, Robert M., and Jeffrey T. Walker. (2006). Demystifying crime and criminal justice. Los Angeles: Roxbury.
49 Masters, et al., 2013.
52 Lersch, 2006.
53 Newport, Frank. �In U.S., support for death penalty falls to 39-year low.� October 13, 2011. http://www.gallup .com/poll/150089/support-death-penalty-falls-year-low.aspx. Retrieved on April 16, 2012.
54 Applegate, Brandon. �The myth that the death penalty is administered fairly.� 158�166 in Bohm, Robert M., and Jeffrey T. Walker. (2006). Demystifying crime and criminal justice. Los Angeles: Roxbury.
55 Williams, M. R., and J. E. Holcomb. (2001). �Racial disparity and death sentences in Ohio.� Journal of Criminal Justice 29, 207�218.
56 Snell, Tracy L. (2011, December). Capital punishment, 2010�statistical tables. Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics.
57 Applegate, 2006.
58 Williams and Holcomb, 2001.
59 Applegate, 2006.
61 Wood, Peter B. �The myth that imprisonment is the most severe form of punishment.� 192�200 in Bohm, Robert M., and Jeffrey T. Walker. (2006). Demystifying crime and criminal justice. Los Angeles: Roxbury.
63 Michalowski, Raymond. �The myth that punishment reduces crime.� 179�191 in Bohm, Robert M., and Jeffrey T. Walker. (2006). Demystifying crime and criminal justice. Los Angeles: Roxbury.
64 McShane, Marilyn, Frank P. Williams III, and Beth Pelz. �The myth of prisons as country clubs.� 201�208 in Bohm, Robert M., and Jeffrey T. Walker. (2006). Demystifying crime and criminal justice. Los Angeles: Roxbury.
65 Parker, Mary. �The myth that prisons can be self-supporting.� 209�213 in Bohm, Robert M., and Jeffrey T. Walker. (2006). Demystifying crime and criminal justice. Los Angeles: Roxbury.
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69 Masters, et al., 2013.
73 Petersilia, Joan. (1990). �When probation becomes more dreaded than prison. Federal Probation 54, 23�27.
75 Wood, P. B., and H. G. Grasmick. (1999). �Toward the development of punishment equivalencies: Male and female inmates rate the severity of alternative sanctions compared to prison.� Justice Quarterly 16, 19�50.
76 Example is excerpted from Amy B. Thistlethwaite and John D. Wooldredge. (2010). Forty studies that changed criminal justice: Explorations into the history of criminal justice research. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. This is an excellent book that demonstrates the impact research has had on criminal justice operations.
77 National Commission on Productivity. (1973). Opportunities for improving productivity in police services. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, p. 19.
78 Pate, T., A. Ferrara, R. Bowers, and J. Lorence. (1976). Police response time: Its determinants and effects. Washington, DC: Police Foundation.
79 Worden, R. (1993). �Toward equity and efficiency in law enforcement: Differential police response. American Journal of Police 12, 1�32.
80 Example is excerpted from Amy B. Thistlethwaite and John D. Wooldredge. (2010). Forty studies that changed criminal justice: Explorations into the history of criminal justice research. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
81 Simon, R. (1967). The jury and the defense of insanity. Boston: Little, Brown.
83 Steffensmeier, D., J. Ulmer, & J. Kramer. (1998). �The interaction of race, gender, and age in criminal sentencing: The punishment cost of being young, black, and male. Criminology 36, 763�797.
84 Example is excerpted from Amy B. Thistlethwaite and John D. Wooldredge. (2010). Forty studies that changed criminal justice: Explorations into the history of criminal justice research. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
85 Martinson, R. (1974). �What works? Questions and answers about prison reform.� The Public Interest 10, 22�54.
86 Ibid, p. 25.
87 Ibid, p. 49.
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This book brings forward concepts to support a cultural-historical digital methodology. Specifically, this chapter draws on the dialectics of crisis to articulate a series of research innovations that are presented throughout the book. The chapter outlines the theorising of the methods, and discusses the concepts of e-motion, cultural-historical loop model and builds on the legacy of a wholeness approach to elaborate how the original concepts introduced by Mariane Hedegaard work in digital contexts. Crisis as a dialectical relation between an everyday and scientific reading are foregrounded in this chapter, and through this lens the chapter presents a scholarly contribution across the three broad principles of dialectics, historicity, and cultural-historical practice-centred science in times of crisis.
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This book aims to bring forward new methods and methodologies to support researchers working in a cultural-historical tradition. We suggest that it is not the ‘method’ per se, but rather the focus is on how to create the conditions that allow researchers to better understand dynamic and changing realities being faced in times of crisis. Vygotsky ( 1997 ) suggested:
The method must be adequate to the subject studied … Knowing the uniqueness and deliberately beginning the research from this point is the first condition for adequacy of the method and the problem; for this reason, the problem of method is the beginning and the foundation, the alpha and the omega of the whole history of the cultural development of the child. (p. 27)
To achieve the goal of this book, we show how new methods have acted in the service of new research needs brought about by a global pandemic. However, this is not the only kind of crisis to bring new concepts into our research tradition. We suggest that many kinds of crises co-exist, such as the globally felt conflicts and devastation of war and the climate emergency, where extremes in weather are creating localised flooding, drought, and economic deprivation. We also acknowledge the predicted crises of future pandemics that remain on the horizon and that will impact the work of researchers.
