Description
Week 10 discussion
The center point of research studies is the body of data collected to answer the research question. Without data, there would be no study. So… what might be the best way to acquire data for your purposes? Each has its own advantages and disadvantages in terms of timeframe, cost, and bias. You also must consider whether there is an established data collection instrument for you to use (such as an existing test or survey), or whether you plan to develop your own—and if so, how you will test for reliability and validity.
Question to be answer from colleagues
Respond to 2 colleagues by
1.providing feedback on their choice of measurement and data collection method.
2. identify one cultural aspect they will need to consider when collecting data.
Colleagues 1
COLLAPSE
For my research question, “Is offering government-funded primary care services to undocumented immigrants dependent on political viewpoint?”, I will be using a quantitative, pre-experimental, cross-sectional design. My variable is “political viewpoint”, and to measure this, I will be using the ordinal measurements “very conservative,” “leans conservative,” “swing state/district”, “leans liberal,” and “very liberal”.
Initially, I thought that nominal measurement would be best, using the two major American political parties, Republican and Democrat, as my nominal values. However, this ignores significant cultural nuances. Swing states such as Florida are not easily categorized by these parties; over one quarter of registered Floridian voters do not belong to either party (U.S. Mission Thailand, 2020). For areas where independent voters make up a substantial share of the electorate, and neither major party has an entrenched history of recumbency, it does not make sense to use a nominal measurement. Instead, looking at the voting history, it would make sense to see if the area was truly a swing state or swing district, or if it leaned slightly toward conservative candidates or slightly toward liberal candidates. This system would also account for areas that elect third parties, such as the Libertarian party or Green Party.
Reference:
U.S. Mission Thailand. (2020). What swing states are and why they’re important. Retrieved from
