This article is a quantitatively researched paper, which examines concepts of corporal punishment and the main underlying factors that have primarily contributed to the acceptance of the vice among societies. The research has been conducted by a well-known author in Sociology (Emily Douglas), from a well-known academic institution namely Bridgewater State College. Other researches on sociological issues by the author include the examination of divorce education programs for parents in Maine and New Hampshire, public opinion in Maine about child abuse and corporal punishment, the relationship between violence socialization, and attitudes about corporal punishment (Research, 2009, p.1).
Content of the Article
The paper analyses very critical issues of corporal punishment from a cultural perspective using data collected from college students from varied cultures. It measures culturally based experiences on the articulation of corporal punishment, and the main determining factors that cause the approval of the vice.
The paper examines concepts of socialization both within and outside the family and their influence on people’s attitudes on corporal punishment. In addition, the article examines the impacts of corporal punishment on later developments in adult life (Douglas, 2006, pp. 23-30). To understand corporal punishment, the research considers previous findings on corporal punishment, although it lacks enough supporting literature on the issue. The author of the article uses information collected from international dating violence members on perceptions of corporal punishment. The article uses different methods to analyze data collected namely, SPSS and multi-level modeling.
About Title of Article
Concepts of corporal punishment are many and choosing the right topic for research on the issue is very important. Not only does corporal punishment affect students, but the entire society. People, human rights bodies, and other governmental bodies dealing with sociological issues once have discussed the issue hence the importance of selecting that reflects the practice in the entire society. The article topic clearly illustrates the concept under study, and further, it defines its major concern. It reflects the independent and dependent variables, whereby the former is culture’s impacts on socialization and the latter is a variation of corporal punishment. In addition, the title defines the content of the article as a comparison of corporal punishment approval during childhood and adulthood. Generally, the title was chosen by the author of this article demonstrates the main concern of the research, hence logical connectedness.
Problem Statement
As Chris argues, research problem statements should give the overall view of research. It should clearly define the vision of research, mechanisms of achieving desired outcomes, and factors of considerations during research. The problem statement should define groups affected by issues under study, boundaries of a problem (impacts before and after implementing corrective measures), and time of occurrence of issues under consideration. In addition, it should give the reader an insight of importance of implementing corrective measures (Chris, 2009, Para. 1-5). This article’s problem statement discusses the scope of the concept, defines boundaries and illustrates importance of addressing the issue. The statement gives an insight of the issue, but it lacks proper links to past literature and findings on corporal punishment. In addition, the articles approach illustrates the nature of research approach: quantitative, which the research applies to study the issue.
Literature Review
Literature reviews should give writers direction using previous research findings on the topic under study. Writers should critically review previous research findings on issues under study, to determine deficits in previous studies. Although this article refers to previous findings on corporal punishment it lacks a firm basis of defining some concept related to corporal punishment. Further, although it examines changing trends of corporal punishment, it fails to account for exact impacts of corporal punishment in both adulthood and childhood. In addition, the literature review fails to define clearly the approach taken by the author on corporal punishment. For example, although readers may have an insight that the author wanted to discuss cultural perceptions of corporal punishment, it is hard to determine this from the literature review. As Creswell (1994, pp. 45-49) argues, review should clearly illustrate areas of controversy, provide vivid summaries of findings of related researches, and provide deficits, which writers should base their research. In addition, this paper fails to provide biases and other valid findings on corporal punishment as research dictates.
The article applies correctly APA standards although currently innovations have occurred in the usage of the style due to addition of page to in-text citations.
Purpose, Hypotheses, and Research Questions
The writer states the purpose of the study, which might seems to result from lack of enough research literature that supports approval of corporal punishment. The writer did correct hypothesis about corporal punishment and on importance of intervention measures. In addition, the writer goes ahead and stated areas of importance for the research, hence showing purpose of the research. On the other hand, the writer provides a link among factors that shape perceptions of corporal punishment through providing a link between culture and influences of family relationships (Douglas, 2006, p.24). This forms a firm basis for understanding and interpretation of research findings, in that it vividly defines the problem under question.
Data Collection
The research uses questionnaires to collect required data, whereby the research carefully selected carefully consortium members who were to participate. Methods that the research used gave respondents flexibility of adding questions, which they though were important; hence, this facilitated collection of all necessary information for the research. The researcher explains methods used to select respondents (convenience sampling), which helps to eliminate biases that may affect the research quality and validity. To avoid data deficits that might have resulted from biased responses, the researcher explains reasons for the research and main control factors. This is a major requirement for any research because data collected from research is the main basis for validating conclusions and recommendations.
On the other hand, for correct measurement of variables, the author used violence socialization and approval strategies that ensured demographic differentiations received attention. For example, the writer used demographic variables, individual association profiles, and social desirability measurements to analyze various respondents’ characteristics (Douglas, 2006, p.26). This is an important part of any quantitative because it helps to analyze respondents’ answers on a broad scale.
Although the researchers made sure data collected was valid, some deficits are clear because majority of those interviewed are social science students and women. Data on issues of corporal punishment must take consider the overall society and not a class of respondents, hence likelihood of biased results.
Data Analysis and Results
Organization of research data illustrate authors desired goals. Tabular representations of collected data, and methods applied to analyze data provides a clear basis of the research problem. Research results considering various demographic characteristics among respondents helps to give additional information of perceptions of corporal punishment, hence validating research results. The research presents correlations among these factors correctly; hence, readers can easily understand general trends of corporal punishment.
On the other hand, although generalizations of the author emanate from data collected, at some point the author previous research readings influence the stand taken. Comparisons made are okay, but the research does not bring new concepts into the field, which is a requirement for research. The research only concretes previous findings on the topics, but does not excite any curiosity to the reader.
General Writing
In conclusion, this research fits the academia because, majority of human rights campaigners do not read the American journal of Orthopsychiatry. In addition, although the data analysis methods used (SPSS and multilevel modeling) are good for quantitative analysis, they do not give conclusive results. This is because researchers cannot analyze some behavioral factors quantitatively, hence the need for facial feedback analysis. In addition, the researcher uses correct terms and language to express ideas, which makes the article more presentable and readable.
Reference
Chris. (2009). How to write a problem statement. CEPTARA. Web.
Creswell. W. (1994). Research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method approaches. London: Sage publications.
Douglas, M. (2006). Familial violence socialization in childhood and later life approval of corporal punishment: a cross-cultural perspective. American journal of orthopsychiatry, 76(1), 23-30.
Research: current and former research projects. 2009. Web.