Original Research

For this blog post we where asked to answer some questions on original research that where posed to us in a blog assignment.

I have done original research before, actually in an Anthropology 101 class we have been asked to do ethnographic research on a population of students at SCSU, through participation observation and survey questions our group gave to a few select individuals on campus.

What makes original research different from library research through what I have come to gather myself in my own experience is that when original research is conducted you yourself are finding the information and gathering it; you have to physically go out with the intention of trying to explain or find some aspect of a question you what to learn more about or want answered.  While when you conduct library research someone else has already gathered the information for you and you are basing your knowledge of what they have reported on the source through what you have read in the book. So the knowledge is recycled and is not new in a way. It is not as fresh as when one does original research.


There are two ways in which I can think of library research being a guide or support to original research. The first is that one will use library research as a starting reference point for what it is that is trying to be found through the original research.  It is a good thing to check and see if anyone else has had the same question you may be faced with while doing original research, and if they have in most cases your question or what you wish to find may not be the same as what they posed, but is similar in some aspects none the less. So it is a good source to reference to credit your findings and show that your topic (if it applies) has been researched before you yourself did so. Library research can also give you ideas as to what exactly you want to look for in your original research, and ways in which you can go about doing so. The second way is that you find two sources of research you believe are relevant to your topic but show differing findings. With these you can support original research off these two pieces though referencing the findings of the pieces and saying that they support your own original research question (such as if the findings are compared it can be seen  that (original research question) can be gathered through this information.) Its like manipulating the data in your favor (through explaining why it can be seen through the combination of this information that your original research question can be answered) of whatever you are trying to find.


I think the pros of library research are the it is able to offer you numerous sources of information on your topic depending on what you are researching, which is a very convenient thing when you need sources in which to accredit what you are researching.  It is also a source where in the most part you know where to find what you are looking for because the information is cataloged and arranged which makes finding things you need very easy. The cons of Library research though are that if there is a lot of information on your subject of research it can be difficult to find material that you need because it may take a while to find it if you have to search through many books or articles just to find it. Another thing is that it is very possible that even if you find a source of information it may not be exactly the same as what it is you are trying to research which means you must continue to look for more information on the topic. Or it is possible that there may not even be any material located in the library that references your specific topic.
While with original research's pros on the other hand, because it can either be information you have gathered yourself or a collective of information you have found in books in the library it makes it much more versatile in how you are able to conduct/find information compared to that of library research.  Also with original research if you conduct it yourself you do not have to worry about searching for a book on the topic (and your possibly unique research question), you can just go out yourself and observe peoples from this population (I would say if you thought you would be safe while doing so) and you can gather your own information and form your own findings through it. The cons though I would have to say are that if one wants to directly observe a population which may not be the safest group in which to do so it could be hard to conduct your own research safely. Or you may even  possibly have some difficulty finding members of your population (such as drug users because they usually to do openly campaign their usage, and nor would they most likely want to tell you about it or answer questions you pose to them on the subject) So in original research can be much harder to locate and find sources sometimes as compared to that of library research.  I would also say that for original research if it is not done on a fare amount of individuals it is possible that the findings could be questionable say if your making a statement on the population as a whole in your research, since it may not be the case if you have only been able to observe a few individuals from that population. (So it is not a good representation of the group as a whole because it could be asked if these individuals where different from the rest of the population if you only conducted research in a small area of the population)


I think critical thinking skills which can be seen in both areas of research are rationality, self-awareness, open-mindedness and judgement. Rationality because you need to think rationally while doing research since in both cases you are trying acquire evidence and not leave out any information in the process.  Self-awareness because you need to acknowledge if you have any predetermined bias on the subject so that it does not effect the direction or findings of what you are searching on. Open-minded because you need to make yourself open to all the the possibly of what you may find even if you may not agree with it or thought it would something different than it turned out to be. And judgement because it is important to weigh the validity to the information you have gathered or that you are looking at so that you can determine if it is a good source in which to use.


