personal investigation (content analysis)

Question 1

state the two variables you’re assessing

Answer 1

IV (male & female)
DV (type of antisocial behaviour in an episode of Top Boy)

Question 2

Outline how the IV and DV were operationalised.

Answer 2

IV: Male and female characters were operationalised by observing male and female characters in an episode of Top Boy and recording the frequency of aggressive behaviour
Dependent Variable – Types of anti-social behaviour was operationalised creating categories for verbal and physical anti-social behaviour:
Verbal anti-social behaviour includes swearing, rude language, shouting, screaming.
Physical anti-social behaviour includes hitting, fighting pushing/shoving, causing criminal damage.

Question 3

State an operationalised alternative hypothesis:

Answer 3

There will be a significant difference in the types of anti-social behaviour displayed by males and females in an episode of Top Boy.

Question 4

Identify if your alternative hypothesis is directional or non-directional:

Answer 4

Non - directional (two-tailed)
Stated that there will be a difference in the types of anti-social behaviour displayed by male and female characters in an episode of Top Boy, but the direction of the difference was not stated.

Question 5

Justify/Explain why you chose to use a directional or non-directional hypothesis

Answer 5

Top Boy is a British Crime drama series based in Summerhouse estate in Hackney, East London. There is an array of anti-social behaviour displayed by both male and female characters and therefore we were unsure about the direction of the difference we would observe, therefore choosing to use a two-tailed, non-directional hypothesis.

Question 6

State an appropriate null hypothesis:

Answer 6

There will be no significant difference in the types of anti-social behaviour displayed by males and female characters in an episode of Top Boy. Any difference found will be due to chance.

Question 7

Type of research method:

Answer 7

Content Analysis
Content analysis allows the researcher to identify patterns and trends in behaviours from a secondary source of data.

Question 8

Strengths and weaknesses of the research method

Answer 8

An advantage of using a content analysis is that it can be used to reduce qualitative data (Top Boy episode) into a more quantitative form (number of instances of anti-social behaviour in an episode of Top Boy). This would make the data easier to analyse and allow researchers to look for pattern and trends in anti-social behaviour in the media.

A disadvantage of using a content analysis is that it may suffer from observer bias, as observers may observe what they want to observe (they may think that there will be more physical anti-social behaviour displayed by male characters in an episode of Top Boy). This would reduce the objectivity and validity of the study.

Question 9

Type of Research Design

Answer 9

This was an independent group design as male and female characters in an episode of Top Boy were observed, therefore two separate groups were used.

Question 10

Strengths and weaknesses of the research design

Answer 10

One advantage of an independent group design for content analysis is that it allows cause–effect conclusions and results in fewer alternative interpretations of the data. Therefore, we can put differences in types of anti-social behaviour down to gender rather than anything else.
One disadvantage of an independent group design is that there are high levels of individual differences which could affect the anti-social behaviour. For example, the males and females in the episode of Top Boy may be of different ages and this could impact the type of antisocial behaviour rather than the gender of the characters

Question 11

Identify the sampling method you employed to select your sample:

Answer 11

Opportunity sample - We selected one episode of Top Boy - season 2, episode 3 ‘Likkle Favour’ that were readily available to us at the time (Wednesday) and location (College) of the study.

Question 12

Identify the sampling method you employed to select your sample:

Answer 12

An advantage of using an opportunity sample is that compared to other sampling methods, such as a random sample, where we would have had to randomly select episodes, an opportunity sample is the easiest and quickest sampling method, because we used the episode that was available at the time (Wednesday) and location (College) of the research.

A disadvantage of using an opportunity sample is that it lacked external validity as we ended up with a small sample of only one episode. This made our sample unrepresentative of all episodes of Top Boy and makes it difficult to generalise the results to all episodes.

Question 13

Strengths and weaknesses of the sampling technique:

Answer 13

An advantage of using an opportunity sample is that compared to other sampling methods, such as a random sample, where we would have had to randomly select episodes, an opportunity sample is the easiest and quickest sampling method, because we used the episode that was available at the time (Wednesday) and location (College) of the research.
A disadvantage of using an opportunity sample is that it lacked external validity as we ended up with a small sample of only one episode. This made our sample unrepresentative of all episodes of Top Boy and makes it difficult to generalise the results to all episodes.

