First published February 15, 2020
Introduction
Going into a class about how to conduct social research, I knew that it would challenge the way that I look at the world. I grew up in the high control religion, “Jehovah’s Witnesses,” where their ability to convert new people and retain their members lies entirely in the propaganda that they produce. The members are barred from critical analysis of the teachings or doing any sort of outside research, which is ironic because the doctrine of the organization falls apart at the slightest bit of critical thinking. Upon my departure from the religion, I have been slowly learning what it truly means to “do research” on subjects that are important to me. The learning process has been kind of slow however. I have tried to dip my toes in the arena of “JW activism,” raising awareness for the abusive practices of the organization. A lot of the people that work in this space, however, fail to do proper research. They use a lot of the same tactics as the organization: generalizations, statements based on emotion not logic, assuming the bias of the viewer, and failing to provide any solid evidence for a single thing that is said. Taking this course has completely changed the way that I want to move forward when working in the field of critical analysis and research about a subject that is very important to me.
Interdisciplinary Research and Inquiry
One of the issues that I continuously run into when speaking with people in the realm of JW activism is the demand for empirical data for everything that I say, even on social media. This bothered me for a long time. I thought that I should have the space and freedom to pontificate and not always prepare an essay for every little thought that crosses my mind. What I have learned in this class is the concept of “positivism,” namely the philosophical system that every rationally held belief should be able to be backed up with solid evidence (Bhattacherjee, p. 16). It has helped me to understand where people come from when they demand I provide evidence for my every thought. This has radicalized how I look at the space of activism, as I am finding that I am more of a post-positivist. In my inner beliefs, in my personal conversations with my close friends, and in my journal I am allowed to think and believe whatever I want. However, when I go to publish material as something that I want to enter into the public consciousness of “knowledge,” good epistemological habits require me to backup whatever I posit with empirical data that is free of bias. (Bhattacherjee, pps. 16, 17)
Collaboration and Shared Leadership
I have struggled with working in a collaborative group setting for most of my academic career. I am very defensive when it comes to the quality of work that I submit, which poses a problem in groups where I do not have total control. There have even been times that I undertook a group project entirely by myself and it was submitted as a group effort. (One experience in particular where this happened was when the group had to do the oral presentation, it was blatantly obvious to the teacher that only I had done any of the work. I ended up with a bad score specifically because I refused to work with my group.)
However, this class was the first time that I have worked in group settings where you decide on each person’s role before the work begins. We worked with five specific roles for group work: the note taker, the reporter, the facilitator, the timekeeper, and the equal opportunity representative. Having these clearly defined roles in place before beginning any group work helped me to “let off the gas” a little and allow my peers a more active role in group discussions. Due to this, I learned many things from my peers that I might not have otherwise, and can see how in the area of research, it may at times be literally impossible to complete the work without collaboration.
For example, upon review of the Prayer Study, my peers brought out arguments that I would have never come up with (Galluci, 2004). Even withstanding my personal bias and growing negative feelings towards religiosity, my peers pointed out that you can’t control for variables such as, “What god are the subjects praying to? What are they saying? How intensely do they pray?” My initial reaction upon reading the article was, “This is total crap,” but having the collaboration helped me to put to words legitimate criticisms of the “study” that was conducted.
Critical and Creative Thinking
“Critical thinking” is a buzzword that is used with a lot of cult survivors. To fall victim to a cult, one of the first things that people give up is their right to analyze the information that is being told to them. Steven Hassan, a leading expert on cults and undue influence, lists “information control” as one of his cult identifiers (Hassan, pps. 113-124). However, what happens so very often when people leave is that they merely follow after yet another “thought leader” instead of learning to truly critically think for themselves. This is mentioned in the “Political Research Quarterly” study that was done on news opinion pieces: “Rush Limbaugh… refers to his listeners as dittoheads, because they are supposed to listen up and ‘say ditto.’” (Smith and Searles, p. 671) The irony of me including this comment from this case study, however, is that the study that Smith and Searles did is not good at all in terms of an effective social research approach. I am learning, though slowly, to not let “influencers” actually influence me and doing the critical thinking for myself.
