Sociology Assignment

By: Abdullah Shah

Class: 10-H

Task: Using the skills learnt in Chapter 1, create a proposal for a sociological research
project.

Topic: Impact of Increased Academic and co-curricular burden on the mental health of high
school students.

1. Aims of Research:
This research aims to find out any existing correlations or repetitive patterns that can be
observed, via the comparison of the amount of courses or subjects a student takes in high
school, and how this acts a burden upon their mental health by causing issues such as
anxiety and depression. The aim of this research is to gather quantitative and qualitative
data, and use this for finding statistical evidence to gather evidence relating to a possible
direct correlation between these students’ academic/ co-curricular activities and their
worsening mental health.

2. Hypothesis/ Research Questions:

a. Hypothesis:
i. Students that often engage in multiple co-curricular activities such as
Public Speaking, Science Olympiads, Sports, whilst also choosing more
subjects in their high school are more likely to have symptoms of anxiety
and depression in comparison to the students who do not partake in these
activities.
b. Research Questions?
i. To what extent can the majority of these students handle the subjects that
they choose, and what is the limit of subjects that these students can
balance whilst not having symptoms of the aforementioned illnesses?
ii. Is the impact of these activities upon the mental health of these students
directly proportional? I.e: Does opting for more subjects, courses or
activities worsen their mental state.

3. Sample:
a. The sample size for this study will be 60 students, including first year and final
year high school students.
 b. Quota Sampling will be carried out to maintain fair representation from all
groups, classes, and genders. These quotas will be representative of the total
student count.
c. The samples will be representative in terms of other variables such as socio-
economic status, family structure, race, to ensure that sample bias is as limited as
possible.

4. Research Methods:
a. Semi-structured interviews:
To get a qualitative standpoint via the conduction of primary research. This also
helps in the location of any confounding variables, which in turn can help avoid
the results of the study being unreliable, or invalid.
b. Content Analysis:
To analyze patterns in secondary research, such as governmental research,
existing statistics, and studies done by other sociologists which may relate to my
topic, to create a scale upon which occurrence of symptoms can be measured
based upon the number of activities a student participates in. This will also be
done to measure the burden one activity/ subject has on a student, and to also
categorize these activities on a basis of the impact they have on students’ mental
health.

5. Conduction of a Pilot Study:

a. To identify any problems with the research plan, and ways to improve the way the
research is conducted.
b. To determine whether participants will be able to understand the questions which
may be asked during the interview.
c. To come up with ways to stop/ limit Interviewer and Sample Bias.

6. Ethical Considerations:
a. Informed Consent: To ensure that the participants are aware of the study being
conducted, so it is not a violation of their privacy.
b. Confidentiality: To ensure privacy and security of the participants.
c. Access to psychiatrists/ counselors: To ensure that any participants that are going
through any identified issues can seek professional help.
d. Participation to be voluntary: To ensure that the participants are aware that the
study can be stopped at any time if they feel that it is in violation of their privacy,
and that there exists an option for withdrawal without any consequences.

7. Proposed Analysis/ Findings:

a. Proposed Analysis: Use methods of Quantitative Analysis such as correlation
analysis, to determine patterns and proportionality from the achieved results, to
 reach a conclusion. Additionally methods such as Thematic Analysis in
Qualitative Analysis to be used to identify why these repeating patterns exist, and
how/ why pre-existing sentiments in these individuals led to them over-burdening
themselves with these activities/ subjects.
b. Proposed Findings: With the conclusion of this research, it is likely that a
correlation will be seen between high number of subjects and declining mental
health, proving the initial hypothesis correct. It may also reveal failure at desired
objectives as a cause of this overburdening, which leads to a significant impact
upon their mental health.

8. Limitations:
a. The responses in interviews might be subject to Interviewer bias, by the
intentional or unintentional way through which a question is asked. This might
also occur in cases where the participant’s answer is affected by the age, sex, or
ethnicity of the interviewer.
b. The responses may be subject to the Hawthorne Effect, where the participants
may feel that they have to hide their true feelings from the interviewer for the
answers to be more socially desirable/ acceptable.
c. There may exist a sample bias, as the sample might not accurately represent all
groups due to the limited size of the sample.