In this book, the scientific concept of crisis and the everyday lived experience of crisis are in dialectical relations with each other. This dynamic has been grouped in this book under five sections, showing how the work of researchers across the community, families, and the profession has to be realised in new ways. By making the relations between the scientific and everyday readings of crises visible, the researchers have been able to consciously realise new research conditions and to theorise a new dynamic interplay when solving problems associated with human needs.
As editors, we recognise that a crisis is viewed scientifically as a source of development for the researcher. However, it is also a painful time for the research participants and the everyday life circumstances of families and communities, more broadly, who are engaged in the field of early childhood. Therefore, this book also brings forward the new concept of dis-situation of development (Sect. 1.4 ). This concept seeks to capture the idea that whilst it is known that not all crises are developmental, in the context of this book, researchers and research participants in times of crisis experience new social situations. Therefore, their existing social situation of development must be conceptualised differently.
In this book, the collective efforts of the researchers are introduced and theorised under five themes as new concepts to inform researchers, and these are symbolic of the disrupted practices that generated new ways of researching. The chapter concludes with a digital research model that brings together the theorising of the methods in the chapters of case studies that follow across the five sections of the book and which support our dialectical model of research.
In this section, we introduce each of the five concepts that have emerged from a synthesis of the content of this book.
Crisis is not a contemporary concept or an unprecedented experience in the history of the development of human personality. It is the sine qua non of being and becoming. Historically, ‘People in various parts of the globe in different moments of their life have to deal with various forms of crises (environmental crisis, public health crisis, socio-economic crisis, psychological crisis, educational crisis, etc.)’ (Dafermos, 2022 , pp. 1–2). The transformative nature of the COVID-19 pandemic brought this realisation forward in our everyday lives as an everyday phenomenon in a tangible and catalytic way. In parallel, the scientific concept of crisis became central in our research trajectories as a means to reflect on, understand, and change the new reality.
This book is not about the pandemic. It is a book that discusses how researchers reflect on their ever-changing and contradictory worlds and develop concepts and methods to respond to new societal needs, meet emerging demands, and understand reality in motion. One of the anchoring principles that we work with as part of bringing out new methods and methodologies for researching early childhood is how theory must change and develop in relation to the context, conditions, and the historical moment in which researchers are working. With the critical experience of the global pandemic behind us, we intend to employ the dialectical understanding of crisis in cultural-historical theory (Dafermos, 2022 ) to reflect on diverse contexts of early childhood education. With a global pandemic as an illustration, this book captures a historical moment in time that brings forward the dialectical aspect of the concept of crisis and shows how theory and methodologies can inspire and change in relation to new demands and conditions in an unprecedented time. Historically, the global pandemic is one moment in a long line of many in which our theoretical reflections were challenged and developed. Historical examples, such as the development of Vygotsky’s theorisations during the times of the Russian empire collapse, the October revolution, and the emergence of the Soviet Union, as well as contemporary examples, such as the development of Mariane Hedegaard’s model ( 1999 , 20,014) about a wholeness model to children’s development, where she acknowledge that focusing on the child’s perspective gave a too narrow conception of children’s development and therefore introduces societal conditions, and institutional practices giving demands that propelled a child’s developemnt in her/his own learning and development, are indicative of socially and culturally determined turning points in history and in theory.
As Dafermos argues ( 2015 ), ‘Dialectics as a way of thinking focuses on the study of each concrete object in its mutual connections with other objects, in its internal contradictions and in its process of change.’ However, in the historical moment that we, as researchers and as whole personalities, live through, the mutual connections in most cases have been loosened, interrupted, and reconnected in new ways; contradictions have taken over and changes are rapid and come in quick succession. The ideal form of research as we know it has been disrupted and challenged. For example, the mature form of an educational experiment, as originally enacted in practice and theorised as a collaboration on a theoretical problem, has had to be re-imagined (see Sect. 1.1 ). Within this framework, our understanding of the child’s world had been dis-situated and decontextualised. Using a dialectical lens allows us to search for new and complex connections and catch a new thread of interrelations, synthesise, and theorise them in a meaningful new way (see Sect. 1.2 ). Here, dialectics capture the unity between the personal and interpersonal, the intra- psychological and inter-phycological, materialism and idealism, continuity and discontinuity in times of crisis leading us to ‘islands of safety in the Heraclitean stream’ (Vygotsky, Vol. 3, p. 274). Through the model presented at the end of this introductory chapter and the five sections of this book, we map the current ‘islands of safety’ that dialectics have raised for us in terms of theory, methodology, and practice.
Like many cultural studies born from dialectics, models of research into children’s development, such as that of Hedegaard, are being challenged as researchers work under the new conditions of not being able to be in person at the research site. We find through our synthesis of the practices of the researchers described in the different chapters of this book that Hedgaard’s model is sensitive to historical change.
