The qualitative research that I chose for this project was a report on for profit prisons conducted by the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU is a non profit organization whose mission is to “"to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.” The report conducted by the ACLU highlights the rise of the privatization of our nation's prison system and works to expose corruption and injustice that is generated by such a practice. The report’s first part begins with illustrating how the privatization of our prison systems came to be in America then goes on to challenge the supposed benefits of privatizing prisons. And ends with expanding upon how these private prisons go on to make their case to politicians and those in power. The reason I believe this report is relevant to my blog is because it highlights one of the main injustices that our prison system is currently going through. In order for theses for profit prisons to be profitable corporations must have a large amount of inmates to work with. These inmates can then be exploited for cheap and unethical labor. In order to fill the quota of prisoners corporations turn to lawmakers to crack down on “crime”. An example of this is mass incarceration for drug related offenses, Studies found that over 60% of the prison population is currently incarcerated for a drug related offense. Private corporations legally bribe politicians with large campaign donations and attempt to sway their thinking with lobbying. These corporations have also been found to be paying off politicians for their cooperation in for profit prison expansion. I believe that this report makes several great points about one of the many reasons why our current prison system is fundamentally unjust and unethical.

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This research dives into the real issue of Facebook addiction with college students. Almost every student currently uses or has used Facebook. There are many reasons students at college use Facebook such as convenience of project school work, making friends, and obtaining news. This study uses qualitative interview to obtain results from nine international postgraduates of University Putra Malaysia. The data acquired established three themes comprised of compulsion to check Facebook, high frequency use and using Facebook to avoid offline responsibility. This study found that users Facebook dependency was comprised of salience, tolerance and conflict. The study found that moderately and controlled usage of Facebook like other pleasures in life is key. It was found that students learn to moderate their own use for a successful life. I chose this study because of it’s topic being so relatable to my research. Once again the sample size is small, but the qualitative approach adds value to the results. There are few studies relevant to this topic in particular and I believe these results are definitely headed in the right direction for future more in depth research. I also chose this study for the demographic used being college students. This demographic is slightly older than the study I added previously, so I could show how addiction to social media such as Facebook is generalizable across quite a few age groups. It discussion regarding the way Facebook can be abused by creating an easy way for students to feel cared for and accepted is exactly what I intended to research. Once again, there is little study in this field specifically and studies like this are able to open a door for further, more detailed research.

From Ancient Egypt to modern day, makeup has been worn by billions of people, especially women. But why is it that women feel the need to continue to wear makeup and not just go makeup-less? While for some people like Kerry Folan, guest writer at glamour.com, makeup carries a meaningful connection to her past. When she applies lipstick, it’s not because she feels the need to do it for her boyfriend, he believes she is just as beautiful without it, but because it brings her back to her childhood. She reflects on how it makes her think of her cousin and her when they were young and tried their other cousin’s lipstick on for the first time. How being able to wear makeup, especially lipstick, was in her eyes a right of passage into womanhood. She could be just like her older cousin and mom who she adored.

But for other women wearing makeup can be seen as a necessity. In an article done by Catherine Saint Louis for the NYTimes found that in a study done by Nancy Etcoff, clinical professor of psychology at Harvard University, there is a kind of placebo effect for women. When they apply makeup they become more confident. In her study she conducted, 25 female subjects ranging from 20 to 50 and who were either white, black, or Hispanic were photographed barefaced and in three different makeup looks that researchers called natural, professional, and glamorous. They were not allowed to look at themselves for fear that their opinions would be reflected in the photographs. After the photos were taken, 149 people (61 of which were males) judged the photos for 250 milliseconds, then 119 people (30 of which were males) judged the photos for an unlimited amount of time. She found that depending on the makeup look and the time observers were given to look at each one the more variety of answers they got. But overall they found that women should apply makeup according to how they wanted to be perceived. Each look gave off a different vibe and should be used at different occasions. She also reflected that 30 years or so ago women wore makeup simply to please men but nowadays women and feminist wear makeup for themselves. Saint Louis noted that Bobbi Brown makeup artist and entrepreneur states that women who were made up in the wrong makeup for them could be perceived as more “untrustworthy,” which could skew the results of the experiment. She ends her piece with a quote from Professor Hamermesh author of “Beauty Pays” (Princeton University Press, 2011), writing, “Like any other thing that society rewards, people will take advantage of it. I’m an economist, so I say, why not? But I wish society didn’t reward this. I think we’d be a fairer world if beauty were not rewarded, but it is.”

