Assignment 1: Academic Essay

Purpose: The purpose of this assignment is to enable students to develop their understanding of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies and the paradigms that inform them. Students will apply their critical thinking skills when analysing the strengths and weaknesses of each methodology.

Process: Students will write an essay identifying the main differences in qualitative and quantitative methodologies and how they have impacted the context of social research.

Please analyse the strengths and weaknesses of each methodology. A range of references is expected.
Your Academic Essay will need to:

• Explanation of the quantitative and qualitative social research methodologies and the paradigms that inform them.
• Explanation of their historical context and identification of what kind of research each method is best suited to
• Evaluation of the impact of the two methodologies on social research
• Demonstration of critical analysis of the strengths and limitations of each of the methodologies
• Main ideas clearly and logically presented
• Relevant research and scholarship literature used appropriately to support claims
• Correct academic writing style used, including correct spelling, grammar and punctuation
• Presentation guidelines followed as specified in the learning support website
• In-text referencing and reference list follows APA referencing style (6th ed.) as set out in the APA website: http://www.apastyle.org/
• Word count is within + or – 10% of requirement

Assignment 2: Academic Essay

Purpose: The purpose of this assignment is to develop skills in identifying ethical breaches and professional issues in social research.

Process: Choose one of the case studies provided (in week 8 of the class space) and analyse the potential ethical issues involved in conducting the research, applying the NHMRC national statement and guidelines, and the code of ethics relevant to your discipline.
Your Academic Essay needs to address:

• Discussion of case study in terms of ethical issues
• Identification of current or potential ethical breaches
• Discussion of ethical issues in terms of a relevant Professional Code of Ethics, policy or legislation
• Critique and analysis of ethical breaches in terms of ethical guidelines in research informed by the NHMRC Ethical Guidelines in Social Research, including (where relevant) ethical guidelines to working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (case study 2) and mental health consumers (case study 1 or 2)
• Main ideas clearly and logically presented
• Relevant research and scholarship literature used appropriately to support claims
• Correct academic writing style used, including correct spelling, grammar and punctuation
• Presentation guidelines followed as specified in the learning support website
• In-text referencing and reference list follows APA referencing style (6th ed.) as set out in the APA website: http://www.apastyle.org/
• Word count is within + or – 10% of requirement

Assignment 3: Data Analysis Report

Purpose: The purpose of this assignment is to develop fundamental skills in data analysis.

Process: You have been provided with two excel data sets labelled:

1) Pre-Group DASS (Data Set 1) and
2) Post-Group DASS (Data Set 2)

These data have been taken from a group of parents with children at a local primary school who underwent a six-week course of stress management treatment (i.e., the 'Cool Parents' program). The course was psychoeducational in focus and aimed to instruct parents in the use of cognitive and behavioural strategies that have been demonstrated to be useful in reducing stress and anxiety. There was also opportunity for parents to discuss what was being presented with one another both during the weekly sessions, as well as afterwards over coffee.

The researcher administered the Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale (DASS) questionnaire (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995) at the start of the course and also at the end. This is known as pre/post testing. The researcher used the DASS to identify the stress, anxiety and depression levels of the participants at the start of the program and was investigating whether the levels decreased over the course of treatment.

The Post-Group DASS Data Analysis Report excel file also contains qualitative information obtained from the 20 parents who completed the program (i.e., see sheet 3). These data represent verbatim transcripts of participant responses to a question enquiring about their experience of and views concerning the 'Cool Parents' program.

This assignment requires you to produce a 2000 word report analysing, presenting and discussing both the quantitative and qualitative data obtained from this study. The format of your report should follow the recommended structure and format described in the Section 9 online class space entitled, 'Qualitative and Quantitative Data Analysis Practicum' and must include results of quantitative data analysis performed using relevant functions of Microsoft excel and qualitative data analysis using 'thematic analysis'.

Every research needs data for analysis and hypothesis testing and qualitative and quantitative methods are used to collect the data. Research needs analysis, and for analysis, there is a need for data, the data, however, can be of multiple types. There are quantitative data, which is primarily numeric based data and there is qualitative data that is non-numeric in nature (Hayes, 2012). In this report, some in-depth analysis is done towards understanding the differences between the two types of research, the impact it has on social research and lastly what are their strengths and limitations. The major source of information will be research journals and open internet sources. The interaction and impact of qualitative and quantitative techniques are analyzed in social researches in this report.

Explanation of Qualitative and Quantitative Research Techniques:

Quantitative Techniques:

There are researches where the problem is defined in such a manner that it becomes imperative to collect numerical data to do some statistical analysis, in such cases quantitative methods are deployed. The statistical modeling is performed on the collected data so that some meaning can be derived out of it. The major focus in quantitative research is that it tries to prove a hypothesis based on some concrete data and by analysis, some core patterns and trends are computed. The usage is mainly in the research fields where the analysis is towards finding some trend and forecasting like Population Analysis, Growth Trends, Nationwide GDP analysis, etc (Hayes, 2012).

(Some parts of the solution has been blurred due to privacy protection policy)