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Introduction

Unit 10 Understanding and using research Introduction For this assignment I will research in different fields of health and social care to come up with my hypothesis. I will base my research on factors affecting individual's health. I will then find out which health condition seems to be most popular in affecting individual's health. After doing some primary and secondary research on the different factors, I will then look more into depth in the condition that seems to be affecting pupils in large amounts. So I will base my hypothesis on the condition which is most popular in the world today. Research is mainly used in health and social care fields to investigate new aspects of care related situations by carrying out surveys and collecting qualitative data of some kind. It is also used to test and review existing knowledge from different sources such as internet books and is also used to test and review treatments and practices. It helps to explain the relationship between factors affecting health and well-being and helps to evaluate service interventions and policies and helps to make new policies and plans. There are different types of research methods in health and social care fields. Research methods are used to achieve the aim they have been carried out to achieve such as a hypothesis. They are then carried out to test their hypothesis to see if it's proved to be true or incorrect. Research is used to find questions and answers relating to the topic that is being explored and is used to investigate the area in more depth. Researchers may use more than one research method in order to make their research stronger and accurate. I will now outline the different types of methodology used in research: AO1- The Aims and Use of Research in Health and Social Care Research methodologies Internet- this research can be used to find out statistics on a particular issue and it allows you to look at different websites which help you to gain further knowledge and give you more information on a particular issue. ...read more.

Middle

Although I will use this research method to find out whether my hypothesis is correct or incorrect I can not guarantee 100% that all information provided by the teenagers in the questionnaire will be correct as they may not be truthful. Therefore for my second methodology I will use observational research this way I will have witness the data myself and will know for a definite whether my results are correct or not. I will observe how many pupils go outside to smoke from my school in the morning at break time, dinner time and after school. I will do this by going to their secret smoking area which is known as the "snicket" and will count how many boys and girls I see smoking every time I go there. I will jot down the results on a piece of paper. I will do this for a couple of weeks and finally make a table and add up the scores to find out the results of who smokes more teenage boys or girls. How I will collect and use my data Firstly I will do my plan by carrying out my questionnaires that I have made relating to the health issue I have chosen which is smoking. I will then have a look at the results of the questionnaires and will make a table out of these results and analyse them to see whether my hypothesis is true. Information given by people is not always truthful and accurate therefore to make sure my results are accurate I will also do an observational research. I will do this by keeping an eye on the smokers in my school. There is a secret place around school where the smokers go to smoke in their recess times such as break, dinner and after school, this place is known as the snicket. The reason the smokers smoke in this place is because they are not allowed to smoke within the school premises so they all gather up here in this secret place to smoke, where the teachers cannot see them. ...read more.

Conclusion

If I had the chance to do it again I would also give out the questionnaires evenly to each age group, for an example, if I were to do 30 questionnaires I would give out ten questionnaires to 13-14 year olds, ten to 15-16 year olds and ten to 17-18 years old, this way the information collected will be more reliable and fair. I would also state what the questions are asking clearly on the questionnaires, for an example if there was a multiple choice question, I would cleary state how many boxes the individual should choose to tick. If I were to do my observational research again, I would also amend some changes. I would set a reminder or something on my mobile or even tell my friends to remind me, this way I could never forget or get late every time I had to go out to see if there were any smokers. This way I wouldn't miss any smokers and won't have to rush to get there all the time. I may even ask the teacher to let me out of my lesson a few minutes early before the bell so I can be the first one out there. This way I won't fail to spot any smokers and won't have to be in a hurry to get there first before the smokers. I would also try and go in my lesson times and frees to the snicket to see how many smokers I see smoking during lesson time, this would give me a more reliable and strong data. If I could I would also ask a technician from the computer department in school to help me fit a small camera in the snicket only for a few weeks so I could keep track of how many smokers go there to smoke during the whole school time. This way I won't have to keep going there to check how many smokers are smoking, I could just track the smokers on the computer system by having the cameras linked to the computer. ...read more.

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