For library research I think the most important critical thinking skill is probably judgement because if one does not use judgement on the book that is being looked through by checking if the research is validated and proven or through doing research on the author and determining they are a reliable source. Using good judgement will help you find the most relevant results on your subject in library research and that is why I think that skill is the most important in library research.


I think the most important critical thinking skill in original research is open-mindedness because if you do original research you may be going out and looking for a specific thing you believed to be true, and it is quite possible that what you where looking for may not be there, so you have to be willing to record your findings without trying to interpret them in a way that is in favor of what you started out looking for which would not be an accurate representation for your research. You have to accepted and be open minded about what you find and try to put yourself in the situation of those you are observing so that you can better understand them and thus be better able to explain in a more efficient manor what your findings where on the subject.

Statistics

For this assignment I had to look for statistical information/data from both a government document and a scholarly journal source.  I looked for statistical information about the general onset of alcohol dependency for individuals in both areas.  
The government document I located on The National Institute On Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.  The document was entitled Twelve-month prevalence and population estimates of DSM-IV alcohol abuse by age, sex, and race-ethnicity: United States, 2001–2002 (NESARC)*. It focused on the age in which alcohol dependency can be seen as occurring in as well as what the ethnic/race group percentages where amount wise that could be seen as having alcohol dependency.  
The Scholarly journal I located was more so about the ages in which alcohol dependency can be seen to occur; it was from the PEDIATRICS scholarly journal and was published in 2008 in a study entitled Age of Drinking Onset, Alcohol Use Disorders,Frequent Heavy Drinking, and Unintentionally Injuring Oneself and Others After Drinking. 


In the government document it does tell you that the data was taken form the NIAAA 2001–2002 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NIAAA). Also that in certain ethnic/race groups that where studied age wise, some minority groups where included in that ethnic/race category. That is about all it tells you on how the data was collected/analyzed or what their intention was from this gathering of information in the first place. (Though if one would guess from the title it was to inform about the prevalence of alcohol dependency in certain age groups, ethnic groups, and genders of participants in the survey, which would mean they found something about this information to be interesting or of concern).  I suppose the reason that the government document did not list how they analyzed this information and why they found it to be important is because the subject and the variety of their participants and information they found was so vast that to limit down the information they gave to explaining one sole thing would be difficult to do.  So they want to allow others to interpret the findings to mean whatever they think the information is telling them about this population.


The scholarly journal on the other hand went into depth on where it was they got the information from and why it was they where collecting the information in the first place "From 2001 to 2002, in-person interviews were conducted with a national multistage probability sample of 43,093 adults aged 18 years older. From 2004 to 2005, of 39,959 eligible respondents, 34,653 were re-interviewed. The cumulative 2-survey response rate was 70.2%."(Hingson) And that their objective of publishing this journal was to "To explore whether early age of drinking onset is prospectively associated with respondents unintentionally injuring themselves and others when respondents were under the influence of alcohol, controlling for current alcohol dependence/abuse, frequency of consuming 5 drinks per occasion, and other demographic characteristics." (Hingson) So with the scholarly journal, why alcohol dependency based on age was thought to be an important thing to research was explained in the journal. The reason the data was explained in the journal is that the people who published it wanted to do a good job at explaining why they found this information to be important because it is a reflection of their work in the scientific community, so they would want to explain the smallest aspect of it to accredit the journal article.


References
Hingson, Ralph W. PEDIATRICS. Age of Drinking Onset, Alcohol Use Disorders,Frequent Heavy Drinking, and Unintentionally Injuring Oneself and Others After Drinking. June 1, 2009. http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/123/6/1477.full.pdf. Retrieved April 10, 2012.


National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).Twelve-month prevalence and population estimates of DSM-IV alcohol abuse by age, sex, and race-ethnicity: United States, 2001–2002 (NESARC)*. 2002. http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/Resources/DatabaseResources/QuickFacts/AlcoholDependence/Pages/abusdep1.aspx. Retrieved April 10, 2012.


