First Half Final Spring 2010

Linda Freedman, LCSW, LMFT, PhD

Final Exam, May 18, 2010

The author of Freakonomics looks critically at previous research and then presents questions for new research.

Choose any of the chapters discussed in Freakonomics, reread it, and address the questions below.

(1) What is the research question in the chapter?

(2-3-4) Name are three variables of study?

(5-6-7) How is each measured (operationalized)?

(8) What was the theory driving the research?

(9) What did the researcher expect to find, based upon the theory?

(10) State what the researcher expected to find in the form of a hypothesis.

(11) What were the ethical issues in the study, if there were any?

The following is a problem that begs research. Your job is design a qualitative study for inquiry.

Juvenile delinquency and adolescent fatherhood are highly correlated, and both predict future continued involvement in the criminal justice system.

Approximately one-quarter of teens who break the law (males) become fathers before they are twenty years old, as opposed to 4-7% of the general teenage male populace.

Because the offenders who are also dads are incarcerated, this poses economic and social problems to the mothers of these children, and puts children at risk.

A lit review tells us that quantitative data indicates that young father offenders also repeat crimes at a higher rate than offenders who are not fathers. But qualitative studies indicate that being a father is a reason these young dads proffer as an incentive not to repeat crimes.

It would seem that there need be more inquiry into the beliefs of incarcerated teenage fathers about their roles as fathers, and their transition into paternal roles in light of their criminal involvement.

The literature also suggests that (a) offenders who form strong bonds in the workplace and have marital partners tend to desist from crime at a higher rate than offenders who do not form such bonds, (b) being in jail interrupts that bonding process, and this often has to do with problems between the child's mother and the offending teenage father, and (c) mothers often discouraged a relationship between the offending father and his child.

Now.

(12-13-14) Pose three questions for the subjects of your study that you feel will inform professionals about this issue.

(15-16) Assume you have access to 29 incarcerated young men, 9 of whom are fathers, 7 of whom have files that already contain data about their attitudes and experiences. Some might choose only to use these 7. Why? What kind of methodology is that?

(17-18-19) How will you collect date if you use the incarcerated men?


(20-21-22) What kinds of themes (name five) do you guess will be coded when you begin to analyze your data?


(23) What kinds of ethical issues do you anticipate?


A random study of NASW members explored violence in the workplace. Three thousand members were queried to participate, but only 1029 returned their surveys.

The researcher used a modified version of the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS2) to measure physical and psychological assault. Questionnaires asked the respondents which of the specific acts or events they had ever experienced, had experienced in the past year, and how many times they had experienced each act in the past year, a total of 20 items on the scale. Respondents were asked about being both a victim and a perpetrator.

(24) What do you think of that return rate?

(25) Name one internal validity issue that strikes you as a problem using this instrument, the CTS2.

(26) How do you imagine the researcher checked for reliability of the CTS2?

Before querying social workers, the researcher did a literature review and found that studies indicated between 42%-62% of the social workers studied had been verbally abused; 17%-25% were physically threatened, and 3-23% had been physically assaulted, depending upon the study.

The results of this study, however, found an overwhelming number of social workers had experienced violence in the workplace (most were in private practice, by the way)-- 86%. And one quarter were perpetrators in some way or another!


(27-28-29) Why do you think there seems to be a jump in the numbers? Do you feel there might be a reliability or validity issue? If so, what kind?

(30-31) What kind of a study was this? Which research design, what type?

(32-33) What was the risk/benefit, (IRB consideration) you would have to tell your subjects about before you started your inquiry.


Good Luck!