……………….Student 1

Critique the following abstract based on the five elements of an abstract as covered by the text. What elements are present, and what elements are missing?

Start with the issue or problem leading to a need for the research. In the abstract, I believe that the issue that leads to a need for research is pretty clear. How are older job applicants seen by their prospective employers? This is a problem that is seen in real life, and was even mentioned in our introduction posts by one of our classmates. Another example I can think of is women who have children and choose to take a break in their career to raise their children, and then choose to reenter the workforce at a later date.

Indicate the purpose of the study. I don’t think the abstract clearly indicates the purpose of the study, but I think most people can deduce that its purpose would be to find indicate discrepancies in hiring of younger versus older individuals who are both qualified for jobs and why those discrepancies might exist.

State what data will be collected to address this purpose. The abstract indicates that age-diverse North Americans will participate, but does not go into detail about how many participants there are or what the range of ages in the group is.

Indicate qualitative themes, quantitative statistical results, or the mixed methods integrative findings that will likely arise in your study. The abstract indicates a qualitative theme of people who are characterized as older being viewed less favorably than their younger counterparts.

The abstract does list implications of the study, but it did not mention directly who would benefit and why. Again, I feel as though this can be deduced, but it is not clearly stated.

Describe the elements that constitute a good qualitative purpose statement.

According to our textbook, “it is suggested that qualitative research is exploratory and that researchers use it to probe a topic when the variables and theory base is unknown. A good qualitative purpose statement would point out a concept or phenomenon that is occurring and then explains the purpose of studying it (Creswell, 2018). There is less certainty with the “why” with qualitative research. A good qualitative purpose statement focuses on a single concept, uses non-directional language, and provides a general definition of concepts that aren’t as easily understood.

Describe the elements of a good quantitative purpose statement.

For a quantitative purpose statement “the problem is best addressed by understanding what factors or variables influence an outcome”. What causes a reaction in a situation? A good quantitative purpose statement “uses words that connect the independent and dependent variables to indicate that they are related and orders the variables with independent variables being followed by dependent variables. (Creswell, 2018)

Discuss the rationale for using a mixed methods approach.

Mixed methods research might be used when the problem is initially identified, but needs to be expanded upon. If a problem isn’t as black and white then a mixed methods approach could get answers to gray area issues.

Explain how research questions and/or a hypothesis work in conjunction with the purpose statement.

Research questions and hypotheses hone in on the purpose statement and expand upon the ideas and topics introduced in the purpose statement. In qualitative research broad questions are used to expand on ideas and research.

In quantitative research the independent and dependent variables are formed from the question or hypotheses that is formed.

In mixed methods research, according to our text the questions asked should align with the method of research being presented at the time. “For example, if the study begins with a quantitative phase, the investigator might introduce hypotheses. Later in the study, when the qualitative phase is addressed, the qualitative research questions appear.” (Creswell, 2018).

My apologies for posting late, all my days completely run together over here. I’ll make sure to keep better track in the future.

References:

Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2018). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (5th ed.). Sage.