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.

Blogging About Blogs (Assignment 12)

Our assignment for this week was to look at blogs about the topic we are doing research for (in my case it is alcoholism), and from these blogs we have looked at, give our opinion on whether or not we believe blogs to be legitimate forms of scholarship or news. 

The opinion I have formulated through looking at different blogs (on alcoholism) are that I believe they are or I should say can be legitimate forms of scholarship or news if they are done in a way which is relevant to the topic the blog is about and it keeps a constant update on the subject with the possible use or paraphrasing of information from articles they have read on the subject to further enrich the blog post.  I think they can be legitimate forms of scholarship or news because if they done correctly and in a manner which incorporates their own views (though in the case of mine it is mainly just articles which do not include the bloggers own opinion on the subject, but who show they find it to be of relevant through their posting of the information) and experiences on/with the topic including relevant references to current news broadcasts or a recently published article on the subject to help get their viewpoint across to readers of the blog. This in turn helps explain what factors have lead this blogger to have a certain view (or why they find it important to contribute information on a topic) on a topic they are blogging about.

An example which shows that blogs can be legitimate forms of scholarship or news is the blog ALCOHOL REPORTS

http://alcoholreports.blogspot.com/2012/03/influence-of-geneenvironment.html

What this blog post does is list relevant information about alcoholism through its reference to a link of an article that focuses on alcoholism.  The blog allows you to see where this information was first gathered from, and it explains the information to the reader in a way which is understandable but still highly academical.  Also from what I have seen on this blog they update it multiple times daily with new information they find in journals, book, and articles in the news and so forth from all over the world and on many different topics which relate to alcoholism.  And from what I have seen through looking at numerous posts is that the bloggers really just re-paste these articles on their blog so they are not really altered in content of the intended message of the article at all which makes it in my opinion a very scholarly source of information.  I will say though that because this blog updates so often it can be hard to sort through which parts of it you would find useful to what you are looking for on your topic, also some of the articles are harder to understand because they use scientific language and are almost lab report summaries, but other than that it is a source which provides quite a bit of useful information about alcoholism.

References

ALCOHOL REPORTS. (2012, March 9). The Influence of Gene–Environment Interactions on the Development of Alcoholism and Drug Dependence [blop post]. Retrieved from http://alcoholreports.blogspot.com/2012/03/influence-of-geneenvironment.html

Research Reflection

The LGBT population that I think I should do more research about over the course of the semester is either the Hmong LGBT community or on a wider range the Asia LGBT community as a whole.  I would like to know more about this community because when the LGBT community comes to mind, individuals from the Hmong population don't come to mind and neither do Asians in general come to mind. And I want  to know why this is.  Why are they so unrepresented?


What I assume to be true about this population is that their must be individuals who fall into this grouping, but  for some reason or another are not being readily represented in the gay community.  And if I would have to guess why, I would say it could be due to the culture and traditions of the Hmong and Asian peoples which could stigmatize LGBT and make it a taboo thing.


I learned this from an article I had to read in my past semester class that had to do with an LGBT Asian person who struggled with coming out to their family because of the strong beliefs that where rooted in the culture which shunned the idea of loving someone who was of the same sex.


I think the most difficult challenge I will have during this assignment is possibly finding information on the Hmong LGBT population if I focus solely on them or if I go about the route of the Asian community in general how will I collectively represent them with the information I gather.  I am more leaning towards the Hmong LGBT population than the Asian LGBT population though since it is so broad and unfocused.

Search Strings and Databases

For our assignment in class this week we had to hone our skills in creating search strings to see how we could tweak them with the right word usages to provide us with the most relevant results on our search topics.  We also had to use the search string we created and apply it to another database other than Academic Search Premier.  And then we had to describe our experiences while navigating through both databases.

The subject specific database that I choose was PsycINFO.

And the database which gave me the more relevant results was Academic Search Premier. 

