Assignment #2: Research Questions/Hypothesis
You are asked to complete a paper justifying your tentative communication research question/hypothesis. The research question/hypothesis should be based upon an initial (exploratory) review of research in the approved research topic.
The paper should be two to three pages in length. Youshould provide a justification/rationale/reasoning that leads to your research question or hypothesis. The research question/hypothesis should follow the justification/rationale/reasoning. This brief justification should use at least two sources of scholarly support. You should list the sources in APA style at the end of your assignment.
Below is more in depth explanation about the assignment by course professor
From the last assignment, Topic & Annotated Bibliography, Ive learned the topic of your interest. Next, I need you to narrow it down to a testable research question or hypothesis.
For example, lets say Adam is interested in how couples deal with conflict. This is a good topic, yet its too broad. If Adam plans to research all aspects of how couples deal with conflict, Adam is going to write a book on this project. The problem is that you dont want to write a book in this course, and I dont want to read a book from each of you in this course either. So, lets narrow it down!
From the Topic & Annotated Bibliography, you collected some scholarly journal articles that are relevant to your topic. Please take a close look at them, and youd find all of them come with research questions and/or hypotheses. You also can see how those authors justified their thoughts, integrated existing theories, synthesized previous studies, and provided arguments before they posed their research questions and/or hypotheses. This part of writing is called Literature Review, and you are not there yet. The Research Question/Hypothesis assignment is part of literature review, and you are to provide an argument/rationale/justification that leads to your research question or hypothesis. Here, please notice that I use research question or hypothesis instead of research questionS or hypotheSES because this is how you can narrow down. In other words, you are to have one research question OR one hypothesis for the research project in this course whereas a regular research study contains multiple research questions and/or hypotheses.
Given that a research question/hypothesis typically involves one independent variable (IV) and one dependent variable (DV), the scope of your course project would be more specific and concentrated. In this course project, if you have one research question (RQ)/hypothesis (H), you are fine. If you have two RQs/Hs, you are also fine. If you have three RQs/Hs, please reconsider, but its still OK. However, if you have four or more RQs/Hs, you would hate me and I would hate you.
That is, in the Research Question/Hypothesis assignment, you are to write up your rationale/argument/justification between your IV and DV. Then, pose your RQ or H. Lets say, youve got X as your IV and Y as your DV. You are going to provide one or two paragraphs to make an argument about how X and Y are related, such as:
According to A and B (2006), X can be categorized as .. Given that one important characteristic of X is related to . There is a potential link between X and Y. AS C and D (2013) suggested, Y is .. It appears that X and Y are connected under the situation of Therefore, I propose the following hypothesis.
H: X is associated with Y.
Then, in a new page, list your references.
A & B (2006).
C & D (2013).
We also can go back to Adams example. Adam is interested in how couples deal with conflict. After research, Adam decides to narrow down to gender difference in conflict management. Now, gender serves as the IV for Adam, yet conflict management is still too broad. As Rahim and Magner (1995) suggested, there are five conflict management styles, avoiding, accommodating, compromising, competing, and collaborating. Adam rationalizes that he would focus on avoiding, so avoiding serves as Adams DV. In the write-up, Adam would write:
According to A and B (2014), husbands tend to withdraw whereas wives tend to demand when in arguments. Particularly, C and D (2007) found that Furthermore, E and F (2013) also found that Put these together, I propose the following hypothesis.
H: Men are more likely than women to use avoiding in a conflict situation.
References
A & B (2014).
C & D (2007).
E & F (2013).
Both RQ and H are the s of the predicted behaviors. They can either be the prediction of relationship or difference.
When you dont have enough evidence (previous studies) to support your rationale, you pose a RQ.
RQ: How is instructor teaching style related to student perceptions of classroom climate?
When you have enough evidence (previous studies) to support your rationale, you pose a H.
H: There is a relationship between instructor teaching style and student perception of classroom climate.
When you have enough and specific evidence to support your rationale, you pose a directional H.
H: As personalization of teaching increases, student perceptions of classroom climate increase.
**You do not pose a RQ and also a H corresponding to the RQ. For the same behavior, you either have a RQ or a H.
** If you are taking a qualitative approach, you may have RQ only.
Below is the already completed annotated bibliography. Take sources from that.
Topic: Racial Discrimination & its effect on Communicating
Racial discrimination is extremely important and has affected the world for generations. Understanding racial prejudice improves cultural competence, or the capacity to effectively communicate and engage with people from other backgrounds. This understanding assists individuals in navigating cultural nuances and avoiding unintended biases in communication. Awareness of racial discrimination promotes the development of effective communication abilities. Individuals can learn to communicate properly, appreciating other people’s viewpoints and experiences while avoiding words or behaviors that reinforce stereotypes or contribute to discrimination.
