Research methods consist of an assortment of methods people use when examining a specified occurrence. Research methods are planned, thoroughly thought out, value neutral, and scientific based (Woolf, 2012). In order to have good research methods, the researchers must design the research to maximize the exactitude of the results. Research methodology is the outline used to compare and study alternative methods to individual approaches (Woolf, 2012). Cross-cultural research, or also referred to as multicultural research, has emphases on revealing an individual’s behavior based on cultural influences. This research approach is intended test hypotheses and human behaviors about the impacts of culture and behavior.
The impact of higher immigration, higher diversity, into the United States has made it more difficult to perform multicultural research. Researchers must first take into consideration how a culture may affect methodological problems and definitions of concept(s). Researchers need to cogitate how recruiting, sampling, developing instruments, and distributing findings are influenced by race, ethnicity, and culture. Throughout the paper it will contain a compare and contrast of the variables of observation and sampling within traditional research and multicultural research.
Descriptions
A complete understanding of the individual variable must be understood before a comparison is done between observation and sampling. Observation is defined as the method of data gathering using a visual examination of the people involved in the study ("Definition of observation," 2012). Sampling is a process that is used to select a group of individuals from the whole population to take part in the research study (Freedman, n.d.). Multicultural research contains dealing with other cultures that vary in language, social structures, economies, attitude patterns, and behavior (Hall, 2012). Traditional research concentrates on studies that
References: Action research. (2004). Retrieved from http://edt.ite.edu.sg/ActionResearch/ar3.htm Definition of observation. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/observation Ethnographic methodology. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.geo.mtu.edu/rs4hazards/links/Social-KateG/Ethnographic Methodology.htm Freedman, D. (n.d.). Sampling. Retrieved from http://www.stat.berkeley.edu/~census/sample.pdf Hall, G. C. N. (2010). Multicultural psychology (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall. Herek, G. (2012). Ucdavis.net. Retrieved from http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/fact_sample.html Woolf, L. M. (2012, Summer). webster.edu. Retrieved from http://www2.webster.edu/~woolflm/statmethods.html