Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Good Enough for Grandma

   Monday's class was all about ethics and how the IRB developed in the U.S. Ashley shared several examples with us of unethical studies done in the past that led to the development of a Review Board that would make sure things were being done in an ethical way. She gave us a list of concerns in research ethics - you want to minimize harm or risk to the subjects, you want your subjects to have both privacy and confidentiality, you want their consent in what you are doing and do not want to deceive them. The thing that stuck out the most to me was reciprocity. What will I be doing to give back to the people who will be helping me this summer? Ashley said she tells facilitators to look for people they would be comfortable sending to live with their own grandmother for three months. What kind of person would I send to live with my grandmother? They would have to be honest, decent, trustworthy, respectful, helpful, kind - the list goes on.
        This definitely gave me a new perspective on my host family and our relationship. They are going to be doing a lot for us BYU students - taking us into their homes and into the private moments of their lives, to a certain extent. And I really had not thought about what I can do to repay this. Of course we have talked a little about helping with dishes and helping clean up...but how do I avoid making the Thomases, and other people I meet and befriend, from feeling like they are just being used, a means to the end of completing my field project and my course contracts? I am going to have so many questions to ask, interviews to complete, and customs to observe and participate in, but I do not want to get into such a hurry to complete these tasks that I forget relationships and the feelings of the people around me. Ashley warned us to always be aware of how your actions and words affect other people. While some of my motivation in meeting people might be to get something from them, whether it be a contact, invitation, or interview, I can never let that be my sole motivation in getting to know people.
         In thinking about some of my relationships now and in the past, I can see that in many cases I am motivated because I want to get something from someone. Maybe this isn't awful all the time, but I can certainly do better on befriending people just for their sake, and not mine. This is something I can work on with roommates, ward members, professors, family. If I start working on it now, hopefully this summer it will be no problem to make friends with others out of genuine interest and regard. One way that we can give back to the communities in East London is by helping with Mama Yoyo's daycare. I am not sure what other opportunities there will be...in my own project I am completely willing to help out around the zoo, I just do not know if that help will be wanted or needed.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Course Contracts and IRBs

       In Friday's class we got the low-down on course contracts. The first issue is finding a faculty mentor. I have already browsed through several professors and their interests and I do not think there is anyone who is specifically interested in the topic of my field study - human-animal relationships. But there are a few professors who have done some research with behavioral ecology, so I am going to go and talk to them about this project. So possible course contracts...my major does have a special topics class, and a research course and a seminar course. I think special topics will be the best fit though. For the second course, there is really only one course that would work well with my project. Wildlife Behavioral Ecology is an elective credit. I think it would perfectly for this summer because a big part of my study is animal behavior and how it is affected by human relationships. But this is a 500 level class and I am not sure exactly what I would do in the field to meet the requirements of the class. The description on the Undergraduate Catalog says that field trips are required...hopefully being around animals every day will be sufficient : ) I will go and talk to the professor about it. If that does not work out though, I am really not sure what I will do. Ashley said we should develop a course that will work well with our project and that will get us out the door and interacting with the world. None of the other courses required for my major really meet those requirements...they would be read and write courses, which we want to avoid. Hopefully it will work out.

     We also started talk just a little about IRBs. We had to read a couple for class and annotate them. I was surprised at how many gaps I found with the sample protocols - were they purposefully bad, or is it really just that hard to cover everything that needs to be covered? I am sure I will learn all about IRBs and how to write them; we have to take a tutorial, make several drafts, and will be discussing them a lot in class. So that's good.

Inquiry Conference

     For my second hour of conference attendance, I went to presentations given by Sarah, Averyl and Nick, who are all in the prep class currently. It was great to hear some presentations given by people who have experienced a field study. Nick talked about his time in Tonga, which sounds like a really lovely place. One thing that he talked about that could be applicable to my field study was an issue he had with an interview question. He would ask people why they designed their yards the way they did and would always get one answer - "for the beauty." He changed his questioning method a little and was able to get better responses. It is important for me to remember that in South Africa the way people understand or express things might be different then how I understand or express myself. So interview questions might take some tweaking.

