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- Convenor:
-
Lawrence Monocello
(The University of Alabama)
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- Format:
- Panel
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 7 April, -
Time zone: America/Chicago
Short Abstract:
How do psychological anthropologists navigate the contradictions in employing structured methods within dynamic systems of meaning and experience, such as using psychological scales in field research among populations outside of the contexts and populations in which they were developed?
Long Abstract:
Psychological anthropologists have long harbored a complicated relationship with structured psychological methods, utilizing psychometric scales in field research while criticizing the flaws and contradictions inherent in applying these often Anglophone and Eurocentric cultural artifacts outside of their original contexts. This set of papers explores the ways in which these tests—often developed with white, relatively affluent psychology majors in university—behave when participants outside the Anglophone world, racial or sexual minorities, migrant populations, disabled populations, and those of varied social and economic classes respond to them. Further, they interrogate the processes of translation, recruitment, data collection, data analysis, interpretation, and/or presentation, and propose strategies for the active promotion—rather than appropriation—of participants’ voices. Some questions these papers consider include: How do we balance the undeniable value of replicability with the need to be responsive to the diverse and dynamic systems of meaning we encounter? How do we center our participants’ voices while retaining communication with related fields less open to ethnography? How does ethnography ground interpretations and explanations of statistical results? How does actively including our interlocutors’ voices not only get us from the what to the how and why, but also to more just outcomes? In anti-colonial structured and mixed-methods research, where does the voice of the anthropologist belong? Overall, these papers provide insight into the creative application and interpretation of existing toolsets to novel topics with an eye toward reshaping anthropologists’ relationships with participants and data.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 7 April, 2021, -Nadia Santillanes (UNAM)
Paper short abstract:
In this presentation, we will address challenges using a series of methodological instruments designed to approach the relation between mental health and violence from the actor's perspective. The reflection arises from the ethnographic work with immigrant women who developed depression in the US.
Paper long abstract:
Given the eruption of violence in the daily lives of social groups, ethnographers have to deal with new challenges. In this presentation, we will address a series of methodological instruments designed to approach the relation between mental health and violence from the actor's perspective. The reflection arises from the ethnographic work carried out with immigrant women of Mexican origin who developed problems of depression in New York City. In it, we explore, through therapeutic itineraries and care trajectories, a series of material and legal factors and family violence, which framed the depressive episodes of these women. The following questions arose in the use of these instruments, as well as in the interpretation and analysis of the data: in the structured interview script, how can we stop giving linearity to the stories that present various paths and various aspects linked to depressive episodes? During the interview, in which the interviewee chooses what to tell and what to omit in their personal history, how do we introduce other dimensions that the researcher observes and considers important in the subject's personal history? How to represent an actor when he positions himself as a victim within a field of hegemony and subaltern relations, in which violence is relational? We consider it important through this paper to reflect on the design of instruments for obtaining information and analysis on the presentation and representation of those actors who have been under environments of exploitation, physical or sexual violence, and discrimination.
Lawrence Monocello (The University of Alabama)
Paper short abstract:
Based on 100 young South Korean men’s responses to the EAT-26 and the MBAS, and person-centered ethnographic interviews with six men who varied in their responses, I describe how embodied masculinities, social relationships, and body ideals come to bear on their interpretations of survey items.
Paper long abstract:
This presentation examines young South Korean men’s response patterns to the Male Body Attitudes Scale and the Eating Attitudes Test, two scales used in psychological research to assess body dissatisfaction and risk for eating disorders. When psychological scales are applied outside their original cultural contexts, questions can acquire unexpected meanings that alter the ways in which people respond. Based on 100 survey responses and in-depth, person-centered interviews with six of these respondents chosen based on their responses, I describe the ways in which the meanings of questions transform within the South Korean context, with particular attention to attitudes about masculinity, social relationships, and male body ideals.
Ben Lee (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) Antoine Bailliard Jody Bennett (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
Paper short abstract:
Sensory experiences of adults with schizophrenia are poorly understood due to Eurocentric biases in sensory processing measures. In response, this paper makes a case for greater use of ethnographic methods in the health sciences to understand sensory experience as emergent, co-constructed phenomena.
