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.