Came, H., & Griffith, D. (2018). Tackling racism as a wicked public health problem: Enabling allies in anti-racism praxis. Social Science & Medicine, 199, 181188. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.03.028
This article was extremely helpful to me in getting my research started. It talks about how racism is a wicked public health problem. There needs to be a power-based framework proposed for addressing institutional racism and inequity. It also talks about the importance of those putting forth efforts to combat this systematic racism that has oppressed people for years. It gives great examples of what racism is and how to combat it.
Efimoff, I. H., & Starzyk, K. B. (2023). The impact of education about historical and current injustices, individual racism and systemic racism on anti-indigenous racism. European Journal of Social Psychology, 53(7), 15421562. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2987
This article was great at informing me about the impact education about these uncomfortable topics has on the overall public. Being able to understand why people act and move a certain way can be really helpful. We need to do a better job together at combating racism as a whole. This article did a great job at putting into perspective the actual effect education has on racism.
Payne, B. K., & Hannay, J. W. (2021). Implicit bias reflects systemic racism. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 25(11), 927936. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2021.08.001
This article was extremely informative and helpful. It described implicit bias as automatically evoked mental associations about social groups. It describes long term change as more likely to come from directly changing systems, policies, and processes that sustain inequalities. This implicit bias is argued to be almost a direct cognitive reflect of systematic racism. This article does a great job in diving into the way one thinks.
Nuru-Jeter, A., Dominguez, T. P., Hammond, W. P., Leu, J., Skaff, M., Egerter, S., Jones, C. P., & Braveman, P. (2008). its the skin youre in: African-American women talk about their experiences of racism. an exploratory study to develop measures of racism for birth outcome studies. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 13(1), 2939. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-008-0357-x
This article was also extremely helpful and informative. The focus of this article was women and their experiences with racism. This article explored the racism experiences of childbearing women and the effect that it has on them and or their children. Biologically it is plausible that racism could affect health, which includes birth outcomes, through different pathways. One of these pathways included is stress.
Yearby, R. (2020). Structural racism and Health Disparities. Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 48(3), 518526. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073110520958876
This article was extremely helpful in my research. It is known that different social factors cause racial inequalities. Now, the goal of the people is to figure out the best ways to put an end to this. This article also talks about how these racial inequalities result in racial health disparities. Overall, great job here discussing the ways structural racism causes racial health disparities and how we are progressing towards equality in this aspect.
Gee, G. C., Hing, A., Mohammed, S., Tabor, D. C., & Williams, D. R. (2019). Racism and the life course: Taking time seriously. American Journal of Public Health, 109(S1). https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2018.304766
This article was extremely helpful in my research. Racism and its forms, such as racial discrimination, have gained prominence in the study of health disparities. The most recent strides related to this topic include an elaboration as to the types of biomarkers, often connected to stress and allostatic load, that are related to self-reported discrimination. This article also talks about and argues that time is a determinant of health inequities. It is fundamental to health promotion and maintaining social relationships.
Goodman, S., & Rowe, L. (2013). maybe it is prejudice but it is not racism: Negotiating racism in discussion forums about Gypsies. Discourse & Society, 25(1), 3246. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926513508856
This article was also extremely helpful in my research. It talked about the Gypsies, another under-appreciated and discriminated group of people in the UK. This article did a great job at addressing the ways in which opposition towards Gypsies is debated and what prejudice/racism is shown to them. It also did a great job talking about the effects this had on the Gypsies and how they progressed.
Mudambi, A., Lawless, B., Chen, Y.-W., & Asante, G. A. (2023). Examining the double bind of anti-racism in (u.s.-based) communication programs statements against racism. Howard Journal of Communications, 35(1), 8199. https://doi.org/10.1080/10646175.2023.2247371
This article was also extremely helpful in my research. This article talks about the effects of racism on black Americans and Asian American/Pacific Islanders. It talks about where this racism stems from and how to combat it. This article also argues that this double bind functions in response to the need to address multiple, overlapping publics. Overall, this article was really informative.
Wagner, T. R. (2021). Racist attitudes versus actions: A replication proposal activity of LaPieres 1934 research to understand the communication of racism. Communication Teacher, 36(4), 289295. https://doi.org/10.1080/17404622.2021.2003414
I enjoyed this article and it was really helpful to my research. This article explored the connection between attitudes and behaviors in the context of racism. It provides distinction between racist actions and attitudes. This article did a great job exploring and elaborating on this topic of racism from a college campus/standpoint. Now more than ever we are having these talks about racism and figuring out how to combat it together. This article also did a good job explaining how this relates to communication.
Harris, T. M., Janovec, A., Murray, S., Gubbala, S., & Robinson, A. (2018). Communicating racism: A study of racial microaggressions in a Southern University and the local community. Southern Communication Journal, 84(2), 7284. https://doi.org/10.1080/1041794x.2018.1492008
This last source was also extensively helpful to me in capping off my research. The goal of this article/study was to identify specific communication behaviors, both verbal and nonverbal that identify as either a racial microaggression or a contributing factor to the likelihood of one occurring. This article did a great job of explaining the differences one can face and how to respond to such. It also talked about how students of color at a predominantly white institution have to deal with racism. Overall, this was a great source.