We are inspired by the model that Hedegaard developed and re-developed over time. This is indicative of how theory continues to evolve as societal conditions and research needs change. The qualitative methodology is constantly evolving, and crisis situations can easily propel a change in approach as new conditions set off or accelerate new demands and motives. This can be better understood in the context of the powerful critique of Vygotsky ( 1997 ) on traditional methods of research, which he said were static, captured only solidified development, and were not subject to historical transformation:
These techniques or methods of behavior, arising stereotypically in given situations represent virtual solidified, petrified, crystallized psychological forms that arose in remote times. (p. 39)
Traditional methods become expected by journal editors and reviewers, in presentations and in the justifications of researchers. They are survivors of latent approaches for the study of human needs and practices, which Vygotsky ( 1997 ) suggested were ‘weathered, historical scraps which have lost their [original] meaning, these psychological survivors of a remote past enter into the common tissue of [researcher] behavior in an alien body, so atypical, impersonal, having lost almost all meaning’ (p. 40). It is an important legacy of Vygotsky that concepts and theory are tools for thinking, as also recognised in Wartofsky’s work on artefacts and models (Wartofsky, 1979/1966 ). Wartofsky warns about a crude and naive realism when it comes to the concept of representation or to copy theory: ‘The tactic then is to enrich the concept of representation in such a way that it can accommodate a fairly sophisticated range of scientific models’ (Wartofsky, 1979/1966 , p. 1). Concepts are tested and refined in their use, which in turn adds to new ways of approaching participants. In this way, research innovation evolves and changes methodology and knowledge.
Whilst there exists a critique of research methodologies based on Vygotsky, namely that the emphasis on the collective can put the research design at risk of ignoring the voice of the individuals involved, contemporary researchers and methods, such as Hedegaard’s innovative and renowned model of child development, encompass institutional practices from a cultural-historical perspective and give attention to individuals as well as the collective. Culture, development, and how we communicate are inextricably linked, just as a person’s understanding of a given activity, event, or utterance is conditional upon the situational cultural history.
Hedegaard theorised child development at a time when the field of developmental psychology was driven by ambitions of creating universal models and indicators of cognitive and behavioural development. By challenging the hegemony of laboratory-based experiments with observations conducted in the children’s daily settings, she became a new and radical voice in developmental psychology. Building on Vygotsky’s dialectical ontology stemming from the Marxist perspective that explains development as happening in a meshing of an ideal and material form, she developed a theory that contextualised the child’s development in interpersonal, institutional, and socio-cultural settings.
Significantly, these new theorisations and ways of bringing forward societal, institutional, and personal perspectives as realised through the dominating demands and motives were developed in contemporary times. Hedegaard’s model was originally developed in 1999. It was first published in relation to the problem of immigrants having to relate to different values in different institutions, such as those of family and school (Hedegaard, 1999 ).
Hedegaard’s work can evidently be traced to a Vygotskian, cultural-historical approach to learning and development (Edwards et al., 2019 ). However, she also engages in dialogues with contemporary scholars who study children and childhoods in social life conditions. She contextualises varies conditions for understanding children, childhood, and the impact of everyday lives, such as studies of children’s developmental trajectories and transitions in relation to families and professionals (Hedegaard et al., 2012 ). She develops her designs and modelling in dialogue with contemporary theorisations. As an alternative to the dominant school readiness approach across the globe, she points to the new tendencies found in the Nordic countries, where especially the governments in Denmark and Norway have recently formulated frameworks that conceptualise person formation in a wholeness approach and where children’s explorative activities are highlighted (Hedegaard & Ødegaard, 2020 ).
The cultural-historical premise in Hedegaard’s original 2008 model, used to analyse children’s development, assumes relatively stable activity settings. When crises occur, we are reminded of the disruption that emerges or clashes within activity settings and between them, which calls for bringing crises into theorisation.
In line with cultural-historical traditions, following Vygotsky’s legacy and the recognition that concepts are tools that enable us to work, Hedegaard’s ideas have not only been literally applied in diverse settings around the world but they have also been nuanced and developed by other researchers as they create new designs for new and local problems and analyse their empirical data.
In Hedegaard’s model from 2012, it is evident that Vygotsky’s work grounds the modelling of her ‘wholeness approach’, but not solely. She is also in dialogue with and inspired by Elkonin, Bruner, and Rogoff’s work, to name a few (Hedegaard, 2012 ) (Fig. 1.1 ).
Hedegaard’s model of Wholeness Approach to children’s development (2012)
The dialectic relation between social demands (society) and the child’s motives (person) constitutes an important dynamic in the model. This line of cultural-historical tradition of psychology sees the child’s development as trajectories through institutional practices. The model supports analyses of children’s development with the premise that every point can be localised in relation to the child’s social situation. As articulated in a recent tribute to Hedegaard’s legacy:
This approach encourages us to try to understand the child as she or he engages with the demands and opportunities for action in activities that occur within institutional practices, which are themselves embedded in local and national histories and societal expectations (Edwards et al., 2019 , p. 2).
The model visualises three overlapping streams of cultural traditions: home, school, and daycare (including varieties of early childhood settings, such as preschool and kindergarten).
This analytical approach, stemming from Hedegaard’s models, enables the researcher to problematise time as change and continuity, as developmental trajectories, and as transitions. The concept of ‘activity setting’ is central in the model and helpful for designing methodologies for early childhood educational settings and beyond, as ‘activity settings’ can be any everyday scene or event that will unfold in time and be situated in a local place. Activity settings are recurring events located in practices. These practices are based on traditions in a society’s different institutions.
Later, Hedegaard included human biology in her model to further theorise the nature of child development from a cultural-historical perspective (e.g. Hedegaard & Ødegaard, 2020 ). In our understanding, human biology entails wider cultural-historical interdisciplinary knowledge areas such as genetics, evolution, physiology, anatomy, epidemiology, anthropology, ecology, nutrition, population genetics, and the interplay of these. In adding human biology as a concept in the theorisations, Hedegaard opens up the way for understanding children, childhood, and institutional practices as more than cultures alone, and this is interesting from the perspective of crises. As we know, crises can encompass epidemics, a lack of nutrition, genetic variations in individuals as well as in populations, unexpected ecological disasters, and other unforeseen events.
