I chose to review the article, Perception of Relation and Physical Aggression Among College Students: Effects of Gender of Perpetrator, Target, and Perceiver writtenby Susan Basow, Kristen Cahill, Julie Phelan, Kathryn Longshore, and Ann McGillicuddy. The article's focus was on the effects of gender and the perception of aggression.
The issue that the article attempted to explain was the differences in aggression among male and female college students. This issue is relevant because it is important to know the different ways male and females feel and show aggression. While reviewing this study, I learned that previous studies had not attempted to show and prove the differences between male and female perceptions of relational and physical aggression. By conducting a study on the gender differences of perception within aggression, these researchers are filling in a gap to this important issue. The literature review proved to be credible because the authors were able to cite multiple studies that correlated and strengthened the study that they were conducting.
The theoretical framework was explained well because it defined important aspects of understanding the topic of aggression and what it means to perceive aggression. For example, the definition of aggression was clearly defined in the very beginning of the article. The variables in this research are clearly defined. For example, the study tried to gauge how gender, which proved to be the independent variable effects perception of aggression which was the dependent variable. The study did not reveal any extraneous or confounding variables, but they did note that societal norms such as those men should not physically hit women played a role in the perception of physical aggression.
The hypotheses were clearly implied by the types of literature research that the researchers studied, but it was difficult to pin point any particular sentence as the hypothesis. Even though it was not clearly defined, the hypothesis flowed logically with the introduction because it was all about perception of aggression and how the variable of gender would influence perception. My overall evaluation of the introduction was positive, but one aspect that I think the researchers could have improved upon was that the study appeared forced and unorganized at parts because they tried to consolidate a lot of different predictions from past studies that were relevant.
The method portion of the article was my favorite section because of the detail that the researchers went into describing their design and research methods. For example, the researchers even included the research they had to throw out because the subject failed to indicate their gender; this example demonstrates the thoroughness of their method. Through my critique, I found the procedures used to assess the issue being studied were appropriate. For example, the researchers had the participants read several different scenarios where relational and physical aggression took place and then the researchers filled out a questionnaire for each scenario.
The procedure used by the researchers proved to be appropriate because it created a consistent study in which the only variables in the study were ones that are intended. The data collection methods used proved to be adequate and efficient. The researchers used a questionnaire with 26 questions; 14 on relational aggression, 6 on physical aggression, and 6 as filter questions. As a strategy, the researchers used multiple questions of the same content but worded them in different ways so that it would lessen the chance that participants would answer a certain way to the question structure. Within the article, the researchers recorded the gender of the researcher that read off the instructions. This is significant because it shows that the researchers made sure to include every detail of their study in order to prevent skewed results. Overall, The method part of this article was a well-done part of this study because of the detail and clarity.
In the results, the data analysis was not initially difficult to comprehend because the answers were in decimals and statistics. The data results were also put into a table, which clearly illustrated the results of the study on gender effects on the perception of aggression. For example, there were four graphs that represented those perceptions of the two types of aggression from the perspective of both male and female, and from the perspective of both the aggressor and the target. The interpretation of the data was clear because the data was directly put into the tables, which made it visually understandable. The authors also explained each table, which made them easy to understand. Furthermore, The study followed the theoretical framework by staying consistent with the gender specific perceptions of aggression. In addition, the article explained the definitions of acceptability of aggression, which is defined as the moral judgment of aggression. There were a few limitations to this study such as the fact that all the participants were college students the funding was limited. Another positive aspect included in the results of this article was that the authors recommended a further study that should be conducted on the differences between relational and physical aggression. In conclusion, the results of this study showed that women perceive relational aggression to be more harmful than physical aggression and men find physical aggression to be more harmful.
Source : articlesbase.com
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