Domestic Violence Project description

Domestic Violence
Project description*
Critique to at least one of your colleague’s postings by giving feedback on his/her questions/hypotheses generated or recommending which approach, in your opinion, would be the most suitable and why?

As a reminder, my area of interest surrounds Domestic Violence (DV). Specifically, I am interested in culture and how it affects DV rates. As I have begun thinking more critically about the differences between qualitative and quantitative research, I have started to realize how different research would truly be conducted. Last week, as I thought about
qualitative research, I became very interested in Ethnography and its use in qualitative theories of research. I still personally feel this would be a strong choice for conducting research on culture and DV. Creswell states that qualitative studies ask, “Inquirers to state research questions, not objectives or hypotheses” (Creswell, 2014, p. 139). It, instead, asks a central or broader question, followed by more specific sub-questions. The
central question, “asks for an exploration of the central phenomenon or concept in a study” (Creswell, 2014, p. 139). For my area of interest, a potential central question could be: What is the culture’s sharing view of equality between partners? I have debated whether or not to include an aspect of DV in the central question, as Creswell notes the central
question should be the broadest question you could ask (Creswell, 2014). Instead, I feel I can ask more specific questions relating to culture and DV in the sub-questions which, “narrow the focus of the study but leave open the questioning” (Creswell, 2014, p.140). Potential sub-questions could include: How does hierarchal power between partners affect the relationship? Is there recognition of imbalances in perceived power? How does level of perceived equality between partners affect happiness in relationship? This study would be conducted through numerous sessions of interviews or observations.

A quantitative research question, on the other hand, “inquires about the relationships among variables that the investigator seeks to know” (Creswell, 2014, p. 143). It does not incorporate as broad of a topic as a qualitative research question would ask. For example, a potential research question for a quantitative study could be: Does a decreased level of
perceived equality increase the likelihood/rate of Domestic Violence? This question specifically looks at a relationship between two variables. The independent variable in this example is level of perceived equality between partners. The dependent variable in this example is the actual rate of Domestic Violence. Hypotheses can be broken down into three categories: Null, Directional, or Non-directional. I believe there is a directional
interaction between the two variables. Therefore a tentative hypothesis for my area of interest could be: Cultures that have lower levels of perceived equality between partners have higher recorded rates of Domestic Violence. This hypothesis could be tested using a survey measuring levels of perceived equality. A survey that is already created could be used, or one could be created specifically for this study using a liker scale. As I continue to work on the Application Assignment due this week, I am curious to see what my classmates think about these questions and hypotheses.

References
Creswell, J.W. (2014). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative and mixed
methods approaches (Laureate Education, Inc., fourth ed