Observation and Measurement - Research Question

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Share your research question and hypothesis (the one you are using for the research proposal) with the class, and describe your question in both qualitative and quantitative terms. Is your question more qualitative or more quantitative? Discuss how this influences the type of measures that you use (behavioral, self-report, physiological, implicit, etc.). If your study is primarily quantitative, how could you revise it to be qualitative, and vice versa? Have you a preference for qualitative or quantitative research? Why?

Since I did anomie for your annotated bibliography, I guess I'll stick with that, it is one of my favorite aspects of psychology.

While an old topic, the recent decay and near destruction of the city of Detroit is worth studying. The question is the extent to which anomie in that city is responsible for its horrid decline. I will compare Detroit with the cities that Forbes magazine is saying are the fastest growing and developing in America. What do the growing cities have that Detroit does not? The basic thesis is that signs of anomie: family breakdown, divorce, school dropout rates and similar measures will go a long way in explaining the difference.

Background and Facts on the Detroit Meltdown:

Crime, especially violent crime, is falling in most American cities. Detroit remains an exception where violent crime is rising, and rising rapidly. A full quarter of the city is controlled by gangs and is thus off limits to police, mostly in the northeastern part of the city. Unemployment, using conservative figures, hovers at between 55 and 65% according to the former mayor. About half of the police have been laid off, and what is left functions only at a minimum. Maybe 10% of all crimes are solved. Most police stations are closed, at least most of the time. Ten years ago, Detroit's police force had about 6,000 members. Today, with a population of 700,000 it has roughly 2000, with the average shift at 16 hours. They have all been forced to take a 10% pay cut as well.

Roughly 47% of the city is "functionally illiterate" while gangs fight it out over turf without intervention from police, who are in no position to fight. Last year, police units staged a protest at the city's entrances holding that they could not guarantee the safety of any visitor to this city. Forbes says that Detroit is America's #1 most miserable city according to every possible measure.

Given all that, Detroit's mayor, former NBA star David Bing, resigned his post, calling the city ungovernable. He said that Detroit was a "hell hole" while the Detroit Police Officer's ...