(Could not correctly indent reference citing because blog not like allowing one to us the tab button in certain places)

Checking in

For this blog post we are supposed to basically report how are semester research project is going and if there are any areas within the project that we are having trouble with.


The sucesses that I am having with my semester research project are that I for the most part have been able to find really good sources of information on my topic alcoholism. I believe I have found at least one source of informattion in the different formats we needed to cite (web, wiki, journal, blog, book, newspaper, ect) as sources for the information we have gathered which I am happy to have done. 


The only one which I do not have is a documentary since we have not yet gone over how to search for those, so I am a little nervous about that, but I am sure I will be able to find a useful one for my presentation. I am also a little unsure of as to what will go into the presentation I give, because I know we must include the 8 questions that must be addressed in our oral presentation, but not all of the information I gathered goes along with those questions (well it does but.... I may just have to look at where I could place it in the presentation), but I do feel it is interesting and relevant information to know about alcoholism.  So I suppose I will have to find a way in which to add this information to my presentation and hopefully my presenting time will not be to greatly extended from what it should be.


Some success I am having with an Ethnographic research project I am currently conducting in an Anthropology class I am taking is that through what I learned in IM 204, I was able to find an journal on Academic Research Premier that was similar to the Ethnographic research question we (my group) intend to answer through our surveys and interviews we will be conducting in that class.  And had I not taken this class I would not have thought to look on that site for information to help me in my research.


I suppose some challenges I am having with my research project I am doing (in my Anthropology 101 in particular) is finding relevant sources or research questions in books or online sources which are simular to our research question "How do the study habits of college students differ when they live on campus and off campus?" (I've found one as I said above but I would like at least two more) so that we can see if our results differ from this study conducted in the past.  We have to interview two people about their study habits and give 10 individuals surveys (40 in total) with questions on them about their studying habits and various things which maybe a factor which impacts those habits.  The challenge is which questions will we ask, because even though we might tell them that we will not share their identity with anyone else, we do not know for sure they are being truthful, which in some respects is difficult to assess. Because no one really wants to tell you they're failing or are not studying enough. So really we can only hope that the people we interview will be truthful for us and will bare all on the subject. (Such as grades and such in particular being a murky area of research)

Intellectual Property

What is your definition of “intellectual property”?  What is an “expert’s” definition of intellectual property?  What examples of intellectual property, from academic or everyday life, can you name?  How does the concept of intellectual property change when it can be manipulated and shared?


For this blog post we are to talk about intellectual property, and to address a few questions presented to us on the subject.


My own definition of "intellectual property" is all forms of media and various art forms  which are owned by a person who has created the concept or idea.  So because they created the idea they own intellect which created the media in question is owned by them and is trademarked by them.


The 'expert' definition of intellectual property that I got from the world intellectual property organization website is :Intellectual property (IP) refers to creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce.


IP is divided into two categories:  Industrial property, which includes inventions (patents), trademarks, industrial designs, and geographic indications of source; and Copyright, which includes literary and artistic works such as novels, poems and plays, films, musical works, artistic works such as drawings, paintings, photographs and sculptures, and architectural designs.  Rights related to copyright include those of performing artists in their performances, producers of phonograms in their recordings, and those of broadcasters in their radio and television programs. (http://www.wipo.int/about-ip/en/)


Some examples of intellectual property that I can name from my every day life and in my academical setting are: textbooks, novels, paintings, poetry, films made in art class, and photos taken.


I believe the concept of intellectual property changes when it can be manipulated and shared in that because it is shared it can become a source of inspiration of others who then use that work possibly as a reference to that piece. So then in some ways it makes it harder to determine if a persons intellectual property has been violated and used by another, since the new work is not an exact copy of the original and defining ownership of an idea or concept is a hard thing to do if it is not seen that it is an complete and utter copy of the original. It is a new idea and is different so it is hard to identify the amount of intellectual property of the original that is in the new version.  

