initial post lessImagine you are going to conduct research investigating a human behavior that you would be interested in learning more about. Be sure to describe that topic so that your classmates know what your research questions are and so that they can better understand your study. What are your specific predictions/hypotheses (e.g., what do you expect the findings of your study to be)?
Select a scientific method for this psychological research. Although in the “real world,” researchers may combine methods or use one or more methods, choose only ONE research method for the purpose of this academic exercise. Working with humans can create potential issues. List some of the strengths and weaknesses of this specific type of research. Identify potential ethical concerns in this research process.
Answers need to cover these questions and elaborate on key terms/concepts reviewed in the lesson this week. Replies can introduce new/different perspectives and must encourage the continuation of the discussion.
POST THE NAME OF THE METHOD ON THE SUBJECT LINE OF YOUR INITIAL POST.
Reply 1 —
Hello Class, The topic I’m interested in would have to be the measurement of influence on young adults who join the military versus those who do not. development of those who join vs those who don’t. Focusing on the age grouping of (17-24) which would be the most impressionable a study of how drastic the personality changes over time. While both parties will experience friction those who join the military typically are prepared for what’s to come while the civilian lifestyle is more an unknown for most. Due to this, I predict that those who don’t join will have more room to develop without strong outside influence unless joining a structured organization of some sort. While those who join the military will have little room and have a stronger environmental influence on their development. Naturalistic Observation is beneficial offering flexibility and respecting ethical considerations. A case of this scale would provide extreme challenges i.e. the lack of control over the type of influence the subjects will experience and how the influence of these obstacles will be measured in the long run. Using a method of Surveying would make up for these by providing a recorded baseline of what the subjects were like at the beginning of the study. Taking note of how not only their family and peers see them but how they see themselves as well.
Research Question: What has more influence on personality in the military or civilian life? While most would probably agree that the military is the obvious answer people don’t take into account the sense of self those that join the military tend to have prior to joining. As mentioned previously those that join know what they are signing up for compared to those who don’t join live in a world of the unknown and unpredictable.
To get and maintain reliability within the collected data a series of data-collecting techniques commonly used in naturalist observations will be used. Event sampling would be used to keep track of events that would be considered enough positive or negative friction to push the subjects out of their normal behaviors/responses. Time samples will be taken at random to measure the difference in common behaviors throughout the study.
In summary, I will be using the Naturalistic Observation method to carefully observe the environmental influences the military has on personality development compared to the civilian lifestyle. While acknowledging that the vulnerabilities of this type of method can easily become time consuming and difficult to replicate which is an importance to “science” it makes up for in unfiltered data and experience.
Reply 2,The topic I’m interested in learning more about is Military members substance use for coping. Specifically, I’d like to focus on military members who are of the millennial generation; between the 1980s-mid 1990s, who face daily life stressors and pressure from serving in the military and how the challenges of the time and age we live in now lead them to relying on substances to cope with the stress. Since millennials were born into a digital age, exposed to information and constant connectivity, with a combination of military stressors such as deployments, constant PCS moves, and long days/nights separated from family. So, in response to the stressors, millennials may be more inclined to rely on substances as a coping mechanism. The National trends indicate a substantial increase in the abuse of substances, especially prominent within military members whose population continues to endure alcohol abuse and electronic cigarettes, also known as vaping. Conducting this research could provide a way to promote healthier coping strategies for these military members.
My research questions are how do military members who are millennials cope with their stressors? In addition, if yes, do these military members resort to substances to help them cope with their daily stressors?
The research method I would conduct is Surveys. Researchers would create a survey for millennial military members with questions focused on their experiences, attitudes, and behaviors related to substance abuse and coping mechanisms when it comes to stress in their military life. The questions could explore topics such as exposure to stressors, mental health symptoms, patterns of substance use, views on social support, and their willingness to seek assistance for mental health.
Working with humans can create potential issues such as people not always giving accurate responses to the survey questions. Surveys do, however, allow researchers to gather information from a larger group and can be conducted in a short time. In addition to allowing researchers to collect data from larger groups, this could lead to results reflecting the diversity of the population or testing group.
Potential Ethical concerns could include informed consent, which mandates psychologists who conduct research to notify their participants about the purpose of the study, duration, and procedures. Additionally, allowing the participants to decline or withdraw from the study. In addition, researchers are required to understand their relationships and roles while conducting any research. If the psychologist is not careful, this could lead to an unethical situation and could lead to compromised results. Researchers are also required to discuss the limits of confidentiality and have a knowledge of the federal and state laws to ensure they provide the information to the participants prior to conducting any study.
In summary, by utilizing the Survey research methodology to study millennial military members mental health and their substance use to cope with stressor will allow researchers to understand the stressors, challenges, and factors to their mental health and ways of coping with stress. This could ultimately lead to providing military leaders and healthcare professionals to develop ways to prevent and treat the members to support a healthy lifestyle, readiness, and future for our military forces.
References:
Morden, E., Oster, M., & O’Brien, C. P. (Eds.). (2013). Substance use disorders in the u. s. armed forces. National Academies Press.
Gill, A. A., Alford, B., Balmer, J., Lutz, E. A., Glogower, F. D., & Palm, C. K. (2022). Use of electronic cigarettes among U.S. Military service members – prevalence and associated risk factors. Substance Abuse, 43(1), 13001307.
Smith, D. (2003, January). Five Principles for Research Ethics. American Psychological Association. _________________________________________________________
