This discussion, you are going to be asked to do a bit of critical thinking. Have you ever heard this expression? “Opposites attract.” What about this one? “ Birds of a feather flock together.” Both of these say something about what attracts one person to another and both are commonly used expressions. The problem is they are opposites.
Suppose we wanted to know whether people tend to marry those who have interests and values that are different from their own (opposites) or whether they tend to marry those with similar interests and values (birds of a feather). How might we find out? As you create your discussion post, consider the following:
What are the steps involved in conducting research?
How do we determine what type of research is suitable for a particular problem?
What type of research would be useful in this case?
How would we go about doing it?
Propose a simple research project that would allow you to answer the question: Which of the two statements in quotation marks above applies best to selection of marriage partners in the United States? Choose one of the research methods listed in Module 4 that you think would be the most useful and practical for exploring this question. Explain why this method would be appropriate. Describe in some detail the steps that you would take in setting up and carrying out this research.