Urvashi Vaid

During our IM 204 class we decided to go to a presentation that was being given by Urvashi Vaid on Campus so we had a half class and where given 6 questions to answer in a blog post about what we gathered through this presentation.


1. What where your expectations prior to this event? What did you know about the topic before you attended this event?
I suppose my expectations prior to attending this event where that I would probably learn many new things about some of the things the LGBT community is facing in the United states, and how they are fairing in their battle for equal rights.  I knew before attending this event that in the United States there have been some issues for the LGBT community in regards to them gaining the right to be able to have marriage rights with their partners.


2. How was the information presented? Did the information presented at the event differ in any way from what you had learned or believed in the past? How?
I believe Urvashi Vaid started out the presentation by talking about some current issues the LGBT community is facing with gay marriages, a lesbian activist trial, and a bias bill that was passed in New Jersey that was directed at a young man. The information presented did not differ all that much in any way to what I had learned or believed in the past but I did like how Urvashi brought up the point of how some of her friends who had achieved same sex marriage rights in their state would say that the LGBT movement was over now.  And how she brought up it is only the beginning and that because of the small victory it did not mean that the people who where against  gay marriage are now in favor of it and that society as a whole will welcome this group.  She points out that all that will take time and is not instantaneous.


3.What was one thing that you learned from this event that you did not know, or had never heard before?
I learned that only six states in the united states have marriage equality currently.  I knew that some states had won this vote, but I did not know how many and I am slightly surprised that it is not a higher number, and I hope that soon it will be legal in all 50 states.  I also learned one very odd gay antimalarial stature as to why it should not be allowed is that if it was allowed it would cause people to not reproduce and civilization as we know it would end because their would be no new births of children into this world.  Which was so ridiculous that I was just stunned by that stance.


4. Did the personal, professional, or academic background make the speaker an authority on the topic? Why or why not? Yes, Urvashi's personal, professional, and academic background on the subject all made her an authority on the subject she was speaking about. I mean Urvashi Vaid is a community organizer, writer and attorney who has been a leader in the LGBT and social justice movements for nearly three decades.  So it is a topic which affects her and she deals with on a regular basis, since she has a partner herself, and has written one book about social equality and has another one which is coming out soon, so she is quite the authority on the subject.


5.What can you take away from this presentation to assist you in your Alternative viewpoints paper?
Well for my own Alternative viewpoints paper there was not a lot which was addressed on the Singaporean LGBT community, so not much help in that respect. But there was a lot of general information about the LGBT community that was potentially useful on the subject.  I thought one interesting thing she had said was that in South Africa third gender had been written into law, which I found to be very surprising so for anyone who may have been addressing the LGBT community in Africa it would have been very useful information.


6. (I think this took place.... though what question was asked of Urvashi, I could not make out what was asked....) If someone in the class had the opportunity to ask a question, how did the speaker respond? Was their answer satisfactory to you? Why or why not? 
I think the person who asked the last question was in our class, and I know it had something to do with heterosexual individuals but I am not positive as to what was asked question wise so in turn I can therefore not really judge where Urvashi's response was a good one or not, though I am sure it was satisfactory and answered the question that had been posed to her.

Google

During our Google 101 introduction in class I learned so many new ways in which I could use Google to help me focus on what I was searching for and also giving me tools in which to help me narrow my search results even more.  I learned about how when you are typing in your search you can use + to help to expand your search results to include another thing you are searching for that goes along with it. You can use - to help you get rid of information that contains the thing you subtracted to focus on what you are searching for. I also learned that if you find a website you like you can copy it address into the Google search and then do : similar websites and it will help you find more resources that are similar to that site. Also that .gov country( wanna research) will give you government documents in your search for that country.  And can use a ~ to help you in your search to find words which are similar to the word you put ~ in front of it to expand your search.  I also learned that you can use Google searches from Google sites in other countries to help you if you think it would benefit your research.  Also I found that Google Scholar could be quite useful in finding material which was useful in your research because it would tell you how often the source was cited and that would in turn give you an idea of the relevancy of the article.  I also liked how under the Google search options it had a tool which gave you the reading level of the website, which could help you get rid of sources that where not up to the standards you may need in doing research.


