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17
Nov 23

It Takes Two to Make One

Fertility is a common discussion that many people have to face at some points in their life. Many couples try to have a baby and do so with ease, others struggle a little more. There are several factors that contribute to infertility and fertility struggles. Some may think since the female grows the baby, that would imply that the fertility would be solely dependent on the female but this is not the case. Therefore, the male should show interest in investigating the problem influencing fertility and the female should support this. This essay will discuss fertility and participatory research in males.

According to the readings, “Participatory (or sometimes action) research is when the researchers are a part of the community or other social situation and are vested in trying to learn something about an issue in that community.” (Psu, 2023). It is common to see the female in a relationship trying to conceive seeking help when needed for fertility but conceiving is based on both partners in the relationship. The question remains then, why are there far more females in fertility studies than men? Information that are pertaining to male fertility is vital to further research and develop better strategies to reduce infertility. This is why male participation in this research is important. We will now discuss why this discrepancy may occur and what can happen with this research.

According to the article, A Qualitative Study of Factors Influencing Male Participation in Fertility Research, “Male and female participants perceived that fertility is a women’s health issue and is a difficult topic for men to discuss. Men expressed fears of infertility tied to masculinity.” (Harlow et al.,2020). These results can suggest why the data on male and female fertility is not equal. If women feel that the issue is not a male problem because of their biological roots then why would males feel inclined to participate if they feel like they cannot help? This could be due to cultural or societal beliefs. Furthermore, the other issue found in this study of men feeling uncomfortable because they fear it will negatively impact their own self perception can definitely deter willing participation in data. We can see how both genders can contribute to this discrepancy in data. However, “Results suggest that more education and health communication on male fertility and reproductive health could help increase male participation in reproductive health research.” (Harlow et al.,2020).

In conclusion, we can now visualize how male participatory research in fertility is a multi-faceted issue. There are many contributing factors to this that involve not only men but also women. Societal and Cultural beliefs, fears and more can contribute to this issue. Therefore, it would be safe to conclude that the education of infertility as a whole is needed. Men should be able to feel normal coming into a space such as a fertility clinic without fear or stigma. Women should be able to be supported by their partners on their journey to pregnancy. These goals can hopefully be achieved through awareness and lead to change. Male fertility research is vital and studies suggest an increase in willingness to participate through education and awareness.

References

Harlow, A. F., Zheng, A., Nordberg, J., Hatch, E. E., Ransbotham, S., & Wise, L. A. (2020). A qualitative study of factors influencing male participation in fertility research. Reproductive health, 17(1), 186. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12978-020-01046-y

Psu. Lesson Overview. Penn State. https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2283102/modules/items/38851166

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15
Apr 18

Beware What You Tweet For

I’ve mentioned before how social media and technology has connected us all as a one giant community.  This connection has not only changed how we interact as a group but also creates a new method for social change.  Taking a look at recent “viral” causes such as the recent debate on the second amendment and firearms, people such as David Hogg are utilizing social media in order to enact social change.  Through just a few taps of a finger it is possible for a regular, normal, person to get in touch with thousands of others who potentially view the situation in question in a similar light (Gomez & Zdanowicz, 2018).  This new ability almost seems to bypass the need for trained social intervention activists, allowing the layman to become one all by themselves and in essence creating the perfect example of a participatory researcher, one who is involved in the work the are researching themselves.

However, this ability to reach out and capture a large group’s attention almost creates a “beware what you wish for” approach in that you may not like the results that are created.  In the wake of the Parkland School Shooting a group of students took to social media demanding a change in school safety and firearm control.  In a controversial response the schools enacted new policies of mandatory clear backpacks and tighter security measures.  The new policy, while arguably creating a safer environment, wasn’t exactly the change that the student’s were striving for, leading to a largely angry response on their part (González-Ramírez, 2018).

My point in all of this is that while technology is great, it is important to fully understand the concepts that you are proposing be changed.  In this instance the activists suffered from the flaw of having an unclear message.  Most would agree that the real change that the activists were trying to achieve was a change in firearm control, legislation, and regulation.  However, in an effort to make it more engaging, appealing, and to tie it to an emotional event they re-branded the message as a social change movement demanding change in school safety.  This allowed the school systems to respond in a way that was beyond their desired outcome, in a way they did not wish, and are most definitely not happy about (González-Ramírez, 2018).  While I am not looking to debate the merits on either said of this social change movement, the point that I am wishing to make is that while it may be easy and quick for any of us to initiate a social change movement in our own community it is also crucial that the desired goals of the movement be clearly expressed so the desired outcomes can be achieved.