      Sarah talked about her time in Rome studying the Pantheon. The take home message for me from her presentation was that some things cannot be understood in just three months. Regardless even of how much preparation before being in the field, three months is not that long. And that is OKAY! It sounded like Sarah did not really feel that she reached any concrete conclusions about the Pantheon and how Romans view it, but she still had a valuable experience and learned things. Averyl talked about the value of doing a field study versus library research. This is slightly more obvious for my project then it was for hers. I loved that she changed her opinion on "whiney" Queen Elizabeth after visiting some of the places talked about in the play about her life. Anyway, my project kind of requires being in the field. I guess I could do it in the library but it would be boring and it would be harder then being in the field, with the zoo keepers and the zoo animals. And I do not think I would learn nearly as much in the library as in the field. A field study educates in many ways other then academically - Holly and I were just talking about how we are going to come home from this summer completely fearless. We will have spent all summer dealing with people, learning how to talk to, approach, and befriend many different people. I am looking forward to it!

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Rose Colored Glasses

      This week we only have Friday class because of Inquiry Conference. Instead of going to the other classes, we are supposed to go to two hours of the Inquiry Conference. Today I went and listened to the Keynote Speaker - Dr. Brown. I didn't realize it before I went, but I heard him speak before at an Honors dinner given for Freshman last year. I really liked what he had to say then and was glad to hear him speak today, particularly because he was talking about the value of getting out in the world, which I will be doing in just 2 and 1/2 months! One of the titles that he threw out for his address was "Exposing Yourself". He talked a lot about context and perception and how leaving the country you are used to can help you gain new perceptions. He also talked a lot about the lenses that people have, which reminded me of that phrase 'rose colored glasses'. This refers to when you look at something in a way that makes it more pleasant or nice than it actually is. It is a little naive. The lenses Dr. Brown was talking about were the different ways that people see things depending on their upbringing, who they are, the contexts that they are used to. Some of my lenses will come from the fact that I am a 20 year old, American, LDS, female who has not been out of the country since she was a little girl - 10 years ago.

       I am trying to think of specific ways that this will affect my time in South Africa...it would be easy to be afraid, I think, using those lenses I listed. A young, white female in an unknown country surrounded by poor people desparate for money. But right there I am doing two things that Dr. Brown warned against. One of them is stereo-typing people. A big problem Americans have is that we stereo-type a huge group of people based on just a small group of radicals. The example he used was Muslims, and that is the one that immediately comes to mind. I have been listening to This American Life a bunch lately, and today I listened to a story about a Muslim family living on the East Coast during and after September 11th. There was a 4th grader in this family and she was picked on mercilessly at school after her teacher taught a lesson about 9-11 and blamed radical Muslims, majorly stereo-typing this huge, diverse group. The family was eventually forced to move because all of the children were treated so badly. Listening to this really made me feel sick to my stomach. So, I need to work on not stereo-typing South Africans. The second thing Dr. Brown warned against was fear. People are afraid of the unknown, of foreign countries, languages, customs. The world is viewed as this awful, dangerous place. And yes, there are horrible things going on, but the world cannot be all that bad! But here come the rose-colored glass - I do not want to be naive about the dangers that do exist. That means being smart and aware, wherever I might travel. One thing I am hoping to gain from this field study experience is some street smarts; an awareness of my surroundings and the ability to deal with whatever comes up. I am so excited to "expose myself" to the world, to gain new perceptions and be able to encourage other people to go visit the wider world, the glorious world.

Monday, February 20, 2012

"Can you tell me some more about that...."

     In Friday's class we continued our discussion on interviews. Ashley gave us some ideas for getting more out of interviews. The first was writing things down verbatim - write down exactly what the person says, in the context that they said it. This helps you pick up some vocabulary and be able to put that new word in the correct context. The second thing was language identification - identify how they are speaking, what type of speech they are using. For example, are they using very technical language used to describe a specific field, like physics or car mechanics. Doing these things allows the interviewer to pick out what the vocabulary is and then use that vocabulary in their questions. This helps things get more in-depth.
   
       We had a reading quiz in Friday and one of the questions asked about using descriptive questions and how we did with those in our interview. I feel like I am pretty good at asking broad, grand tour questions. It is harder to pick out little details and ask questions about uber specific things. I am worried that it might be annoying to the interviewee to keep going over something, or asking questions about something that really does not go much deeper. I mean something that is simple and superficial....not bad superficial, just not that complicated, if that makes sense....So that is something that I can definitely work on before going to the field. Also paying enough attention to realize there might be something more to a superficial answer. I have to remember  that I am going to be asking questions about things that might be an every day event, a mundane, boring thing for the interviewee. So it might take a little more digging. This reminds me of the example in the reading, where the author interviewed the cocktail waitress and at the end she said something like "Wow, I didn't even realize all that stuff was going on!"

