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Measurement and its instruments are a fundamental component of researches in social science. To demonstrate it in the structure of the study, the article of Evans and Feder “Help-seeking amongst women survivors of domestic violence: a qualitative study of pathways towards formal and informal support” (2015) on the domestic violence topic was chosen as an example. One should determine the main points of the research, the advantages and weaknesses, the reliability and validity of measurement instruments, and a general discussion on using them.
First, the article explains the necessity of the research conduction, which includes the relevance of the abuse problem and the drawbacks of solving and studying it. Then, what is more important, it muses about the measurement instrument, which is based on “Psychological advocacy toward healing (PATH): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial” (Brierley et al., 2013, p. 221). The main advantage of such a study, by article’s admission, is the fact that it is the first of its kind outside North America. It surely helps to widen the geographical borders of the research field. However, it also means that the range of the results would remain somewhat restricted due to focusing only on UK abuse victims.
Then, the study concentrates on the women personal life according to the trial extracts, and how exactly the dynamics of their everyday life has changed after requesting help from abuse. To structure the information correctly, the authors decided to divide the results into five subsections. Those are motivations for seeking help, the barriers preventing the search, the role of the outside help in the disclosure, as well as in the rehabilitation, and, finally, the changes.
The structure aids in a simple understanding of the results — they are classified and proved. Nonetheless, the trial’s abstracts can be considered selective, since authors were choosing the required quotes to support the structure.
The results from the five subsections emphasize the number of aspects of the abuse towards women. Firstly, women were motivated to report on their situation due to the continuous violence of their partners, which endangered both their lives and the lives of other family members. Secondly, several reasons restrained them, namely, the disapproval of the close ones, fear of life changes, and fear of the punishment from the abuser. Thirdly, the research makes evident that women frequently delayed their turn to specialists. They finally resorted to help after a significant accident, because of the advice of the professionals or someone personally close to them.
Fourthly, the article makes a point that despite the low expectations, women were continuously consulting the specialists, which lead to the specialists being finally able to provide help. And, finally, the research presents the women’s impression after the rehabilitation – a majority was resolved to continue their independent life, though a minor part was disappointed with the amount of help.
In the end, the article shows the discussion on the topic. It demonstrates strengths (the accent of the disclosure aspect study) and weaknesses (the samples being possibly insufficient for the judgment). Moreover, it contemplates the perspectives of studying new ways to help women in their efforts to get over the abuse. Additionally, it mentions the multi-dimensional nature of the problem and the necessity of further studies.
It is also essential to take a separate focus on the instruments of the research which were used to shape the conclusions. They should be evaluated through the prism of validity and reliability terms. According to Bolarinwa (2016), validity refers to “the degree to which a measurement measures what it purports to measure,” and reliability – “to which the results obtained by a measurement and procedure can be replicated” (p. 195). The article itself states a goal of conducting the measurement to disclose the paths of women to the abuse aid, the barriers along the way, the facilitators, and the main results (Evans & Feder, 2015).
As one can see in the provided summary of the central part, the authors handle the declared goal efficiently. Only the geographical limitations which were mentioned earlier remain intact and hinder the article’s claim of encompassing research.
As for reliability, it also plays a significant role. On the one hand, the researchers note that “Reliability is important to consider in construct validation, but it should not be maximized at the expense of other evidence” (Flake, Pek, & Hehman 2017, p. 376). On the other hand, the article still fulfills the requirement of reliability decently enough since its results can be replicated using instruments on a similar scale and in the same environment.
Nevertheless, measurement discussion is an integral part of each social science research. According to Flake et al., (2017), an imperfect measurement can cause a severe handicap of the study’s conclusions. For this reason, one must choose the instrument wisely, depending on the circumstances. The researched article which deploys the trial and its abstracts as the instrument, for example, utilizes it carefully enough to form definitive conclusions. However, the samples’ limitations and the focus not precisely on the statistical numbers can serve as a disadvantage to the instrument’s choice.
Conclusion
In the end, one should conclude that the article explores the topic of women seeking and attaining help from the abuse. It fulfills the declared tasks of showing the motivations and boundaries of the victims, connecting with the professionals, and achieving results. Both the validity and reliability of the measurement stay on a high level throughout the study. However, one should remember several setbacks of the research, such as the limitation of the instrument’s choice, as well as the selective and non-encompassing essence of the results.
References
Brierley, G., Agnew-Davies, R., Bailey, J., Evans, M., Fackrell, M., Ferrari, G., … Feder, G. S. (2013). Psychological advocacy toward healing (PATH): Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Trials, 14(221), 1-9.
Bolarinwa, O. A. (2016). Principles and methods of validity and reliability testing of questionnaires used in social and health science researches. The Nigerian Postgraduate Medical Journal, 22(4),195-201.
Evans, M. A., & Feder, G. S. (2016). Help-seeking amongst women survivors of domestic violence: A qualitative study of pathways towards formal and informal support. Health Expectations, 19(1), 62-73.
Flake, J. K., Pek, J., & Hehman, E. (2017). Construct validation in social and personality pesearch. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 8(4), 370-378.
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