 

González-Ramírez, A. (2018). Here’s How the Parkland Students Feel About Their New Clear Backpacks.  Retrieved From:  https://www.refinery29.com/2018/04/195395/marjory-stoneman-douglas-students-clear-backpacks-reaction?bucketed=true&bucketing_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

Gomez, I., & Zdanowicz, C. (2018). A Brief History of how Parkland Survivor David Hogg Keeps Schooling Lawmakers on Social Media.  Retrieved From:  https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/28/us/david-hogg-social-media-trnd/index.html

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16
Apr 17

Social Change and Urban Rebellion

Social change and urban rebellion

What is social change research and what are the different forms of social change research? How can we use social change research in our and others daily lives to make improvements? One of the topics that I found very interesting is the effect of social change research in the “Ghetto”. What does the word ghetto means? How can we use social change research to help individuals, mainly youths who reside in the ghetto to have better lives and a possible better future?

Social change research comes in several different forms, but the general idea is that the researchers are actively changing something in a social situation that they are a part of. There is Participatory research which is when the researchers are a part of the community and they get involved to learn things about the community that they live in. A good example of such research would be an individual who lives in the ghetto and is constantly tries to bring changes in the ghetto to better the lives of its residents. The second kind of social change research would be Activist research which goes beyond participatory research. The researcher is not only vested in the outcome of the research, but may be pushing a certain value set through their research (Nelson A., 2017).

Social research is a critical foundation for programs that seek to engage communities in change and in the development of more sustainable societies. Without appropriate research, programs aimed at change are likely to be based on implicit or assumed problem identification and or inferred community needs and wishes. I Personally don’t like to use the word ghetto. The term “ghetto” dates to describing the neighborhoods to which Jewish Europeans were confined. More recently, it’s been used in the U.S. to describe urban neighborhoods where minority groups live out of economic pressures (Izadi E., 2011).

To bring change in the less fortunate areas of the city, the residents of that community need to act and figure out what can they do to better their lives and the lives of the people in their community. This would be a perfect example of participatory research. For example, the leaders of the said communities can with the help of parents, educate the youth and provide them with options to do volunteer work after school. Living in a ghetto gives its inhabitants a certain community feeling, a certain sense of comfort and familiarity that they would find hard to get anywhere. Personal sense of comfort, community and normalcy matter much more to an individual when they do not possess economic comfort (Bandyopadhyay K., 2015).

I believe the best social change research method that would be effective in the said areas, would be the participatory research which is research conducted by the residence of that community. The researcher would understand the issues within that community better than anyone else and would be able to design and implement a plan to bring change within that community. Moving from a ghetto is not as easy as just packing up and moving out. People often get caught in the cycle of poverty. Therefore, getting the education and other life skills to move them out of that cycle can be very difficult, however it is possible with the help of the leaders of the community and by providing opportunities to those in need.

References

Bandyopadhyay K., Quora, (2015, May 9). Why do People Stay in the Ghetto When They Can Move Elsewhere? Retrieved April 15, 2017, from www.quora.com

Izadi E., DCentric, (2011, May 11). Ghetto: Five Reasons to Rethink the Word. Retrieved April 15, 2017, from www.dcentric.wamu.org

Nelson, A. (2017). Lesson 13. Applied social psychology: Social Change / Participatory Research. Presented on the PSYCH 424 course content site lecture at the Pennsylvania State University.

