Week 2 – Discussion  

Your initial discussion thread is due on Day 3 (Thursday) and you have until Day 7 (Monday) to respond to your classmates. Your grade will reflect both the quality of your initial post and the depth of your responses. Refer to the Discussion Forum Grading Rubric under the Settings icon above for guidance on how your discussion will be evaluated.

Research Design: Use   of Theory, Scholarly Writing, and Ethical Considerations [WLOs: 1, 2,   4,  5] [CLOs: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6] 

Prior to beginning work on this discussion, read Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 of the course text, read the media piece Why Facebook Could Be Good for Your Health (Links to an external site.), read the journal article “Social Relationships and Health,” and watch the video Research Ethics Involving Human Subjects (Links to an external site.).

Now that the literature review has been completed, the text reading this week covers how important theories can be highlighted that will support your research topic. For example, particular groups may naturally link to known theories, such as feminist theory for women’s perspectives, or queer theory for perspectives from the LGBTQ community. The text also covers extensive writing tips in regard to scholarly writing which can help you reflect and develop your own scholarly writing in coursework that requires research. A third aim of the discussion is to touch on the integral aspect of preparation for performing research, ensuring you have considered the ethical concerns and protections for your research participants or subjects.

In your initial post, address the following:

• Describe a social theory that      was discussed in the “Social Relationships and Health” journal article and      indicate how it was used to support the research.
• Choose one of the quantitative      research results presented in the article; describe the evidence presented      and indicate which variables of the experiment were highlighted.
• Determine the article’s      conclusion in regards to social relationships in society. Based on the      accompanying media piece “Why Facebook Could      Be Good for Your Health (Links to an external site.),” how could modern social      media sites support the research findings in the journal article?
• The course text reading      discussed how research can also use the transformative paradigm in social      theory to impact social change. How does it do this and what types of      societal populations can the transformative paradigm specifically impact?
• An important aspect of      impactful research is that it should be disseminated through a scholarly      document such as a research report or journal article. The author of the      course text provides some helpful tips in scholarly writing. What tips did      you find most useful to further develop your own scholarly writing in      course work which requires research papers or a project?
• Lastly, a research study should      always be ethically performed. According to the course text reading and      your review of the video, “Research Ethics      Involving Human Subjects (Links to an external site.)”, answer the following: 
  • The Belmont Report of 1979       established three ethical principles for research. Name the three       principles and explain each principle.
  • All Universities and Research       Institutions are federally mandated to follow ethics guidelines in the       research performed which include the principles of The Belmont Report of       1979 – name what this set of guidelines is commonly known as, and       describe what it covers.

Your initial post should be at least 800 words in length. Support your claims with examples from the required material(s) and/or other scholarly resources, and properly cite any references.

Guided Response: Respond to at least two of your classmates’ posts by Day 7. In your responses, be sure to note any interesting aspects of their response, such as the theory or quantitative research they noted from the article, or the writing tips they found most useful. Your responses should be at least 200 words in length.