scholarly journals The Use of Diaries in Sociological Research on Health Experience

1997 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 38-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Elliott
Keyword(s):  
Participant Observation ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Service Research ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Interview Method ◽  
Health And Illness ◽  
Response Modes ◽  
Different Response ◽  
Experience Of Illness

Diaries have been relatively neglected as a sociological research method. This paper highlights the value of diary research, drawing on the literature on auto/biographies and health service research as well as a qualitative study of need and demand for primary health care, which used diaries and linked in-depth interviews. In particular, data from the study are used to illustrate the role of the ‘diary-interview’ method in offering a means to ‘observe’ behaviour which is inaccessible to participant observation. Five key advantages of the diary-interview are discussed, namely the potential of the ‘diary-interview’ method to accommodate different response modes; the extent to which the method captured diarists’ own priorities; the importance of the research process in illuminating the contexts within which helpseeking took place; the role of diaries as both a record of and reflection on the experience of illness and the value of the diary-interview method as a means of understanding what is ‘taken for granted’ in accounts of health and illness.

Diversions: How the Underrepresentation of Research on Advantaged Groups Leaves Explanations for Health Inequalities Incomplete

2021 ◽  
pp. 002214652110281
Author(s):  
Bruce G. Link ◽  
San Juanita García
Keyword(s):  
Health Inequalities ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Major Health ◽  
Related Data ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Disadvantaged People

We identify a gap in health inequalities research that sociologists are particularly well situated to fill—an underrepresentation of research on the role advantaged groups play in creating inequalities. We name the process that creates the imbalance health-inequality diversions. We gathered evidence from awarded grants (349), major health-related data sets (7), research articles (324), and Healthy People policy recommendations. We assess whether the inequality-generating actions of advantaged groups are considered either directly by capturing their behaviors or indirectly by asking disadvantaged people about discrimination or exploitation from advantaged groups. We further assess whether there is a tendency to locate the problem in the person or group experiencing health inequalities. We find that diversions are prevalent across all steps of the research process. The diversion concept suggests new lines of sociological research to understand why diversions occur and how gaps in evidence concerning the role of the advantaged might be filled.

scholarly journals The emergent modes of dementia activism

2012 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 623-644 ◽  
Author(s):  
RUTH BARTLETT
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Human Motivation ◽  
Interview Method ◽  
Temporal Space ◽  
Health Social Movements ◽  
People With Dementia ◽  
The Social

ABSTRACTAfter decades of silencing and discrimination, people with dementia are beginning to join forces, take action and campaign for social change. Drawing on data obtained from ‘activists’ with dementia using diary interview method and participant observation, this paper considers the emergent modes of dementia activism in the context of the social movement literature, and in particular, work emphasising the role of networks in health social movements. The study identified three emergent modes of dementia activism; these were the ‘protecting-self against decline’ mode, ‘(re) gaining respect’ mode, and ‘creating connections with other people with dementia’ mode. Taken together, these modes show how a sense of elapsing time pervades this form of activism. The investigation reinforces the contention that time is a dominated force that structures human motivation and goals. Furthermore, it raises the possibility that activism can protect against decline amongst people with dementia given the appropriate temporal space.

scholarly journals The ticking time-bomb. Health literacy in the context of genetic risk prediction in familial breast-ovarian cancer; A qualitative study

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariya Lorke ◽  
Laura Harzheim ◽  
Kerstin Rhiem ◽  
Christiane Woopen ◽  
Saskia Jünger
Keyword(s):  
Ovarian Cancer ◽  
Genetic Testing ◽  
Health Literacy ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Ovarian Cancer Risk ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Genetic Risk Prediction ◽  
Health And Illness ◽  
Women’S Perceptions

Personalised methods of predicting breast and ovarian cancer risk through genetic testing increasingly demand a person’s understanding and critical appraisal of risk-related information, as well as decision-making and acting upon disclosure of a positive test result. The current study aims at understanding health literacy (HL) among persons at risk of developing familial breast-ovarian cancer (FBOC) from a bottom-up perspective—incorporating their viewpoints into the research process. Its qualitative design integrates an ethnographic-narrative approach and findings from 10 narrative interviews with women who have undergone genetic testing, analysed by using reflexive grounded theory. The collected data reveal the entanglement of the women’s perceptions concerning the risk of getting ill, their identity, and their strategies of managing health. The analysis of this interplay provides an empirical basis for approaching HL in its communicative dimension, considering individuals’ understandings of health and illness, and emphasizing the role of critical HL.