This proved difficult with cases such as the aforementioned study about opinion pieces. I personally agree with the conclusions that Smith and Searles make. However, I learned in this class that there’s a tendency towards viewer bias with a lot of these kinds of research studies. On the very first day, Professor Dana showed us a video entitled “Kids React to Gay Marriage” that challenged my way of looking at this kind of “research (Fine, Benny and Rafi, youtube.com/fbe). My reaction to these kinds of videos has historically been: “Yeah! This proves gay marriage is great!” But upon learning about the myriad of facets behind professional research, I can’t help but see that a lot of the information that I work with is merely confirmation bias. Moving forward, I plan to continue to challenge my worldview rather than live in an echo chamber.
Diversity and Equity
I am a community psychology major. During the core class for the major, one of the points that the professor drove home is that a lot of the social problems in western civilization has been brought about as a result of a patriarchal society dominated by Judeo-Christian values. My background as a Jehovah’s Witness involved a lot of “black-and-white” thinking, pitting anyone who wasn’t a JW “against” us. One of the biggest blindspots that I am coming to find in regards to my background, however, is I have misogynistic, xenophobic, and ableist beliefs. I have deeply ingrained beliefs that my way of thinking is the only right way. It is a constant battle to root out these beliefs. What this class has helped me to do is to take an honest look at my epistemological views of the world. I define epistemology as: How we think about thinking. How we differentiate between fact and opinion completely changes the way we approach research. (Bhattacherjee p. 18.) I appreciate the diversity in the class, and have learned that everyone brings something important to a group. Our class is made up of people in different majors that come from diverse backgrounds. I am learning that there is more to knowledge than my strict interpretation of the world.
Writing and Communication
I love writing. I maintain a blog, YouTube channel, and am the editor for a podcast, so I spend a lot of my time writing for these platforms and then sharing what I write with the platforms.. Since writing is such an important method of spreading information, I am taking to heart what I learn in my classes how to be a better writer. The more effective communicator I can be, the more effective I can be in spreading awareness about the topics that I talk about. I do a lot of personal research in the field of cults and undue influence. In The Research Process, Bhattacherjee explains the importance of properly documenting research: “Research is of no value unless the research process and outcomes are documented for future generations” (p. 23). I rely on the documented research of others to be able to produce content for my platforms.
This class has also helped me to be more mindful of how I communicate with others. I have the tendency to unilaterally state my opinion as if it were an absolute fact. As I previously mentioned, I have found myself at odds with others, especially on social media, when they demand that I provide empirical evidence for every statement that I make. I found it very helpful to learn the “History of Scientific Thought” to better understand the different ways of thinking (Bhattacherjee, pps. 6-8). This class has helped push me towards working better in group situations.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I am very grateful that I took this “Approaches to Social Research” class, not just because it is required by my major but because it has honestly changed me in the five categories as described in this paper. Ironically, I was considering doing an undergraduate research project this quarter for my Independent Practice and Reflection Credit and am thankful that I did not. The biggest thing I learned this quarter: I was not ready for that!
Works cited:
Bhattacherjee, Anol, “Social Science Research: Principles, Methods, and Practicies” (2012). Textbooks Collection. 3. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/oa_textbooks/3
Fine, Benny. Fine, Rafi. “Kids React to Gay Marriage.” Youtube.com. FBE Media. November 3, 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TJxnYgP6D8
Gallucci, Kathy. “Prayer Study: Science or Not?” Journal of College Science Teaching, vol. 33, no. 4, 2004, pp. 32–35. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26491272. Accessed 13 Feb. 2020.
Hassan, S. Combating cult and mind control. Wellingborough, GB: Aquarian Press. 2015, pp. 113-124.
Smith, Glen, and Kathleen Searles. “Fair and Balanced News or a Difference of Opinion? Why Opinion Shows Matter for Media Effects.” Political Research Quarterly, vol. 66, no. 3, 2013, pp. 671–684.
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