Poster Day 2 Comments

Focusing Exercise Again

1- The phenomenon of Scientology attracting members from particular subsets of the population is related to the arguments made by those who suggest the religion is more of a cult.

2- I have found in my research so far that in particular, Scientologists appear to be more often from the ranks of celebrities, former substance abusers, and aspiring business leaders. Although this is not the crux of my argument, it is important to note that it appears the religion makes strategics attempts to recruit these type of people to membership. The tactics the church uses to recruit and convert members to the cult-like organization are important in understanding the reasons members are so devoted.

3- By reading through my most recent resources, I have learned much about the practice of recruiting in Scientology. The important question that I have still been unable to come up with an answer for, is what specifically does the religion do, promise, or show to these certain types of people to get them to convert to the religion. I don't completely know how, but I feel that this will tell me more about the status of the religion as a purported cult and mind-controlling organization. I think I can find some of this information by understanding the different programs within the Scientology organization tailored for the specific types of personalities.

Pulling questions out:
Are the three sentences interlocking and do they suggest an unsettled or perplexing state? If not, go back and write re-write some more.

> How are members of Scientology first approached by their converters and what arguments or methods are used to begin convincing the potential candidates to join?

University Research Day - Student Union Visit

The first poster I viewed was on “Information Processes of Cancer Communication and Fruit and Vegetables Intake: A Multiple-Sample Analysis by Intervention Groups.” The research study focused on the decreased risk of Colorectal cancer, the third most common in the U.S., by eating an increasing the amount of fruits and vegetables eaten. The study was based on the Information Process and Theory that says people go through cognitive processes when they receive information that may or may not lead to recall or a change in behavior. In the case of this study, intervention to was made to study groups in four separate ways. The control group simply received very general information about increasing their consumption of fruits and vegetables. One group received Tailored Print Communication (TPC) in the form of written information. Another group received Telephone Motivational Interviewing (TMI). The final group received both TPC and TMI. The results showed that the only group to progress through the stages of message relevance, message trust, and message recall, advancing to increased fruit and vegetable consumption was the TPC/TMI combination. One question I asked the presenter was how she chooses her research subjects. She replied that demographic information including age, gender, race, education level, and any barriers were collected in order to legitimize the findings. Overall, I found this study very convincing and well thought out. There was much more detail provided on the poster and through the presentation that I did not understand from a layman’s perspective. The experiment itself was seemed very viable because the researchers followed the instruction of Information Process and Theory.

The second poster I visited was on “Nurses Experiences with Providing End-of-life care in the ICU” and the researchers were Meg Zomordi, RN, and Mary Lynn, PhD, RN. The goal of their research was to better understand the attitudes and behaviors of ICN nurses in treatment of patients, 20% of which typically die. The researchers developed a qualitative interview to measure attitudes and behaviors as nurses describe their experiences working in ICU. In total, there were 9 critical care nurses interviewed, ages ranging from 26 to 56, with an average of 10.3 years of experience working in adult-only ICUs. They measured the responses of nurses with the assumption that they had 1-2 patients at any given time in ICU. Their responses were either classified according to Value-Behavior Congruency or Value-Behavior Incongruency. If their values and behaviors were congruent, nurses are more likely to be satisfied than if values and behaviors incongruent. The model measuring Congruence and Incongruence was based on Casual Conditions including personal, environmental, and relational, that facilitate or inhibit nurses providing optimal care. Within their findings, they found that there is a delicate balance between tending to patients dying and focusing on the ones nurses feel they can save. The researchers also found there to be a very emotional consequence to being an ICU nurse. For example, nurses are commonly left to deal wit family members after the physicians leave and the patients are taken off all treatments but pain medication. The nurses tended to focus on how the deaths affected them and their challenges with helping the families’ cope. I asked Ms. Zomordi what information she considered when picking nurses to be included in the research study, and what processes were required to recruit them. Her answer was that she sent out fliers to nurses that she knew had significant experience working in the ICU. She requested the candidates to describe what they felt was optimum care in order to get their behaviors and attitudes. To find more nurses, she had experienced nurses she had already located pass on fliers to other experienced nurses in the ICU. Overall, the poster and information from the researcher was very informative and interesting. On the poster, the researchers should have done a better job of explaining their method for analyzing the nurses’ feedback through Congruence and Incongruence of behaviors and values. The researcher says the next step is to get parts of the study approved by the American Association of Critical Care Nurses in order to complete further research into related topics. I am able to see the same vision for the future of the project.