       We also talked about preparing to conduct interviews. I think that a main reason for reading all these articles is so we can figure out what questions we need to be asking. What research has been done already? Where are the holes? What is the correct vocabulary for "blank" field? But I also need to remember that it is okay to ask what questions to ask.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Must Have Chocolate

     In Wednesday's class we talked about several different things, including our weekly group meetings while we are in the field. Heather brought a bunch of chocolate to class, it was awesome. In my opinion, group meetings must have chocolate. We decided to have our group meetings on Monday evenings and sort of do family home evenings with them...so there will be a spiritual thought, game, etc. as well as discussion on our projects, progress, issues. We also talked a lot about ownership of this project. Field studies are so amazing because they really do depend on the student for success. Holly, Emily, and I are going to be in a foreign country with no one to tell us what to do or keep us on task. We get to decide what we do every day and whether we really rock our projects or just goof off. On top of that, we will have to solve any problems we run into. Projects might have to adapt if we can't get the resources or access we wanted, and it will be up to us to come up with a good alternative (I really hope this doesn't happen to anyone). We won't even have a field facilitator, not that it is the facilitator's job to tell us what to do, but it will all be up to us!

       On my part, I really want this to be an amazing experience....I have wanted to go to Africa for as long as I can remember, and I always planned on having some kind of international experience while in college. I am excited for the traveling and the culture. I am excited to work on my project. I know that putting in hard work now and going to the field and working hard will be extremely beneficial to me - I will learn how to work with people and survive in a completely new environment. I get to see a different world than the one I have lived in and hopefully have my eyes opened to things I never considered or knew existed. Heather mentioned attitude and how that will affect our project and living arrangements...ha, I have a testimony of attitude, really. I firmly believe we as humans can decide to see the glass half empty or half full. But even though I believe that, it can still be hard to do all the time. I am sure this summer will give me ample opportunities to practice having a good attitude. In my World Religions class we just talked about Taoism and their concept of wu-wei. Wu-wei is inaction....it is accepting what comes and not getting frustrated or put off by hardships. If you are practicing wu-wei, nothing can really be that upsetting. Wu-wei and deciding to have a good attitude are really the same thing and both will come in handy this summer, whether there are travel, project, or personal issues.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Interviews vs Observation

     In Monday's class we talked about interviews. There are several types of interviews, ranging from informal and unstructured to highly structured. An informal and unstructured interview would give a lot of space to the person being interviewed to just talk. There might be a general topic being discussed or some general questions, but mostly the interviewee just gets to spew. A structured interview would have very specific questions, carefully worded and put in a particular order. Within these interviews there are many different methods of probing, or getting more information out of the interviewee. These include the silent probe, the uh-huh probe, rephrasing the question etc. In order for an interview to be really productive or helpful, it is good to have a rapport built up. This was also part of participant observation - you want to "hang out', get to know people, earn their trust or friendship. Then they will be more willing and more helpful in their interviews. Something I found really interesting was the idea of asking what questions to ask....if you are going into a situation about which you know very little, it makes perfect sense that you would ask, "what should I be asking about, what should I be learning about, what is good to know?"....
   
     How does this translate into my project? I'll start with rapport - in order for me to build rapport I plan on just spending a lot of time at the zoo and letting the people who work there get to know me. I want to become familiar to them. Hopefully I will be able to interact enough with the zoo keepers to become friends with some of them. I probably won't be doing any highly structured interviews. I would like to learn about some general things, and then maybe I would come up with more specific questions and do a more formal interview. But for the most part a lot of what I learn will come from observing and just talking. I can see this being a little dangerous, because there will be a lot going on and a lot to process, so I'll want to become proficient at jotting. Finding time for jotting might be hard too, if I am able to do some more hands on stuff. I guess I'll just have to work on memorizing details! That is the benefit of doing a "sit-down, let's talk" interview, it would give me time to write down everything. But I really would like a lot of my learning to be done observing the interaction between animal and zoo keeper. I just found a whole bunch of articles about zoo-keeper animal interactions and relationship, I'm interested to see what the researchers/writers did more - interview or observation.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Literature Review

        Today in class I realized that I did not have nearly enough literature reviewed to do a really good literature review. Part of the issue is that I only recently found out what exactly I wanted to research, so I have a lot of more general articles about zoos and animal welfare legislation...and on top of that I am not sure if literature exists that addresses exactly what I want to do. Latest project question - What is the relationship between zookeepers and zoo animals and how does that relationship affect job satisfaction and animal welfare? Today's class was helpful in that I created that question, I did not have a really specific question before today, just a general "I want to study zoo keepers and animals". I hope it is specific enough.

