Case Study Cozby And Bates

In the book Methods in Behavioral Research, the author defines a case study as “an observational method that provides a description of an individual” (Bates, 2012, pg. 121). In this assignment, the student will be writing a case study about herself. The student will explain in detail about what she has studied and accomplished at the research introductory level. Throughout the paper, the writer will explain everything she has learned and now uses when it comes to researching. The student will also explain her experience from a Christian viewpoint.

The Subject: Nicole

The subject of this case study is a 27 year old, female, named Nicole. This is the first experience that Nicole had with taking a research class. Nicole enrolled back in school

According to Merriam Webster Dictionary (2012), research is defined as “studious inquiry or examination; especially investigations or experimentations aimed at the discovery and interpretation of facts, revision of accepted theories or laws in the light of new facts, or practical application of such new or revised theories or laws.” In chapter one of the book by Cozby and Bates (2012), the student read about the scientific understanding of behavior. The student, Nicole, had the chance to understand and learn that research is done by all types of businesses, organizations and companies in order to gain some type of information on specific topics. Nicole quickly learned that behavioral science has four goals. The first goal is the description of behavior. The second goal is the prediction of behavior. The third goal is determining the causes of the behavior and the fourth goal is the explanation of the behavior (Cozby and Bates 2012). During Nicoles time in the class, she began to understand the proper formatting of an APA style paper such as the title page, abstract, body and bibliography page. Nicole also took into consideration the importance of citing all of her sources to prevent any plagiarism that might occur innocently. According to Merriam Webster Dictionary (2012), plagiarism is “the act of using another person's words or ideas without giving credit to

Before this class, Nicole never knew how to perform research the correct way. She did not know that there is a process to follow, let alone know that there was a correct way. Nicole learned that the first step to research is forming a hypothesis. She learned how a hypothesis was formed and according to Cozby and Bates (2012), research is an attempt to test that hypothesis. Nicole learned that after the hypothesis was made, the researcher will then make a prediction and state what he/she thinks the outcome of the research will be (Cozby & Bates 2012). Nicole found this discussion and topic to be one of the most useful because it explained in detail how to perform research. Nicole often went back and reviewed this topic because it helped her understand how to begin and move forward with research. Nicole had very little knowledge when it came time to find books in the library, so researching the internet and detecting research articles was very challenging. The book Methods in Behavioral Research gave Nicole a list of websites that would be helpful in helping her find information for research papers. Some of the websites are PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, Sociology Abstracts, ERIC, PsycBOOKS and PubMed (Cozby & Bates 2012). According to Methods in Behavioral Research, the internet can be extremely useful in research,