PSYC101 Research Methods

For this weeks forum post I have chose to conduct a theoretical survey that compares adults that were spanked as children vs. adults that were not spanked as children and their overall success in adulthood. The survey would be diverse and include a sampling from all over the country. Factors involved would be race, gender, and if single parent or both parents raised the subject, and who administered the corporal punishment. The survey would then question if that person had a job, pay per year, marital status, if they had committed any crimes or spent time in prison, and if they have children, do they spank them. The hypothetical findings would then suggest that children who were spanked became successful adults, did not become successful as adults based on United States averages, or had no effect on them at all in adulthood. It would also show if that person was successful or not successful in adulthood, did they then in turn spank their own child. The end state would be to question the effectiveness of spanking children.

What drew me to using the survey method is that it you can utilize a large sampling of diverse people in an anonymous setting, and gather your data in a short amount of time compared to other methods. The data can then be collated and presented as a fact-finding study, which could then be presented to the population as a factor in whether children should be spanked when they do something wrong or a different approach should be utilized. Obviously children would hope that spanking is not a successful method of punishment.

The downside of doing a study approach method is that people could not take the survey seriously and provide false data, which would skew the results of the study.