Describe your topic and research question as it stands thus far

Aristotle

 

This is my next assignment.  I will continue to do the assignment on PTSD.  Using the last essay (attached below) you completed,  please complete the following assignment below.  thanks

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In this essay discuss your sampling methods for your proposed research project.  Use the following format for your APA format essay:

 

1.Describe your topic and research question as it stands thus far

 

2.Describe and justify your choice to have random or nonrandom sample for your study (p.88, 93.) and then describe and justify what kind of random or nonrandom sample you chose (p. 88, 94).

 

3.Describe and justify your sampling frame including references to your target population and sampling element.

 

4.Describe and justify your target sampling size.

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For this assignment I am using this book that must be used as a reference:

 

Understanding Research by W. lawrence Neuman 1st ed.  ISBN: 978-0205471539

The Effects of PTSD on Emotional Intelligence and Online Learning Success

The Effects of PTSD on Emotional Intelligence and Online Learning Success

A common outcome of soldiers returning from combat is usually stress, related to experiences in the battlefield, which in the long term can turn to Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Loew and associates (2014) in the paper, Military Beliefs and PTSD in Active-Duty U.S. Army Soldiers observe that PTSD in individual soldiers relates to the beliefs about service and mission that a solider has. This means that soldiers with positive beliefs on mission and service are able to align “. . . their subjective experiences with overarching values or goals” creating less conflict between experiences in the battlefield and personal beliefs (Loew et al., 2014, p. 1).

The proposed area of research is online learning, and how individuals perform in the online learning environment based on emotional intelligence. So, my hypothesis is emotional intelligence positively correlates to academic success in online learning, and that personality influences emotional intelligence. The article, Military Beliefs and PTSD in Active-Duty U.S. Army Soldiers relates to the research topic in that both the article and research assume that individual personality, relates to emotional intelligence. This means that in the article’s case, individual beliefs about service and mission in the military- explained by emotional intelligence and personality- informs how soldiers interpret their experiences; while in the research’s case, personality relates to emotional intelligence, which then determines successful learning in an online environment.

Article Analysis

In the study, Military Beliefs and PTSD in Active-Duty U.S. Army Soldiers by Loew and associates (2014), the basic study topic and question was whether military work, mission and service and positive beliefs about the same by soldiers led to lower PTSD occurrences after serving. This study question relates to previous research which shows that soldiers who deem military service as valuable and important tend to gain psychologically from deployment and also have reduced incidences of depression (Loew et al., 2014). Therefore, the study question and topic, based on past research, had the expectation that positive military beliefs would relate to lower PTSD incidences.

This study engaged both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The research design adopted was correlation in nature since; it explains major human behaviours and also explores relations and predicts likely outcomes (Fraenkel & Wallen, 2000). This was the quantitative part of the study. The study was also qualitative in nature since it was descriptive and focused on uncovering meaning among participants (Merriam, 1998). Thus, self reports from soldiers engaged in a marriage education program were used in the study, with all participants reporting being exposed to some level of combat (Loew et al., 2014). Additionally, the main variables that were examined in relation to PTSD included the importance of military service to individual soldiers, current missions and the value placed on military work by participants (Loew et al., 2014).

Participants in the study were active duty males, who had been deployed in the last one year, and who had also experienced some level of combat, notably in Operations Enduring, and Iraqi Freedom (Loew et al., 2014). Participants in the study totalled 272, from an original 662 couples who had been engaged in the marriage education program, with the average age being 29.33, with the largest percentage (73%) being White (Loew et al., 2014).

In this study, the findings relevant to my research question is that it was found that the belief that soldiers have of their military missions relates to PTSD, and benefits soldiers find after combat. Thus, soldiers who deemed military service as valuable were unlikely to have PTSD. This relates to my research question in that, although emotional intelligence may determine online learning success, the value that a student placed in learning, may be to get a higher degree or a first degree, can also determine online learning success.

Study Review

This study focused on determining how PTSD relates to the value soldiers place on their work, military service and engagement to current military work. The study used self-reports (post deployment) from 272 active duty United States soldiers. Associations were examine using partial correlation, bivariate correlations, and combined regression models using IBM SPSS Statistics (Version 20) and G*Power 3, that carried out power analysis (Loew et al., 2014). Results showed that positive beliefs about the value of current military operations, led to lower PTSD symptoms.

The article’s title is relevant and consistent with the content therein, and the layout of the report is also clear and organized. However, a major flaw in the study is that it used self-reports as the basis for research. Self reports are unreliable as participants may not want to report themlsves in a negative light, and as Loew et al. (2014) points out “. . . soldiers may believe endorsing PTSD symptoms to pose risk to their careers and therefore underreport such symptoms” (p. 3).

Unethical and Unscientific Research

Ethics are important in research because they promote the aims of research such as truth, avoidance of error, knowledge, and also promote collaboration in learning; aids in breeding mutual respect, fairness, accountability and trust; and also promote moral and social values such as respect for animals, life, and participants in research (Resnik, 2010). Therefore, they ensure that researchers are accountable for their work, to the public and fellow researchers. If this study was carried out unethically, the first thing would have been to ensure that the names of participants in the study were released to the public. This is unethical since, the privacy of respondents would not have been respected. Second, the study could have fabricated its data set, and rather than say that it used data from two forts, state, that it used data from fifteen forts all over the country. This again, is unethical since it’s the fabrication and falsification of data sets (Resnik, 2010). Finally, the study could have been conducted unethically, by asking someone else to carry out the research, and then claiming the work as original.

Scientific research is one that adopts a logical process, and investigates an idea to increase understanding, and its findings can be shown to be consistent, whereas, non-scientific research is that which learns about facts using methods that are not scientific in nature (Neuman, 2008). Scientific research uses new information for the research; it generalizes from facts, and is grounded in paradigms (Dane, 2010). Therefore, this research could have been conducted unscientifically in a number of ways. First, the research would have generalized from facts, for instance, since PTSD is related to soldiers who have been in combat, it would have assumed that all soldiers who have witnessed combat, must suffer from PTSD. The research could also have assumed that since all soldiers do serve in the army, then they all must have seen combat, and thus eligible for the study. Secondly, this research could have been carried out unscientifically if it had used old information. For instance, rather than collect new data, it could have opted to simply use existing data on PTSD and combat soldiers. Finally, this research could have been carried out unscientifically by not grounding it in a well stated paradigm. For example, the authors would simply have stated “some soldiers are affected by PTSD, while others are not affected by PTSD”.

References

Dane, F. C. (2010). Evaluating research: Methodology for people who need to read research.

Thousand Oaks, California: Sage.

Fraenkel, J. R., & Wallen, N. E. (2000). How to design & evaluate research in education (4th

Ed.). USA: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Loew, B., Carter, S., Allen, E., Markman, H., Stanley, S., & Rhoades, G. (2014, August 18).

Military beliefs and PTSD in Active-Duty U.S. army soldiers. Traumatology. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0099849

Merriam, S. B. (1998). Qualitative Research and Case Study Applications in Education. Revised

and Expanded from” Case Study Research in Education.”. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Neuman, L. W. (2008). Understanding Research (1st Edition). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey:

Pearson.

Resnik, D. B. (2010). What is ethics in research & why is it important. Research Triangle Park,

North Carolina: National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences/National Institute of Health. Retrieved from http://www.veronaschools.org/cms/lib02/NJ01001379/Centricity/Domain/588/What%20is%20Ethic