This example of Hedegaard’s transformation of her own model is suggestive that theories are not static self-contained systems of thought but are always in motion and always being transformed in relation to the local and societal conditions and to the research questions targeted. We suggest that the international context of the global pandemic and its associated crises for researchers and research participants also acted as a catalyst for the transformation of her model, as will be shown later in this chapter.
Therefore, we posit that the anchoring principle of the emergent models, methods, and methodologies will continue to change, as reflected in the evolution of the model of child development in contemporary times by cultural-historical theorists such as Hedegaard and those who have contributed to this book.
The concept of the hologram comes into the picture in Sect. 1.4 as growing from the dialectics of crisis experiences and the process of innovating out of these through conceiving new activity settings for institutional practices. The hologram, then, is a response to the demand for continuation of academic practices from the isolation of individuals’ homes. As the essence of the hologram is an ‘apparent dematerialisation’ (Johnston, 2017 , p. 494), we use this concept to capture the transfer of institutional activity settings to a cyber space extending beyond the campuses and homes. The hologram is also a way in which academic institutions respond to the expectations of particular historical moments.
The hologram of the university comprises digital rooms, break-out rooms, and platforms entered by researchers, lecturers, and students instead of offices, classrooms, and meeting rooms. Such a ‘dematerialisation’ depends strongly on the technological materiality being activated both on the university servers and at the individuals’ homes. Apart from the technological aspect of ‘freezing light interference’ (Johnston, 2017 , p. 495), the hologram is also related to a joint intersubjectivity, a common imaginary space, where it is possible to participate and collaborate in both synchronous and asynchronous ways. This ‘three-dimensional imagery’ (Johnston, 2017 , p. 493) captures the dialectics of the hologram itself, which is the dialectics between the material and ideal space. Extracted from the physical surroundings of a campus, it gives a sense of an ideal state, while its deep material/technological anchoring flashes out through the digital devices being used to enter the hologram (dematerialised university). Constituted in the dialectics between the ideal and material, it resembles the object put by Leontyev ( 2009 ) as existing ‘in twofold: first, in its independent existence as subordinating to itself and transforming the activity of the subject; second, as an image of the object, as a product of its property of psychological reflection that is realized as an activity of the subject and cannot exist otherwise’ (p. 86).
Through the lens of the hologram concept, it is possible to grasp how the re-searching for new practices of emergent research and academic teaching unfolds within the dialectical interplay of the material and ideal, as expounded upon in Sect. 1.4 . The collaborations in the educational experiment cannot be undertaken in person. Through the digital platforms, a hologram of the relations between researchers and research participants is captured and understood as family–university and childcare–university sites. Collaborations are now virtually enabled.
Educational and developmental psychology is often criticised for its reliance on universal (spaceless) and ahistorical (timeless) conceptualisations of human development. In stable periods, space and time are generally considered in the background. Time (in terms of age and stage) and space (in terms of cultural and material conditions) are merely referenced to explain development in such a theorisation. This position contrasts with Vygotsky’s ‘genetic historical approach’, where he argues for studying development historically, which ‘means to study it in motion. Precisely this is the basic requirement of the dialectical method’; thus, ‘historical study of behavior is not supplementary or auxiliary to theoretical study but is a basis of the latter’ (Vygotsky, 1997 , p. 43). One of the central features of a crisis is that it amplifies the moment (time), and in a crisis of the nature of a global pandemic it also restricts our access to spaces (workplace, school, early learning centres, preschools, playgroups, etc.) and forces new ways of using space. In these challenging moments, as Perret-Clermont and Lambolez remark:
It seems that we are prisoners of time and completely powerless when faced with it; we cannot speed it up, slow it down or stop it, much less go backward in it; it imposes its own pace on us, and we cannot change it. (Perret-Clermont & Lambolez, 2005 )
A crisis is a critical moment in chronological time distinct from the past, present, and future. It is a time of acceleration, urgency, uncertainty, new demands, and new potentialities and transformation. This temporal distinctiveness also makes a crisis a time of modification and transformation. In the temporal sense, a crisis is ‘a state of greater or lesser permanence, as in longer or shorter transitions towards something better or worse or towards something altogether different’ (Koselleck & Richter, 2006 , p. 358). A crisis is a moment marked by uncertainty about the future, a suspension of existing daily routines and habits. Moreover, it is also a moment of heightened emotional response, with the pressure of taking urgent actions even without fully understanding their consequences. It is impossible to plot all these developments in a single stream of time.
Crises also highlight that the relationship between time and space is not unidimensional or linear but plurotemporal. As Perret-Clermont and Lambolez ( 2005 ) suggest, following the work of Bruno Latour: ‘Time-space is perceived as enriched by the agency of human beings subtly weaving together interactions from many places, times and types of material’ (p. 9). While challenging the idea of timelessness in Piaget’s theory, Latour ( 2005 ) argues that ‘we should not speak of time, space and actant but rather of temporalization, spatialization and actantialization’ (p. 178). He continues with a comment that ‘since these words are horrible to understand’, a more elegantly way of expression this is ‘of timing, spacing, acting’ (p. 178). These ideas resonate with Chaiklin’s ( 2011 ) claim that cultural-historical science is directed to the study of human practices (see further below). This is in alignment with the Vygotsky’s own position as he suggested:
The most complex contradictions of psychological methodology are transferred to the grounds of practice and only there can they be solved … “Method” means “way,” we view it as a means of knowledge acquisition. But in all its points the way is determined by the goal to which it leads. That is why practice reforms the whole methodology of science. (Vygotsky, 1997 , p. 306)
There is a discrete departure from the stable period; the crisis brings time and space to the forefront when regarding human development as a legitimate object of inquiry while thinking about practice interventions in educational experiments (as discussed in Sects. 1.1 , 1.2 , and 1.3 ). We begin to live in an in-flux/transitional time that is amplified in its experience, emotionally laden with new demands, and seems to move at a different pace marked by changes in routine and ways of living. Therefore, the new research methods presented in this book
… [lay the] foundations for a dialectical view of history as an ongoing fluid and dynamic process that is always here in the present, existing in the unending and ever-expanding dynamic layering of social practices in which the past and the present interpenetrate one another. (Vianna & Stetsenko, 2006 , p. 82).
