Introduction
While others believe that weather does not have an effect when it comes to mood. These researchers have found that people simply change their daily routine when unexpected weather hits. This potential study analyzes whether or not the weather has an effect on negative comments an individual posts on their social media page. This study believes an individual will post more negative comments on their social media page(s) on days with rain and overcast than days with sunshine.
The two methodologies that will be used for this study are cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. A cross-sectional study will allow researchers to analyze behavioral changes between different populations. This will increase validity amongst the research subjects. The second methodology, longitudinal study, will be conducted in order to assess how rain impacts a person’s comment quality over an extended amount of time. This can help researchers assess whether or not weather does have an impact on emotional behavior or if other aspects of an individual life are influencing what they post on their social media sites.
Cross-Sectional Study
Cross-sectional studies are used when a researcher wants to study one key characteristic through several different people at one specific point in time. The data that is collected is from people who use social media, however, differ on other characteristics such as age or income. Researchers should find participants who are on different age, income, geographical levels. For this study, it would be bests for researchers to gather participants throughout three different counties in the area. By gathering individuals from different counties, both validity and reliability of the sample would be increased.
Cross-sectional studies are observational, thus, a researcher will be able to analyze the weather of that day while analyzing the content an individual posts on their social media site. Research participants should be aware and accept their participation in the study, however, they should not be informed on the nature of the study. For example, participants should not be educated on the fact that the researchers are looking for a direct link between weather and the content of their social media comments. By using this research method, a researcher can analyze weather and the participant’s social media comments, and grouping the results based on age, gender and income. This allows future research studies.
Prior to the study, participants should be given a questionnaire in order to analyze how the participants view positive and negative social media comments. By analyzing how the participants view negative and positive comment, the researchers are better able to analyze whether or not that participants comments on any given day are more negative or positive in nature.
Participants should be selected to represent all the individuals throughout the communities. In other words, participants should be proportionate to the differences throughout society. Age, income and gender should closely resemble the community. It should be noted what the weather was like on the given day (raining or sunshine), and then the researchers should analyze whether or not the participants comments for that day are either positive or negative. By analyzing the results, researchers are able to see how many negative comments individuals of different ages and income post on sunny or rainy days. It is believed that the results of this study will should that participants will post more negative comments if the weather that day is rainy instead of sunny.
Longitudinal Study
A longitudinal study, on the other hand, involves analyzing variables over a series of years. This allows researchers to eliminate any issues with that may be presented with correlation. Researchers should obtain a sample of participants from different age and income backgrounds in one community. Similar to the cross-sectional study, the sample should proportionally represent the larger population.
Similar to the cross-sectional study, participants should be given questionnaires or survey’s regarding positive and negative comments. Prior to the study, participants should be given a questionnaire in order to assess what that individual considers to be positive and negative social media comments. By analyzing how the participants view negative and positive comment, the researchers are better able to analyze whether or not that participants comments on any given day are more negative or positive in nature.
Over the course of five years, researchers should analyze the participant’s social media behavior in regards to the weather. Every day, the researchers should report on what the weather was like every day and whether or not the participant’s social media comments are more positive or negative. By analyzing the participant’s social media behavior of the course of five years, researchers will be able to see the participant’s behavior in relation to weather patterns. It is believed the results of the longitudinal study will show that a participant’s social media comments will be more negative in nature when it is raining than when there is sunshine.
Pros and Cons
Cross-sectional
Pros
Cross-sectional studies allows researchers to compare behavior amongst different population. By analyzing different populations, a researcher can more accurately measure whether or not rain has an effect on social media comments. This is due to the fact that different populations have different environmental aspects that could affect their emotions on any given day. For example, the community could have just lost a loved community member. This could have an effect on the validity of the results. There are bigger issues going on that could be related to their social media behavior other than the weather. In other words, cross-sectional studies increase the validity of the results.
Cons
Cross-sectional studies do not take into consideration any current disasters going on throughout the world. The terrorist attack in Paris is an example of this. The attacks in Paris emotionally effected people throughout the world. It also gained a lot of social media attention. Therefore, there are other aspects going on that are affecting these individuals other than the rain. Cross-sectional studies do not take this into consideration. Cross-sectional studies test a hypothesis by applying it to two or more different populations are one given time. In this situation, it would not take into considerations any current worldwide situations that may be impacting an individual emotionally during a specific time.
Cross-sectional research does not give researchers casual relationships. In this case, a cross-sectional study would only show correlation and not necessarily causation. In longitudinal studies, on the other hand, researchers are able to see whether or not weather has an effect on mood and what an individual posts on their social media page(s).
Longitudinal
Pros
Longitudinal studies do take into account current disasters. Longitudinal studies allow a researcher to eliminate the effect of any current disaster that may be going on throughout the world. For example, the terror attack in Paris was an event that gained a lot of social media attention. Event such as these will increase the likelihood for an individual to post a negative comment. Thus, the fact that it is raining may not be the only emotional impact for an individual on that given day. Longitudinal studies take these problem out of the study by analyzing behavior over a given period of time and not at one specific time.
Cons
Longitudinal studies do not give researchers the ability to research different populations. Only one population is studied during a longitudinal study. This could cause several problems for the study at hand. There could be other things going on throughout one community that could be effecting their mood more than the weather. For example, the death of a loved community member may affect whether or not that individual is going to post a negative comment on their social media page that day. By using cross-sectional research, on the other hand, a researcher is able to eliminate the possibility of external forces by analyzing different populations of people. Longitudinal studies, on the other hand, do not allow a researcher to eliminate this possibility.
Best Methodology
For this situation, a longitudinal would better assist researchers. While the longitudinal study does not look at difference between different populations, it does allow researchers to analyze behavior over an extended amount of time. This is more important for this situation. Researchers need to be able to analyze behavior over a long period of time in order to eliminate any validity issues regarding specific time periods. For example, people during the Paris shootings are more likely to post negative comments on their social media sites. Longitudinal studies eliminate that problem. By analyzing participants over a long period of time, researchers can analyze behavior before, during, and after traumatic situations in order to eliminate any validity issues in regards to correlation.
Cross-sectional studies have the advantage of letting researchers analyze behavior through different populations. This is also an advantage for this study. It eliminates any issues with choosing one population with similar qualities. Cross-sectional studies allow a research to eliminate any issues in regards to current community problems. For example, one community may be more negative than the rest of the population. This can affect the results of a study and cannot be properly analyzed unless researchers compare and contrast different populations. Longitudinal studies do not offer this. However, cross-sectional studies do not give the researchers the ability to look at participant’s behavior over an extended amount of time. This is a more important aspect for this study. Researchers need to be able to rule out any current situation that an individual is going though in regards to correlation. Longitudinal studies offer this for researchers. Thus, a longitudinal study would better assist researchers with this hypothesis.
Conclusion
Both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies could be used for this hypothesis, however a longitudinal study may better assist the researcher. Longitudinal studies allow a researcher to analyze behavior of an extended amount of time. This is what is most important for a study with this type of hypothesis. Researchers need to be able to eliminate any issues regarding correlation. Longitudinal studies would be best to analyze the effect weather has on an individuals social media behavior.
