The literature review was a bit confusing, actually...or perhaps I have written too many term papers in the last couple days. However, I don't really understand the purpose/process of a literature review so, I found it all pretty difficult, and I am not sure why? However, it's obviously something that needs to be done, as was stated in our prompt, for future classes, including our senior thesis. I think that having an example would have made things easier (visual learner, here) but, I did end up Googling some examples so that I could get the flow and look of this review. I am not the best with having a free form assignment, especially when it is an extremely important skill to have; I want structure and direction, not variation in how I can perform this.
Of course, I still have questions about my research question, due to my question not having extensive research on it in the first place. Hopefully in the upcoming years, research on the LGBT community, and LGBT in general, will become a 'safe' research topic, especially the dangers of being a part of that lifestyle.
On the other hand, my gathering of resources would probably be extremely beneficial to a lot of people, and hopefully, encourage more research to be done in this field.
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Sunday, April 20, 2014
Bibliography
I ended up finding three new articles and books for this bibliography and using three old ones. The new ones I picked were: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Aging, Research Funded by the National Institutes of Health on the Health of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Populations, and Development of expertise in mental health service provision for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. The resources I picked were resources that I had not found during the previous weeks. This time, I focused on completely different aspects in the LGBT community, such as LGBT medical providers, LGBT elders, and LGBT research itself.
I have never done a complete annotated biography before, least, I don't think, haha. So, this was a whole, kind of new process. I really appreciated having to do at least one source a week because it made gathering these resources a lot easier, as well as understanding what to look for, what were important aspects to address for my research question, as well as what is appropriate resources for me to use. As well, finding, citing, and annotating all those sources, as well as these sources, was a great learning experience for much needed future reference.
I have never done a complete annotated biography before, least, I don't think, haha. So, this was a whole, kind of new process. I really appreciated having to do at least one source a week because it made gathering these resources a lot easier, as well as understanding what to look for, what were important aspects to address for my research question, as well as what is appropriate resources for me to use. As well, finding, citing, and annotating all those sources, as well as these sources, was a great learning experience for much needed future reference.
Sunday, April 13, 2014
Open Access Journals
I have never used Open Access Journals so, this was something new for me!
The first link we were given, gave me no results whatsoever so, I moved on to oasje.com and actually got pages among pages of information. However, most of the journals that were up my ally were focusing on gay and bisexual men, when I need LGBT information. However, these articles are small enough and easy enough to find that I could use multiple articles to kind of, find the sources and information that are true for all LGBT and not just half of the community.
I ended up picking an article on suicide and violence prevention (the article focuses on gay and bisexual men) and had numerous sources, such as the suicide prevention hot line, and the Trevor Project. I picked this article for all of these articles, and the fact that a lot of the information can also be used for other members of the LGBT community, especially the resources.
I actually really liked using open ended journal search engine because the site was really easy to navigate and going through multiple articles was so much easier then reading abstracts; I could read the article in the same amount of time.
The first link we were given, gave me no results whatsoever so, I moved on to oasje.com and actually got pages among pages of information. However, most of the journals that were up my ally were focusing on gay and bisexual men, when I need LGBT information. However, these articles are small enough and easy enough to find that I could use multiple articles to kind of, find the sources and information that are true for all LGBT and not just half of the community.
I ended up picking an article on suicide and violence prevention (the article focuses on gay and bisexual men) and had numerous sources, such as the suicide prevention hot line, and the Trevor Project. I picked this article for all of these articles, and the fact that a lot of the information can also be used for other members of the LGBT community, especially the resources.
I actually really liked using open ended journal search engine because the site was really easy to navigate and going through multiple articles was so much easier then reading abstracts; I could read the article in the same amount of time.
Sunday, April 6, 2014
This is getting easier!
I have had 2 weeks of easy article findings, which makes me feel so much better about my topic, since I can actually find resources for my research question. My research question is: “What effect does being LBGT have on their
health mental health?” I decided to nick the youth part of my topic because most of my resources are only done with 18+ candidates, which obviously doesn't work with my original topic.
This article is evidence on LGBT victims after violent crimes that usually involve sexual violence. I believe this article will really help me analyze the effects that crime, which the LGBT suffer more from, have on LGBT people. I need to get to reasons WHY they suffer from more mental health issues, and violence, especially sexual violence, is an obvious candidate to put on to that list.
I believe that my research skills are improving, since I am able to actually find resources now. However, I am not sure if bending my research question to resources is a good skill? However, I am not sure what I could do instead, since it's not like I could create my own resources.