Work Cited:

http://www.glamour.com/story/why-women-wear-makeup

This chart shows how people get their news has changed over time. It illustrates how social media has become Millennials’ top source for political news. This research found that a solid 61% of Millennials say they get political news from Facebook, versus just 39% of Baby Boomers. Generation X bridges the gap between the two at 51%. This result is striking and quite concerning because information posted on Facebook is not always accurate. The research found that the Millennials’ reliance on Facebook for political news has clear implications for political candidates – and for campaign spending. These implications were already seen during the last election with the shift in campaign strategies. Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump used social media to reach out to the younger constituents. They used social media more than past presidential candidates.

I consider this research to be reliable because it is from the William and Flora Hewlett, a nonpartisan, private charitable foundation. It is one of the largest philanthropic institutions in the United States. The survey (chart) was conducted by the Pew Research Center, a notable non-partisan American “fact-tank.” They are known for conducting public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis, and other empirical social science research.

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Qualitative Data:

For this new article, many students of Asian descent were interviewed on their experiences when filling out demographic information on college applications. It incorporates interviews of students who were half or partially Asian, and those who are fully Asian. The general consensus of students of Asian descent was that identifying as Asian in the demographic portion of the application would mean increased competition. Students who were multi-racial and partially Asian tended to select the boxes other than Asian. They would identify either as being of multiple races or as white or Hispanic if they are half white and half Asian or half Hispanic and half Asian, respectively. Some students’ reasons for doing this are "I didn't want to be written off as one of the 1.4 billion Asians that were applying" and "I didn't want to put 'Asian' down because my mom told me there's discrimination against Asians in the application process." As for students who were full Asians, some of them opted not to answer the questions at all. The statistical data supports the responses gathered through the interviews because about 20% of applicants identify as Asian while 15% identify as being of two or more races, and 10% leave the question unanswered. This study is reliable because it was conducted by Associated Press, a reliable source, and incorporates interviews of many Asian students regarding their selections during the demographics questionnaire of their college application and the reasoning for that selection. The responses are also consistent with the quantitative and statistical data. It is interesting to see what happens in Asian college students’ head when they decide to select or not select certain answers in the demographics portion of the college application.

Description of data:

This study was about what makes a LDR. What does it mean? Orsolya Kolozavari, the woman conducting research, talked to the couples individually either over the phone, through skype, or in person depending on what was available. She discussed how they each had their own space (at home) and a shared space when with their significant other. She also talked about what “being together” was like for them on a daily basis and how that compares to a ‘close distance’ relationship or ‘normal’. She also went into how the couple creates a feeling of togetherness while so far away, and how the couple decided on boundaries for the relationship. The author goes onto explain how she divided up the 20 heterosexual couples (40 participants total). She explains how she “purposely divided the sample by marital status, country of residence, nationality, and past versus current LDR status,” said Kolozavari. She made these in four subcategories: 1. “five married couples, where both partners lived in the United States and were Americans”.  2. “five couples who had had an LDR with each other in the past, but had closed the distance, and were now married to one another.” 3. “Five unmarried couples in a current LDR, where both partners lived in the United States and were Americans.”  4. “ Five unmarried couples where one partner lived in the United States and the other lived in another country, and each was a different nationality.” She continued from this point into her ethnographic research.

Source of data:

Searched on the internet and found this study. Orsolya Kolozsvari from the College of Coastal Georgia conducted this study: “Physically We Are Apart, Mentally We Are Not.”

