Doing health anthropology : research methods for community assessment and change / Christie W. Kiefer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kiefer, Christie W.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Medical anthropology--Research--Methodology.

Medical anthropology.

Public health--Anthropological aspects--Research--Methodology.

Public health.

Anthropology--methods.

Public Health.

Research Design.

Public health--Anthropological aspects.

Research.

Methodology.

Medical Subjects:

Anthropology--methods.

Public Health.

Research Design.

Physical Description:

xvii, 281 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Springer, [2007]

Summary:

These are critical questions in confronting the social causes of ill health, yet many health students do not have the appropriate training in the anthropological methods and techniques that help answer them. Christie Kiefer has written Doing Health Anthropology to prompt students to enter the community already prepared in these methods so that they can accurately ask and solve these important questions themselves. Using this book as a guide, students learn to integrate cultural anthropology with health science and come to their own conclusions based on field research. The book includes common pitfalls to avoid when conducting interviews and observations, and ways to formulate and answer research questions, maintain field notes and other records, and correctly analyze qualitative data. With the help of this text, practitioners and students alike will be able to integrate cultural anthropology methods into their health science investigations and community health initiatives.

Contents:

1 Why Anthropology? 1

What is Cultural Anthropology? The Concept of Culture 3

How Do Cultural Anthropologists Collect Data? 6

How Do Cultural Anthropologists Analyze Data? 7

The Advantages of Anthropology for the Health Sciences 8

The Mighty Disease Model 9

The Social Perspective on Health 10

Why Isn't the Social Perspective More Widely Used? 11

The Advantages of the Social Perspective 13

2 Positivism: The Laboratory Theory of Knowledge 21

The Meanings of Knowledge 23

Positivism: The Laboratory Science Theory of Knowledge 25

Validity 26

Elegance and Parsimony 26

The Limits of Positivism 29

3 The Naturalistic Theory of Knowledge: Anthropology 33

Naturalistic Theory 35

The Idea of Usefulness 36

The Naturalistic Search for Knowledge 37

Intuition, or Using What We Already Know 37

How Science Is Different from Everyday Problem Solving: The Issue of Persuasion 39

The Process of Naturalistic Research 39

Advantages of Naturalistic Knowledge 40

The Issue of Meaning 41

The Issue of Pattern Coherence 43

The Disadvantages of Naturalistic Theory 45

Conceptual Problem No. 1 Verification 45

Conceptual Problem No. 2 Objectivity 46

The Naturalistic Response 47

Practical Problem No. 1 Time 48

Practical Problem No. 2 Generalizability 49

What About Theory? 50

4 The Study of Real People in Natural Situations 53

Ethnography and the Anthropological Attitude 55

The Moral Relationship of Researcher and Community 56

Survey Research and the Positivist Attitude 60

The Importance of Contexts in Social Research 62

5 Designing a Research Project 69

The Process of Detailed Understanding 72

Identifying a Research Problem 75

Why Have We Chosen This Problem? 76

How Will We Recognize the Answer? 77

The Problem Statement 78

The Intuition Statement 80

Formulating Specific Research Questions 82

Characteristics of Good Questions 85

Research Design As a Continuous Process 86

6 The Researcher in and Beyond the Community 89

Participant Observation 91

Ethics and Values 93

Ethics for Other Styles of Research 94

Observing Unacceptable Behavior 95

Taking Roles, Fitting in 96

Clothing, Speech, Manners 97

Examples of Roles 98

The Role of Student or Scholar 98

The Role of Friend 100

The Roles of Leader, Teacher, and Expert 101

Culture Shock: Unavoidable, Highly Valuable 103

If Your Time in the Community is Limited 104

The Researcher Beyond the Community 106

7 Collecting Data 109

Planning for Research 112

The Research Problem 112

Background Research 113

Observing and Taking Notes 115

General Principles of Observation 116

What Situations and Behaviors to Observe 117

Minimizing Distortion 119

Rapport Building 120

Keeping Records 120

Audio and Video Recordings 120

Adding Analytic Details 121

Interviewing 122

Minimizing Distortion 122

Closed-Ended Versus Open-Ended Interviews 123

Getting Truth Through Interviews 125

Maintaining Rapport 127

Keeping Interview Records 1 128

Unobtrusive Measures 130

Indirect Indicators 131

8 Analyzing Data 133

Data Analysis Uses Natural Human Skills 136

Analysis: Making Our Implicit Understandings Explicit 137

Data Management 138

Kinship Diagrams, or Genograms 139

Classification Trees, Organization Charts 140

Networks and Flow Charts 141

Face Sheets 142

How to Treat Data Management Tools 145

Analyzing Raw Data: Content Coding 146

Using Statistics 148

How to Read and Listen to Anthropology 149

Reading for Context 149

Reading and Listening for Technique 150

Writing the Results 151

Persuasion 151

Transparency 152

Language 152

Usefulness 152

9 The Theory of Needs 155

Existing Model of Community Health Practice (CHP) 158

The Concept of Health 158

The Concept of Community 159

The Goals and Limitations of the CHP Model 159

A More Effective Model: People Meeting Needs in Patterned Context 161

Meeting Needs 161

Patterned Context 162

Context, Meaning, and Change 163

The Basic Human Needs 167

Needs and Health 169

Synergy, Conflict, and Substitution Among Needs 170

Synergy 171

Conflict 171

Substitution 172

Needs and Community Health Research 173

Assessing Health in the Context of Needs 173

The Role of Social Change in Health 174

The Impact of Planned Changes on Health 174

A Method for Assessing Need Satisfaction Strategies 175

10 Community Change: The Theory of Hope 177

Anomie and Hopelessness 180

The Substitution of Satisfactions 182

Loss of Meaning 133

Self-Wounding Communities 135

Self-Healing Communities 187

The Process of Community Empowerment 188

Helping People Understand Themselves 189

An Alternative Theory of Community Change: Street Marxism 190

Using Theory to Help People Change 191

The Theory of Hope 191

The Theory of Street Marxism 192

11 Action Anthropology 195

Research as Community Practice 197

The Empowerment Process 198

Action Research Adds a Moral Dimension to Science 200

The Action Researcher and Community Empowerment 201

Developing Self-Awareness in the Community 201

Creating a Liaison Between the Community and Outsiders 202

The Limitations of the Action Researcher 203

Doing Action Anthropology I Knowing the Community 203

Doing Action Anthropology II Facilitating Change 205

Organizing Gatherings and Sharing Information 205

Organizing Work, Collecting Facts, Evaluating Actions 206

The Look, Think, Act Model 207

Sustaining the Process 209

12 Teaching Health Anthropology 213

Teaching and Research Should Go Together 215

Traditional Teaching Methods 216

A Better Way: Student-Centered Teaching 216

Benefits and Costs of the Student-Centered Method 218

The Method of Student-Centered Teaching 219

Class Size 219

Selection of Students 219

Location 219

Classroom Resources 220

Scheduling 220

Preparation 220

Role of the Teacher/Facilitator 221

Classroom Strategies for Creating Student Confidence 222

Classroom Strategies for Larger Classes 226

Group Teaching 227

Homework and Outside Assignments 228

Reading Assignments 228

Journals 228

Field Work 229

Problem-Based Learning 231

13 Professionalism in Naturalistic Social Science 235

The Quality of Naturalistic Research 237

Positivist-Friendly Naturalistic Method 233

Usefulness as Validity: A Better Solution 240

Objection No. 1 The Problem of Values 241

Objection No. 2 The Problem of Shared Tradition 241

Assessing Community Health Beliefs 243.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 257-259) and index.

ISBN:

0826115578

OCLC:

71223167