Paper long abstract:
Research in neuroscience and clinical psychology has found that adults diagnosed with schizophrenia have atypical sensory processing patterns, such as difficulty filtering out repetitive and/or unwanted sensory stimuli (i.e., sensory gating deficits), and acute sensitivity towards sensations (e.g., noise) (Landon et al., 2016). Measures such as the Adult/Adolescent Sensory Profile (AASP) (Brown & Dunn, 2002) construct a “sensory profile” about someone’s responses to sensory stimuli, to guide clinical professions in their clinical decision-making. However, the AASP has two significant limitations in its application to a schizophrenia context: 1) it was developed, standardized and normed with children without disabilities in the U.S.; and 2) it evaluates sensory experiences in isolation and out of context, when sensory experiences are in fact polysensorial, context-specific, and historical. To study the relationship between participation in daily activities and lived sensory experiences in a southeastern U.S. town, we used a combination of video-elicitation, photo-elicitation, semi-structured interviews, and the AASP. Participants chose which of their daily activities would be video recorded, and engaged in collaborative analyses with the research team as they watched and discussed the video recording of their engagement in a meaningful activity. This collaborative approach enabled us to understand our interlocutors as active sensory beings, whose participation in activities were predicated upon embodied, sensorial ways of knowing. We therefore argue that ethnography provides one possible means with which clinicians and researchers can work towards the appreciation (not appropriation) of their interlocutors’ lived sensory experiences, and to critique Eurocentric norms embedded within measures and scales.
Rochelle Frounfelker (McGill University)
Paper short abstract:
Most violent radicalization assessments have been developed among specialized populations. This paper is a transcultural investigation that questions the implicit assumptions and norms that inform instrument development, and the applicability of such assessments in the general population.
Paper long abstract:
Objective: Countering violent radicalization is a priority in many countries, prompting research that assesses attitudes and beliefs about violent radicalization in the general population. The majority of violent radicalization assessments have been developed among specialized populations, with limited investigation into the generalizability and cross-cultural applicability of measurement tools. A transcultural investigation raises questions about the implicit assumptions and norms that inform instrument development. This research examined the psychometric properties of the Sympathy for Violent Radicalization Scale (SyfoR), a measure developed for use with Pakistani and Bangladeshi immigrant groups in the UK, in two convenience samples of youth and young adults in North America and Western Europe.
Method: We investigated the factor structure, reliability, and construct validity of adapted versions of the SyfoR among convenience samples of youth and young adults living in Belgium (N=2014) and Quebec, Canada (N=1364) via on-line surveys administered to students engaged in secondary and post-secondary education.
Results: Results indicate that in both samples a reduced, 8-item version of the SyfoR has a 3-factor structure with good model fit statistics using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and good internal consistency reliability.
Conclusion: More studies are needed to assess the appropriateness of the SyfoR for use in diverse contexts and among diverse populations. The potential usefulness and harmfulness of measures of violent radicalization should balance the benefits of obtaining local data with the risks associated with pathologizing social dissent.
Maya Fennig (McGill University)
Paper short abstract:
The primary goal of this paper is to describe the methodological challenges in conducting cross-cultural research with refugees. It draws on insights derived from a study that explored perceptions, help-seeking and provisions for psychological distress among Eritrean refugees residing in Israel.
Paper long abstract:
The primary objective of this paper is to describe the methodological challenges in conducting cross-cultural research with refugees and to offer possible solutions and guidelines for addressing these issues. To illustrate the points being made this paper draws on insights derived from an exploratory mental health study that explored perceptions, help-seeking and provisions for psychological distress among the Eritrean refugee community residing in Israel.
Three primary topics are addressed: (1) Challenges and dilemmas in the translation and adaptation of psychological scales that were developed in North-American contexts (specifically the GHQ-12). In line with arguments made by Kleinman (1987) in this section I demonstrate that translation in cross-cultural research is not a technical-problem, as it is often rendered in medical and psychological scholarship, but rather a highly nuanced and complex task that greatly influences the validity of cross cultural findings; (2) Negotiating entry and gaining authentic access. In this section I highlight the advantages of adopting a critical approach and making explicit one’s political position when conducting research with refugees who have often experienced tremendous institutional oppression and are therefore extremely cautious of disclosing their personal experiences and inner worlds; (3) Ethical considerations and concerns. Finally, I discuss the need to explore meaningful ways to engage refugee participants in research and ensure they fully understand research activities, aims and concepts such as confidentially and consent. I conclude with a discussion of promising approaches and lessons learned.