Week 4: Draft Research Question and Feedback by Katherine Mclean

Example research question: How does major effect Penn State students' support for the concealed carry of firearms on campus?

kjm47 — 2025-06-09 14:53:24 UTC

Peer 1: Identify the independent variable in the above research question, or write "none specified."

kjm47 — 2025-06-09 14:58:35 UTC

Peer 2: Identify the dependent variable in the above research question, or write "none specified."

kjm47 — 2025-06-09 14:59:15 UTC

Peer 3: Comment on the feasibility of answering this research question in a semester-long project. Will the author have the time, resources, and population access to answer this question? If not, how could this question be modified to improve feasibility?

kjm47 — 2025-06-09 15:00:19 UTC

How negatively can solitary impact affect inmates? (in extended stays)

kjm47 — 2025-09-17 19:16:15 UTC

What factors influence student’s support or opposition to the death penalty for violent crimes?

kjm47 — 2025-09-17 19:16:35 UTC

How do you think public prison systems are compared to private in how they treat their inmates?

kjm47 — 2025-09-17 19:16:49 UTC

Does the length of incarceration affect an inmates likelihood of successful reentry into society?

kjm47 — 2025-09-17 19:17:04 UTC

How effective are rehabilitation programs in reducing recidivism?

kjm47 — 2025-09-17 19:17:17 UTC

how use in body cams can gain trust from public and effectiveness of preventing police misconduct?

kjm47 — 2025-09-17 19:17:31 UTC

How youth growing up in poor/high crime rate communities impact their teenage/early adulthoods

kjm47 — 2025-09-17 19:17:47 UTC

How do people with different societal backgrounds view the death penalty and its effectiveness?

kjm47 — 2025-09-17 19:18:01 UTC

How does the physical layout and employee surveillance in retail environments like Walmart influence the likelihood of shoplifting?

kjm47 — 2025-09-17 19:18:15 UTC

Should there or should there not be a death penalty, given its impact (or lack of impact) on deterring crime?

kjm47 — 2025-09-17 19:18:27 UTC

How do factors like age or education level influence people's opinions about why someone becomes a serial killer or mass murderer?

kjm47 — 2025-09-17 19:18:41 UTC

For esxample mental illness, childhood trauma, or personal choice?

What are recidivism rates for juveniles and how do adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) impact the recidivism rates?

kjm47 — 2025-09-17 19:18:53 UTC

How does the appearance of a neighborhood/ racial demographic influence policing in a small city.

kjm47 — 2025-09-17 19:19:05 UTC

How does conflict theory explain why people commit crimes in response to social and economic inequality?

kjm47 — 2025-09-17 19:19:16 UTC

What do students in the Research Methods class think would make restorative justice an effective way to reduce recidivism?

kjm47 — 2025-09-17 19:19:29 UTC

How does Poaching and Overfishing affect wildlife and conservation efforts?

kjm47 — 2025-09-17 19:19:44 UTC

What does everyone think of social media affecting crime? Is it helpful or not

kjm47 — 2025-09-17 19:20:04 UTC

How do the people of their community feel about their local police?

kjm47 — 2025-09-17 19:21:19 UTC

How does a body camera effect the way police do their job?

kjm47 — 2025-09-17 19:21:34 UTC

How does racial bias affect the way policing works?

kjm47 — 2025-09-17 19:21:49 UTC

How are rehabhiliation programs effective in reducing reoffending?

kjm47 — 2025-09-17 19:22:00 UTC

Independent Variable

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Adverse Childhood Experiences

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Independent Variable: Body Cameras

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Independent- Length of incarceration

Independent Variable:

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Appearance of neighborhood/racial demographic

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Independent: Type of Prison system

independent variable: physical layout and survelliance

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the participation in rehabilitation programs. (programs and participation)

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The way policing works

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independent variable- social and economic status

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DV: Crime

dependent variable: death penalty and crime

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I.V.: Length of Incarceration

D.V.: Successful re-entry into society

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Dependent- Recidivism

Dependent Variable:

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crimes committed

the use of body worn cameras

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Dependent Variable

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Level or type of policing.

