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.