M3: Assess the strengths and weaknesses of the research project in meeting aims or hypothesis
M4: Assess findings of the research project in relation to the original hypothesis
D2: Evaluate how the research project could have been improved
Strengths
The first strength of my research project was that it supported my hypothesis. My hypothesis was that
students at Carshalton College experience sexual harassment, and that women experience it more often
than men. My research has backed this up because it has proven that women do in fact experience
more sexual harassment than men. My findings suggest that 86% of females experienced sexual
harassment compared to 0% of males. This also supports my aim which was to find out ‘is there a
significant relationship between gender and sexual harassment?’. This was my most important finding
because it was the main thing that I was trying to find out through this research, which is why I believe
this is a strength. My secondary source also backed up my findings, which makes my research more valid
because it has evidence behind it. It also makes it more reliable because similar research has already
been carried out by someone else. The NHS website which I used as my secondary sourced stated that
“20% of women and 4% of men have experienced some type of sexual assault since the age of 16”. I
believe this is a strength because it backs up my findings that women experience more sexual
harassment than men.
Another strength of my research project was that me and my team members stuck to all deadlines and
timescales. This meant that we were very prepared for the research before it happened and were able
to carry it out effectively. For example, we had to identify the hypothesis in the second week of our
project. If we did not do this on time we would not be able to carry on with our project and it would
delay the whole thing, we may even not be able to carry out the research and as a result of this we
would fail Unit 22. A skill which helped us achieve this was teamwork, we all had to work together to
plan and complete our project. We had to figure out how many participants we needed, where we were
going to carry out the research and what methods we would use to carry it out. Without doing this, we
would not have been able to meet our hypothesis and aim. This is a strength because working in a team
enabled us to carry out our research project and helped us achieve our hypothesis.
Furthermore, the next strength of my research project is that I had enough participants to fill out my
questionnaire and take part in the unstructured interview. This is a strength because it means that I
have an appropriate sample size which I will be able to use to generalise the whole college. Not having
enough participants in my research would make it invalid and unreliable because it would not accurately
generalise all the students at the college. This is very important because without this my research would
not have much validity or reliability because it wouldn’t be able to be applied to all 16-19 year olds.
The last strength of my research project is that I used the appropriate methodology when carrying out
my research. I included a combination of quantitative, qualitative, primary and secondary methods in
the project. This was done so that my findings could be as detailed as possible, as this would give them
more validity and reliability. The first qualitative method which I used was questionnaires, this is
because they are quick to fill out which is good for students. They are usually busy and won’t have a lot
of time to participate in the research. Questionnaires also give me the freedom to ask whatever
Unit 22 1
M4: Assess findings of the research project in relation to the original hypothesis
D2: Evaluate how the research project could have been improved
Strengths
The first strength of my research project was that it supported my hypothesis. My hypothesis was that
students at Carshalton College experience sexual harassment, and that women experience it more often
than men. My research has backed this up because it has proven that women do in fact experience
more sexual harassment than men. My findings suggest that 86% of females experienced sexual
harassment compared to 0% of males. This also supports my aim which was to find out ‘is there a
significant relationship between gender and sexual harassment?’. This was my most important finding
because it was the main thing that I was trying to find out through this research, which is why I believe
this is a strength. My secondary source also backed up my findings, which makes my research more valid
because it has evidence behind it. It also makes it more reliable because similar research has already
been carried out by someone else. The NHS website which I used as my secondary sourced stated that
“20% of women and 4% of men have experienced some type of sexual assault since the age of 16”. I
believe this is a strength because it backs up my findings that women experience more sexual
harassment than men.
Another strength of my research project was that me and my team members stuck to all deadlines and
timescales. This meant that we were very prepared for the research before it happened and were able
to carry it out effectively. For example, we had to identify the hypothesis in the second week of our
project. If we did not do this on time we would not be able to carry on with our project and it would
delay the whole thing, we may even not be able to carry out the research and as a result of this we
would fail Unit 22. A skill which helped us achieve this was teamwork, we all had to work together to
plan and complete our project. We had to figure out how many participants we needed, where we were
going to carry out the research and what methods we would use to carry it out. Without doing this, we
would not have been able to meet our hypothesis and aim. This is a strength because working in a team
enabled us to carry out our research project and helped us achieve our hypothesis.
Furthermore, the next strength of my research project is that I had enough participants to fill out my
questionnaire and take part in the unstructured interview. This is a strength because it means that I
have an appropriate sample size which I will be able to use to generalise the whole college. Not having
enough participants in my research would make it invalid and unreliable because it would not accurately
generalise all the students at the college. This is very important because without this my research would
not have much validity or reliability because it wouldn’t be able to be applied to all 16-19 year olds.
The last strength of my research project is that I used the appropriate methodology when carrying out
my research. I included a combination of quantitative, qualitative, primary and secondary methods in
the project. This was done so that my findings could be as detailed as possible, as this would give them
more validity and reliability. The first qualitative method which I used was questionnaires, this is
because they are quick to fill out which is good for students. They are usually busy and won’t have a lot
of time to participate in the research. Questionnaires also give me the freedom to ask whatever
Unit 22 1
