riana coan?

Let me be clear (especially to Jim's boo). I do not want to be with Jim (and not in a yuck, Jim! way, rather, in a respect Jim way). Even if I did (which I don't), I wouldn't take his last name (not that there's anything wrong with that or with people who do, but if you know me, that's just not how I roll). The title simply puts us in the same family, but not of the nuclear fashion, instead, a research-based one. 

The moniker of my article for this week, had I written one and asked the group to read it, would have likely been named, Lost in the Mall of America: An Experience with Controversy. JAM JR. knows fairly well about my background, but the rest of America (who reads this blog faithfully, of that I'm sure - heck, I'm up to 7 followers!) may be unaware.  My undergraduate experience hinged greatly around diversity efforts at the University of Michigan, so it came as no surprise that my career goals were to effect change within the greater sphere of influence (even though while in college, you can't imagine your microcosm not being the entire world).  The shocker for most, however, was that I wanted to be a clinical psychologist.

One of my big brothers, Duane Smith, would attempt to cajole me, "Why Riana, you're one of the greatest political minds the 20th century has ever seen! Which law school have you applied to?"  "Duane, for the umpteenth time, I am not going to law school.  First I'm going to teach, then I'm going to graduate school!"  But it didn't stop with him.  Everyone who was in an organization with me or who saw me speak on issues of multiculturalism could not fathom why I was going into the field that I was. 

During my senior year (screw TJ, the term is SENIOR YEAR darn it!),  I had a "meeting of the minds" in my apartment.  The leaders of my class enjoyed salad, salmon, and punch, and discussed how each of our fields would contribute to the other as we slowly began to take over the world.  Optimistic, yes.   Idealistic, yes. Realistic, always.  (After all, reality is what happens, and anything is possible!) We knew that (to steal a childhood favorite line) with our powers combined, we would do just about anything.  The lawyers, engineers, social workers, and even wall street bankers knew that the training we got at Michigan - in passing signs with blackface (intentional or not, it was there: dark face, red lips), receiving calls about nooses being hung from doors, boycotting the newspaper, and being called nigger while going to class - was great preparation for the real world.  And I was thoroughly convinced that my role in breaking such mental entrapment was vital.

After teaching for two years in one of the most notorious neighborhoods in the U.S. (I'll spare the details on the blog, much more interesting in person anyway), I did research.  To long story short it, I worked on a faith-based intervention for African-Americans, and was assisting with our introduction by finding literature.  Or rather, not finding literature.  The dearth of information on interventions and mental health programs for African-Americans is astounding.

And then I get to UVa, where I learn that some reasons people don't publish their work is because it's not statistically significant.  Or even harmful! So let me get this straight.  Interventions are happening, but we don't hear about their ineffectiveness or failures because it's not publish worthy? Ah.  This is my calling.

Interventions are designed to work.  If they don't, we need to learn how to work from them.  It has been relatively proven that these programs are failing because of the environment that this community of people lives in.  Let's change the environment.  Let's go into the environment.  Let's be the environment.  One of change, optimism, and health-promoting behaviors.  It's not enough for me to wait until one of these children commits a crime and ends up as my client.  Or has diabetes and ends up in my office.  Or needs a new foster mother and gets added to my case load.  I'm going after the problem, at the root, whether it gets published or not.  Whether it was intentional or not.  Whether that's what everyone else sees me doing or not.  It's my passion, and it will be my purpose.

This class=eye-opener.  Many thanks for taking off the blinders.

[dream] chicken or the egg?

Grab a pencil and paper, read the vignettes, and answer the questions below:

A young man goes into a store and desires a pack of chips.  He looks carefully around him, puts the pack under his baggy shirt, and walks out of the store with the stolen goods.

A teen boy notices a man with a nice watch across the street.  He puts his hooded sweatshirt on, walks across the street, and puts a weapon to the back of the man and demands his watch. The man gives it up, the boy places it on and walks away.





Write down the following descriptions for each scenario:
-His race.
-His age.
-The city in which he lives.
-The reason he committed the robbery.

According to the Moffit text, there may be different reasons underlying the motive of each boy.  I initially wanted to delve into stereotypes that the reader may have had about who each of the males may have been, but I believe that discussion to be more effective in person.  In the meantime, evaluate your own answers, and see if they were validated by the evidence within the article.  It was of interest to me, morever, that Moffitt noted no differences between the race and class (among other factors) of offenders, and I would assume that many people do not believe, inherently, that this could be true, likely evidenced by the answers we would write to the above.

But, I'll move on.  The title asks an important question: which part of the cycle contributes to such antisocial behavior?  Is the neuropsychological nuances caused by the mother's malnutrition, poor neonatal care, and intoxicants ingested while pregnant?  Considering most studies do not take place within the inner-city, it would be difficult to measure the differences experienced between the proportion of low-income children with that of middle- and high-class children.  Considering the latter are the groups most often exposed to treatment, and therefore most-likely to be diagnosed with a pathology rather than a social stigma, it is difficult to see whether or not all groups are diagnosed with antisocial behavior in the same way, or even develop it in the same manner.