For example patrol frequency, stops, arrests, surveillance etc.

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dependent - ways to reduce recidivism

2025-09-17 19:43:48 UTC

if this student lives near different fishing spots and wildlife spots and had information where overfishing and poaching happens this would be feasible.

2025-09-17 19:44:05 UTC

Almost impossible I believe. Full studies have had a hard time broadly addressing this question. The time-line alone required to do so would be massive.

I feel like being a Penn State student you would be able to conduct the study, since there is many students and staff on campus. There is a huge variety of people to choose from. I feel like you might struggle with providing incentives and the cost of doing the research, but I think it would be very feasible for you to do.

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2025-09-17 19:44:28 UTC

This project is feasible with time and resources.

2025-09-17 19:44:37 UTC

Research question is feasible through websites and articles especially

Feasibility

2025-09-17 19:44:42 UTC

I think this is very feasible.

2025-09-17 19:45:51 UTC

The feasibility of this research question is possible but will be difficult. I would narrow down the exact rehabilitation program as just asking about any or all of them is to broad. Additionally, getting access to records of people who have offended and re offended would be difficult but not impossible.

2025-09-17 19:46:11 UTC

Yes but with some limitation

Hi Nick! Great topic - but hard to study as a study doing human subjects research. Some tips: Instead of studying the impact of solitary on incarcerated persons themselves, study students' perceptions of how harmful solitary confinement can be on incarcerated persons. That would make your dependent variable the "perceptions."

kjm47 — 2025-09-19 17:14:41 UTC

Here are some ideas for independent variables: students' major; students' sex/gender; students' political affiliation. OR, if you want to write a "vignette" or story-based survey, you can change different aspects of solitary confinement (like days in solitary, for example.) -Kate

kjm47 — 2025-09-19 17:14:48 UTC

Excellent, Shane! This is great and feasible. Since we are doing a survey research proposal, you can choose multiple factors to explore (i.e., multiple independent variables), such as student major, sex/gender, political affiliation, etc. Another idea is to develop a "vignette" or story-based survey that considers how offender characteristics impact students' support for the death penalty (for example, different violent crimes, offender gender/sex, age, mental health, etc.)

kjm47 — 2025-09-19 17:16:52 UTC

Great topic, Braylen! I'm reading from your question that you want to capture individuals' perceptions of the public and private prison systems, and how them compare in terms of prisoner treatment. This could be a really interesting survey, especially because you can ultimately compare "perceptions" with different statistics or "facts."

kjm47 — 2025-09-19 17:19:13 UTC

For an independent variable, I might suggest looking at demographics (age, sex/gender, race/ethnicity, geography) and/or social factor like political affiliation or college major.

kjm47 — 2025-09-19 17:19:20 UTC

This is a great topic, Omar! However, if would be hard to study in the form of a survey. Some tips: Instead of studying the impact of sentence length on incarcerated persons themselves, study students' perceptions of how sentence length can be impact reentry. That would make your dependent variable the "perceptions."

kjm47 — 2025-09-19 17:20:50 UTC

Here are some ideas for independent variables: students' major; students' sex/gender; students' political affiliation. OR, if you want to write a "vignette" or story-based survey, you can change different aspects of offender background or sentence length. -Kate

kjm47 — 2025-09-19 17:21:18 UTC

Another great idea, Amber! However, if would be hard to study in the form of a survey. My suggestion: Instead of studying the impact of different rehab programs on incarcerated persons themselves, study students' perceptions of how successful rehabilitation programs can be.That would make your dependent variable the "perceptions" (or support for different rehab programs, depending on how you phrase it.)

