A Research Methods Essay

Analyze how data and research techniques are currently being used in one particular area of your internship company. What function do research findings serve? Use one of the Sullivan's 5 types to describe the function that data currently plays.

Utilizing data and research techniques is crucial in any organization because the data is typically used to analyze and forecast various future events, as well as to better understand natural phenomena. In our company, one of the present uses of data is to conduct research, which has a number of requirements. The first step is to ensure that the data can only be used for study. Secondly, the data require not to be processed with an objective of supporting measures or decisions about a certain data subjects. Lastly, the processing of the research purposes requires not to cause a substantial damage or even distress to the data subjects. On the other hand, there is various use of research methods that are commonly used. However, in our organization, one of the current use is to provide an approach that can be used to develop a better and a more context specific instruments. For example, the use of qualitative research makes it possible to gather some more information regarding a particular topic with an objective of coming up with an instrument that is of greater construct validity.

Health and welfare case is the capacity that the research data in this case is being used with an objective of applying justice for all people and also make sure that everybody is protected by the court appropriately. One of the roles that the data currently plays by the use of Sullivan’s 5 types applied research techniques is to simply provide an accurate portrayal of the characteristics associated with a particular person, situation or even a group (Sullivan, 1992). The objective here is to discover a new meaning that can be able to describe what already exists hence determine the frequency with which something may occur and also categorize various information (Sullivan, 1992).

The type of applied research that is currently being used in our organization is the descriptive research. In this type of research, the primary characteristic approach is that the researcher can at no chances have the control of variable as he or she can only report what has already happened or what is presently going on. When it comes to the method of data collection used, use of observation is implemented though it is supplemented by the analysis of various court documents visits to some other parts of health and welfare law system as well as some interviews with different individuals at the court and also some other organizations which may have contact with the court. The objective here is to make sure that the data collected is highly reliable and can be of great importance towards helping in serving justice to the people involved.

A research design being an overall approach that one may choose with a major objective of integrating the various components of the study in a coherent as well as the logical way in order to help ensure that there is an effective address to the research problem, survey design is applied in our institution. The main objective for applying this design it’s because it is an efficient way of gathering data in order to help address a certain issue under research. The population used in the research comprises of the individuals who can be considered as adults regardless of their gender or race. When it comes to the sample selection it simply involves the individuals who are experiencing health issues as well as some welfare disputes and how they get to be represented or their issue addressed in court upon their presentation.

Looking at the type of data collected and measured, it involves the answers provided to the questions given in the survey method of data collection. Some of the questions provided in the survey comprise of the following:

Do you feel you were well represented in the court as an individual with a health issue?

Do you think justice is served to help protect your welfare?

Do you consider various stakeholders in the court are of any concern in regard to your issue?

Are you willing to undergo the same process again just in case you have a different issue to be addressed in the court?

In this research, use of theory greatly guided me in several ways. Usually, theories helps in designing a research questions, guiding in the selection of the most relevant data, interpretation of data as well as proposing different explanations of causes or influences. The theory guided my research by providing a complex and a comprehensive conceptual understanding when it comes to the different things that cannot be pinned down, the way our society works and its perception of things, how an organization operates and establish why people consider doing things in a certain manner or even interacting with each other. Use of theory gave me different lenses through which to perceive things at the problems and social issues that seem to be very complex, focusing my attention on various factors of the data as well as providing a framework within which I could be able to carry out analysis of the research.

The article I selected to guide my research is titled “Is the overrepresentation of the poor in child welfare caseloads due to bias or need?” which is authored by Jonson, Melissa, Brett, and Patricia. Starting with the theory applied in the article, it guided my research be helping me understand the significance of assessing any bias that may be in the research. From the theory of the article, I came to establish that, the issue of welfare and health in courts is not a new thing, but an issue that has always been there and it requires to be greatly addressed. Under the methods, the article guided me that the use of survey in research concerning courts is very critical. As a result, I greatly focused on using the survey as one of the data collection methods with a major objective of coming up with highly reliable result from the research.

After conducting the research, there are a number of findings that I came to realize and also some possible expected findings. To start with, I came to find out that, not everybody gets to be well represented or in an adequate manner in the court when he or she has a health issue that wants to be addressed is it to do with his or her insurance cover or even the organization he works at. Secondly, I came to find out that, some people feel there not served with enough justice that would see their welfare adequately protected. Lastly, some stakeholders fail to play their part when it comes to the helping different individuals with any kind of issue as they never concerned.

The use of these findings would be as follows: one is to ensure that, there are measures or policies that get to be implemented in order to make sure that people are served with justice and they also get be adequately represented in the court. Secondly, the findings would help in making sure that all the stakeholders in the court follow the implemented policy to the letter with an objective of ensuring that everybody gets justice.

There are various problems and differences that are expected to be seen when it comes to the standards of academic research and those used in the field environment. For instance, standards of academic research make sure that all the considerations are put into place in order to acquire a reliable and effective findings. However, for the field environment, some considerations are not really put into place which may end up affecting the quality of the findings acquired. What accounts for those differences is the rules and policies that guide both the standards of academic research and the field environment.

There are quite a good number of differences that exist between the basic and applied research. To start with, basic research is a type of research that is purely driven by curiosity as well as the desire to expand people’s knowledge, while on the other hand, applied research is a research used to answer a particular question that tends to have a direct application to the world (Sullivan, 1992). Secondly, basic research aims at studying phenomena in order to get a fuller understanding of it, while for the applied research aims at collecting as well as analyzing data with an objective of developing or enhancing a theory.

Reference

Sullivan, T. J. (1992). Applied sociology: research and critical thinking. Pearson College Division.