In Academic Search Premier you were able to narrow down your result through choosing what language the article was in, choosing to only search for scholarly journals, having the text in full format and in PDF format. It also gives you options on the left hand side of the screen after you have begun your search to help you further limit your topic down.  And I greatly appreciate all of these features because they are quite helpful when it comes to finding relevant information.  But in PsycINFO the ability to further limit your topic was very complicated, you could only limit the date publication range, choose to search for journal articles only, and you could choose to limit it by location and publication type but if you attempted to search for your preferred setting through their options they give you, you get an extremely long and confusing list of what formats you could choose from. And you were also able to limit your results through choosing your preferred language format.

For my search string I used (alcohol* OR drinking) AND men AND (power OR control) and my search did work but I felt that it gave me way to many results and irrelevant ones at that so I used (alcohol* OR drinking OR booze) instead, and then (power OR control OR dominance).

On Academic Search Premier with the search string I used above and through the use of its limiters I was able to get it down to 491 results, 4 of which I found to be relevant information on what I was looking for.  And on PsycINFO I was able to get 7730 results (this was very frustrating.....I could not easily limit it down any farther with the tools they provided) and I found 2 semi-relevant articles.

On Academic Search Premier 2 of the results where available in full text online, while the other two were not in full text online, where not available through FindIt and required getting an inter-library loan to get the material. And for the articles I found on PsycINFO in general they do not provide full text for any of their articles, and I was unable to locate the 2 articles in FindIt, so to get them I would have to get an ILL loan to fully read them.

Since working with databases my research questions have not really changed all that much.  I think this is because I am trying to stay focused on the material I view as being of potential importance to the information I will need for my in class presentation.  And I fear that if I deviate to much from my research questions my subject will not be concise enough and will be too broad of a focus.  Though if I do find information I deem to be of interest and importance I will be completely open to incorporating it into the material I gather.

I think the biggest challenge I have had in composing my research question(s) is determining if they are too much of a general topic on alcoholism and are not specific enough and asking myself if the questions are related to each other and are cohesive.  I think to overcome these challenges I need to just break them down to their bare components and think about the ways in which they relate to each other, and focus on why it is that they are relevant questions to ask on my topic.

Popular vs Scholarly Journal Articles

For our IM 204 class we where asked to find a popular magazine article and a scholarly journal article about the population we are searching for (mine being of course alcoholics/ism) and cite them using APA works format.

References

Bailly, R. C., Carman, R. S., & Forslund, M. A. (1991). Gender Differences in Drinking Motivations and Outcomes. Journal Of Psychology, 125(6), 649.

Study finds alcohol abuse or dependence causes depression, not vice versa. (2009). Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Weekly, 21(10), 1-3.

The one which was cited first Gender Differences in Drinking Motivations and Outcomes is the scholarly journal, and the second one Study finds alcohol abuse or dependence causes depression, not vice versa was the popular magazine.  

In Gender Differences in Drinking Motivations and Outcomes the article focused on investigating gender differences in the relationship of power needs and drinking (basically men drink to show dominance and power and women drink more so to be assertive and sociable).   In the scholarly journal the article went into depth on the topic and used more of an academic language compared to that of the popular magazine article which was geared more towards presenting information in an easily understood manner for general audiences.  And Study finds alcohol abuse or dependence causes depression, not vice versa is quite self explanatory as to what it is about from the title.  The popular magazine focused more on brief non technical articles about alcoholism and drug abuse in general (because it is published weekly) so it does not contain a very specific focus on alcoholism alone.  The scholarly journal had its own research presented in the article, and contained charts to explain that information. And the scholarly journal had a list of references to credit the information it was presenting and authors who had wrote the article, while the popular magazine on the other hand had no references or authors listed  whatsoever.

Getting Ready to Use Academic Search Premier

Based on my review of the Academic Search Premier features my impression of the database is that it is quite a useful tool which helps you find material that you are looking for, such as in my case, scholarly journals and popular magazines (if you can find the way in which to locate them and refine your results to include them).  I liked how you where able to for the limit your results option on the advanced search page, it allowed you to limit your results right off the bat to search for scholarly journals which made finding that portion of our assignment much easier.  I also liked how you where able to limit the search through specifying the document type to article, and the publication type to periodical to help refine your results.  Finding a popular magazine was a little more challenging though than the scholarly journal because it did not have a limiter for that specifically.  But I found that if after you have initiated your search and you look on the left hand side to a bar which gives you options to help you refine your search, you can choose the option of magazines and that helps you find popular magazines you can use.