This article is evidence on LGBT victims after violent crimes that usually involve sexual violence. I believe this article will really help me analyze the effects that crime, which the LGBT suffer more from, have on LGBT people. I need to get to reasons WHY they suffer from more mental health issues, and violence, especially sexual violence, is an obvious candidate to put on to that list.
I believe that my research skills are improving, since I am able to actually find resources now. However, I am not sure if bending my research question to resources is a good skill? However, I am not sure what I could do instead, since it's not like I could create my own resources.
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Finally, a good streak!
So, if you guys have been following my posts, this has not been an easy research paper for me, since it has been so difficult for me to find articles, books, etc. on my very narrow subject. Therefore, I have widened my pool by making my research question: How does being in the LGBT community effect mental health? This will give me a much wider range in choosing resources for this paper.
So, looking for an article ended up being incredibly fast, which I was definitely not prepared for, haha. I went to the Chapman online library and followed the steps provided in our handout. The keywords I typed were LGBT + mental health and loads of articles popped up! I feel like I could have been able to use so many articles however, the one I chose to use focused on the LGB population (did not include Trans, which is irritating) and how their mental health is different from the heterosexual population due to the stress that minorities, specifically the LGB population, goes through on an every day basis.
I think this article will be immensely helpful for my paper and I am really excited to get deeper into this article and find quotes and examples to use for my paper! Is everyone else doing this well on their search?
So, looking for an article ended up being incredibly fast, which I was definitely not prepared for, haha. I went to the Chapman online library and followed the steps provided in our handout. The keywords I typed were LGBT + mental health and loads of articles popped up! I feel like I could have been able to use so many articles however, the one I chose to use focused on the LGB population (did not include Trans, which is irritating) and how their mental health is different from the heterosexual population due to the stress that minorities, specifically the LGB population, goes through on an every day basis.
I think this article will be immensely helpful for my paper and I am really excited to get deeper into this article and find quotes and examples to use for my paper! Is everyone else doing this well on their search?
Sunday, March 23, 2014
Further knowledge?
So, I have tweaked my topic a bit, since researching has been extremely difficult; usually giving me, literally, no results. I feel like there should be more far more research, articles, and books on LGBT youth and mental health, however, most of what I have found is textbook or how-to for counseling. Suppose it will take a bit more time for research to be done and stats presented to the psychology field since LGBT youth has been become more of an important subject today, compared to previous generations.
However, the lack of info I was able to find, made me tweak my info, which obviously helped me find a 'better' topic for my paper and as a result, will be a lot easier to write my paper. Even if it's not exactly what I wanted to research but, this just means that I can gain further knowledge in this field, and perhaps aid in the topic I actually wanted to research.
However, the lack of info I was able to find, made me tweak my info, which obviously helped me find a 'better' topic for my paper and as a result, will be a lot easier to write my paper. Even if it's not exactly what I wanted to research but, this just means that I can gain further knowledge in this field, and perhaps aid in the topic I actually wanted to research.
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Researching my Research Topic
• What knowledge did you gain about your topic as a result of the research you've
conducted so far?
First off, my topic is SO narrow and it was impossible (literally) to find a reference that had both 'LGBT Youth, Eating Disorders' keywords while searching through the eLibrary that we were required to get at least one source from. However, I have learned more static information that I can rely on, such as statistics, surveys, and experiments. Though, with not being able to work too many references, it is limited information. Luckily, the references have no repeating information.
• What new search strategies did you use to locate your sources?
I attempted to use all of the search engines that were recommend for getting the at least one required reference...and it did not turn out so well. Most articles were either only about eating disorders, or only about the hardships of LGBT youth. Which, although informative, not exactly what I needed. Perhaps I should broaden my topic to simply, relationship between mental disorders and LGBT Youth?
• What specific aspect of your topic do you want to research further?
I actually may want to take a step back from my topic so that I can research more. I don't really want to though, since I feel like addressing mental disorders and/or hardships experienced by LGBT youth is a pretty well known characteristic when talking about the LGBT community in general. Perhaps I could still make it my 'own' by only focusing on psychological disorders that happens due to being bullied, ostracized, etc. However, I feel like this information can be applied to almost all minority groups and probably depends on where the surveys are being taken as well, such as inner cities vs. rural towns.
conducted so far?
First off, my topic is SO narrow and it was impossible (literally) to find a reference that had both 'LGBT Youth, Eating Disorders' keywords while searching through the eLibrary that we were required to get at least one source from. However, I have learned more static information that I can rely on, such as statistics, surveys, and experiments. Though, with not being able to work too many references, it is limited information. Luckily, the references have no repeating information.
• What new search strategies did you use to locate your sources?
