Contextual Analyses of Environmental Stress

Abstract

The Los Angeles Noise project was a complex and arduous project of relatively long duration. First, there were numerous preparatory meetings among the co-principal investigators to conceptualize and design the study. Grant proposals were submitted and research funds obtained. Then, meetings were held with approximately 10 Los Angeles elementary-school principals to recruit the participation of their staff and students in our research, and a travel trailer was acquired and remodeled to serve as a mobile testing station for our research participants. During spring 1977 and spring 1978, small armies of research assistants led by at least one principal investigator per testing session made daily excursions to the participating schools where five groups, each comprised of five children, were tested in our trailer throughout the school day. Subsequently, several months were devoted to the coding and analysis of the data from the longitudinal and replication samples. Finally, research reports were prepared for presentation at conferences and for submission to various journals.

If you had it to do over again, how would you redesign your research? In light of the findings from your study, how have your theoretical and methodological approaches to the problem changed?

Dissertation committee member to doctoral candidate during final oral exam