Life History Qualitative Research Method - Assignment Example

Short and Long Answer Questions Name Institution Date Question 1 How did the authors ensure a representative sample American Indians were involved in their study? The study conducted included one hundred and seventy one adult participants. The sampled population consisted of eighty four American Indians who were unanimously surveyed from East Woodland Oklahoma and eighty seven other American Indians from South-west Plains Oklahoma. According to U.S Census Bureau (2000), the eighty four included in the study represented approximately 10, 000 American Indian tribe from South-west Plains Oklahoma while 28,000 of the same tribe from East Woodland Oklahoma were estimated to have been represented by the eighty seven participants of the studied population. In fact from the above representation, it is quite evident that the entire population of the studied group consisted of the American Indian tribes. Subsequently, the author administered questionnaires to the participants which upon completion they were engaged in filling a brief mental health screening form. Question 2 Benefits of using life history qualitative research method Labaree 2006 observes that the most of the benefits of using life history qualitative research method are identified by features that define this method which are described by Cole and Knowles (2001). On that note, some of the benefits associated by using this type of research method include: 1) Increase understanding of complex interaction between lives of people and the societies in which they lived (Cole and Knowles 2001 p. 126). 2) It portrays representation of human experience thereby enabling readers to formulate judgment based on the context of the text. 3) It acts as the voice of the historically oppressed or ignored persons in the society (Darby, 2005; Harralson, 2001). 4) Provides an outline how researchers must document the way in which people experience the world. Question 3 What does the first research question mean? This research question is an assessment of the effects of depression and alcohol abuse on the resemblance of monozygotic twins and dizygotic twins drawn from a large number of heterogeneous sample of adolescents. It seeks to investigate the comparative strength of genetic and social influences such as alcohol abuse on the physical appearance of monozygotic twins and dizygotic twins. Question 4 Spatial difference Research has long shown that although men and women have overall equal intellectual capacity, there are significant number of reasons that point out cognitive differences (Cherney, 2008). Roberts (1999) points out that spatial ability is one of the cognitive research that portrayed significant sex differences. Basically, spatial ability refers to a type if intelligence that relates to the ability to comprehend and recall how some objects are located in relation to other objects. Significant number of researches, indicate that mental rotation, spatial visualization and mental rotation are the models used in determining special abilities (Roberts1999; Voyer and Bryden (1995). They note that sex difference in terms of mental rotation have favoured men compared to women. For instance, the Mental Rotation Test (MRT) conducted by Voyer and Bryden (1995) shows that males always outperform female on mental tasks. In attempt to establish the causes of sex difference on mental rotation and other tests of spatial skills, Roberts (1999) observes that researchers identified two main reasons why males consistently outdo females on mental rotation tasks. One reason for existence of sex difference observed in spatial tasks is attributed to the individual’s experience in the environment (Newcombe, Bandura & Taylor 1983). In this case, Newcombe and his colleagues note that engagement in some activities especially those that are masculine oriented, such as carpentry and mechanical drawing can impact vital spatial skills that are required to perform the mental rotational tasks. Similarly, alluding to Newcombe and his colleagues, Cherney asserts that indeed there is significant evidence which suggests that difference in spatial ability is enhanced by the engagement in early spatial experiences. Additionally, Cherney (2008) also note that visuoaspatial ability is influenced by previous spatial experiences such as sport activities and playing computer games. This implies that males are likely to develop higher level of spatial cognition than females since men gain experience through participation in activities that involve eye-hand coordination, as in the case of estimating the orbit of moving objects than their female counterparts (Cherney 2008). Additionally, according to Roberts (1999), sex differences in mental rotational abilities can be tagged to the underlying biological reasons. Biological theorists affirm the significance of brain organization on the performance of mental activities. Robert argues that critical stages of mental development influences development of specific brain regions and brain lateralization. Maartensson (2007) explains that brain lateralization is a theoretical framework which states that the two halve of the brain, right and left cerebral cortex, perform different functions. These spheres are similarly referred to as parietal regions (Roberts 2008). Maartensson (2007) argues that the right cortex hemisphere is responsible for developing visuospatial skills and it functions in more holistic manner. On the other hand, the left cortex hemisphere is associated with the development of verbal stimuli, mathematical and musical skills (Maartensson 2007). Some studies which show that while performing spatial activities, the right cortex spheres are more pronounced in males than in females. Additionally, according to Cherney (2008), anxiety plays a significant role in determining sex difference in performing spatial related tasks. Tohill and Holyoak (2000) add that that highly anxious people perform poorly on tasks that require advanced cognitive processes like reasoning. Similarly, Cherney (2008) notes that some studies associate anxiety with poor memory performance. In relation to the sex difference performance in spatial related tasks, Eccles and Jacobs (1986) note that females display higher level of anxiety during tests like mathematics than males. It therefore easy to observe that level of anxiety is one of the reasons why male perform better in spatial