So breaking up that question into more questions: what is the relationship and how does it develop? How does it affect job satisfaction for zoo keepers? How does it affect animal welfare and what animal behavior can we see that shows they are content? What laws exist in South Africa that affect zoo keepers and their treatment of captive animals? How do humans and animals interact in general? These questions will direct my literature reviewing from now on. Hopefully I can find more writing about zoo keeper relationships specifically, but if not, I will research all the background stuff - what zoo keepers do, what laws they are working with, animal behavior, etc. and that will prepare me for my study in South Africa where I can get the more specific details on zoo keeper relationships that I am curious about.

I worry that my question is not terribly scientific. Of course, doing a study on a species out in the wild would be ideal but it is not reasonable with this kind of field study set-up. I don't know how big of an issue or of how much importance the zookeeper-animal relationship is, but I am really curious about it. I am not sure it will benefit anyone other than me, but we are not really trying to change the world with these projects, so I guess that is okay. It is interesting on a social level - how humans and animals interact and how that affects happiness or welfare...so that is good.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Family Dynamics

       In Wednesday's class we talked about our families and about the family we will be staying with, the Thomases. It is almost this part of the field study that makes me the most nervous - everything will be so different and new and overwhelming and hard, it will be so important to have some place safe to return to at the end of every day. Which means having a good relationship with the Thomas family. Heather asked us to think about our own family dynamics and how that might translate to our host family. Living away from home makes it easier to see what my family/home is like. It is so nice to go home during breaks. I love all the people there and they all love me, which is so reassuring. It is marvelous to know that there are people who will love you no matter what and help me out with anything. In my family, my mom stays at home. She takes care of the house, the kids, cooking meals, doing laundry, paying bills. All the kids help out, of course. Everyone has their own jobs to do and is responsible for taking care of their own things. My dad is super busy with his job, being a dentist, but he also has many projects outside of school. I think this is something unique to my family - we all work together, and work a lot. Some past projects: pruning fruit trees and picking fruit, bottling/drying fruit, selling stuff at Farmer's market, taking care of bees, extracting honey, making candles, all kinds of projects around the house and yard - fences, sheds, walls, decks....currently my family is working on fixing up this old, Victorian-style house. When I go home for breaks I know I am going to be part of the latest project - like this Christmas I tore down walls and trimming at the old house. My family is pretty close knit, we eat meals together, watch movies together, play basketball and board games together.

     From Heather's description, the Thomas family is not quite like this...they eat meals separately, most of their children have grown up and left, etc. This is not to say they are not a close-knit family - it sounds like the Thomases would have stayed in the United States except they wanted to be near family. My concern is being too shy and not becoming friends with the Thomases. Heather warned us they weren't going to force their friendship on us, which means we have to put forth the effort to get to know them and become friends with them. I am afraid and nervous about this, although I am not really sure why...I have made friends before, I know how to do it. It's just that in this case, I really want to please and impress the Thomases and have a good relationship with them. I want to be able to talk freely with them and learn things about their lives. I wonder how our cultural differences will affect this process, or if it will affect it at all? The Thomases have lived in the U.S. and have been hosting BYU students for a few years now, they are not completely unaware of our culture, although we might be unaware of theirs.

       So, what can I do to get to know them and create a comfortable atmosphere in their home? Heather mentioned watching soap operas together - bonding moment! Also helping out around the house, with cooking or dishes or cleaning. I have to not be shy! Of course don't be insufferably gregarious, but ask questions and be friendly. Okay, thinking about it all is making me a little less nervous. I am excited to get to know the Thomases!

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Participant Observation

      In Monday's class we talked more about Participant Observation and all the things that go into participant observation. I want to really apply all of those things to my specific study, so here goes. First I will name some part of preparing for or doing participant observation and then I will discuss how it pertains to my field study.

Learning language - I am not planning on learning any Xhosa or Afrikaans before going, but I would definitely like to learn some while I am there.

Build memory - I liked the exercise suggested in the reading where you walk past a store window and try to observe all the things in the window and then go back to and see what things you missed. Basically I need to become Shawn, from Psych, and become good at noticing and remembering things. This will be helpful in every field study situation.

Explicit awareness - I would like to practice becoming more aware of my own actions and really think before I act or speak,  especially because I can be a little impulsive when I get excited about something. If I am able to go and observe at the zoo, what kinds of things will I need to be aware of? Animal behavior - is the animal active/inactive, shy/confident, excited/bored?  How am I going to tell how it is feeling....I think mostly from its body language. Zoo keeper behavior is another thing I'll be watching for....how they act around the animals, smiling, pet names, touching, playing, etc.