I have never used Academic Search Premier specifically, though during high school in my AP English class we where given the option to using it, (my teacher hinted at another database being easier to use) but I never did because I used a different type of database to find information I needed on the topic I was searching for.


Yes, I used another type of database for research in my AP English class in high school to do a research paper on Crime and Punishment in which we had to incorporate literary critics ideas into our paper.  The name of the database is Questia, and I found it to be very helpful when it came to finding books in general, and for the purpose of the class, books published by literary critics on Crime and Punishment.  Though it allowed you to search for things beyond the mere scope of books.


I do not really have any fears per say about using Academic Search Premier as a database to do research, more so am I nervous about being able to utilize it as a tool correctly and to its full potential.  But I think for the most part that will depend on my ability to specify what I'm searching for in my search strings and limit what I am looking for.  Also I suppose during some of my searches the results which where found were not what I was searching for but I think with honing my search parameters it will not be an issue.

Your Population

My population consists of substance abusers of alcohol, and I suppose my assumption of my population has changed very little after I have read more about alcoholism.  I think that when I did my first post about my assumptions of substance abusers it was widely spread since I had not limited my topic to a single type and there are so many substances which can be abused.  I think that the way in which my assumption has changed is that through my research I have found that some people and institutions classify alcoholism as a disease (which it can be hard sometimes to think of it as being so) in which there is a strong compulsion to drink no matter what the negative effects of doing so may be caused by it.  And therefore if it is a disease, a small part of me thinks that it is not in essence the fault of the individual whose brain chemistry has made them susceptible to becoming addicted to alcohol and are the victim of its lure.  But even so I do still feel that those who drink alcohol to excess should know the limitations of how much they should drink (though I suppose after a few drinks even if they did set a limit they are less likely to follow it because their judgment in impaired) And while I said I think substance abusers are for the most part “bad people” that may have been going a little far with alcoholics/ism as the subgroup I am focusing on for substance abusers. I think they are more so misguided and impaired and that the labeling of “bad” would for me apply to individuals whose lives are controlled by alcohol and have basically allowed it to tear every part of their lives to pieces and repeatedly resort to violence and abuse of some sort when they drink; continuing to do this even after they sober up and see how they have hurt the people around them.

I still what to do research about the brain chemistry of those who drink, and I think that will help me understand more as to why alcoholism is a disease.  I have been able to piece together slightly why it is the most accepted form of substance abuse which occurs in daily life, but I want to dig deeper into that idea more so.  And maybe even researching what sort or type of people it has more of an impact over (such as background, race, and gender)

I have found some basic information on why it is that people drink such as in one case people do so because they are depressed and they drink to alleviate that depression but what they do not realize is that alcohol is a depressant itself so it is just worsening their depression.  Also that people in certain social circles are more so pushed to drink than those in other social circles.  Also I found an interesting section in an encyclopedia that talked about how men who drink more do so sometimes because they associate dinking with having power and rationalize that if they drink more they will have more power.  And I have found other general tidbits about alcoholism as well, such as it is more likely that those who grew up around an alcoholic are more likely to abuse it themselves than a person who grew up in a family where there was no alcohol abuse present.

Encyclopedia vs Wikipedia

For our IM 204 class we have to compare an encyclopedia and Wikipedia to each other and talk about their pros and cons.  Then we were to describe how we used the Miller Library catalog to find an encyclopedia in the library on the topic we are searching for.  

When it comes to encyclopedias the pros of using them are they can contain information that focuses solely on the topic you are researching, which gives you lots of information valuable information if you choose the right encyclopedia.  Even if the topic you are researching is not the sole focus of the encyclopedia it can still give you useful information about the topic and possibly at the same time help you understand other aspects which are related to what you are looking for.  Encyclopedias can vary widely in what they focus on so it gives you many options to choose from to find what you are looking for.