For example, would trauma be sufficient to affect the neurological component of a child born with relatively normal functioning?  Studying Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Brain Tumor (BT) patients this summer, it is apparent that executive functioning abilities decrease after various treatments like chemotherapy or radiation.  Studies indicate that a majority of TBI and BT patients never quite function at the same level of their peers, but we do not see them develop antisocial behavior disorders, even those with the negative environments.  I therefore question if maladaptive parenting skills, which may be precipitated by pathology itself, may be a precursor to the neurological deficits that many of these antisocial children develop.  And if this is the case, is it truly accurate to say that discrimination is not found between various social groups?

Or do these deficits increase the problems parents face in raising such children?  The environmental factors that negatively impact these children is something that is found in many lax or overreactive parenting situations.  Such factors contribute negatively to the behavioral outcomes of children, particularly males.  When friends draw back, and parents, teachers, and other adults continue to penalize, a vicious cycle of negative socialization occurs.  I am reminded of my students who were not "good" enough to go out on field trips.  They were therefore chastised in class, not shown positive examples, and therefore more likely to commit such offenses again.  This same socialization occurs within juvenile systems as well as jails, where we continue to offer criminals new negative social networks, as well as more opportunities to act upon their impulses with their new found knowledge.  This environment, mixed with such neuropsychological deficits, leads to the taxonomical positions posed by Moffit in one of the most interesting articles we've read thus far!

I have soooo much to say about this article - I also can't wait to discuss how the differences between identity may shape the face of the pathology or diagnosis in class.

fight or fright? (halloween edition...)

My fears are extremely irrational.

Riana's fears (in order of severity):

• Bees
• Balloons
• Needles (I would love for the alliteration to continue through the series, but it's more than just blood drawing - it's ALL needles)

Bees - although more rational (I am highly allergic to them) - bring out the utter worst in me.  As if every bee on Earth is concerned with stinging ME, and therefore losing their life, I run zig-zagged across playgrounds, across streets, and scarily enough, out of a car when it's moving.  (The worst experience was when I was driving and the bee was in the car - I was headed towards the freeway entrance, approaching a major intersection, and I was ducking and dodging this bee to the point where I could no longer see over the dashboard.  Hmmm, my life or a bee sting?

Balloons? Fahgetaboutit.  The most irrational fear ever (next to clowns for me - I just don't get it! But then again, mine is grouped with this circus silliness.)  For whatever reason (and I HAVE tried to recall this "initial trauma" that, paired alongside my reaction, has conditioned me for eternity), I am pudding around these inflated latex contraptions meant for happiness.  Perhaps it was my grandmother popping them in front of my face, or the startling noise that reminds me of inner-city violence, but whatever it is, it leaves me, well, without air.

In reference to the needles, I am slowly getting over such apprehension.  Long ago were the days when it took 6 doctors and nurses to restrain me (I was 6 years old).  But I still feel the physiological responses - tension, increased sweat, quickened breathing, etc. I always tell my medical practitioner that I am afraid, and that act alone may very well trigger my fear, as discovered through the articles.

These articles really helped me to look at my own anxiety while exploring what the authors suggested were the etiologies of the spectrum of anxiety disorders.  I especially enjoyed Mineka and Zinbarg's piece, which very thoroughly broke down the general reasons for anxiety as well as each individual disorder.  The examples were especially helpful and salient, because I don't believe most people can really grasp what anxiety disorders are unless spelled out.  Further, differentiating between anxiety provoking situations and those that produce anxiety for extended periods of time was of great benefit.  Particularly, Emily and Marian's tales of dog trauma were continued throughout the text, and gave me the opportunity to postulate why one developed such pathology over the other, throughout each of their Learning Theories (biological, environmental, physiological, etc.).  This allowed me to introspect on my own fears to see where such conditioning occurred.

I also developed questions related to my own research from the article.  In particular, I posit, "Does anxiety have a color?"  Of course we can argue that certain environmental and cultural factors would affect coping, vulnerability, and exposure, but even taking those factors into account, are we finding similar percentages between ethnic populations?

Additionally, do we see the same traumatic experience resulting in internalization (anxiety) for one person and externalization (say, irresponsible sexual behaviors) in another?  This is most interesting to me, because if the previous question regarding a color of anxiety suggests that there are differences between ethnicities, then perhaps the explanation rests in how groups handle such trauma.  As described before in both class and previous blogs, I believe that PTSD, as expressed in inner-city youth, tends to get overlooked.  But if these children are more resilient to pathologies with respect to a given level of trauma than other groups, is it that we aren't adequately measuring the psychological effects of externalizing behaviors in school, gangs, and the community? ("Such research suggests that children reared with a stronger sense of mastery over their environments should be more invulnerable to developing phobias following traumatic experiences" pg. 13)  Sure, they may not flinch every time a gun is drawn, but this habituation resulted from trauma, so perhaps conjunctions need to be created between those who look at internal reactions and those who focus on external.  In that vein, since Jessica is our anxiety expert, I would love to hear feedback from her, and would further suggest that, as explored earlier, our research really can work in tandem to create positive results in communities everywhere.