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15
Apr 17

Pseudo-Participatory Researchers and the #BlackLivesMatter Movement

Written 4/15/2017 by Lia Stoffle

This week we learned about social change research and its two subsets: participatory research and activist research. The origins of participatory research are credited to Paulo Freire (Schneider, Gruman & Coutts, 2012). He believed that “authentic education” involved “working with…oppressed groups rather than providing information for or about the group” (Schneider et al., 2012, p. 290). Based on his theories, he worked with Brazilian peasants to incite social change and life improvements. His takeaway: unsuccessful social and political change was due to designs not based on the people who would be affected by the change, but rather based on the ideas of “educators and politicians” (Schneider et al., 2012, p. 291). In 1977 Hall, Marino, and Jackson cofounded the Participatory Research Project in Toronto Canada (Hall, 1992). Their work, and the general focus of participatory research, involves a bias for people of “dominated, exploited, poor, or otherwise ignored” origins, with focus on the interaction or power and democracy, and attention to various social factors (Hall, 1992, p. 16). Having these roots established, my mind immediately went to the #BlackLivesMatter movement. I thought between the thousands of articles and studies at my disposal there must be some literature on social change research involving the Black Lives Matter movement. What I found was far less than I imagined. As I searched through “most recent” and “most relevant” filters I was still getting articles that either had to do with the Black Lives Matter movement OR participatory research. I thought “how in the world could this movement be so prevalent in American society that I see it all over the news and social media, yet the scholarly research be so scarce?” That’s what cued me in to discover that, in a sense, people from different walks of life ARE engaging in participatory research, but they probably aren’t in a position to write a scholarly article about the movement and the connections to the participatory research itself. Social media has made it possible for ordinary people to involve themselves in participatory research without necessarily realizing it. Continue reading →

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15
Nov 16

By the Bootstraps

You can tell a man to lift himself up by his own bootstraps, but what if he has no feet?

Painting by Van Gogh (1895), as taken from Wikimedia (2012)

Painting by Vincent van Gogh (1895), as taken from Wikimedia (2012)

Like how the classic colloquialism of “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” assumes a set of standards that may not always apply, social interventions are only effective if they match the needs of the people they aim to serve. For instance, if I wanted to help a ward of impoverished patients by donating a dozen pairs of boots, I would get some pretty scornful looks if they were in the hospital for transfemoral amputations. My intentions may have been good, but if I don’t account for the experiences of everyone I hope to help, I may harm them more than help them. Unfortunately, many well-intended people look at the world as though through a mirror, assuming that everyone everywhere would share the same needs, desires, and concerns that they themselves have. While this may at times produce great deeds and moments of human triumph when the needs of donor and recipient coincide, it can at times backfire.

Take the push to send yoga mats to Haiti in the wake of the 2010 earthquake (Kenny, 2011). Or the import of donated clothing that, through overwhelming the local economy, destroyed the textile industries in most African countries by 50 (Frazer, 2008; Brooks, 2013) to 88 percent (Aboagyewaa-Ntiri & Mintah, 2016). Or the food rations packages air-dropped in to Afghanistan that were the same color and size as cluster bombs and which Afghani children often couldn’t tell apart (Stupat, 2012).

If you didn't speak English, would it be hard to tell the two apart? (Stupart, 2012)

If you didn’t speak English, would it be hard to tell which to pick up? (Stupart, 2012)

Interventions like these that do not take the interests and perspectives of the people they purport to help can do far more harm than good. But such top-down approaches are far too common; in fact, they’re the traditional way of providing aid, from neighborhood to neighborhood and from nation to nation. In top-down interventions, researchers, politicians, humanitarian aid workers, and other authorities treat recipients as passive beneficiaries of aid rather than as active participants in the process; they tell people what they need rather than think to ask. By believing that their own culture is the gold standard and the default from which all others should be compared, many individuals who are part of top-down programs practice ethnocentrism, and by assuming that this cultural superiority grants them the authority to know what’s best for others more than those others themselves, top-down practitioners can also be paternalistic as well. By exploring a bit more of what can go wrong when good intentions go bad, perhaps we can see just why the bottom-up participatory action research we learned about this week is such a revolution.

What does a purchase of TOMS shoes really contribute? (Image from TOMS, 2016)

TOMS (2016d) is one of the progenitors of the buy-one, give-one model of profitable giving.

An example of a top-down program that could do with a bit of participatory action research is TOMS, a company that got its start by offering to donate a pair of shoes to an underprivileged person for every pair purchased. The company’s founder, Blake Mycoskie, got the idea while traveling the world after competing on The Amazing Race (2016). Mycoskie was in Argentina to learn how to play polo when he encountered a woman collecting shoes for the poor and, after accompanying her and seeing the impact she had on the lives of others, decided to return home and start an organization of his own (2016). Shoes for Tomorrow, later Tomorrow’s Shoes, which he shortened to TOMS to fit the name on the label (Mycoskie, 2016), has since grown into a remarkable success. The company has helped more than 35 million people in over 70 countries, donating shoes and glasses, increasing access to clean drinking water, promoting the means for safe childbirth, and even working to prevent bullying (TOMS, 2016e). TOMS has achieved this through its “One for One” philosophy–now trademarked–and the sale of everything from vegan shoes to designer eyeglasses to a special band for the Apple Watch (TOMS, 2016e), sales that contribute to the company’s estimated value of $625 million (Rupp & Banerjee, 2014). Clearly, the company aims to do well by doing good. But the question remains:  Good for whom?

