Photovoice: A Method to Interrogate Positionality and Critical Reflexivity

Photovoice is a visual method for interrogating subjective perspectives. Rather than solely relying on investigator-developed tools, photovoice allows participants to inform research by “showing” their lived realities through photographs, resulting in a more collaborative, inclusive, and community-informed process. Though applicable to a wide range of social science research, photovoice remains relatively underutilized, especially as a tool for interrogating reflexivity. Given its power to reveal the unseen, this paper considers the potential for photovoice as a self-reflexive tool by turning the lens towards the investigator. Though typically used by the researcher to enhance transparency and navigate power differentials in community-based participatory research, photovoice may also be an exercise in reflexivity. What hidden biases and assumptions might all investigators have that could be revealed through this process? Investigating photovoice as a means for self- inquiry is considered alongside calls emphasizing a need to center research inclusivity, positionality, and critical reflection in the research process. Implications for future research and training are discussed

Managing Work and Family: Do Control Strategies Help?

How can we effectively manage competing obligations from work and family without becoming overwhelmed? This question inspires the current study by examining control strategies that may facilitate better work-life balance, with a specific focus on the role of lowered aspirations and positive reappraisals, attitudes that underlie adaptive coping behaviors. Data from the Midlife in the United States Survey (MIDUS II) were used to explore the relationship between negative spillover, control strategies, and well-being among full-time working men and women (N ϭ 2,091). In this nationally representative sample, findings indicate that while positive reappraisals function as a protective buffer, lowering aspirations exacerbate the relationship between work-family spillover and well-being, with moderating effects stronger among women. This study extends prior research tying work-life conflict to health and mental health, and suggests further investigation is needed to consider types of resources that may be effective coping strategies in balancing work and family

Mediation and Moderation of the Association Between Cynical Hostility and Systolic Blood Pressure in Low-Income Women

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/109744/1/mediationandmoderationoftheassociationbetweencynicalhostilityandsystolicbloodpressure-libre.pd

Functional limitations, body perceptions, and health outcomes among older African American women

© 2016 American Psychological Association. Objectives: African American women experience greater difficulties in physical function and disproportionately higher rates of obesity compared to other racial- ethnic gender groups; however, positive body perceptions may buffer against negative psychological and health-related outcomes associated with functional decline. Method: Associations among satisfaction with and importance placed on body shape and function, body mass index (BMI), physical function, general health, pain, and emotional well-being were assessed among an urban-dwelling, community-based sample of African American women ages 65 and older (n = 111). Results: Higher BMI was associated with worse health and physical function and lower satisfaction with body shape and function. Body perceptions moderated the association between physical function and 2 health-relevant outcomes: pain and emotional well-being. Women who were functioning well and reported high importance of body shape and function demonstrated the lowest levels of pain and highest levels of emotional well-being, and women low in physical functioning who were low in satisfaction with body shape and function had the highest levels of pain. Conclusions: These findings provide evidence that there is significant variation among African American women and risk for negative health outcomes, particularly for women with varying perceptions of body functionality and body satisfaction

Emancipatory Visions: Using Visual Methods to Co-construct Knowledge with Older Adults.

This paper calls for gerontologists to engage with visual methods in qualitative research as an innovative tool for community-engaged research that has potential to advance social justice in gerontology. Reflections about using visual methods from the intersectional standpoint of the authors, three younger women of color, are presented. In Working the Hyphen, Yeh shows how interpersonal dynamics are fundamental to visual methods and that attention to identity can provide new insights into aging while also reconstituting existing power dynamics that researchers must carefully consider. In Employing Elicitation Techniques with Experts, Reyes discusses how a colonial lens limits understandings of civic participation and erases contributions of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) older adults, proposing that elicitation techniques offer opportunities for BIPOC older adults to contribute their expertise to the research process and dissemination of findings beyond an academic audience. In Pedagogy and Practicality, Versey describes promises and complexities of scaling visual methods on multiple levels - teaching future generations of researchers the philosophy and practice of photovoice; negotiating university and community relationships through a service-learning project; and navigating identity between herself, her students, and research participants. In sharing our self-narratives, we integrate reflexivity into the research process and challenge power dynamics in knowledge construction

Chapter 7: Wearable biosensors: an agenda for digital embodied methods

The body continues to be a vital feature of geographical scholarship, yet the discipline continues to use traditional research methods that produce ‘very wordy worlds’ despite the technological advances in recent years. In this chapter we advocate for the critical application of wearable biosensors to expand digital geography’s knowledge and consideration of the body. Wearable biosensors are small devices that measure the body’s automatic reactions and give insight into people’s emotional reactions to phenomena. Considering the application of these devices in three different research projects across different disciplinary backgrounds (i.e., geography, GIScience and psychology), we discuss the possibilities and limitations of digital embodied methods for digital geographers interested in embodiment. Through this discussion we argue that future research using these wearable biosensors need to be placed in a mixed-methodology to actively consider the subjective and contextualised nature of emotional response.</p

Mediation and Moderation of the Association Between Cynical Hostility and Systolic Blood Pressure in Low-Income Women

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/109744/1/mediationandmoderationoftheassociationbetweencynicalhostilityandsystolicbloodpressure-libre.pd