In many of the chapters that present new research methods, emotions are not always foregrounded. Yet, each of the researchers and practitioners has, in one way or another, experienced disturbances at a societal level that have to a lesser or greater extent had an impact on the institutional practices and personal motives of the researchers and research participants. Paying respect to the challenges faced and experienced in times of crisis means giving attention to emotions. We make visible new motives and demands when going digital during a crisis. Emotions constitute a variety of quality, intensity, frequency, course, and expression (Holodynski, 2013 ). The inner state of emotions is not necessarily consciously realised as a feeling state.
The function of cultural-historical dynamics in emotions and their role in development has been addressed in cultural-historical methodologies as a co-construction of emotions in social relationships (Fleer & Hammer, 2013 ; Holodynski, 2013 ). Emotions in this perspective are most often understood in the context of social others. How emotions are fundamentally biologically situated in the body, however, is not ignored in cultural-historical roots, and it is pointed out as the primary driver of human biology in Hedegaard’s latest works (e.g. Hedegaard & Ødegaard, 2020 ). This is in line with Vygotsky’s discussion of the ‘dynamogenic effect on emotional excitation’ as a basic factor in development. In Teaching about emotions: Historical-psychological studies (Vygotsky, 1933/1999 ), he states that:
… emotions control us from the very beginning of life on earth and increasing intensity of emotions becomes the commanding stimulus for strong movement. Each bodily change that occurs in the internal organs-cessation of digestive processes (which is accompanied by a release of a supply of energy that may be used by other organs), outflow of blood from internal organs whose activity is decreased to organs that participate directly in muscle tension (lungs, heart, central nervous system); strengthening of heart contractions; rapid elimination of muscle fatigue; mobilization of large reserves of sugar that contains energy-each of these internal changes results in a direct benefit, fortifying the organism during great expenditure of energy elicited by fright, pain, or anger. (p. 77)
Such bodily changes stemming from emotional states do not belong to the primary drives of the infant only. It is an inborn human capacity that may serve as an organic preparation for coming tensions and conflicts that potentially arise when confronted with uncertainty and worries, as well as with excitement and engagement, coming to the forefront, for example in digital agility, as pointed out in Part V. One should, however, take into consideration that ‘emotions differ and are set apart endlessly, but you will not find any logical generalisations in them’ (Vygotsky, 1933/1999 , p. 75).
Even if emotions are not elaborated as emotions per se, in the practices referred to in this book, a range of emotions are at work when the research refers to ‘uncertainty’, ‘tensions’, ‘distress’, ‘safety’, ‘shame’, ‘engagement, ‘resilience’, and ‘agility’.
Noting the under-communicated emotions means recognising states often hidden from the surface of the methodology, including those with either negative or positive connotations. Even if emotions can be self-regulated, first after a cognitive recognition of what they mean in relation to the social context, it might be difficult and even impossible to control every aspect of biological motion set off by emotions. Emotions will disturb and even alter conditions in the social context and, therefore, notably in the research methodology. Being a field of predominantly women, ignoring emotions can mean ignoring cultural taken-for-granted gender discourses and practices in society. Valuing emotions is, therefore, a key issue in early childhood educational research.
Being in power has historically been associated with men, while powerlessness has been associated with women. Research during the global pandemic revealed an increase in female vulnerability. Male violence towards women increased in this period, at the same time as the complexity of women’s conditions increased (Pfitzner et al., 2020 ). Knowing that in the field of early childhood practitioners and researchers are predominantly female, valuing emotions is, therefore, a key determinant in understanding the field. Digitalisation in our context, in times of crisis, means that the emotional triggers of motives and demands are not neutral but must be considered both culturally and historically.
Consequently, we bring forward how economics is also an e-motion. This can refer to economic motion, electronic digital economics, and emotions. The crisis creates new conditions of labour, and how this plays out is differently experienced. Figure 1.2 is illustrative of one way to conceptualise the relations between emotions and economics in the context of electronic digital research.
E-motion – dialectical motion between economics, electronics, and emotions
In this section of the chapter, we look at how research practices have shaped the development of the concepts previously discussed and how the new concepts have enabled different ways of practising research. Chaiklin ( 2011 ) famously said that ‘All sciences have an object toward which they are directed’ (p. 227; original emphasis), and in our case, it was how to do research during times of crisis , and how to take into account new societal conditions. In addition to the societal conditions, we realised that nature, as biological and material conditions , must be considered when researching children’s development and conditions for professionals, families, researchers and their collaborative partners. Nature is unpredictable and will suddenly alter the more stable conditions we are used to considering in research and practice. Chaiklin ( 2011 ) said, ‘ Human practices are manifest in institutionally structured traditions of action, which are organised in relation to the production of collectively needed products’ (p. 227). However, as will be shown throughout the forthcoming chapters, the actions and products of the institutional academy of the university were no longer possible (Part IV) when PhD students and academics could not enter the country to gather data (Sect. 3.1 , Chap. 3 ), participate in the living laboratory of a childcare centre or kindergarten (Sects. 1.2 and 1.5 ), or introduce interventions in family homes (Sec. 1.3 ). The problem was that researchers could not enter into the institutional practices that were foundational for their research, and the study designs and associated methods were no longer relevant for answering the research questions posed by the researchers. When a pandemic, earthquake, flood, tsunami, slide, fire or volcano hits, human practices previously manifested in institutional traditions might not be given sufficient analytic power to understand human practices.