I attempted to use all of the search engines that were recommend for getting the at least one required reference...and it did not turn out so well. Most articles were either only about eating disorders, or only about the hardships of LGBT youth. Which, although informative, not exactly what I needed. Perhaps I should broaden my topic to simply, relationship between mental disorders and LGBT Youth?
• What specific aspect of your topic do you want to research further?
I actually may want to take a step back from my topic so that I can research more. I don't really want to though, since I feel like addressing mental disorders and/or hardships experienced by LGBT youth is a pretty well known characteristic when talking about the LGBT community in general. Perhaps I could still make it my 'own' by only focusing on psychological disorders that happens due to being bullied, ostracized, etc. However, I feel like this information can be applied to almost all minority groups and probably depends on where the surveys are being taken as well, such as inner cities vs. rural towns.
Sunday, March 9, 2014
My future...as assumed by me
Welcome! Those in my class and those outside of this class. I hope you all found this blog easily, if not, I wish you better luck next time. Anyway, let's get straight to this blogs point, shall we?
I'll start by explaining a bit about myself: my name is Nicolette and I am a psychology major at Brandman University, as well as College of the Canyons Community college. I graduated high school in 2011, graduated with my A.A. in Social Sciences in 2012, and am planning on finishing with my B.A. in psychology this upcoming Spring, even though I have only been going to Bradman for about a year. In the fall, fingers crossed, I will be going to Cal State Dominquez Hills to start their graduate program in Social Work and I will be focusing on Children, Youth, and Families.
Now, to get realllllly deep into my future prospects. I chose this grad school because it focuses on racism and sexism within the community, while other school were more of a generalized summary of social work. I have always been interested in social justices issues, such as equality and human rights so, this fit me a lot better than a vague social work M.A. In my future, I would like to focus on social justice issues, as well as the field of psychology itself, but the issues that are most important to me are: equality for LGBT community, sex workers, people of color, and learning, as well as helping those with personality and eating disorders. It's definitely hard to just pick ONE topic out of all of these but, I will probably pick sexism or racism to be discussing the rest of the semester since there is so much information, but it's not too terribly vague (I don't think?).
I have taken two research classes, quanitative and qualitative research, and I strongly loathed quanitative since the professor was not that great, and it involved a lot of math. However, I understood qualitative and did very well in it! Therefore, I would like to improve on many things in the ways of research, such as picking reputable articles and especially websites, for seeing if they are valid or not. I would also really like to improve on being more quick to write observations down; this is more of my problem with making things into a habit but, still pertains. Lastly, I would like to become more neutral, at least neutral sounding, when discussing topics that are such a passion for me to learn and discuss about. I have not been critiqued on being bias as of yet, but I know that I am and would like to improve so that the reader will be able to completely soak in the information and choose their own opinion, instead of be swayed by mine.
I'll start by explaining a bit about myself: my name is Nicolette and I am a psychology major at Brandman University, as well as College of the Canyons Community college. I graduated high school in 2011, graduated with my A.A. in Social Sciences in 2012, and am planning on finishing with my B.A. in psychology this upcoming Spring, even though I have only been going to Bradman for about a year. In the fall, fingers crossed, I will be going to Cal State Dominquez Hills to start their graduate program in Social Work and I will be focusing on Children, Youth, and Families.
Now, to get realllllly deep into my future prospects. I chose this grad school because it focuses on racism and sexism within the community, while other school were more of a generalized summary of social work. I have always been interested in social justices issues, such as equality and human rights so, this fit me a lot better than a vague social work M.A. In my future, I would like to focus on social justice issues, as well as the field of psychology itself, but the issues that are most important to me are: equality for LGBT community, sex workers, people of color, and learning, as well as helping those with personality and eating disorders. It's definitely hard to just pick ONE topic out of all of these but, I will probably pick sexism or racism to be discussing the rest of the semester since there is so much information, but it's not too terribly vague (I don't think?).
I have taken two research classes, quanitative and qualitative research, and I strongly loathed quanitative since the professor was not that great, and it involved a lot of math. However, I understood qualitative and did very well in it! Therefore, I would like to improve on many things in the ways of research, such as picking reputable articles and especially websites, for seeing if they are valid or not. I would also really like to improve on being more quick to write observations down; this is more of my problem with making things into a habit but, still pertains. Lastly, I would like to become more neutral, at least neutral sounding, when discussing topics that are such a passion for me to learn and discuss about. I have not been critiqued on being bias as of yet, but I know that I am and would like to improve so that the reader will be able to completely soak in the information and choose their own opinion, instead of be swayed by mine.