RESEARCH ETHICS

RESEARCH ETHICS

Potential Risks

The participation in the study is generally safe because the individuals will not be forced to provide personal details unless they want to. The study will be conducted during the day to avoid inconveniences that might occur when criminals pretend to be part of the team and rob respondents (Cook, 2016). Besides, the team members will provide official identification details before administering the methods of collecting information.

However, there is the risk of getting personal information exposed to the public if the respondent uses their official name on the questionnaire. This can be intimidating, but the risk will be minimized by handling the data carefully and encouraging respondents to avoid using their real names (Cook, 2016). It is advisable to use codes instead of names.

Obtaining Informed Consent

The consent will be obtained from different respondents by first explaining to them the main agendas of the study. The respondents will be made to understand the purpose, the length of the activity, the safety of the collected data, and the advantages they can gain from taking part in the study (Pelletier, 2015). Furthermore, the consent forms will provide comprehensive information about the contact information for reaching to the officials and getting clarifications (Stangor, 2019). The consent forms will contain more details regarding the options the respondents have when they want to quit the study after some time. There will also be a detailed and customized signature block for the respondents to verify that they consent to the terms of the study.

Ensuring Privacy

Privacy will be guaranteed by keeping the identification details of the respondents coded. In cases where there is a need to have the government or other authorities intervening to help the students, they will be consulted before making contact with the authorities (Stangor, 2019). Furthermore, the respondents will have the final word regarding whether they wish to be involved in advanced steps such as rehabilitation.

Part B: PARTICIPANTS

This study will focus on getting information about the consumption of alcohol among university students. It will cover those in the undergraduate category and the just-graduated individuals. That will be the population whose results will be generalized after the study.

The ideal sample will consist of a male or female student who lives either alone or with a roommate in an apartment. The age of our ideal respondent will be between 20 – 25 years. The ethnicity might be African American, Native American, Hispanic, Indian, or any other identifiable ethnic group (Grove, 2019). The income of such individuals should be middle-class of upper-middle-class so that they have money to afford alcohol. This ideal sample will serve the purpose of the study well because students have a lot of free time that they can spend drinking, and they might have some reasonable information regarding how alcohol consumption affects their academic performance (Little et al. 2015). Also, the sample is ideal because living alone or with a friend in an apartment provides one with the freedom to engage in alcoholism, unlike when living with parents.

The sampling method will include probability, specifically the simple random. The simple random method has its challenges, which include lack of a clear route that one can trace the respondents and having to gamble with the chances of finding the ideal sample (Grove, 2019). This method also has the challenge of finding some respondents who do not fall within the specified age limits. It is possible to find older individuals living within the same apartments as students, and their responses will not serve the purpose of the study.

The use of probability in the form of simple random is important and the best option for this study. This sampling will help me to find the ideal samples by observing their lifestyles to verify that they meet the predetermined criteria for the sample (Rahi, 2017). Simple random allows the researcher to use other skills such as observation to spot the study samples. Thus, it is flexible.

Part C: RESEARCH DESIGN

The research will be done in the correlational nature. The correlational research method is a non-experimental method that involves the researcher measuring two variables, understanding them, and making assessments for the statistical relationship between the variables without being influenced by any extraneous factors (Krosnick, 2018). The correlational research method is the best approach for this study because it opens up more opportunities for further research. The research method allows other researchers to narrow down on some topics raised from the first research and find causations experimentally (Rahi, 2017). The plan also allows the researcher to understand the direction and strength of the relationship between variables. Still, there is a challenge of making inaccurate conclusions that are not verified by experiments.

The timing of the research will be longitudinal. This means that the data will be collected across multiple waves (Caruana et al. 2015). This is important because it will allow for the collection of different responses for the target population sample of three hundred people. The timing of the research is right because the respondents will have the opportunity to provide responses over a period of time that is enough, and they might have taken some alcohol during those periods (Little et al. 2015). The data will be located within the environs of the university because that is where most students live.

Part D: FIRST DATA COLLECTION METHOD

The first method for data collection is a questionnaire that will include questions about how alcohol affects academic performance. This is a reliable method because it will have both closed and open-ended questions that will enable the respondents to give comprehensive responses (Brace, 2018). The choice of a questionnaire is based on its ability to be filled by several respondents at the same time and privacy purposes. A respondent can provide information that they would shy off from sharing in a one-on-one situation. The questionnaire will be issued to the respondents in their apartments, and the time for completion will be a maximum of one hour (Brace, 2018). The structured prompt will guide the respondents with instructions that will guide them through the entire process.

Part E: SECOND DATA COLLECTION METHOD

This second method of data collection will be an interview that focuses on getting more clarification of the information provided in the questionnaire (Harvey, 2015). The discussion will be conducted in privacy to encourage open conversations about the consumption of alcohol and its effects on academic performance. The measures will be focused on determining the volume of alcohol that each respondent consumes, on average in a single semester, and then use the figures to compare with how their performance in school has been. The interview will have validity by asking similar questions to all the respondents. This will help in avoiding bias or inconsistency of information, which makes the process of analysis difficult (Harvey, 2015). The interviews used to collect data will be reliable because the respondents can provide additional information regarding the consumption of alcohol. Besides, the interview will be competent in finding out trends such as cheating in exams and assignments as part of the student’s overall behavior.

It is justifiable to use the interview method to obtain more information from the respondents. The one-on-one experience will enable the researcher to observe and note the non-verbal cues that the respondents will show upon being asked particular questions. The data collected using the questionnaire will be supported using the interview (Krosnick, 2018). The choice of using the interview as a method of collecting data is influenced by the need to verify the information that respondents provide in the questionnaire. The complementary roles of both the questionnaire and the interview will ensure that the research is reliable and that the validity of the data is dependable even for further studies by other researchers.

References

Brace, I. (2018). Questionnaire design: How to plan, structure, and write survey material for effective market research. Kogan Page Publishers.

Caruana, E. J., Roman, M., Hernández-Sánchez, J., & Solli, P. (2015). Longitudinal studies. Journal of thoracic disease, 7(11), E537.

Cook, B. G., & Cook, L. (2016). Research designs and special education research: Different designs address different questions. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 31(4), 190-198.

Grove, S. K. (2019). Examining Populations and Samples in Research. Understanding Nursing Research: First South Asia Edition, E-Book: Building an Evidence-Based Practice, 228.

Harvey, L. (2015). Beyond member-checking: A dialogic approach to the research interview. International Journal of Research & Method in Education, 38(1), 23-38.

Krosnick, J. A. (2018). Questionnaire design. In The Palgrave handbook of survey research (pp. 439-455). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.