Friday March 30 2012

I am still stuck on how I am going to tweak my project to be focused on an aspect of neurological science. I sat down yesterday and talked with my primary mentor and we nailed down some of the details that he wants to see in my research while I am abroad. The ideas that he had proposed were great and they really helped me see how possible what he wants me to do. So spent some time and I’ve come up with a plan. I want to keep the project the same. I want to add just one line or part to the main hypothesis or idea that specifies the addition of neuroscience aspect to the research. This will look something like this, "What are the perceptions among college age students in Tamil Nadu regarding healthcare options, Traditional and Western, when faced with a neurological disorder."

I think that neurological disorder might be a little ambiguous and I want to focus on how I can make that more clear when describing what it is that I want to do. I really want to survey people that have some sort preconceived notion of neurological disorders and see what treatment method they would prefer. I realize that it will be hard to have them see what it is that I want to know so being overly clear in explaining what I want to know will be crucial. There will be a tendency to see what I am proposing as a type of western approach and depending on how I pose the question that I am asking I might sway the answers because of my apparent western look.

So the things that I need to focus on in writing my proposal hypothesis or focus are:

1 The clearness of what I am looking for

2 The absence of any bias on my part when presenting the two options.

3 Finding correct translations for terms and ideas.

4 Focusing on all people between the ages of 18-25 and not just those that attend colleges.

There is a lot to come but I realize that I have a lot to change and get approved before I leave. Hopefully I can come up with an appropriate proposal soon.

Wednesday March 28 2012

In all reality the only thing that I have been able to do in order to really move my project along since the last time I wrote was an intense overhaul in my ideas surrounding what I am supposed to be doing in India. I have decided that I want to focus on something a little more soft science angle as far as science goes with the Neurological disorder that I am going to choose so that almost instantly puts me into the depression or anxiety corner as far as what I want to evaluate as a part of my study. Here are my reasonings why.
1. I feel that if I am able to study the effects of anything I want it to be something that affects a lot of people, and depending on how the terms depression and anxiety are defined in India culture I should potentially be able to find plenty of people that have an opinion concerning one of the two. In contrast, autism and schizophrenia are much more localized and smaller scale problems that affect few people. Thus my pool that I will be able to pull from will be much larger.
2. There is a possibility that me asking questions about specific neurological disorders might bring up some hard feelings or even might create a problematic level of discomfort for my subjects. This is a possibility due to the level of investment and emotion that people usually devote to loved ones and close acquaintances that suffer from more serious disorders. I hope to avoid this problem altogether.
3. Anxiety especially can be put in to phrases that are just as easy as a serious really defined disorder if done correctly. I worry that I might not be able to communicate my intentions in asking why I am asking if they have felt down or sad. But I think that I can think of a way to phrase anxiety for the purpose of the study I might be able to have it be very non invasive and people should respond normally to it.

I do have other reasons that I will expound on later but I need to focus on what I am going to do and just move on it with regards to the amount of energy that I am spending in defining the word. It might be a good idea to figure it out with contacts that I can make now in India or here for that matter to determine in what way people will respond to my surveys and questions in the field.

Monday Mar 26 2012

Like I said on Friday this last week has been quite the week of deadlines and interesting events that have led to the near completion of my IRB. I spent much of the week pursuing the task of finding a mentor and locating someone who has a similar interest as me in this project. I have decided to take yet another turn in the direction of my project. Upon talking with my professors in the Neuroscience Department I have decided to do a health study that coorelates with the neuroscience curriculum. We commonly study neurological disorders and problems that are common in society so instead of studying just the general percetions of Indias regrading healthcare. I wish to survey them based on thier disposition to go and seek medical treatment for existing medical condidtions.

This only makes sense because medicine is what I want to study. The program requires that I do a course contract and that I focus on something within my discipline. Thus the idea of combining two great project ideas cant be overlooked.

See Annotated source for March 23 to see data that refers to the number of poor among americans that report their own depression.