Continue reading →

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02
Apr 15

Prison: Truly “aging in place”

According to statistics published in 2012 by Human Rights Watch (HRW), the number of prisoners in the U.S. grew by 43% between 1995 and 2010 with the number of older inmates (over age 55) increasing by a whopping 282%.  Many of these older inmates are serving life sentences or sentences that length will prohibit them from ever walking out of prison (Loeb, et al., 2013). Therefore, most of them will die in prison which necessitates the formulation of plans for end-of-life care for these inmates.  However, gaining support for an extremely isolated, presumably deviant population could be considerably difficult without having the buy-in of stakeholders within the prison system.  Enter community-based participatory action research.  The following blog post will discuss participatory research and how it is being utilized by nurse researchers in the Penn State College of Nursing to enhance the care of the aging and dying inmate population.aging-inmates-chart

Participatory research engages those in the community of interest during the research process through “mutual collaboration” (Lafrieniere, Page & Senn, 2012, p. 291).  Dr. Susan Loeb of the College of Nursing and colleagues identified end-of-life care in prison as a problem that needed to be addressed.  However, in order to conduct research on the best way to address the problem and provide end-of-life care to dying inmates Loeb and colleagues would need to apply the activities suggested by Maguire as reported by Lafrieniere, Page and Senn: investigation, education and action.  Investigation is a social phenomenon whereby participants and researchers begin to pose and solve a problem (Lafrieniere, Page & Senn).  This is followed by collective education that enables the participants and researchers to consider possible causes for the issues and come to a mutual understanding of underlying conditions associated with the issue at hand (Lafrieniere, Page & Senn).  Lastly, action involves coming to a consensus with an approach to move forward with solving the problem (Lafrieniere, Page & Senn).old man handcuffs

Loeb and colleagues began with investigation whereby they approached correctional facility employees that they referred to as “front-line staff” to offer insights into end-of-life in the prison setting (Loeb, et al., 2013).  The research team presented their ideas on end-of-life care and their observations on what they, as outsiders, perceived the main issues to be (Loeb, et al.).  At this point in the process the “front-line staff” began to be educated on outsider perceptions and also educated the research team by pointing out the ambiguity in perceptions of inmate perspectives on dying in prison (Loeb, et al).  This education led to the expansion of the participatory research group to also include inmates who had already been assigned to care for an aging or dying peer (Loeb, et al). Loeb and colleagues have not yet reported on the action plan that was developed as this project is ongoing.  Had Dr. Loeb and her team not chosen to utilize participatory research they may have missed the opportunity to engage key stakeholders, the inmates, in the research process.  Prison is just one context where participatory research is highly beneficial.

The isolated and prohibitory context of prison make it an ideal place to investigate phenomena of interest using participatory methods.  Participating in end-of-life care was meaningful for healthy inmates and decreased the burden of employing additional staff to serve the end-of-life needs of elderly inmates.  Yet in an environment of exclusivity employing standards for best practice would be impossible without the input and buy-in of all key stakeholders.  Participatory research is essential to ensuring adequate evaluation of end-of-life services and assessing the impact of additional interventions in providing high quality, cost effective end-of-life care.  Regardless of where on the continuum opinions range for how to deal with the ever-expanding aging prison population, most can agree that end-of-life care is a basic human right that should be afforded to all irrespective of previous criminal activity (HRW, 2012). 1409163337005-082614---Greenville---AgingPrisonPopulation

-Windy Alonso

 

References:

Human Rights Watch. (2012). Old behind bars: The aging prison population in the United States.  Retrieved from http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/ usprisons0112webwcover_0.pdf

Lafrieniere, K., Page, S., & Senn, C. (2012). Applying social psychology principles to the community, in Applied Social Psychology Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (2nd ed.) Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts (Eds.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Loeb, S., Hollenbeak, C., Penrod, J., Smith, C., Kitt-Lewis, E. & Crouse, S. (2013). Care and companionship in an isolating environment: Inmates attending to dying peers. Journal of Forensic Nursing. 9(1): 1-15.

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