But the cons of using encyclopedias are that (especially when it came to early editions) they can contain bias information (the opinion of the person who wrote it, so it is not objectively written) that may sway the reader toward a certain view point on the subject the encyclopedia is about.  Also as soon as an encyclopedia is printed it is already outdated because the world changes every single moment of everyday and those changes and new findings cannot be accounted for in the encyclopedia after it has been printed.

The pros of Wikipedia are it allows people to collaborate with one another by combining their knowledge of/on subjects and sharing it with those who have access to the internet.  It is free.  Since it is updated constantly, it is for the most part current with events and is not as dated as encyclopedias are.  And if you do not agree with the information on the site you can always change it.

But the cons of Wikipedia are that the writers of the articles are anonymous which makes it hard to identify if the author is knowledgeable on the subject and has creditable information about it.  Also while it can be constantly updated that does not necessarily assure that what information is given is indeed factual because people are able to insert false information as well as true information into the articles.

While searching for encyclopedias on alcoholism in the Miller Center Library catalog I found 10 print books on Alcoholism located in the library.  I found them through going onto the Miller Center Library homepage and clicking the advanced search option and typing in Alcoholism in the first search category and then encyclopedia in the second search category.  And then it popped up 13 results, 10 of which were print books.

Then to find an E-encyclopedia on alcoholism all I had to do after I had used the advanced search option and typed in Alcoholism and encyclopedias is separate search boxes was look at the refine the topic further option on the left had side on the page and click on E-Books/ Electronic books and it yielded 2 E-encyclopedias on alcoholism.

I think that the encyclopedia I found in the library: Alcohol Expectancy Theory vol 2 was more appropriate for my research presentation than the Wikipedia article on alcoholism I found because it better explained why it was that people where more likely to start abusing alcohol and provided me with other crucial facts that I wanted to know about alcoholism.  While the article on alcoholism in Wikipedia had many interesting statistics and facts on alcoholism I am always leery of using and citing it as a source of information since the material on it is not always trustworthy, while with an encyclopedia if it is a fairly current edition you for the most part don’t have to worry about the validity of the facts in the articles.  I will say that the one pleasant thing about the Wikipedia article though was that the information was focused on important key facts which had to do with alcoholism. So all of the important information on alcoholism is just in that one page, while in the case of the encyclopedia if you do not know what you are looking for, it could take a while to find what you need since there is so much material covered on the subject in the book.

Locate Books on Your Topic and Bring One Book to Class

The topic that I have chosen for my research is substance abuse with a specific focus on its subgroup of alcohol abuse.

When it comes to the topic of alcohol abuse, I think I will be looking for books with general information about alcohol abuse: is it common?, what are its characteristics?, who/whom does it affect the most?, and ect.  I am also very interested in finding out what it is that alcohol does to the body to alter ones personality and actions while on the substance (The psychological effects of alcohol consumption).

The search string I used when I got to the Miller Center Library page and had chosen the advanced search option was: Alcoholism (with search parameter of subject), in book format, which gave me 1666 results, and then on the right hand side I clicked the refine search option of alcohol—psychological effect, which limited the search options down to 107 of them.  But in this search string I was not able to find what it was I was looking for.  I think this was the case because I was too focused on trying to find information which was published within the last few years, which made finding a book very difficult.  So then I went back to the advanced search page to start a new string and typed in substance abuse AND alcoholism and got 372 results, and luckily one of the first books that appeared in the search was one I thought I could use Psychosocial Constructs of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse.

I have never before used an Ebook as a means for research before, but I suppose if I was able to find some sort of book that was not available in the library, as an EBook instead, I would be interested in reading an EBook.  I am a little leery though about what the possible online formatting of the EBook may look like, because it would seem like it could be very easy to lose your place while you’re reading (especially if you have to scroll down to read) and then it could take a lot of time having to back track and find where you were at if you lose your place.

When I looked for an EBook on advanced search with the search string Alcoholism, I found 234 results and chose Consequences of Alcoholism: Medical, Neuropsychiatric, Economic, Cross-cultural as an Ebook to read.  I was really surprised by how many Ebooks where offered on OPAC, since being able to read a full book online is such a foreign concept to me and I have never before done it.