The biggest thing that I am walking away with after this weekend is the need to really focus my self on how I am going to communicate what I want to know to the people that I want to know it from. In other words I am really worried about how I can tie any neurological disorder into my project with out it seeming overly invasive or overly intrusive. I realize that neurological disorders in any culture can be kinda taboo and I hope that I can sensitive in addressing in any culture. How that will be effected in the culture in which I will be living I still am not sure and I really want to find out in order to be as effective as possible.

Much more thought and planning will have to go into my research as I think about the thin line of ethics and appropriateness that I will be forced to walk now.

Friday March 23 2012

The IRB was due this week and we spent most of the day going in and out making the necessary changes to the protocol. I also was informed by the neuroscience department that the research that I was to be doing in India need to be related to Neuroscience.
I have been doing a lot recently to make my proposal and draft much more meaningful. I feel that with the addition of the Neuroscience aspect of my project there will be a lot that has to go into it in order to not only get it through the IRB but also to have it ready and prepared for the substance that will be used in the field in order to justify its validity in collecting viable data.
In order to make it fit under the new parameters that the Neuroscience department has put into place I will have to go in and adjust my project as a whole. Instead of gaging he perceptions of the citizens of the area I will now be analyzing the pre-dispositions of the subjects in selecting Western or Traditional healthcare options when confronted with a mental disease. Luckily on my part mental disease isn't as grim and gloomy as the word makes it seem. I can focus on something from depression or anxiety all the way to something as serious as schizophrenia or autism. So I haven't exactly decided yet what topic I want to chose when it comes down to what specific disorder I will be analyzing. However in any of my preliminary research that I have done regarding the topics of Depression and Anxiety, I have found mixed reports as to the status of the disease in India and or other south asian countries. I know or I can at least anticipate that there will be some sort of language barrier or cultural barrier when it comes to what I see as depression and or anxiety and what the people see depression and or anxiety to be when I get to the field. It will be interesting to see what exactly it is that is appropriate regarding depression or anxiety and what I can talk about openly with people. I know that depression has been proliferated significantly by western traditions and practices and I hope that I can keep that bias out of my research as I go forth looking for the subjects opinion on the matter.
I have so much to figure out concerning the direction that this new part or shift in my proposal is going to go that I really feel like more knowledge of neurological disorders really might help me on. I figure its back to the drawing board to see what will happen after this major tweak.

Monday, March 12 2012

I worked on the IRB this weekend in preperation for class today. I spent most of my time updating the methods and statment of intent secitons.

Monday March 5 2012

IRB rough draft

Friday March 2 2012

I have spent some serious time in updating and adding some breadth to my rough draft of my IRB. I have been able to see some serious worth in analyzing to a Tee what it is that my peers and other students in the past have done. I feel that some of the instructions have not been very clearly declared and I have to look and look for examples from past students as to what I should do concerning the right way to fill out an IRB.

I have three major things that I need to do in order to make the IRB as concise and powerful as possible.

First, I need to have a clear background and significance when I submit my IRB. Ill be the first to admit that I didn't really understand what this section entailed until I sat down to write it the first time. 

Second, There needs to be a bit more policing of the terms that are used. The last thing that I want to happen is miscommunication of my intentions on the ground and this thing to not get approved.

Third, I recognize that the confidentiality and several other sections should be filled out to some great extent. I haven't been able to look at other people’s ideas for keeping records safe and how to handle the information that will be gathered. I need to spend some serious time on this section and move forward in declaring my intentions.

Wednesday Feb. 29 2012

Today we did preliminary flight planning with Venkat. I wrote the second section of the proposal today. I feel as if the work that Is being done on behalf of the trip is really going well. I havent realized jsut how far we had come until earlier today when I was thinking about how we had already talked about two of the 9 sections of the proposal and pretty much nothing else. We have spent some time discussing appropriate methods on how to enter the community in which we will be living and how to gain rapport with the people.
I wonder how difficult it will be for us to gain the rapport with the poeple. I found it very easy on my mission to really get to know people and to gain rapport in a community or with a ward was as simple as being completely genuine, while loving those whom I was serving. I think that with the differences in culture and the obvious language barrier that will come up it will be quite the trick to gain serious trust.

Monday, Feb 27 2012

Aside from today being my birthday I have found it to be shaping up to have been really productive as far as India preperation is going.