kjm47 — 2025-09-19 17:22:44 UTC

Here are some ideas for independent variables: students' major; students' sex/gender; students' political affiliation. You can (and should!) also consider a variety of rehabilitation programs (ex. GED, vo-tech, college-in-prison, substance use treatment, etc.) -Kate

kjm47 — 2025-09-19 17:24:13 UTC

Great question, Kairu! You can absolutely study the public's perceptions of body cams, and the influence of body cams on their trust in police. I would suggest focusing on your peers' perceptions, since they're easy to capture. Here are some ideas for independent variables: students' major; students' sex/gender; students' political affiliation.

kjm47 — 2025-09-19 17:25:31 UTC

Great question, Kallysta! You could absolutely conduct this study among your student peers! As we approach Mini-Project 1, please consider some more specific dependent variables. If your study population includes both college-enrolled and non-college enrolled individuals, you could use educational enrollment and attainment as an outcome. If you are just looking at college-enrolled peers, you could use measures of mental health, or even something like GPA is you want to get spicy!

kjm47 — 2025-09-19 17:27:36 UTC

Excellent, Karlie! In writing Mini-Project 1, I suggest identifying your independent variables ("background"). There's a lot that you could look at: family composition, household income, previous crime victimization, political affiliation, educational attainment, ACEs...and so on. When we get to writing the survey itself, there are different pathways you can go down as well, but that can wait for now :)

kjm47 — 2025-09-19 17:29:30 UTC

Love this question, Aeryal! While this study is great for participant observation (and that is a welcome methodology), we will also be writing a survey for our proposals. Start thinking about what kind of survey you might write for retail employees, which considers both their observations and perceptions of shoplifting.

kjm47 — 2025-09-19 17:31:21 UTC

Great topic, Josh - but hard to study via survey. My tips Instead of studying the impact of the death penalty on crime itself, study students' perceptions of how effective the death penalty is at deterring crime. That would make your dependent variable the "perceptions."

kjm47 — 2025-09-19 17:33:19 UTC

For an independent variable, I might suggest looking at demographics (age, sex/gender, race/ethnicity, geography) and/or social factor like political affiliation or college major.

kjm47 — 2025-09-19 17:33:42 UTC

Love this question, Jaiden - very spicy and fun! To be clear, your dependent variable here is individuals' opinions/perceptions, and the independent variables are individuals' age and education. (Or is it offender age and education?) When you get to writing the survey, let's talk about how you can use vignettes, or short stories about potential serial killers, to measure individuals' perceptions. Also, might I suggest that you specifically study college study perceptions? :)

kjm47 — 2025-09-19 17:36:08 UTC

Great question - I'm going to share the same feedback I gave Amber. Another great idea, Amber! It would be hard to study this in the form of a survey. My suggestion: Instead of studying the impact of different rehab programs on incarcerated persons themselves, study students' perceptions of how successful rehabilitation programs can be.That would make your dependent variable the "perceptions" (or support for different rehab programs, depending on how you phrase it.)

kjm47 — 2025-09-19 17:37:22 UTC

Here are some ideas for independent variables: students' major; students' sex/gender; students' political affiliation. You can (and should!) also consider a variety of rehabilitation programs (ex. GED, vo-tech, college-in-prison, substance use treatment, etc.) -Kate

kjm47 — 2025-09-19 17:37:38 UTC

Love this, Austin! I think it is plausible that you would be able to survey police who are on the job about this topic! In completing mini-project 1, let me suggest you further specify your variables. For example, for dependent variable(s), you might consider police willingness to make stops (traffic or street stops), as well as how it impacts police fear of violent victimization, or fear of accusations of misconduct.

kjm47 — 2025-09-19 17:41:50 UTC

The independent variable would probably be "employment by police agencies that do or do not use body cameras."

kjm47 — 2025-09-19 17:41:53 UTC

Love this question, Savanna - very feasible! For mini-project 1, let's try to further drill down on the "what" of question, which is really the independent variable. You could consider different restorative justice programs as the IV, or look at student-level factors like age, sex/gender, race/ethnicity, year, political affiliation or career aspirations!