I was pleasantly surprised while reading the EBook about my topic.  The online formatting of the pages in the book looked just like that of a regular book you would physically have in front of you (I had been worried that it would require constant scrolling down to reading the book and possibly losing your place because of that) I think it felt a little odd at first reading the EBook on the screen of my computer, because I am used to reading books at an angle, but I think I prefer being able to read them at the angle provided though the computer screen more than that of a traditional print book.

I do not have a mobile device which allows me to read an EBook on it, so I was not able to experience what that would be like (though for me I do not believe I would like how small it would be).

And when I went on the Great River Regional Library website to search for a book, I found it to be a little more confusing compared to the Miller Center Library OPAC. When I reached the advanced search page and typed in alcoholism, limiting the search parameters to subject keyword, and was going to select book as preferred format to find.  But on the type section it did not clearly list book as an option from what I could see. So that threw me off a little. So I had to sort through 326 results which included DVD’s and EBooks, and even then I was not able to find what I was looking for material wise. The Great River Regional site also did not give you options on the right hand side to help you limit down your topic, and I found that to be very helpful on the Miller Center website.  I found my experience with the Miller Center Library OPAC to be much more helpful for finding the types of books I was looking for than The Great River Regional Library catalog which was very confusing to navigate through.

I have never before used an Ebook as a means for research before, but I suppose if I was able to find some sort of book that was not available in the library, as an EBook instead, I would be interested in reading an EBook.  I am a little leery though about what the possible online formatting of the EBook may look like, because it would seem like it could be very easy to lose your place while you’re reading (especially if you have to scroll down to read) and then it could take a lot of time having to back track and find where you were at if you lose your place.

When I looked for an EBook on advanced search with the search string Alcoholism, I found 234 results and chose Consequences of Alcoholism: Medical, Neuropsychiatric, Economic, Cross-cultural as an Ebook to read.  I was really surprised by how many Ebooks where offered on OPAC, since being able to read a full book online is such a foreign concept to me and I have never before done it.

I was pleasantly surprised while reading the EBook about my topic.  The online formatting of the pages in the book looked just like that of a regular book you would physically have in front of you (I had been worried that it would require constant scrolling down to reading the book and possibly losing your place because of that) I think it felt a little odd at first reading the EBook on the screen of my computer, because I am used to reading books at an angle, but I think I prefer being able to read them at the angle provided though the computer screen more than that of a traditional print book.

I do not have a mobile device which allows me to read an EBook on it, so I was not able to experience what that would be like (though for me I do not believe I would like how small it would be).

And when I went on the Great River Regional Library website to search for a book, I found it to be a little more confusing compared to the Miller Center Library OPAC. When I reached the advanced search page and typed in alcoholism, limiting the search parameters to subject keyword, and was going to select book as preferred format to find.  But on the type section it did not clearly list book as an option from what I could see. So that threw me off a little. So I had to sort through 326 results which included DVD’s and EBooks, and even then I was not able to find what I was looking for material wise. The Great River Regional site also did not give you options on the right hand side to help you limit down your topic, and I found that to be very helpful on the Miller Center website.  I found my experience with the Miller Center Library OPAC to be much more helpful for finding the types of books I was looking for than The Great River Regional Library catalog which was very confusing to navigate through.

What Do You Assume to Be True About Substance Abusers?

Over the course of the semester I feel I should more closely examine the vulnerable human population of substance abusers.  I think that with this subgroup it is very easy to judge and label substance abusers as bad and wrong (and I definitely believe this to be true in most cases of substance abuse).  I have had contact with substance abusers (in my family and acquaintances) throughout my life and I would like to be able to understand why it is they have come to the conclusion that it is alright to readily abuse substances which alter their personality and actions so greatly from what they were, into someone who is possibly incoherent and frankly quite annoying at times because of it.  I feel that I could further benefit from understanding what it is that happens when a person uses/abuses a substance (such as brain chemistry, and their thought processes) since I do not know that much about it and I feel it could be of use to me if I attain a job in the medical field as a nurse.  I also am not that familiar with the types of substances/drugs which one is able to abuse, so I would like to learn more about them.