Chaiklin ( 2011 ) shows how, in the dialectical tradition, scientific work includes ‘analytical perspectives about the goals and purposes for research, conceptions about the object of analytical focus (i.e. ontological dimensions), and conceptions about the kinds of scientific analyses that one seeks to make (i.e. epistemological dimensions)’. Whilst the goals and purpose of the research would appear to have remained during the period of the pandemic, the challenges associated with the analytical focus had to bring in the scientific concept of crisis but in relation to the everyday lived realities that the new demands of a pandemic made on the researchers (the role of the researcher) and the participants. Similarly, the epistemological dimensions of the research were also in flux because researchers could not use existing and well understood methods, such as an educational experiment, to generate data to answer the original research question (Sect. 1.1 ) or employ historically developed cultural-historical concepts for scientific analyses to realise the goals of the research (Sect. 1.2 ).
New methods to meet the object of the research were developed through the process of the new practices. A reliance on the available digital tools was needed to enable access, data collection, new forms of digital analysis, and pedagogical innovations. The digital conditions that emerged, such as a ‘research fairy’ Zooming from Australia into a childcare centre in China (Chap. 3 ) or posting a diorama to a kindergarten with a digital device that could Zoom in the researcher to interview children (Chap. 5 ), had not previously been imagined or crystallised (Vygotsky, 2004 ) into the institutional research practices of the academy. The new digital conditions allowed more explorative and cross-country collaboration (see also as this book documents). Two key digitally enabled research practices are shown throughout the chapters of this book, namely:
The digital educational experiment
The role of the researcher in digitally enabled research
Vygotsky ( 1997 ) argued that ‘Usually the decisive moment of the experiment—the instruction—is left outside of the field of vision of the researcher. It is not subjected to analysis and is reduced to a secondary auxiliary process’ (p. 36). In line with this principle, we determined that it was through the everyday crisis of the global pandemic that researchers and research participants began to digitally document their shared theoretical problem (Hedegaard, 2008 ) by recording their sessions on Zoom. That is, they included in the research the ‘instruction’ associated with the research need. Different to the in-person practices of an educational experiment, where cameras, notes, or audio recorders are used and highly visible (and sometimes intrusive), the researchers and research participants simply pressed the record button on the Zoom app to document interactions.
The digitally enabled educational experiment is shown in Sects. 1.1 , 1.3 , 1.4 , and 1.5 in a range of centre and family contexts. What is common to the research practices is how the Zoom facility and digital recordings acted as an auxiliary device in the educational experiment to enable efficient connectivity between researchers and research participants. Vygotsky ( 1997 ) says that both tools and signs are mediated, and in the context of a digital educational experiment, the mediated activity takes place virtually between researchers and research participants in their quest to achieve a common goal associated with the theoretical problem that is the core dimension of their collaboration. No travelling to sites or to the university by participants is needed. A convenient short meeting can take place in the car, lunchroom, or family home. It is not the device but how the device acts as the tool for mediated activity. As Vygotsky ( 1997 ) suggests, ‘we usually speak of tools when we have in mind the mediating function of some object or means of some activity’ (p. 60).
Mediation in a digital environment brings with it a particular genre but also new possibilities not yet imagined, such as being inside a diorama or Zooming in as a research fairy to interview children. In a digital educational experiment, the digital tool acting as an auxiliary device (an enabler of the research fairy or being projected from inside a diorama on a device) enables the intervention under study to be implemented through virtual means whilst at the same time capturing the collaborations as they are being constructed and transformed over time. The duality is made visible as both a tool and as the sign, but the core is always the mediating activity:
The use of auxiliary devices, the transition to mediated activity radically reconstructs the whole mental operations just as the use of a tool modifies the natural activity of the organs, and it broadens immeasurably the site of activity of mental functions (Vygotsky, 1997 , p. 63).
Using a digital platform (Zoom), as a supplementary device not only enabled us to continue to research in new ways, but the mediated activity, as the quote from Vygotsky suggests, also radically reconstructed ‘the mental operations’ of the research participants.
What is also different in the context of a digital educational experiment is that the researcher can be both physically located in their home, university, or other worksite but also be internationally connected. The geography of the researcher is no longer crucially relevant.
In summary, the device and the apps are the vehicle, but how they are presented to children or used by researchers and teachers in their collaboration for introducing an intervention are shown across the chapters to be under construction, to transform practices, and in need of being theorised. The researchers did not know if the auxiliary device would support the mediating activity they had imagined as core for their digital educational experiments. The new concepts that arise from the new practices of a digital educational experiment add to the available research methods for studying children’s development and teacher practices within the institutional settings of early childhood.