Question 14

Additional Sampling Method: Event Sampling

Answer 14

Event sampling was also used in this investigation. Event sampling is a method of recording behaviour in an observation, so in this personal investigation observation of types of antisocial behaviour of male and female characters of an episode of Top Boy were recorded.

The researcher records how many times a particular event occurs. every occurrence of behaviour, as specified on a predetermined checklist, is observed, and recorded within a specified period. In this personal investigation a set of criterial for verbal and physical anti-social behaviour were created and the incidence of these were recorded.

Question 15

Strengths and weaknesses of event sampling:

Answer 15

A strength of event sampling is records are easy to obtain and analyse as researchers can clearly see the total number of antisocial behaviours for each event. This can make analysis extremely quick and easy, especially when looking for most or least common behaviours. Another strength is that the observations are more reliable as the events are already planned, therefore it could be easily replicated this study (watching an episode of Top Boy) to measure consistency of observational behaviours.

A weaknesses of event sampling is that we can miss other antisocial behaviour due to having set events already planned, other behaviours that were not considered are missed – reducing validity. Another weakness is that If many antisocial behaviours occur at once in the episode of Top Boy it may lead to behaviours not being recorded – reducing validity.

Question 16

Outline steps to assess reliability and strategies to deal with it.

Answer 16

Issue
We needed to make sure that all researchers who were carrying out the content analysis were analysing the content (amount of anti-social behaviour) in the same/consistent way. If there was any room for interpretation on what is meant by anti-social behaviour, then this could result in different researchers analysing the content differently.

Deal
We ensured inter-rater reliability as we had over 10 researchers observing (analysing the content) of an episode of Top Boy, whilst using the same behavioural checklist for anti-social behaviour. At the end of the episode - we compared researchers results to check for consistency. We were looking for an inter-rater agreement of at least 80% between researchers.

Question 17

Outline steps to assess validity and strategies to deal with it.

Answer 17

Issue
Some observers may ‘see’ what he/she expects to see (e.g., an observer may expect to see more anti-social behaviour displayed by male characters in an episode of Top Boy, which may influence how they analyse the content of each episode. This could question the internal validity of the content analysis.

Deal
We had over 10 researchers observing (analysing the content) an episode of Top Boy, whilst using the same behavioural checklist for anti-social behaviour. At the end of the episode - we compared researchers results to check for any differences. Whilst this inter-rater method was primarily used to check reliability, it also allowed us to identify any potential observer bias, by looking for inconsistencies.

Question 18

Give a step-by-step description of your procedures:

Answer 18

we decided on the aim of our investigation and wrote an alternative and null hypothesis.
We fully operationalised the terms media- an episode of Top Boy.

We then created a behaviour checklist for anti-social behaviour, Verbal anti-social behaviour includes swearing, rude language, shouting, screaming. Physical anti-social behaviour includes hitting, fighting pushing/shoving, causing criminal damage.

Researchers then watched the episode of Top Boy, tallying every time one of the male and female characters displayed any anti-social behaviour from our behaviour checklist.
We then carried out descriptive and inferential statistics on the data obtained.

Finally, we compared our observed value from our chi square test with our critical value to determine whether we accepted or rejected our alternative hypothesis.

Question 19

Identify appropriate descriptive statistics that could be used to describe the data collected:

Answer 19

MEAN - The average value of all verbal and physical anti-social scores from all researchers for male and female characters were calculated. These were worked out by adding up all the anti-social scores (verbal or physical) and dividing by the number of scores (total number of observations made of either verbal or physical anti-social behaviour).

Question 20

Explain why your choice of descriptive statistics is appropriate:

Answer 20

As there were no extreme anti-social behaviour scores, then the mean was the most appropriate measure of central tendency as it is the most sensitive measure because it considers all the exact values in a data set.
As it was nominal data the mean is the only appropriate analysis. We cannot calculate the median, mode, range, standard deviation.

