Psychology

Effects of Gender on Bullying

Research question

The research questions in the study of this topic include, which gender is most affected by bullying and how? The answer to this question is supposed to provide information on the most affected gender as well the most notorious gender in bullying. The other question in this research is, what is the major cause of bullying? This is meant to address the reasons behind why young people bully each other. Is it a psychological problem or is it just a bad habit, which develops in a person (Krating, 2008). Do the bullies enjoy what they do or is it a way of escaping from something else? Finally, what is the most affected population in terms of age group, gender or education level?

Qualitative Research Orientation

Qualitative research is based on an objective of understanding the behavior of human beings and the reasons behind this behavior. It examines the why’s and how’s of the decisions made by people. In carrying qualitative research, smaller samples are selected to increase the focus and concentration in the research. This type of research provides the information through which hypotheses can be drawn (Flick, et al, 2004). Qualitative research technique is the most suitable in this because of it is a research on human behavior.

Research Design

The main role of the researcher in this work is to collect the data from the relevant sources, analyze the data and come up with conclusions. One of the major biases that will be experienced in this area is the gender biasness (Hesse-Biber & Leavy, 2006). The researcher is most likely expected to favor the population from his own gender and present them as the victims and not the perpetrators of bullying. Ethnic, racial and cultural biasness are also a possibility, but the former has the highest probability of occurring. Another hindrance is personal interests. The researcher might have made his or her own conclusion before undertaking the research. This affects the outcome in the sense that he might select a sample, which will prove his conclusions correct. These factors affect the whole research in that the outcome will only present the researchers thoughts and interests instead of a proved conclusion.

The sample to be selected in this particular research should include students from high school and college. This is because these groups record the highest occurrences of bullying. Most of the teenagers are at these levels and so the sample population will contain this age group (Krating, 2008). As mentioned earlier on, the sample size should be a reasonable size that is not too large. The population should be selected from different ethnic communities, different ages but within the age group of teenage and adolescence. This is the population that is mostly affected by psychological problems, mainly because of the changes taking place in a person from inside and physically. They should also be of different cultural backgrounds and at different levels of education.

The best sampling technique to be used in this research is probability sampling where the sample is selected based on chance. However, samples should be obtained from different groups in terms of gender, ethnicity, race, cultural background, educational level and age. There should be fair representation in all the categories mentioned above for the outcome to be unbiased. The best methodology to use under probabilistic sampling is therefore stratified random sampling which involves grouping members of a population into collectively exhaustive and mutually exclusive groups (Association for Qualitative Research, 2002). Access to the participants of this research will be gained by visiting the learning institutions.

The best type of data in this research is primary data. This is first hand data collected as opposed to the data obtained from secondary sources. It data will be collected by use of questionnaires which will be filled by students. These questionnaires should contain questions, which will guide the student in giving their own experiences with bullying and their opinions on the same. Questionnaires are the most effective tools of collecting information based on personal experiences (Tatsuoka & University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1999). Oral interviews will also be used at some point where the students will be asked to give their general views on the effects of gender and bullying. The data that will be collected will first be coded. This is the first stage of data analysis, which involves summarizing, sorting and synthesizing the raw data. After coding data, it is now possible to present it in tables and graphs. From these presentations, conclusions can be deduced.

There are three ethical principles, which should be applied when doing research on human participants (Hesse-Biber & Leavy, 2006). These are beneficence, respect for persons and justice. Beneficence includes minimizing the risks that the individual may face when participating the research. In this case, the students might be victimized for providing information on the bullies. The researcher should therefore find a way of protecting the participants from these risks. Respect for persons involves allowing the participants to take part in this out of their consent. The researcher should not entice or force people to participate. These students should therefore volunteer themselves for the exercise. Justice requires that the participants should benefit from the results of the research. In this particular research, the findings should be shared with these institutions to assist in ending the problem of gender based bullying.

 

References:

Association for Qualitative Research. (2002). Qualitative research journal. Australia: Association for Qualitative Research

Flick, U., Kardorff, E., & Steinke, I. (2004). A companion to qualitative research. London, UK: Sage Publications.

Hesse-Biber, S. N., & Leavy, P. (2006). The practice of qualitative research. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.

Krating, M. A. (2008). Children’s relational bullying: Gender and age differences. Bakersfield: Panama Vista press.

Tatsuoka, M. M., & University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (1999). Sampling procedures. Instructional monograph series. Urbana, Ill: Office of Vocational Education Research, University of Illinois Dept. of Vocational and Technical Education at Urbana-Champaign.