Insider/outsider and hanging out - a lot of my time is going to be spent "hanging out" at the zoo. I want to be comfortable with the people and the animals there, and I want them to be comfortable with me, willing to answer questions, willing to let me help them do stuff.

A huge part of participant observation is what sort of social situtation you are participating in/observing. Ashley talked about several different things that go into your ability to participate...

Simplicity - some parts of observing at the zoo will be hard, others easy. If I just went as a normal zoo goer, but spent a lot more time looking at the animals than normal zoo goers did...that would not be hard, I wouldn't be bothering anyone. But I would also like to observe some of the more behind-the-scenes stuff - cleaning cages, feeding animals, checking animal health etc., and that might be harder to observe.

Frequently recurring - The activities at the zoo will be frequently recurring, so that should not be a problem.

Permissible - Will it be permissible for me to help out with things? I am hoping I will get permission to do some hands on stuff with the animals and zoo keepers, or at least get permission to observe more.

Accessible - Kind of the same as permissible, once I have permission, it won't be hard to get access to behind-the-scene locations. The zoo itself is pretty accessible, if I attend as a normal zoo goer.

Unobtrusive - Depends on the situation too. If I am just standing outside of cages watching things, I am not obtruding. If I am trying to help clean a bear's teeth or get a knot out of a giraffe's neck...that might be a little more obtrusive, both for the animals and the people who normally do those kinds of things : )

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Body Language

          Whenever I hear "body language" I think of the Queen song. Anyway, Friday's class we talked about nonverbal communication and cues. This includes body language: what your posture, facial expression, hand motions, walk etc. are saying about what you are thinking or feeling. It is amazing how much we do convey with body language. I don't like talking on the phone very much, and I think one of the reasons for that is because I rely on body language to clarify what someone is saying. Same goes with any kind of communication where facial expressions or tone cannot be determined. Ashley mentioned that we need to be careful out in the field about what our body language is saying, because of the whole one symbol, multiple meanings thing. I don't think that I am always very aware of what my body language is showing. Or my body language is not accurate to my actual feelings....crossing your arms is often said to be a sign of being tense or insecure. I cross my arms a lot, but mostly because it is just more comfortable. Anyway, I want to try and be more aware of my body language and what it is saying.

         I went to this retreat once in high school and was put in a group with some people I did not know very well. We did a lot of different activites and got to know each other much better. One of the boys in my group told me that he had thought I was sort of stand-offish, or stuck-up, but after getting to know me he realized I was not that way at all. I think when people are shy or even just quiet it might make them seem aloof or uptight. I've thought about that experience several times, and how I can seem more friendly. This is definitely going to come into play on a field study. I am going to be trying to work closely with people and I want them to know that I am friendly and also trust-worthy. How can I use my body language or other nonverbal communication cues to help show them that? For the rest of the semester, I am going to work on what my body language might be saying about me and the accuracy of what it might be saying.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Values

For Wednesday's class, Heather had us play a game. She set up a situation and we had to position ourselves along a line of strongly agree to strongly disagree. Her situations were corporal punishment for children; giving money to homeless people; and giving people jobs based on their merit, skills or talents versus just because they knew the right people. It was a really interesting activity and helped me realize what some of my own values are, but also the values of Emily and Holly and why they feel how they feel. I also realized a lot of my values come directly from my parents and the way that I was brought up. Does that mean that they are really my values, or is that just the only way I've ever been shown to think or feel? As a young, developing adult...how do I figure out what my values are? What kinds of things affect how people develop values? I can see that a lot of it comes from the different situations we are exposed to. It was great to hear what everyone thought - Malcolm, Heather, and Holly usually had a different angle and I could totally understand their points and why they felt how they did. That's the problem - for me, it is easy to see why I value something a certain way, but I can also totally understand why someone feels differently, at least with all of the things that we discussed. And I haven't really been exposed to many different situations. My only example of corporal punishment comes from my dad giving us spanks when we were little, when he only did it if we were really being snots, and then was completely loving afterward and explained why our behavior was inappropriate. My value/opinion on that might be completely different if I had seen or been subject to severe corporal punishment in school....

So I was thinking about why Heather had us do this, and how it pertains to South Africa, and how my experiences there might help me in shaping and developing my values. With the homelessness question, I know we are going to be exposed to a lot more of it than we currently see here in Provo, Utah. A point that Heather brought up was human trafficking, and how a little kid begging might actually be working for some bigger group and might not benefit from money or food at all - something that would not even cross my mind here in Utah. I am really interested to see how being in a culture totally different from the one I am used to is going to change my values and the way I view the world.