Question 21

Identify an appropriate graphical representation that could be used to describe the data collected:

Answer 21

BAR CHART

Question 22

Explain why your choice of graphical representation is appropriate:

Answer 22

A bar chart is good to show comparative data between the type of anti-social behaviour demonstrated by male and female characters in an episode of Top Boy. It’s simple to construct and easy to interpret (easy to compare the mean scores of the amount of verbal and physical anti-social behaviour displayed by male and female characters in an episode of Top Boy.

Question 23

Identify an appropriate inferential statistical test that you used to analyse the data collected:

Answer 23

Chi Squared

Question 24

Explain why your choice of inferential statistical test is appropriate:

Answer 24

Test of difference – Difference in male and female antisocial (verbal or physical) behaviour in an episode of Top Boy.
Independent groups design – male and female characters from an episode of Top Boy.
Nominal data – counting the frequency of verbal/physical antisocial behaviour displayed by male and female characters from an episode of Top Boy.

Question 25

Summarise your findings (Note the results of graphical representations, descriptive and inferential statistics including observed and critical values):

Answer 25

Male verbal aggression = 74 instances (71% of all verbal aggression)
Male physical aggression = 12 instances (44% of all physical aggression)
Female verbal aggression = 30 instances (29% of all verbal aggression)
Female physical aggression = 15 instances (56% of all physical aggression)
Chi Squared test
Observed Value – 6.78
Critical Value for Two tailed test at the 0.05 level of significance - 3.84

Question 26

What conclusion(s) can you draw from these findings?

Answer 26

As the observed value of 6.78 is greater than the critical value of 3.84 (at P<0.05 level of significance), we can reject the null hypothesis and accept the alternative hypothesis and can conclude that there is a difference in male and female level of anti-social behaviour displayed in an episode of Top Boy.

Question 27

Identify at least two ethical issues and how you dealt with them.

Answer 27

Valid Consent
As students were the researchers on this project, they were aged between 16-18 so they would need valid consent from an authority figure to participate in the research.

Deal
A letter is sent to parents/guardians to assume consent of students participating in college-based projects and parents would opt out if they did not want their child to participate.

Risk of harm to observers
Top Boy is based on drug dealing and gang violence in London and although has a 15 rating, there is the potential risk of harm to observers if they witness anti-social behaviour in an episode of Top Boy.
DEAL…
Consent was obtained from the principal of the college to watch an episode, the episode selected was one which was not too harrowing, and a trigger warning was given to observers prior to watching the episode. In addition, the teacher and wellbeing team were available during the debrief, if any observer wis

Question 28

Explain at least three ways in which you could improve your research:

Answer 28

LIMITATION: Episodes that were available were selected from the thumbnail and the title of the episode, which could have reduced the internal validity of our research, due to all our researchers knowing the full aim of the study. This could have resulted in an episode being selected that looked or sounded like there may be more anti-social behaviour in. HOW TO IMPROVE: a way to improve our study could have been to carry out a single blind method - where all researchers were unaware of the true aim of the study. This would remove any researcher bias when selecting an episode of Top Boy, which would improve the internal validity of our research.
LIMITATION: A limitation of our research was that some of the verbal categories were open to interpretation so difference researchers may have analysed the male and female characters behaviours in a different way which reduces the internal reliability. For example, some observers classified ‘kissing of the teeth’ as rude behaviour whereas others did not. HOW TO IMPROVE: We could have improved our research by have a set of subcategories for each of the verbal and physical behaviours. For example, for swearing, all the words classified as swearing should be agreed beforehand by the observers, so they are consistent on their observation.
LIMITATION: A limitation of our research was that we only used one episode of Top Boy. This could have resulted in the episode not being fully representative of all the episodes of Top Boy across all 4 seasons. HOW TO IMPROVE: a way to improve our study could have been to look at more episodes of Top Boy from a wider variety of seasons. This would increase the external validity, as it would make it easier to generalise the results to all episodes.