Drug Use and Study of Social Support Networks of Female Sex Workers

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES USED IN TWO STUDIES: INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS AND DRUG USE AND STUDY OF SOCIAL SUPPORT NETWORKS OF FEMALE SEX WORKERS.
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A Comparative Study of the Methodological Approaches Used In Two Studies: Interpersonal Relationships and Drug Use and Study of Social Support Networks of Female Sex Workers.
A comparative study of two methodologies is an important procedure towards identifying the main strengths and weakness of one approach over the other. Such an analysis allows one to identify the best approach that they can use in the analysis of a similar topic. The choice of each approach of the study depends on the main target of the researchers in undertaking the study. The two articles considered include Interpersonal Relationships and Drug Use over Time among Homeless People: A Qualitative Study by Marilia Ignacio de Espindola and collagues, and A Mixed Methods Study of the Social Support Networks of Female Sex Workers and Their Primary Noncommercial Male Partners in Tijuana, Mexico by Karla D. Wagner and colleagues.
Background
There are several reasons behind the choice of the two articles. The main reason is that the authors use completely different study methodologies, which will help establish proper different between them. Besides, while the two articles pursue different topics, the target groups for their analysis belong to the minority members of the society and hence the methodologies can provide different levels of information to facilitate the understanding of the challenges that the members face. For example, in the first article, the authors sough to understand the correlation between interpersonal relationships and drug use among the members involved. The second article using the mixed methods research approach focuses on establishing the contributors of the social support networks in helping minority groups. While the two studies target different groups of people belonging to the same category, their scope also varies, which helps determine how each one can contribute towards a better understanding of the community experiences that determine the relationship between them. Secondly, the authors use different methods for data collection. Consequently, it will be important to determine the best approach in terms of the quality of the information collected.
The first method uses a purely qualitative study approach, in which the researchers conduct interviews on the subjects to determine their experiences on the interpersonal relationships. In the second article, the researchers use a mixed method research technique, in which they focus on identifying the factors affecting the social support networks that the minority groups use to support each other. The researchers audio-recorded the interviews and then fully transcribed them verbatim with the assistance of the members of the research staff. The researchers collected the information until they attaint a state of theoretical saturation, at which point they could no longer obtain new information from the participants concerning the themes being observed. In the second article, the authors collect both quantitative and qualitative data simultaneously in the same interview. In collecting the information, the authors note that they used quantitative questions informed by previous qualitative work and on the contrary, the qualitative interview questions were informed by data provided in the quantitative research section. After collecting the information, the authors proceeded to the data analysis section, in which they first analyzed the quantitative data while reflecting on the qualitative narratives, and then focused on the qualitative narratives to inform their understanding of the quantitative findings. They then conducted a pole-sorting analysis of the network graphs, which was informed by the results of the first analysis phase. In the final stage of the interpretation, they reflected on what was produced from the transcended to the individual parts.
The third reasons for the choice of the articles is the relationship of the topics to the problems facing certain society members. Minority group members are present in almost all societies around the world. Individuals from these groups often suffer from representational challenges, which means that they lack a proper means to channel their grievances. Some of the members lack opportunities that they can use to support themselves, resorting to unethical social practices such as drug use and sex work. Understanding the challenges that they face at a personal level and at the societal levels are both important towards designing programs that will help them overcome the challenges. Some of these individuals try to abandon such practices but are unable to because of the different challenges. Therefore, bringing such topics to the fore helps advance the interests of these members to the relevant people and authorities.
Philosophical Paradigms
The choice of the methodology to apply in any given study varies depending on the intention of the authors in conducting the study. It depends on the theoretical framework of the factors under study, which require the utilization of specific methodological philosophies. The two articles under study are advocacies based on the fact that they are focusing on the minority groups. Advocacy research is a study undertaken with the intention of offering evidence and arguments that can help to support a specific cause or position. This type of research is often undertaken by pressure groups, lobby teams, and other interested parties such as trade unions. In addition, individuals may also conduct these studies to provide further insights that will guide a specific cause. Most of the minority groups in different societies lack the appropriate support. For example, according to Reyes (2020), Black America communities have been some of the biggest victims in the struggle against the COVID-19 pandemic. These individuals have to contend with extreme poverty, condensed housing, and lack of access to essential resources, which makes it difficult to abide by the recommended measures to protect themselves from the COVID 19 pandemic. Consequently, the available statistics have shown that the mortality rates among these groups was 3.7 times more than the whites. These figures only show how the underserved members suffer from diverse challenges.
In addition to the lack of appropriate support towards these underserved communities, there is also limited research on their needs. Studies that have been conducted among these groups are mainly based on systematic reviews and reliance on other information sources that do not provide an accurate picture of their status. Consequently, the respective societies where these members come from have often castigated them because of a lack of understanding about their experiences. For example, Jorgensen (2018) conducts a research to assess police officers attitudes towards prostitution and according to the findings, responding officers often presented fairly serious and punitive attitudes towards prostitution offenses. The respondents to the study noted that prostitution was a serious problem in the cities and resulted in more serious crimes. The researcher further establishes that demographic characteristics of the members, such as age, gender, political ideology, and education had more significant influence on the prostitution attitudes than
Methodological Philosophies
Methodological philosophies help explain the reasons behind a specific methodological approach. As noted earlier, the type of methodology of a study depends on the intention or purpose of the study. In the chosen studies, the authors wanted to understand the factors influencing interpersonal interaction for one study and those that encourage influence social support for the other group. Some of the notable methodological philosophies include positivism, interpretivism, critical tradition, and constructivism. In the two studies, the researchers sought to interact with the people concerned and to get their views concerning doing what they do. The research on Interpersonal Relationships and Drug Use interviewed the people concerned in order to understand how their interpersonal relationships influence their decisions. Similarly, the study on Social Support networks of Female Sex Workers the authors conducted the research among the sex worker and also among their social and sexual contacts. Therefore, both studies are interpretivist as they seek to understand why people behave the way they do. Interpretivists argue that it is impossible to understand why people do what they do, or why particular institutions exist and operate in their special ways, without focusing on interpreting how the people interpret and make sense of their world. The interpretivist perspective argues that it is important to understand these people interms of their distinct cultural character of their beliefs, attitudes, and practices. Most societies judge prostitutes negatively without understanding their world. The same harsh judgment applies to the drug addicts. An understanding of their interpretation of the world as the interpretionist researchers propose will be important towards drawing valid conclusions.
The authors in both articles use a phenomenological, which focus on the philosophy of experience. According to phenomenology, the task of the philosopher is to describe the structure of experience, especially involving consciousnes...