The assumptions I have about the substance abuser population are that those who are in this category are pathological liars who will steal from and manipulate those around them so that they will be able to continue the abuse the substance of their choice.  I believe that people who are substance abusers are in a sense bad people (the level of bad varies though I suppose) who often if they have a family will disregard or take lite of those peoples involvement in the situation; or future involvement in the situation.  They don't care that other people will have to deal with the consequences of their substance abuse (such as if they OD, or if they become verbally abusive).  I believe that it can also be said that to some level in my own opinion most substance abusers are people who have not received a good education and are not highly intelligent.  I believe this because one would think that if a person was well educated they would not allow themselves to go down that road when it is so publically advertised that it could and most likely will ruin their life.  I also feel that substance abuse (though I am sure it is not limited to a select group of people) is prevalent among the African American populations and Hispanic populations.

I believe one part that has shaped my view of this group of people is due to those I have talked to briefly about it in my daily life or in classes I have taken. In which they informed me that substance abusers avidly use manipulation and will constantly lie if they think they can benefit from you and use you to their advantage.  I also think that the local news, such as Fox news and the St. Cloud Times have shaped my views since most of the time when you hear about substance abusers it is often those people who were raised and or are currently living in a poor/bad neighborhood.  And most of the time these substance abuse news articles will feature African American/Hispanic peoples who live in a bad part of town and are substance abusers... (I’m not labeling African Americans and Hispanics as substance abusers.... only that most of the articles which I have seen have featured those two races a great portion of the time in regard to substance abuse.... it probably hinges (is made easier) on the economic status (poor community) of the community which allows substance abusers to flourish more readily if I think about it... so it can affect any race… but I will consider that later on....)

I think the most difficult challenge of researching the topic of substance abuse will be finding sources which views do not show an overwhelming bias towards substance abusers, such as them being victims to the substance who can't control their actions, and then those who just have something ethically wrong with them because they have decided to go down the path of substance abuse.  I will most likely also have to deal with my own person encounters of substance abusers, and separate them from the information I gather so that I do not skew my research with my opinions on the subject.

What is Critical Thinking?

Before when I had thought about critical thinking, I had defined it as being when a person has to think about a subject matter which requires them to go beyond the parameters of normal thought and reasoning.  It requires a person to look beyond what is normally seen in daily life and instead of acknowledging its existence and continuing on with one’s life, to center ones focus on the subject and analyze it further than ever before.  I also think that through this deeper level of examination, it is possible that one may be lead to truths which one may find uncomfortable depending on the subject matter that is analyzed. But I believe this shows that one’s thinking has delve to a deeper level of thought and thusly allows it to be classified as critical thinking.  I believe my definition of critical thinking has been shaped through the classes I have taken during my life (especially the last few years) which have asked me to think critically to answer questions in the class.  Most recently I had been asked to think critically while reading my book assignments in my sociology class so that I would be able to interpret them in a way which facilitated the weekly online discussions we had during the course.  As was the case in my English class last semester when my instructor asked us to think critically while writing our final paper.

The educational reformer John Dewey, can be considered an 'expert' on critical thinking. His ideas have greatly shaped the educational system, especially when it came to his definition of critical thinking as having active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and the further conclusions to which it tends.

Harvey J. Brightman.  (n.d). GSU Master Teacher Program: On Critical Thinking. Retrieved from http://www2.gsu.edu/~dschjb/wwwcrit.html

John Dewey basically advocates that for students to be able to think critically they must be taught to examine, poke and reflect upon what it is they have learned or are learning about.  Basically it is done through having students do some sort of activity and then having them reflect upon that activity directly afterwards to achieve critical thinking.

I think the connection between critical thinking and IM 204 Research Strategies which I am taking this semester is that both critical thinking and my IM 204 class will require me to think beyond the normal parameters of convention thought (face value), and really analyze what the information I find is telling me about the subject I am researching.