I liked Google very much even before find out all of these new things about it since I use it multiple times each and every day. So learning more about the proper way to use it has made it even more appealing to me and I am happy that I was able to learn how to use it more efficiently since it will probably help me very much when I am looking for information online.


I will use Google tools/online research strategies such as the +,-,~ to help me expand, limit, and add to what I am searching for in a future class where I may have to do a research project of some sort or just find useful information on some topic to do an assignment.  I also think the use of Google Scholar will help me with finding the information I need while at the same time allowing me to know it is a fairly creditable source which I have found.  I will use it to find information I need, and because of it I will now probably be able to find things more quickly because of the limiting resources some of the tools have and information with is relevant to what I am searching for.  In real life situations if I am just searching for a topic and I get a whole bunch of results, these new searching methods and tools can help me limit my results down to what it is I am searching for.


So in all this was a very pleasant learning experience and I look forward to putting to use the things I learned.

Blogging about Blogs

Over the course of our time spent on our semester research project, there are 8 questions we need to address in our oral presentation we will be giving at the end of the semester to our classmates.



1. The human population that I researched was substance abusers with a focus on alcoholism in particular.  I wanted to be able to through my research come to a better understanding of what this population of people affected by alcoholism goes through.  I wanted to find explanations for their actions and why it is they even start drinking in the first place, and what makes them continue to do so even when they are able to see that it may be drastically impacting their lives and others in a not so positive way.


2. My assumption for alcohol abusers was that they are all to some degree misguided and lacking in control of their actions (because their body or mind have become so heavily dependent on alcohol to get through the day) and this in turn does not make them the most pleasant of people to be around.  People who are alcoholics are depicted by their bad decision making skills while drinking because they have become inebriated through the consumption of the alcohol so it is likely that they would not make the best of decisions while consuming it.  I assume that to some degree it is their choice whether they continue their chronic use of the substance, since for the most part they choose to start it (though I know they did not start out with the thought 'I'm going to start being an alcoholic today').  And I assume that alcoholism has a drastic impact on the lives of those who are victim to its use and to those whose lives are affected by the actions of the alcoholic.  I also assume that people use it to compensate for stress in their lives or problems they are having.


3. I found that people who are chronic alcoholics often resort to drinking because they believe it will mellow them out and make them feel better, but often it is not that they are only stressed but also depressed and because alcohol is a depressant it only makes ones depression worst instead of better.


4. I would have to say that some challenges this group faces in mainstream society is that they are assumed to automatically have more control over themselves and their actions than what they really do have.  For some alcoholics it is not just a choice of choosing to drink or not to drink, sometimes the amount in which their body has become addicted to alcohol is stronger than their rational reasoning skills.  So I would say people might to easily condemn them and think they don't want to change or they don't want to be helped, and for some this may be true but for others they have become victims to their alcohol use and just find it harder to stop.


6. I would say the challenges that people would find in doing library research and original research on this population is possibly finding information that deals directly with the factor of alcoholism that you are searching for.  And I would say that it can be hard to find information that is truly unbiased on alcoholism because I have come across a few books and articles that just completely labels them the scum of the earth, who are violent and nasty people.  And of course those sources are very biased in the direction that alcoholism is wrong and it should not happen, and that is in part what makes alcoholics underrepresented in society.  We have made it a legal thing in our society so in some ways one would think it odd that it could be so condemned when it is a substance that can be used without any legal repercussions (also long as you’re not belligerent on it)


7. After learning more about my human population the research question I have generated on them is “Why is alcoholism so prevalent in society?” and it is an ongoing investigation because I have been preoccupied with other research questions I came up with that are linked to that question, and I found it sometimes hard to search for information that dealt with that question but Professor Wexelbaum has given me some tips on which to help me with my research question search string.  So hopefully I will be able to gather more information on the subject.