Research Proposal

Research Question:

Does being a member of a university sports team affect the level of alcohol consumed in comparison to a non-sports team student?

Method:

To answer the research question we will first look at what previous research conducted on university students and drinking. For our own research we will be conducting surveys on both students who are sports team members and those who are not. As part of the survey we will be asking students to identify their own drinking habits and reasons as well as their perception of other students. We are going to focus our survey on the sports team members and if alcohol consumption is an integral part of team membership and identity looking more closely at initiations. When looking at the sports team members we will also try and see if there is a differentiation between the different sports teams and whether this reflects their stereotype. The reasons for us using surveys as oppose to interview is that its quicker and easier to get a larger response as we can use social media sites to gain participants. Interviews would involve finding a time and place to conduct them which can be time consuming in itself. Also surveys through social media enable us to get students from all over the country to participate in our research. We are not focusing our research on just one university as it will give a more representative view of students all over England as well as other countries.

Concerns with research and ethical issues

Due to us using surveys, which are going to be posted through social media the participants will have chosen to do the survey therefor they are consenting to participation. All survey participation is anonymous and therefore we are safeguarding the interests of those involved. Due to the fact that we are not conduction a covert research all our participants will be aware that this is part of a research project and so they may change their answers to reflect the stereotypes.

Time Frame

We will be conducting the survey over a time period of 2 weeks as people do not always respond straight away when it comes to social media. Also people especially students have a tendency to overlook things so we will be posting the links on multiple occasions.