Violent Behavior

l be conducting research on the topic of whether or not music with violent overtones, such as "gangster rap", increases violent behavior among young males. In designing a study of this nature, I will be allocating the use of survey questionnaires, according to Newman, "Aquestionnaire is a survey that involves a written question-and-answer exchange between the researcher and the participant". This will be designed in a manner that will ask the pertinent questions in respect to gain factual data on whether or not there is an increased prevalence of violent activities among young men who listen to "gangster rap", or have witnessed the actions of others who frequently listen to this genre of music. The sample pool will be 100 young male college students aged 18 to 24, of all races and socio economic backgrounds, at a local mixed race college. The sampling that I would use would be 100 college students aged 18 to 24, due to the fact that this would be the age group that engages in listening to this form of music at the highest rate, as well as the fact that these young men would be readily accessible for a study of this nature. One sample question would be: Do you listen to "gangster rap" music? A second sample question would be: How often do you hear this type of music played?

Each of these will be good questions, due to the fact that the first question ascertains if the participant actually engages in listening to this genre of music. The second question is a good question, due to the fact that it seeks to ascertain how often the participant is exposed to this genre of music, which is both key questions to ascertaining the participants' exposure to the music, and later ascertaining the reaction of the participant and others to the music. The ethical concerns related to my questions or approach, are that the questions are not overly intrusive into an individual's privacy, and that the questions don't ask the participant to make unfair subjective judgments. The best way to improve the response rate, is to let the participants know that their responses are important to gaining scientific insight, and to desire the questions in a manner that is easily understood and interesting to the participants. "Rap music has been at the center of concern about the potential harmful effects of violent media on youth social behavior" (Herd. 2009).

Herd,