The third poster I visited focused on “The Effects of Prenatal Exposure to Alcohol and Nicotine on Oxytocin Levels in Rats Postnatal Days 30 to 60.” Basically, the researchers were examining the effect of prenatal ethanol and nicotine exposure on alcohol preference and corresponding Oxytocin protein levels in brain regions relevant to social interaction and reward in rats aged 30 to 60 days. The rat subjects for this study were always receiving nicotine and ingesting 35% of calories from alcohol during the prenatal phase. The results of study after the birth of the rats found significant differences in birth weights between the two groups studied. Rats exposed to nicotine and alcohol prenatal were much smaller initially, but caught up in size within the 60 day period. The results also showed a loose correlation between high levels of Oxytocin protein and lower alcohol consumption. Therefore, it was impossible to determine what the biochemical reaction between the mom and fetus was specifically. This research study appeared to be very much a work in progress as the results as of yet are inconclusive. So I asked the researcher what the next step in the process was. She replied that they needed to look at whether Oxytocin was driving behavior and figure out whether it was prenatal alcohol or nicotine causing the biochemical reaction. I also asked how this experiment is relevant to modern medicine. She replied that it would help show whether nicotine or alcohol caused detrimental effects on offspring and give researchers insight on how they can work to provide help to mothers. Overall, I found the subject matter of this research experiment very confusing because I did not fully comprehend the underlying science. It was presented well visually on the poster, with accompanying graphs and detailed explanations of the process. However, I was not confident whether the research was worthwhile showing at this stage in the experiment because there was no conclusive evidence, only more questions to be answered.

Midterm Review

1. Search Process
- six parts to model - her model was different because it emphasized emotion, feelings
- she did research on how people did their research projects
- emotions changed over time as they formulated their work (ie more confident as they advance through their research)
- formulation the most important stage
- didn't give us specific details on many assignments because he wants us to define our project ourselves (open-phase of search)
- open phase of search got boring because we needed to stop and formulate
- have to formulate for the midterm
2. Berrypicking Model
- dots on squigly lines are point in time where they got more information and changed their state of mind (why it's not linear)
- other picture is the typical search model
3. Internet History
- point of understanding where the internet came from because we need to understand how the internet structure works in order to understand the common applications we use today
- structures the digital search that everyone's doing and frames the context of the class in the digital era
4. Internet Technology
- point was to understand how things work, importance of protocol
- communication technology almost always runs off of protocol
- how information gets sorted, etc.
- protocol is standardization
- originally protocols and networks with phones weren't connected, so it was hard to call certain people
- citations are small protocol for scholarly communication
5. Copyright
- copyright doesn't last forever
- point is to achieve balance of copyright to encourage competition and innovation
- innovation is the goal
- giving anyone the ability to copy ideas removes incentives to take the work to the next level
- public domain - trademark, copyright expires
- Mickey Mouse Act discussion - extended the copyrights in order to....
6. Using different types of resources in class
- annotated biblio.
- point is to analyze sources and do a content analysis
7. Boolean Logic
- mathematical
- related to search because gives you a way to filter information
- search systems - communicate with other system in terms the other system can understand; system interprets information and sends back what it thinks you want
- such systems work on Boolean Logic
8. What we can use the library to get
- information not available on the open web
- information from many other sources costs money
- library information is called "invisible web"
9. Source Evaluation
- how do you trust sources?
- how does one trustworthy source lead you to other trustworthy references?
- peer reviews vs. news article
- peer review has to be accepted by others in the field of study (experts), only gate needed to pass for a news article to pass is an editor
- news article vs. book
- much easier to get an article published than a book (higher level of gatekeeping because - mediums
- platforms for communication
- reflects trust and gate keeping too
- packets - one metaphor is bomb as information with header and footer (payload in the middle)

