Forum 3 research methods Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Forum 3 research methods - Essay Example It was found that people who wanted the inclusion of homosexuals into the protected group supported the hate crime law whereas others that wanted homosexuals out of the protected group rejected the hate crime law. As contained by the theory of identity politics, the data-supported path model helped the researchers find that the people who considered the hate crimes a source of fear among the victim group’s members as well as the economic and social liberals raised their support for the inclusion of the homosexuals into the hate crime laws. Rest of the research findings were not consistent with the theory of identity politics that considers the movement a united front. A surprising finding of the research was that the likelihood of belief in the increase of hate crimes was found to be more in the social conservatives as compared to the economic conservatives. All variables possibly having some kind of indirect or direct relationship with the dependent model included in the study were displayed in the form of a skeletal model shown in the article as Fig. 1. The skeletal model’s fundamental dependent variable was the general extent of support of a respondent for a hate crime law containing the condition of penalty enhancement. The definition of a variable as the dependent or independent variable depended upon the regression. In total, seven regressions were performed. In the first regression, the dependent variable in the skeletal model i.e. general hate crime law attitude was shown towards the extreme right with all of the independent variables towards the left. In the subsequent six regressions, â€Å"the dependent variables were homosexual inclusion, verbal aggression inclusion, hate crimes increased, fear among other group members, social liberalism/conservatism, and economic liberalism/conservatism† (Johnson and Byers, 2 003, p. 232), whereas the independent variables in these six regressions were all variables towards the left of but not above or