research proposal
Everyone experiences sadness from time to time throughout their life. However, depression lasts longer and can interferes with one's daily life and can cause physical pain. When a depressive episode lasts more than 2 weeks, it can result in feelings of worthlessness, helplessness, and utter despair. But here's the good news: depression is entirely treatable. It's time to fight the stigma against getting treatment, and this first starts with offering the best support for our students that seek treatment. If we offer these students with good treatment options, it will encourage those who are struggling with to seek treatment as a first option, rather than a last resort. As Emory students, we have a moral obligation to make sure that these students are properly supported and are offered proper treatment.
Making a positive social change such as changing the treatment options available for students with depression at a university will certainly not be easy. Beginning a movement in general is not easy. But with a passion for fighting injustice, we can fight this together. “Injustice is most closely associated with ‘the righteous anger that puts fire in the belly and iron in the soul’” (Passionate Politics, 8). Let's get some fire in our bellies and iron in our soul. Let's get angry, and let's get mad. As Randall Collins states, "the initiating emotion is moral outrage, the collective focus of the group makes the feeling of outrage stronger" (Passionate Politics, 29). The law of small numbers only works to a certain extent: we must use these small numbers to build bigger numbers, and even bigger numbers, to the point where the student body cares enough about the issue to propagate an action.
A psychological principle called "flow" was developed by a Hungarian psychology professor Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi. In essence, it is the complete absorption it what one does. Cognitively speaking, when engaged in activities that one is completely immersed and passionate about, there is a "positive flow, the sense that what one is doing has a higher importance, even a magnetic quality" (Passionate Politics, 29). As a collective in support of students with mental health concerns, we too can be immersed in this "flow". With our passion, our emotion, our outrage, and our anger, we can truly make a difference at a university like Emory. An individual focus of attention on a particular issue can become a mutual focus of attention and thus a unity in shared ideals. This is "the crucial process, the shared sense of the group as focusing together, that creates what Durkheim called 'conscience collective,' fusing cognitive and moral unity. Corresponding to... feelings of group solidarity, emotional energy, and morality" (Passionate Politics, 28). In essence, once we share a common goal and mission, we can achieve a sense of unity, giving us the strength to combat a controversial issue at its core.
So how do we combat a controversial issue at its core? My proposal is two-fold. Firstly, I propose that we take a look into Emory University's NCHA data, as well as data from other universities that offer long-term counseling for students, and see whether or not this form of counseling at other schools improves their ratings of their school. Secondly, while interviewing human subjects (former or current counseling center patients) would be preferred, this would violate their confidentiality agreements with the counseling center and would in fact defeat the purpose of the mission to better support these students, as they would most likely be subject to judgment. However, if we can send out an anonymous survey to the Emory student body, asking questions specific to how they feel supported at Emory in terms of mental health, we could get a better sense of whether or not something needs to be done. Both of these approaches will help us garner more evidence as to how students feel supported at Emory and if they feel they need more support. Supporting our student body is Emory's mission, and therefore our mission as well. As Craig Calhoun states, "movements produce emotions; they do not simply reflect emotional orientations brought to them by members" (Passionate Politics, 55). Movements themselves are emotionally charged. While we may have the passion and the emotion ourselves to fight this issue, the movement itself will bring us even more, as we become immersed in the aforementioned positive sense of flow. While some may believe that emotions can hinder us in propagating a social movement, if we build up enough momentum, we can "undergo the process of generating collective emotional energy" (Passionate Politics, 30) and therefore bring enough passion to spark a charge. Shared emotions can only bring us together and make us stronger. Only once we have garnered enough momentum and energy toward actively changing a problem can we start to fight depression, one step at a time.
Making a positive social change such as changing the treatment options available for students with depression at a university will certainly not be easy. Beginning a movement in general is not easy. But with a passion for fighting injustice, we can fight this together. “Injustice is most closely associated with ‘the righteous anger that puts fire in the belly and iron in the soul’” (Passionate Politics, 8). Let's get some fire in our bellies and iron in our soul. Let's get angry, and let's get mad. As Randall Collins states, "the initiating emotion is moral outrage, the collective focus of the group makes the feeling of outrage stronger" (Passionate Politics, 29). The law of small numbers only works to a certain extent: we must use these small numbers to build bigger numbers, and even bigger numbers, to the point where the student body cares enough about the issue to propagate an action.
A psychological principle called "flow" was developed by a Hungarian psychology professor Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi. In essence, it is the complete absorption it what one does. Cognitively speaking, when engaged in activities that one is completely immersed and passionate about, there is a "positive flow, the sense that what one is doing has a higher importance, even a magnetic quality" (Passionate Politics, 29). As a collective in support of students with mental health concerns, we too can be immersed in this "flow". With our passion, our emotion, our outrage, and our anger, we can truly make a difference at a university like Emory. An individual focus of attention on a particular issue can become a mutual focus of attention and thus a unity in shared ideals. This is "the crucial process, the shared sense of the group as focusing together, that creates what Durkheim called 'conscience collective,' fusing cognitive and moral unity. Corresponding to... feelings of group solidarity, emotional energy, and morality" (Passionate Politics, 28). In essence, once we share a common goal and mission, we can achieve a sense of unity, giving us the strength to combat a controversial issue at its core.
So how do we combat a controversial issue at its core? My proposal is two-fold. Firstly, I propose that we take a look into Emory University's NCHA data, as well as data from other universities that offer long-term counseling for students, and see whether or not this form of counseling at other schools improves their ratings of their school. Secondly, while interviewing human subjects (former or current counseling center patients) would be preferred, this would violate their confidentiality agreements with the counseling center and would in fact defeat the purpose of the mission to better support these students, as they would most likely be subject to judgment. However, if we can send out an anonymous survey to the Emory student body, asking questions specific to how they feel supported at Emory in terms of mental health, we could get a better sense of whether or not something needs to be done. Both of these approaches will help us garner more evidence as to how students feel supported at Emory and if they feel they need more support. Supporting our student body is Emory's mission, and therefore our mission as well. As Craig Calhoun states, "movements produce emotions; they do not simply reflect emotional orientations brought to them by members" (Passionate Politics, 55). Movements themselves are emotionally charged. While we may have the passion and the emotion ourselves to fight this issue, the movement itself will bring us even more, as we become immersed in the aforementioned positive sense of flow. While some may believe that emotions can hinder us in propagating a social movement, if we build up enough momentum, we can "undergo the process of generating collective emotional energy" (Passionate Politics, 30) and therefore bring enough passion to spark a charge. Shared emotions can only bring us together and make us stronger. Only once we have garnered enough momentum and energy toward actively changing a problem can we start to fight depression, one step at a time.