Why is it reliable?:

I found this to be reliable considering the author/researcher main areas of interest are  ‘long-distance relationships and marriages, transnational and inter-ethnic families, gender and sexuality, immigration, ethnicity, and cognitive sociology.’ She took several months in order to conduct proper research and is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the College of Coastal Georgia.

What the data shows:

It takes many things to define a relationship and it becomes that much more complicated in a LDR. A few of the conclusions the author drew was some of the couples faced “legitimacy struggles” within their LDR; with either friends or family. The participants countered these opinion s with a more expanded view of what ‘normal’ can really look like.  She also found that ‘togetherness’ was not just physical but rather an emotional space the couples share; and this could be different for each couple. Among other things, she concluded that time with each other was more important and relevant compared to the spaces the couple shared (or did not share).

Why is it interesting/ important?:

I found this interesting because I have not done research on LDR before this. Finding people who deal with the same problems as I do, was a great experience I wouldn’t have found if it wasn’t for this project.  

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For my qualitative research, I chose to use the data of Nancy Jo Sales’ Tinder and the Dating Apocalypse, which is about why people choose to use the dating app Tinder. Sales gets her data by going into the field of research and asking unsuspecting people in a bar why they are on Tinder and their intentions on the app. Most of the people interviewed say that Tinder sucked but they continued to use it because it was so convenient and addicting to effortlessly use. Some women said it was a way to empower themselves and have the choice to do what they wanted, and if that meant to sleep around with multiple men then that was their choice. However, some users said that this was actually misogynistic because most straight male users will not care about what a woman’s intentions are because they are in it for the sex and if women choose to flaunt their sexuality then it makes it easier for the males. Lastly, a user on the app said that Tinder has altered the psychology of dating. Because of the huge selection of potential dates on the app, users are not in it for a long term relationship. Users often said that while on a Tinder date they were Tindering to find their next date. The amount of people on the site made people gorge on the unlimited amount of sexual partners, making it less intimate. I feel like this data is interesting because it shows the role dating apps have had in the dating community but it also shows the differing sides of the users, whether they want to feel empowered or if they are in it to exploit that desire for their own benefit.

Qualitative Data:

More often than not, studies conducted on juvenile criminals describe them as data rather than actual people. A researcher from the Journal of Correctional Education, however, used a combination of semi-structured and face-to-face interviews in order to learn about the educational experiences of former juvenile delinquents. In the report, the author states that the only way to effectively study this issue is through the use of open-ended questions rather than surveys. The participants in the study were all over the age of 18 and were no longer involved with the justice system. Unlike most studies on this particular population, the former juvenile delinquents were allowed to describe their stories using their own words rather than using a number on a given scale. By letting the participants give descriptive details of their past experiences, the information gathered was both rich and believable. There was a total of eight subjects included in the study; all of them were males between the ages of 20 and 31. Six of the participants identified as Caucasian/White, one identified as mixed-race, and one identified as Black/African. The research questions ranged from: “how would you describe yourself as a student?” to “describe for me in your own words what juvenile delinquency means.”

The researcher concluded that those who described themselves as “negative students” also tended to have low levels of self esteem, which he predicted could have lead to “social delinquent behavior.” The most important findings of this study were that low levels of self esteem can cause students to do poorly in school and in life. In addition, all of the participants reported experiences of being bullied while in school. The study also showed that negative or lack of social interaction with peers and teachers can lead to adolescents having low academic success rates as well as low self-esteem. In my opinion, however, the most interesting finding from this study was the fact that most of the participants were not failing all of their classes; they were average students with a lack of confidence and social skills.

Not all juvenile offenders are lazy dropouts who were bullies in high school. This study shows that one cannot put all juvenile criminals in the same category. One cannot assume that because a 16-year-old is incarcerated, for example, he or she must have failed or dropped out of school. This study is just another reminder that every individual, just like every criminal, has a story, and therefore, one should not study a group of people as if they are all the same.

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