Does Drug Abuse and Usage Render Any Positive Effects to a People? - Research Paper

Introduction

It is in view of this that I took up the task appointed to me and conducted this study that seeks to explain the potential effects of the drug in Greenview by employing the applied research question, "Does drug abuse and usage render any positive effects to a people?" so as to understand what are the exact benefits the youth are trying to acquire by the usage of the drug and the basic research question, "How can we change the youth's perception to the drug?"

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In my search, the dependent variable is the youth an all who partake in the abuse of drugs as they are the ones who are affected by the drugs(kraton) which is the independent variable in this study because it is what is causing an effect to the youths' behaviour and health.

I had to obtain permission from Wilmington University, a learning institution which i partnered with in this study, so I wrote a letter of request to the school, and it was granted to me. In my letter, I had to explain why the pros of my study outweigh the cons because firstly, the welfare of the students is a priority in the university and they would not want any harm coming to the students' way. Secondly, the board had to make sure that I was not just wasting the students' and the school's time as the study would go on for a couple of weeks, and lastly they too, as a concerned citizen, would like to see the change in behaviour of the students, as my research is of course, expected to be applicable and of use to the real world and not just in theory.

Then, I had to obtain informed consent from the students because they are the subject to my study and they would provide to me the information required and it is imperative that they knew what the study would be all about and the effects of the same. So I employed interviewing and observation as the main means of data collection from the students, and this I did both personally and over the phone as some did not want their identities revealed.

Then of course I had to ensure the identities of the participants who wanted to be anonymous remained so, therefore I assured them of secrecy and sure enough, I have not quoted a single one of them, but their information still remains relevant and credible in this study.

A potential threat that would affect the internal validity of my method of research would include temporal effects as the students would be affected by the effect of the independent variable which is the drug, and therefore inconsistent information will be rendered. This is according to the website, mathcs.duq.edu

The external validity could be affected by factors such as non-representative sampling where some of the participants in the study could be non-representative to the concept sought to be internalized and proven, therefore the study would bear no fruits.

My case study could not be completed with a classic case study as this would entail taking several steps including exposing the participants (dependent variables) to the drug(independent variable) to try and asses the difference displayed by this group with another group of participants who are not exposed to the drug kraton, which is basically to say, using the drugs willingly on them, which is ethically wrong. However, this experiment could be done on an already existing drug taking group, and a newly formed non-drug taking group, and the comparisons sought, only that the time difference would be a little different.

I would employ probability sampling as a sampling method as it is a bit fairer to the people who wish to partake in the study. This is because it uses randomization and anyone has a chance of being selected. Random sampling would be the best option for me.

Non-probability sampling would not be an option for me, in the conducting of this study because of a number of reasons; Bias is more prone to occur here, members are likely to be profiled, especially where snowballing sampling is used because a certain group is chosen, and they are asked to identify other members who are like them, the focus is more on the results and therefore the participants' well being is likely to be diminished, among others.

In the follow up study that consisted of self-report surveys, the major shortcoming encountered was validity issues, because, since it was done over email, and my interference was not felt, some of the participants exaggerated different aspects of the drug usage, its effects and its 'benefits' according to them. You find that meaningful conclusions are hard to arrive to because of such. However, the self-report system has advantages too and the major one is that some of the participants were able to express themselves more freely and they were able to give very meaningful information. This is especially true for those members who wished that their identities remained withheld because of one reason or another.

For this type of survey, I feel like false reports would be the biggest threat to validity because the responders could give all sorts of exaggerated feedback with the aim to please me, to appear knowledgeable or just to seek attention, thinking that some benefits would come accompanying the responses, which is not the case.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is evident from the study that the effects of kraton are major and there are no benefits to it. The bliss it causes is temporary, and the youth are advised to keep off.

References

Center of Innovation in Research and Teaching website. (www.cirt.gcu.edu)

IGI Global

Study.com

Wikipedia

Victor Jupp, ed. (2006). "Self-Report Study". The SAGE Dictionary of Social Research Methods.

Orkin, Stuart; Fisher, David; Look, Thomas; Lux, Samuel; Ginsburg, David; Nathan, David (2009). Oncology of Infancy and Childhood E-Book. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier Health Sciences. p. 1258. ISBN 9781416034315.

Robins, Richard; Fraley, Chris; Krueger, Robert (2007). Handbook of Research Methods in Personality Psychology. The Guilford Press. p. 228. ISBN 9781593851118.

Jump up to:a b Heppner, P. Paul; Wampold, Bruce; Owen, Jesse; Thompson, Mindi; Wang, Kenneth (2016). Research Design in Counseling. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning. p. 334. ISBN 9781305087316.

John Garcia; Andrew R. Gustavson. "The Science of Self-Report".

Northrup, David A. (Fall 1996). "The Problem of the Self-Report In Survey Research". 11 (3). Institute for Social Research