kjm47 — 2025-09-19 17:43:57 UTC

Hi John! I love this as a research question, and there are a few ways that it could be executed as a survey research project. Your dependent variable - re-offending by individuals previously involved in the juvenile justice system - could be operationalized as a self-report variable (i.e., you ask survey takers if they have ever been involved in the JJ system, and then ask them to self-report any reoffending in the time since.)

kjm47 — 2025-09-19 21:27:33 UTC

In writing Mini-Project 1, you can use the total ACE index as your independent variable, or choose a one or more specific ACEs of interest.

kjm47 — 2025-09-19 21:27:37 UTC

Love this question, Kirsten, and the fieldwork you did in build-up! Your dependent and independent variables seem clear - policing, and neighborhood racial/ethnic composition, respectively.

kjm47 — 2025-09-19 21:29:14 UTC

In terms of adding a survey component to this project, you could go one of two ways. You could target the survey at neighborhood residents, and ask how they perceive policing operations in their neighborhood - that would be the new dependent variable in this scenario. Alternatively, you could gear the survey toward police themselves, and ask them how neighborhood appearance and perceive racial/ethic demographics affects their work.

kjm47 — 2025-09-19 21:31:00 UTC

You may want to drill down more on your dependent variables, whichever direction you go. For example, you could specify "policing" to mean patrol, street and traffic stops, and community outreach.

kjm47 — 2025-09-19 21:31:59 UTC

Josh, this is such a complex and interesting question! Given your theoretical integration, operationalizing this question as a survey is more complicated - but definitely doable and fun (in my opinion). My first thought: operationalize conflict theory into survey questions asking about how people perceive the economy and criminal justice system in the United States, effectively making it a second independent variable.

kjm47 — 2025-09-19 21:34:18 UTC

For example, in addition to asking survey participants about their self-reported offending, you would include measures of socioeconomic status (income, education, etc.) and questions like "The legal system in the United States favors those with lots of wealth. Agree/Disagree." You don't need to include potential survey items in Mini-Project 1...I'm just thinking longer term :)

kjm47 — 2025-09-19 21:36:04 UTC

Great, unique question Joe! Some thoughts about studying this research question using survey methods. Target individuals who self-report participation in fishing, and them ask them about their self-reported involvement in poaching, overfishing, and general respect for wildlife management and conservation laws in PA!

kjm47 — 2025-09-19 21:37:36 UTC

Interesting question, Francesca! May I suggest a slight modification that would give you straightforward independent and dependent variables, and make this easy to study using survey methods? Namely: How does social media usage impact users' perceptions of crime?

kjm47 — 2025-09-19 21:42:08 UTC

Social media usage could be operationalized different ways (ex. estimated hours spent using social media each week), while perceptions of crime could be written in the form of agree/disagree-type statements (ex. Crime is a major problem in the United States right now.) There are lots of fun things to do with these variables!

kjm47 — 2025-09-19 21:42:13 UTC

I love this question, Errett, and obviously you are prepped to do it! The dependent variable is clear - perceptions of police - but may I suggest some potential independent variables? Here are some ideas: age, sex/gender, race/ethnicity, educational attainment, political affiliation, previous criminal victimization...choose one or multiple or others!

kjm47 — 2025-09-19 21:44:04 UTC

Great question, Braelyn!! There are a couple different directions you could go in term of studying this question with a survey. First option: surveying police themselves about racially-biased beliefs (independent variable) and then self-reported policing activities and tactics - or the policing activity and tactics of their colleagues. (The latter is a good way to go with a sensitive topic.)

kjm47 — 2025-09-19 21:45:37 UTC

Alternatively, you could adapt this question for a general audience. For example, you could ask participants' opinions on different issues related to race and racial justice (independent variable), and then ask about their perceptions of law enforcement (ex. Law enforcement should be allowed to take any measures necessary to address crime in my community.) I'm sure it's also possible to make "love of ranch dressing" into an independent variable as well! :)

kjm47 — 2025-09-19 21:49:24 UTC