The role that a researcher takes in cultural-historical research has already been theorised by Hedegaard ( 2008 ). She identifies the duality of the position held by the researcher—as both a partner in the activity setting that is under investigation but also as someone who is trying to understand what is going on in everyday practice. But what does this mean when the activity setting is virtually located and the researcher is not physically in the everyday practice?
In a digital context, the researcher still focuses on the motives and intentions of the research participants. However, new concepts are needed in the practices of following and interpreting motives and demands in a virtual activity setting. In the section above, the concepts of digital agency , boundaries of digital spaces (hologram) , distal contexts , collective digital relationality , transient demands , and potentiality as transitory were introduced to theorise the new methods of digital time and digital space. How these relate to the practices of the researcher for a digital context is now elaborated in relation to Hedegaard’s ( 2008 ) original theorisation of researching child development.
First, Hedegaard argues that the researcher needs to orally or in written form give an introduction when first making contact with children and educators in the particular educational setting. This orientation is important for establishing a relationship. However, in digitally enabled research, particularly during a global pandemic when these settings were closed to visitors, this created new demands on researchers based on how to orient the participants to the research and to build a relationship between the researcher and the research participants. The crisis called for digital agility (Part V).
Hedegaard also warns about the risk of the researcher taking over the activities when in the context of the research site, such as the family home or kindergarten. The researcher is not expected to step in as the teacher. However, at the same time, the researcher does not simply remain aloof and not respond to the situation if a child hurts themself or is in danger. There is a fine balance between the researcher’s position and the position of a human being in the context of the research site. However, as noted in Part III, the researchers take a much more active role by being both the researcher and the person implementing the pedagogical intervention when Zooming directly into family homes and creating new developmental conditions for children and families. The digital context demands that the researchers be more active than suggested by Hedegaard ( 2008 ). However, at the same time, the new conditions are co-experienced by the children and their parents with the researcher—sometimes synchronously and other times asynchronously. The following chapters show how this binary did not capture the new practices, however, and how new concepts were needed to name the new research conditions, notably, distal contexts , collective digital relationality , transient demands , and potentiality as transitory.
The digital environments that are showcased across the chapter are not naturalistic research sites, such as the family home, university, school, or kindergarten, as is characteristic of traditional research practice. The digital environments are difficult to research because they are emerging and transitory new kinds of settings, and therefore have to be conceptualised in practice differently. In particular, the concepts of boundaries of digital spaces and practices (Part III), the university as a hologram and dis-situation of development (Part IV), and resilient digital agility (Part V) are introduced to capture and theorise the new dimensions of the practices. Boundaries are also brought forward into digitally enabled research because researchers can work internationally with ease.
In order to capture and theorise the new digital research practices, we introduce our model. Inspired by Hedegaard’s model of development, our model brings forward a dialectical relation between the everyday and scientific readings of the crisis that generated digital research solutions.
The global pandemic created new societal and international rules that placed new demands on researchers as they digitally traversed the multiple institutions of the university and the research sites specific to early childhood. The new demands oriented and motivated the researchers to develop new research methods that were realised as recurrent digital practices within the digital activity settings.
The model shown in Fig. 1.3 ; Cultural-historical Loop Model, enables thinking and analysis of human action and development conditions. The model responds to the situation of the crisis and the conditions created in the historical times we live through. Within the model, concepts, settings, and practices dialectically come together to capture and unpack the complexity of the child’s development in the framework of the crisis. Dynamic and porous borders are symbolised in the model by the mobius image. The metaphor of the Möbius strip is named for the German pioneer in topology, the mathematician and theoretical astronomer August Ferdinand Möbius. A Möbius strip is a property of a flipped one-sided surface: after two loops, you can come back to the beginning in one movement. It constitutes a shape that can be defined as ‘a continuous choice of local orientation’ or a space that is orientable with multiple start and stop points. You can choose ‘inward’ and ‘outward’ or ‘up’ and ‘down’ directions (Alagappan, 2021 ). This visual metaphor is used to image ecological circulation that reminds us to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Figure 1.3 is not just a visual metaphor for circular action; it also visualises the dynamic nature of cultural-historical processes—how conditions for human action are interdependent with material, economic, and social conditions. Figure 1.3 visualises interdependent aspects of a sustainable loop. This choice allows us to illustrate in a symbolic way fluidity and mutuality to showcase the changing nature and dialectic interrelations between the dimensions illustrated in the model.
Cultural-historical Loop Model
For example, during the pandemic, institutional settings and home settings were merged (e.g. home schooling, home office) or institutions appeared to be in transition (e.g. delivering university courses online). The disturbed and in many cases ambiguous boundaries allowed for quick and/or partial shifts (e.g. being in your room but at the same time being in the classroom). Representing these hybrid settings with the infinity image rather than the bubble image, we wish to represent the connections and contradictions between these settings, the motion between the transitions from one setting to another, and the dialect character of being part of diverse settings.
Following the same rationale, the child is not seen isolated in an autonomous context but dialectically connected to adults, peers, and artefacts. In the same way, global and local perspectives are unpacked to capture the societal aspect at the micro and macro levels and in context. In line with Hedegaard’s model, the activity setting is central in the above model. The activity setting here corresponds to the digital system activity setting. Demands, motives, and cultural values are also represented in the model in the same way as they are represented in Hedegaard’s model, but this triptych is extended by economic and biological conditions to acknowledge the critical role of economy as a value and biology as a reality in times of crisis. Crisis, as a concept and as an everyday phenomenon, is also placed at the top and at the bottom of the model to showcase that the child’s development is not just related or influenced by the crisis but rather is generated amidst the crisis and formed by it.