Granting the privilege to grunt: Reconceptualizing the perception of grunting in gyms

2021 ◽  
pp. 101269022110201
Author(s):  
Assaf Lev ◽  
Esther Hertzog
Keyword(s):  
Symbolic Interaction ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Voluntary Action ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Social Phenomenon ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Interaction Approach

For many gym goers, grunting in times of bodily exertion is perceived as a voluntary performance, a self-evident expression for which they can waive any responsibility. Drawing on a symbolic interaction approach, this paper provides a novel examination of grunting as a social phenomenon. It demonstrates the role of grunting as a social symbol and its connection to social spaces and identities, gender norms, and power relations. The scope of sociological research on grunting in times of bodily exertion is relatively limited and often relegated to the context of biomedicine. Therefore, the contribution of this paper is to address the lacuna of research that focuses on the link between grunting as a socially constructed phenomenon and its sociocultural implications. Ethnographic research was conducted for 3 years in two gyms, using a combination of participant observation and semi-structured interviews. Key findings illustrate three themes toward the role of grunting: grunting and socialization; grunting and space; and finally, grunting and situational adjustment. It is argued that grunting at the gym is socially constructed, a rational and voluntary action that is negotiated, controlled, and adjusted according to the situation.

Public space of the trustworthiness of sociological knowledge: The case of electoral research

2020 ◽  
pp. 13-22
Author(s):  
OLEKSANDR STEGNII
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Negative Influence ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Good Tool ◽  
Sociological Knowledge ◽  
The Public ◽  
Approval Ratings ◽  
The Impact

The paper analyses specific features of sociological data circulation in a public space during an election campaign. The basic components of this kind of space with regard to sociological research are political actors (who put themselves up for the election), voters and agents. The latter refer to professional groups whose corporate interests are directly related to the impact on the election process. Sociologists can also be seen as agents of the electoral process when experts in the field of electoral sociology are becoming intermingled with manipulators without a proper professional background and publications in this field. In a public space where an electoral race is unfolding, empirical sociological research becomes the main form of obtaining sociological knowledge, and it is primarily conducted to measure approval ratings. Electoral research serves as an example of combining the theoretical and empirical components of sociological knowledge, as well as its professional and public dimensions. Provided that sociologists meet all the professional requirements, electoral research can be used as a good tool for evaluating the trustworthiness of results reflecting the people’s expression of will. Being producers of sociological knowledge, sociologists act in two different capacities during an election campaign: as analysts and as pollsters. Therefore, it is essential that the duties and areas of responsibility for professional sociologists should be separated from those of pollsters. Another thing that needs to be noted is the negative influence that political strategists exert on the trustworthiness of survey findings which are going to be released to the public. Using the case of approval ratings as an illustration, the author analyses the most common techniques aimed at misrepresenting and distorting sociological data in the public space. Particular attention is given to the markers that can detect bogus polling companies, systemic violations during the research process and data falsification.

Studying Globalization at Home

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sunil Bhatia
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Cultural Narratives ◽  
Cultural Codes ◽  
Qualitative Approaches ◽  
Interpretive Methods ◽  
Significant Interest ◽  
At Home

This chapter documents the ethnographic context in which the interviews and participant observation were conducted for the study presented in this book. It also situates the study within the context of narrative inquiry and develops arguments about the role of self-reflexivity in doing ethnography at “home” and producing qualitative forms of knowledge that are based on personal, experiential, and cultural narratives. It is argued that there is significant interest in the adoption of interpretive methods or qualitative research in psychology. The qualitative approaches in psychology present a provocative and complex vision of how the key concepts related to describing and interpreting cultural codes, social practices, and lived experience of others are suffused with both poetical and political elements of culture. The epistemological and ontological assumptions undergirding qualitative research reflect multiple “practices of inquiry” and methodologies that have different orientations, assumptions, values, ideologies, and criterion of excellence.

