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Suppose you are designing a study to examine how gender roles depicted in children's literature have changed over the past 50 years. Apply the principles of archival research to propose a specific data source you would use, and briefly explain why analyzing this source fits the definition of archival research.
Question: Suppose you are designing a study to examine how gender roles depicted in children's literature have changed over the past 50 years. Apply the principles of archival research to propose a specific data source you would use, and briefly explain why analyzing this source fits the definition of archival research.
Sample answer: I would use a collection of award-winning children's storybooks published annually between 1975 and 2025. Analyzing this source fits the definition of archival research because I am examining pre-existing texts that were originally written and published to entertain children, rather than actively collecting new data from participants.
Key points:
- Proposes a concrete pre-existing source (e.g., children's books published over 50 years).
- Applies the definition by identifying that the source material already exists.
- Explains that the source was originally created/collected for a different purpose (reading/publishing) rather than active data collection.
Rubric: Full credit: Proposes a specific pre-existing data source (e.g., historical children's books, school curricula, library archives) and explains that analyzing it is archival because the material is pre-existing and was originally created for another purpose rather than active new data collection.
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Research Methods in Psychology - 4th American Edition @ KPU
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Suppose you are designing a study to examine how gender roles depicted in children's literature have changed over the past 50 years. Apply the principles of archival research to propose a specific data source you would use, and briefly explain why analyzing this source fits the definition of archival research.