Authors and affiliations.
KINDknow Research Center, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen, Norway
Elin Eriksen Ødegaard & Alicja Sadownik
Faculty of Education, Peninsula campus, Monash University, Frankston, VI, Australia
Marilyn Fleer & Prabhat Rai
Faculty of Education, School of Early Childhood Education, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
Glykeria Fragkiadaki
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Correspondence to Elin Eriksen Ødegaard .
Editors and affiliations.
Faculty of Education, Peninsula Campus, Monash University, Frankston, VIC, Australia
Marilyn Fleer
Faculty of Education, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
KINDKNOW Research Centre, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen, Norway
Elin Eriksen Ødegaard
Faculty of Education, Monash University, Frankston, VIC, Australia
Prabhat Rai
KINDKNOW Research Centre, Western Norway University of Applied Sci, Bergen, Norway
Alicja R. Sadownik
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Ødegaard, E.E., Fleer, M., Fragkiadaki, G., Sadownik, A., Rai, P. (2024). Cultural-Historical Digital Methodologies: The Dialectics of Crisis and Research Innovation. In: Fleer, M., Fragkiadaki, G., Ødegaard, E.E., Rai, P., Sadownik, A.R. (eds) Cultural-historical Digital Methodology in Early Childhood Settings. Perspectives in Cultural-Historical Research, vol 13. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-59785-5_1
DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-59785-5_1
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1.2 Defining Research Methodology. It is an essential process of any scientific study, which serves as a framework for processing and achieving the predicted outcomes of the study. It is commonly defined as a systematic and organized process of collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and presenting information to answer specific questions or solve ...
At the end of this chapter, you will be able to: Define the term "research methods". List the nine steps in undertaking a research project. Differentiate between applied and basic research. Explain where research ideas come from. Define ontology and epistemology and explain the difference between the two.
data collection, analysis, and interpretation. The selection of a research approach includes the research problem or issue being addressed, the researchers' persona. experiences, and the audiences for the study. Thus, in this book, philosophical assumptions, research approaches, research designs, and research methods are four key terms ...
CHAPTER 1. oduction to Research MethodsIntr. 7. reasoning a researcher/practitioner can use to approach a problem. Through these methods of learning, research-ers can begin to understand and explain behavior in a meaningful way that may lead to specific questions. These questions then lead a researcher to create a solution as to how to answer these
Textbooks are typically arranged in one of two ways: (1) by technique (each chapter covers one method used in qualitative research); or (2) by process (chapters advance from research design through publication). But both of these approaches are necessary for the beginner student.
and make for good science and scientific research. The purpose of this introductory chapter is to convey what methodology is, why it is needed, and the key tenets that guide what we do as scientists. These foci may seem obvious—after all, everyone knows what methodology is and why it is needed. Perhaps so, but the answers are not all so obvious.
Step 1: Explain your methodological approach. Step 2: Describe your data collection methods. Step 3: Describe your analysis method. Step 4: Evaluate and justify the methodological choices you made. Tips for writing a strong methodology chapter. Other interesting articles.
How to structure the research methods chapter. Wondering how to write the research methodology section? Follow these steps to create a strong methods chapter: Step 1: Explain your research methodology. At the start of a research paper, you would have provided the background of your research and stated your hypothesis or research problem. In ...
Chapter 1: Introduction to Research Methodology. September 2023. In book: Research Methodology Lectures for Postgraduate Students (pp.1-11) Authors: Amer Al-ani. (University of Anbar - Iraq)
The research design is a fundamental aspect of research methodology, outlining the overall strategy and structure of the study. It includes decisions regarding the research type (e.g., descriptive, experimental), the selection of variables, and the determination of the study's scope and timeframe. We must carefully consider the design to ...
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Overview: Writing The Methodology Chapter. Develop a (rough) outline before you start writing. Draw inspiration from similar studies in your topic area. Justify every research design choice that you make. Err on the side of too much detail, rather than too little. Back up every design choice by referencing literature. 1.
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Do yourself a favour and start with the end in mind. Section 1 - Introduction. As with all chapters in your dissertation or thesis, the methodology chapter should have a brief introduction. In this section, you should remind your readers what the focus of your study is, especially the research aims. As we've discussed many times on the blog ...
2.1 Research Methodology. Method can be described as a set of tools and techniques for finding something out, or for reducing levels of uncertainty. According to Saunders (2012) method is the technique and procedures used to obtain and analyse research data, including for example questionnaires, observation, interviews, and statistical and non-statistical techniques [].
The research methodology will be concisely explained, by referring to the literature study, the research design, including the design of the questionnaire and data analysis methods. Lastly, the division of chapters will be indicated. Figure 1.1: Conceptual framework of this study
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It shows that on the pre-test majority of the. respondents had a low range score in Endurance Dimension of AQ® (49 or. 27.07%) and the rest got a below average score (61 or 33.70%), 47 or 25.97%. got an average score, 19 or 10.48% got an above average score and 5 or 2.76%. got a high score.
I view research methods as a subject that I will rarely use. Research methods is not really useful for students who intend to work in Criminal Justice. Knowing research methods will help me earn a living. Research methods does not reflect the "real world." Research Disinterest 5. I am excited about taking research methods.
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The method must be adequate to the subject studied … Knowing the uniqueness and deliberately beginning the research from this point is the first condition for adequacy of the method and the problem; for this reason, the problem of method is the beginning and the foundation, the alpha and the omega of the whole history of the cultural development of the child.