scholarly journals The role of explanatory models of breast cancer in breast cancer prevention behaviors among Arab-Israeli physicians and laywomen

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michal Soffer ◽  
Miri Cohen ◽  
Faisal Azaiza
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Community Sample ◽  
Explanatory Models ◽  
Cluster Sampling ◽  
Cultural Perceptions ◽  
Arab Population ◽  
Barriers To Screening ◽  
The North ◽  
Health And Illness

Abstract Background: ‘Explanatory Models’ (EMs) are frameworks through which individuals and groups understand diseases, are influenced by cultural and religious perceptions of health and illness, and influence both physicians and patients’ behaviors. Aims: To examine the role of EMs of illness (cancer-related perceptions) in physicians’ and laywomen’s behaviors (decision to recommend undergoing regular mammography, adhering to mammography) in the context of a traditional-religious society, that is, the Arab society in Israel. Methods: Two combined samples were drawn: a representative sample of 146 Arab physicians who serve the Arab population and a sample composed of 290 Arab women, aged 50–70 years, representative of the main Arab groups residing in the north and center of Israel (Muslims, Christians) were each randomly sampled (cluster sampling). All respondents completed a closed-ended questionnaire. Results: Women held more cultural cancer-related beliefs and fatalistic beliefs than physicians. Physicians attributed more access barriers to screening as well as fear of radiation to women patients and lower social barriers to screening, compared with the women’s community sample. Higher fatalistic beliefs among women hindered the probability of adherence to mammography; physicians with higher fatalistic beliefs were less likely to recommend mammography. Conclusions: The role of cultural perceptions needs to be particularly emphasized. In addition to understanding the patients’ perceptions of illness, physicians must also reflect on the social, cultural, and psychological factors that shape their decision to recommend undergoing regular mammography.

scholarly journals The Role of Aquaporin Overexpression in the Modulation of Transcription of Heavy Metal Transporters under Cadmium Treatment in Poplar

Plants ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 54
Author(s):  
Andrea Neri ◽  
Silvia Traversari ◽  
Andrea Andreucci ◽  
Alessandra Francini ◽  
Luca Sebastiani
Keyword(s):  
Heavy Metal ◽  
Transcriptional Response ◽  
Metal Transporters ◽  
Metal Transporter ◽  
Cadmium Treatment ◽  
Tolerance To Cadmium ◽  
Different Response ◽  
Cd Translocation ◽  
Hydroponic Conditions

Populus alba ‘Villafranca’ clone is well-known for its tolerance to cadmium (Cd). To determine the mechanisms of Cd tolerance of this species, wild-type (wt) plants were compared with transgenic plants over-expressing an aquaporin (aqua1, GenBank GQ918138). Plants were maintained in hydroponic conditions with Hoagland’s solution and treated with 10 µM of Cd, renewed every 5 d. The transcription levels of heavy metal transporter genes (PaHMA2, PaNRAMP1.3, PaNRAMP2, PaNRAMP3.1, PaNRAMP3.2, PaABCC9, and PaABCC13) were analyzed at 1, 7, and 60 d of treatment. Cd application did not induce visible toxicity symptoms in wt and aqua1 plants even after 2 months of treatment confirming the high tolerance of this poplar species to Cd. Most of the analyzed genes showed in wt plants a quick response in transcription at 1 d of treatment and an adaptation at 60 d. On the contrary, a lower transcriptional response was observed in aqua1 plants in concomitance with a higher Cd concentration in medial leaves. Moreover, PaHMA2 showed at 1 d an opposite trend within organs since it was up-regulated in root and stem of wt plants and in leaves of aqua1 plants. In summary, aqua1 overexpression in poplar improved Cd translocation suggesting a lower Cd sensitivity of aqua1 plants. This different response might be due to a different transcription of PaNRAMP3 genes that were more transcribed in wt line because of the importance of this gene in Cd compartmentalization.

Different response modes and cooperation modulations of blue‐light receptors in photomorphogenesis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuning Wu ◽  
Qin Wang ◽  
Jing Qu ◽  
Wen Liu ◽  
Xuejuan Gao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Blue Light ◽  
Response Modes ◽  
Different Response
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