tasks than female. Question 5 Personality traits change over the life course of an individual. Critically   discuss this statement in your own words. Over the past two decades, empirical studies have reinforced the assumption that personality traits both at individual and population level do not change in adulthood (Mroczek & Spiro, 2003; Srivastava, John, Gosling, & Potter, 2003). Foremost, Roberts and Mroczek (2008) view personality traits as relatively enduring features associated with patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviours that separate one individual from another. Subsequently, they argue that the weather personality traits continue to evolve in adulthood is determined by how one describes “relatively enduring.” For instance, some researchers have taken this to mean that personality traits stopped changing in adulthood (McCrae & Costa, 1994). However, the research conducted by Roberts and Mroczek (2008) notes the fail the points in the previous researches, and provides a wide range of evidence to prove that personality traits continue to evolve in adulthood and in old age as well, and that such change can be constructive or destructive. For instance, they observe that researchers fail to elaborate their description of consistency in personality traits. Such complexities originate from multiple indices used in tracing continuity and change of personality traits within individuals. Robert and Mroczek (2008) focused on mean level individual change and mean level population change indices. Mean level Individual change indices reflect loss or gain of personality traits within individual level, while mean level population change displays similar deviations in personality trait changes at the population level. The cross-sectional researches indicate variation in the personality traits within the individual level (Srivastava, John, Gosling, & Potter, 2003). Such variations were obtained from analysis of personality traits within the context of extraversion, agreeableness, emotional stability, conscientiousness, and openness to new experience (Srivastava, John, Gosling, & Potter, 2003). In this case, the result of the study indicates that middle aged persons often display higher score on traits such as conscientiousness, openness, agreeableness and lower on extraversion than the young adults. Additionally, within the realm of the middle age, the participants who were 60 years old indicated higher score on most of these personality traits than the participants who were 40 years old. Similarly, a recent meta-analysis of 92 longitudinal studies of personality traits shows personality traits continue to develop in adulthood. A study of persons aged between 10 years and 101 years of age indicate that people tend to develop more socially dominant characteristics over time (Roberts, Walton, and Viechtbauer 2006). Additionally, social vitality was observed to decrease in old age while increases in adolescence. It was also noted that traits such as agreeableness displayed significant increase in older people. Further results of the study indicate that adolescents display little change on emotional conscientiousness but the trait increased among the young adults and the middle age. Finally, in regards to openness to new experience, a noticeable increase was observed in adolescents and a subsequent decrease in late life. Ultimately, following these studies it is easy to observe that changes in personality is an ongoing process that cuts across all ages of life. For instance, the results of these studies have shown that most mean level personality trait change takes place at adolescence age mostly 20 years old, middle age mostly 40 years old and even in the old age. Furthermore, Robert and Mroczek (2008) observe that people become more confident, warm, calm and responsible, or socially mature, as they grow older. Reference Cherney, I. D.  (2008). Mom, let me play more computer games: They improve my mental rotation skills. Sex Roles, 59, 776-786. Cole, A. L., & Knowles, J. G. (2001). Lives in context: The art of life history research. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press. Darby, L. (2005). Abolishing stereotypes: Recruitment and retention of minorities in the library profession. Rural Libraries, 25(1), 7-17. Eccles, J. S., & Jacobs, J. E. (1986). Social forces shape math attitudes and performance. Signs, 11, 367-380. Harralson, D. M. (2001). Recruitment in academic libraries: Library literature in the 90s. College & Undergraduate Libraries, 8(1), 37-68. Labaree, R.V.  (2006). Encounters with the library:  Understanding experience   using the life history method. Library Trends, 55(1), 121-139. Martensson, F. (2007). Lateralization Of Language Functions in the Human Brain. Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://course.sol.lu.se/FON218/Postrar_neurolingvistik_VT07/Frida_Maartensson.pd f McCrae, R.R., & Costa, P.T. (1994). The stability of personality: Observation and evaluations. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 3, 173–175. Mroczek, D.K., & Spiro, A. (2003). Modeling intra-individual change in personality traits: Findings from the Normative Aging Study. Journals of Gerontology B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 58, 153–165. Newcombe, N., Bandura, M.M., & Taylor, D. (1983). Sex differences in spatial ability and Spatial Activities. Sex Roles, 9, 377-386. Srivastava, S., John, O.P., Gosling, S.D., & Potter, J. (2003). Development of personality in early and middle adulthood: Set like plaster or persistent change? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 1041–1053. Roberts, B.W., Walton, K., Bogg, T., & Caspi, A. (2006). De-investment in work and non- normative personality trait change in young adulthood. European Journal of Personality, 20, 461–474. Roberts, B.W., & Mroczek, D.  (2008). Personality trait change in adulthood. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17, 31-35. Roberts, J.E. (1999). Sex Differences on a Mental Rotation Task: Variations in Hemispheric Activation Between Children and College Students. Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-032999-132612/unrestricted/jrfinish2.pdf Tohill, J. M., & Holyoak, K. J. (2000). The impact of anxiety on analogical reasoning. Thinking and Reasoning, 6, 27–40. U.S. Census Bureau. (2000). The American In- dian and Alaska Native Population: 2000 (Census 2000 Brief). Retrieved September 25, 2014, from Read More