Learning Objective: Demonstrate understanding of commonly used sociological research methods Directions
Use the chapter on research methods to write an essay of 175-350 words about the following narrative:

The narrative
Dr. Hafsatu Adamu is doing her dissertation research on the relationship between the timing and nature of de-colonization on contemporary civilian hand-gun violence rates in the 3 largest societies of North America. To measure the timing of de-colonization, she is using each country’s official Independence Day and year. To measure the nature of decolonization, she is using 2 categories: armed insurrection and civic negotiation. To measure hand-gun violence rates, she is using municipal police data on reported shooting attempts by civilians (i. e. not police or military) per 1,000 people in the state. She has selected cities in Mexico, the USA, and Canada and matched them on a number of factors including size, location near the border, and proximity to a similar-sized locality just across the border.

Your essay must address the following questions, at a minimum:
> What is the research question, and what theory is she testing?
> What are the independent variables, and how are they operationalized?
> Are there any control variables? If so, name them and describe how they are operationalized.
> What is the dependent variable, and how is it operationalized?
> Did we give a name to the sampling technique that she used, and what are the implications for generalizing her study results to the reference population? What is the reference population?