The Synthesis of Research on Public Mind : An Application of Meta - analysis

Abstract

The purposes of this research were 1) to synthesize the research studies on public mind published during 2003 to 2013, 2) to develop an equation to determine the standard index for public mind, and 3) to synthesize the suggestions provided in the studies under this investigation.  The sample consisted of 80 research studies published by organizations and educational institutions as dissertations or theses which met the selection criteria.

            The research findings were as follows:

1. From all 80 research studies under this study 1,265 standard indices were identified: 371 indices for the effect size and 894 indices for the co-efficient correlation. The factors that affected the co-efficient correlation at the highest level were the educational level of the samples, which was the basic education; the directive hypotheses; and the gender of the researchers, found to be mostly female.
2. The factors that could be used to predict the public mind included personnel, process, and innovative media. When the causal factors were analyzed, the factors found to have the largest effect size were family, processing formats, and innovative media.
3. As for the suggestions, most of the studies suggested that educational organizations have policy to develop public mind in students by creating clear plans and workable projects. People in the societies such as parents, teachers, community leaders, and those in mass media should be involved in the process of public mind development for the students.