The purpose of this methods section is to show the reader how the researcher has tried to prove the thesis. It will help the reader understand how I went about collecting data for this research project and how it is answering the question of male police officer identity. This section will deal primarily with the methods of the research paper. There will be no results and it will not be an overview of the literature used. The methods being used and incorporated are interviewing five police officers from different departments. These interviews will help in the collection of data for the results section of the paper. My target audience is now those in the fields of Criminal Justice, Psychology and Men’s Studies. I will be focusing heavily on the male identity and how a police officer deals with life. I will be finding the multiple identities that a male police officer must have (or does not have) while in this line of work. This will deal with the psychological aspect of a person specifically males. This will be helpful in the Criminology field and also be very important in Men’s Studies.
The purpose of the method’s section in my paper was to show reader who participants were, the materials used, design of the method used, and finally the procedures which I used to complete this section. It has differed from other parts of my paper because it was used to show the reader all of the above. In other places in this paper the reader has yet to see what methods were used to collect the data on the subject; male police officer identity. I hoped to accomplish having five participants from different Pennsylvania departments all male police officers participate in this research and be my subjects. I prepared this paper and have written this section as others for those in the field of Psychology, Criminal Justice and Men’s Studies.
Methods
Participants: The participants for this research project were five male police officers. Two from the Pennsylvania (PA) State Troopers, one from Indiana Borough, one Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) Campus Police and one from a small municipality. These men were not randomly selected and demographics did not play a role into selection. The only pre-requisites needed were officers who had served more than two years with their department of that had more than two years of policing experience.
Materials: The materials used in gathering this data were as follows: e-mail exchange, timed questionnaire (10-15 minute limit to finish), and pen and pad. The reason this was used is because it was based off interviews with the officers.
Design: The officers present in a setting where only the researcher and the officer were secluded. It was a one on one setting. The group used in this experiment was five male police officers. Variables such as demographics and rank were not accounted for.
Procedure: The officer’s were handed a series of questions to which they had 10 to 15 minutes to complete. They were asked questions to how they perceive their selves in each setting. The settings included at work, family, and friends. These setting were chose because each has different variables to how the officer may act and perceive their self. The researcher also used e-mail exchange to keep in contact with the participants if a question was not specified by the participant.