The first reading we did for class, Kuhlthau, focused on following the six stages of the Information Search Process to satisfy our need for research on our project topic. Our second reading by Bates, talked about the "Berrypicking Model," which focuses on strategies for seeking information. We have also learned how to effectively write an annotated bibliography for a variety of sources using APA. Performing research for our project allowed us to further define our information need and use new strategies in the research process to find more sources. We also learned how search engines function and how the internet was created. This included explaining TCP/IP in terms of servers and hosts with different IP addresses exchanging information. We learned how search engines search and retrieve information.

Expert Interview

While brainstorming on who I should use for my expert interview, I decided the best resource would be someone currently or formerly affiliated with Scientology or an accredited researcher in the field of religion. Locating a current member of the religion to interview would be impossible due to the secrecy of the religion. An accredited researcher in religious study having focused on Scientology would also be a great person to interview, however finding one willing to speak to me proved nearly impossible. Therefore, I decided that I should focus my search on a former member of the religion who would be willing to speak on their experiences and divulge some of the secret details of Scientology. It also proved very difficult to locate such an expert, so at the advice of my professor, I am using a forum called the Ex Scientologist Message Board for expert information.
The forum includes a wide variety of topics on the religion, however the topics I deem most relevant to my research are stories from inside Scientology, “war stories” of former staff members, the process some members went through to leave the church, and life after Scientology. Reading through the stories and comments posted by former Scientologists on these specific topics was surprisingly a very effective way for me to learn information about the religion not available through the research methods I have been employing. One of the better pieces of information that I learned which will aid me in directing my further research is that although these former members belonged to the religion in general, their worship and conversion typically takes place in one branch of the church called an “org.” Individuals on the forum had very different experiences at each of the orgs mentioned. In addition to this, other important information that I learned was by reading through the lengthy, personal stories posted by users. Each person was convinced to join the religion through a different person and for a very different reason. The forum posters also sometimes reflected on why they were attracted to the promises of life-improvement offered by the religion to members. These members also left the church for very different reasons. Some suddenly came to a realization that they were living in a cult-like society, others were forced to quit by government bodies, and a very small minority felt they had accomplished what they set out to achieve when they joined and no longer needed guiding.
Through the process of reading personal accounts of the religion, I learned a significant amount of information that otherwise wouldn’t be available through my traditional search process. As a result, I will concentrate a portion of further research on issues brought to my attention by the former members including the structure of the religion in terms of orgs, the specific promises made to certain types of people used to entice them to join, and what Scientologists are required to do in penance for the religion on a daily basis. Overall, this process was much more helpful than I ever expected. The research collected from the forums has allowed me to shift my focus of study to include a range of information I never perceived would considerably strengthen the argument of my paper.

Focusing Exercise

1. Scientology appears to entice certain groups of people to become members for unknown reasons.

2. One question that I still have not been able to answer is what attracts certain types of people to join the cult-like society. I have completed some research on the types of people who are drawn to Scientology including celebrities, drug addicts, and criminals, but have yet to figure out why the religion appeals to these types.

3. It is important that I answer this question because I need to be able to draw conclusions as to why the religion has been so successful in recruiting these types of people. Also, the information that answering this question will tell me how the inner teachings of the religion are held to such a high regard by members. Therefore, I will be able to form a clear argument with resources to back up my claims.

- Do the teachings of Scientology improve the lives of members without the cult-like features of the religion brainwashing them?
- Does Scientology focus their membership recruiting on certain groups of people?
- Is there a hidden reason why Scientology proclaims to have life-changing teachings, yet the organization remains very secretive?
- Are there special programs or tracks within Scientology depending on the type of person you were targeted as during membership?
- Do former members of Scientology claim to have become a better person as a result of the teachings and auditing sessions?
- How do the requirements of membership initiation reinforce the alleged positive attributes of the religion?