I am Blogger. . . Hear me RAR!!!

This post's title features another cheap attempt of mine to be funny. Are you laughing yet? If not, I guess I'll have to ellaborate the joke.

Last week I mentioned that this blog is a class requirement. This week's assignment involves something our professor calls a Research Article Review, or a RAR if you like acronyms.

"But wait!" you exclaim, "What research article?" Don't get ahead of my people, here's a linky thingamajig to read what I read:

http://www.medindia.net/News/Adolescents-Emotional-Skills-Gets-Boosted-by-Theatre-Programmes-24002-1.htm

In case you're technologically illiterate (or just too lazy) to click on the link and read the article, I will summarize it for you. Researchers from the University of Illinois did a study of Adolescent Behavior by observing and interviewing studnets and faculty involved in a Theatre Production on the high school level. They claimed to have discovered that the adolescents' emotional skills were strengthened as a result of their experiences during the rehearsals and run of the show.

In class we have recently covered differing research types and the advanatages/disadvantages of them. I would label this article's study as Descriptive research since no active part was done by the researchers was done. You could also say this is also a Correlational Research since a comparison was made between the emotional skills of the theatre practitioners was contrasted with those who weren't in it.

While I agree that theatre can and will affect those who practice it, I would have to conclude this study as incomplete or faulty or inconclusive (choose your poison). These students were being interviewed and the researchers attended their rehearsals, so the students had to have known they were being a part of something. It is therefore very likely that the fact that they knew they were being watched changed how they behaved. I call this the "Halo-Pitchfork" affect since having someone watch you can produce either your best behavior or your worst. In addition, it's impossible to monitor everything the students are doing that involves emotions. Theatre is not the only medium by which emotions can be measured or produced, although in my opinion it's definitely one of the most entertaining. The fact that the article itself says"emotional skills MAY be strengthened" by high school theatre leaves room for doubt. I would definitely say this research holds some merit and can be used to form a hypothesis, but until more definitive research and experimentation has been made, the claim will have to remain inconclusive.


(Incidentally, the later portion of this post isn't funny. . . just thought I'd point that out)