Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Week 4 - Formative Research Overview, Presentation Skills

Remember to also include your overall thoughts about the first module in this week's entry.

30 comments:

Danette F. said...

Date: 9-17-07
Presentations, presentations...I always learn something new when it comes to presentation skills. As Dr. Engelberg recited all the things NOT to do during a presentation I thought back and said "HEY, many professors do those exact same things!" No wonder i'm bored during their classes! As I thought about it, I also realized that the professors that did not use powerpoint or only used the bullet points in powerpoint as cues for talking are those professors that I really enjoyed listening to. Sadly, I'm due to present at my job on some of the health promotion theories soon. Although i'm excited that not only in this class, but in one of my other classes i've learned about presentation skills, i'm still not too sure how I can grab everyone's attention with health promotion theory? Does anyone have any suggestions?

Ellainne said...

I really enjoyed today's class. Sometimes you tend to think a 1 day class for almost 3 hours seems like forever, but what I like about PH663 are the lab portions of the class. After hearing a lecture for an hour or so and not knowing if the information really sunk in or not, the labs give me an opportunity to really understand the concepts in a hands on kind of way.

Now...for my thoughts on the class topics we covered today; I think the group presentation is going to be a really exciting yet intensive project. My group alone, which is covering the Mass Vaccination Clinic, sounds very challenging, but will be a good way for me to become more familiar with San Diego's Public Health Dept. as well as collaborating with my fellow classmates. Also, I totally agree with the Wrong Reasons concept and have succumbed to its motivating ways of changing my health behaviors. It almost seems like a sneakier way of behavior change, but I think it does work. Unfortunately, I have yet to see if the effects are long lasting. Then again, I guess I can always bring that up for a class discussion. In a nutshell, I appreciate the lecture and lab times during class. It breaks up the monotony of our regular classes and helps to build a student network.

Ellainne said...

P.S. Feel free to visit my blog and fill out my viewer's poll.

http://publichealth411.blogspot.com/

Josie said...

Hello Class
I have a question.. Now that the class blog has changed locations, the blogs that I post are not being sent to my personal blog, any ideas why?? OK you have me really curious about the SDSU gym, I need to check it out for my self!!! So for todays topics I have a few things to say the concept of uses and gratification is interesting to me. What do people do with communication messages or exposures?? No two people will have the same answer to that question, it depends on personal relevance and meeting a need.. This concept has me reflecting on what I do with messages that I recieve, great awareness for me!!! I had mentioned in class that while working for CPS we operated on a multiple response system putting the family unit at the center. This is similiar to theories of formative research as far as putting the target population on the middle in order to find out as much as possible about the group. Presentation skills, this was funny.. I have had sooooo many classes where power point slides are put on the wall and read, and I really get next to nothing out of those lectures. Its nice to have the slides to refer to after class, but I feel I take much better notes when I dont have the slides in front of me. As far as the group project I am very excited to get started on this and make some connections in the community, See you all next week
Josie

cheerstohealth said...

Ok..first of I was so interested in this class that I actually joined the entertainment and media class and now what I learned in both the classes seem to be kind of muddled in my head..

This week's class was nice...I finally realized how important it is to research your topic before you actually go into doing a campaign...I also totally loved the presentation on presentation skills..I hate watching boring presentations and when I thought about it I figured most people hate watching my boring presentations too...so from now on it's less words and more of other stuff...will post more as soon as I figure what the other stuff is

Megan Koske said...

Oh my gosh!! I stand like a weird stork/ flammingo when I am speaking in front of a group. I guess I am showing everyone that I am uncomfortible when I am standing even when I am not! I really like that this was pointed out to me...why is it that many people do this?

As far as PowerPoint and such, I have a professor currently that could use some excitement on her slides! In fact, she just had a guest speaker for the day and he was so much more interesting.

I read somebody's comment on the Labs in this class. I must say that I really enjoy them myself. Sometimes I think I may understand the material but I find later (sometimes too late) that maybe I didn't understand as well as I thought I did. That being said, the labs really help me put things in perspective as well.

Okay, now on to wrong reason. I don't really have a problem with wrong reason for heuristic campaigns. Sometimes people just don't care about the right reasons and we really need to caputure their attention on the levels they function on. I think once you caputre someone's attention with the wrong reason then there should be steps to turn them onto the right reason.

Josie said...

HI
So Ive been experimenting a bit with the "spill your guts" assignment. Now I have a friend who is a school counselor and a roomtae who loves to "process" things. Both of these people found probing/open ended questions/ paraphrasing, and restatements to be totally normal, perhpas due to their personalities and professioanl backgrounds. I have had quite a different reaction from friends who are not so open about sharing feelings, in fact it seems that probing is taken as being nosey or looking into things too much... these people where also men, hmmmmmmm interesting...

Crystal said...

Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Class on September 17th

I have finally put up the picture I had promised of the health promotion "office" from USF. Pretty sad - huh? What a shame that the importance of health promotion isn't better recognized among schools! My fiance, who did a portion of his undergrad studies at USF, said he didn't even know that they had a health promotion office. I told him they don't - they have a health promotion cubicle. =)

After our discussion in class this last Monday, I started to think about the way in which people perceive the messages that they see. And man can people be mislead! While in the grocery store, I found tons of examples of advertisements on food packages where companies were trying to make people perceive their food as being healthy, when it in fact was not. For example, I ran across a lemon cake full of fat that on the front read "made with real lemons". Did they throw a lemon peal into the cake batter in order to make that claim? I ran across candies that read "made with real fruit juice" and the list goes on and on. Which got me to thinking - is it ethical for companies to make people perceive their garbage food as healthy? or is it the consumers responsibility to read the food label in order to find out? Perhaps companies who play on the consumers ignorance and how they will perceive their advertisements is one of the reasons that many people eat unhealthy.

In addition, over the past two days I have been trying to recognize what types of advertisements I am actually paying attention to - and yes it's true - things that I don't find personally relevant I dismiss. I am not a big fast food eater, so I tend not to pay attention to the fast food commercials or billboards. However, being in public health I take notice when I come across advertisements/campaigns that deal with health related topics.

My favorite part of Monday's class would have to be going over the presentation tips. Its easy to make a presentation and get consumed with putting up bullet points and stating a million facts. Pointers like using pictures in place of bulleted information and "putting a smile in your voice" will for sure come in handy in the future.

Jamie said...
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Jamie said...

Week 4 was not a bore.

What motivates someone to care about an issue? This is the main idea of Wrong Reason Health Promotion, one of the major concepts of this week’s class. I was somewhat confused in the beginning of class, as I kept thinking “wrong” meant something negative. However, Dr. Engelberg soon explained that “wrong” simply refers to the fact that the reason someone engages in a behavior is based on a reason that works for them, and not a traditional public health reason. One student gave a funny but perfect example of students at SDSU’s gym. While the traditional public health reasons for exercising include managing your weight, having more energy, reducing risk of developing depression and diseases, strengthening your heart and bones, improving overall well-being, etc. etc. etc., many students (and in my case almost everyone who goes to the 24 Hour in Pacific Beach) go to the gym to strut around in spandex and meet someone of the opposite sex. Although it might be the “wrong reason,” at least they are going!

This week we also discussed formative research and selectivity. Formative research seeks to answer questions about the interests, characteristics, and needs of the target audience. Selectivity refers to personal relevance and where we choose to put our attention. Every day we are bombarded with thousands of messages, and personal relevance greatly influences which messages we pay attention to and remember. Selectivity applies to formative research as we must understand what is relevant to our target audience and what will best capture their attention.

My favorite part of class was practicing our formative research skills in lab. One way of learning about your target audience is through focus groups. So, divided into groups of 3, we had pretend focus group time. Although I have never participated in focus groups, I have always been extremely interested in them and other forms of qualitative research. In lab I practiced being an observer, an interviewer, and a 14 year old pregnant interviewee. At first it was hard to be serious as I worked with two of my closest friends in the program (Sorry Dr. Engelberg, I know we weren’t supposed to!) , but I learned a lot from the experience. As an interviewer, I learned you have to keep asking open ended questions or the conversation will stop, and that you must be attentive and prepared for anything the interviewee might say-- no matter how shocking it is. As an interviewee, I was able so say anything I wanted and discuss anything that was on my mind. Finally, as an observer, I got to see the importance of using body language and nonverbal behaviors such as eye contact and posture to show interest in your group and your topic.

So, it’s the end of Module 1- Establishing a Framework for Health Communication, and after only 3 classes of PH663, I feel like I have learned a great deal about communication and target audiences. I even learned how to blog! :) To me, the top three learnings have been on the importance of understanding your target audience, Dual Process Persuasion, and focus groups as a means of formative research. I loved the focus group lab and hope that real focus groups will be in my future. I will definitely take what I have learned about understanding your audience and personal relevance and apply it to any career I may have in behavior modification!

Juanita.Andrews66 said...

The two things that remain in my mind from Monday's class and that from the comments posted so far, seem to be on the minds of others are the "wrong reason" and presentations.

**My experience with the "wrong reason" way of thinking cracks me up til today. Last December I was taking care of my then barely 4-year-old nephew, Isaiah at my friend's house. My friend has a brother who is 6'1" -ish who he looks up to. So, when my nephew wasn't drinking his milk, the first thing that came to my mind was, "You better drink your milk so you can be tall like Ibrahima." Oh, did he drink that milk fast or what...but the story doesn't end there.

The next morning he woke up and started crying and I asked he why he was crying. He looked down at his little legs and arms in the oversized t-shirt and said, "Ah, man. I'm not big like Ibrahima!" I couldn't help laughing bc I didn't expect this kid to remember the "wrong reason" why he should drink his milk.**

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In regards to the presentations, I agree that some professors should revive their lectures with some of the tips that Dr. E presented in class on Monday. I know if I were ever in the position to lead a discussion, focus group, or class I know some of the info I have gained from this class would definitely be incorporated.

This part of the lecture made me get excited about ideas on how I would present my thesis!

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BTW, who's excited about our group projects? I know I am bc of the real world connection - awesome idea! Ciao...

slinke21 said...

Again, class was very interesting this week. I do really enjoy the lack of Power Point in this class. At first I was pretty surprised that we didn't have slides since Dr. Engelberg is so into media, but now I understand why he refrains from using PP for class lectures. This is only my second professor in graduate school so far who has not used PP, and I have to say that I pay a lot closer attention in class because of it. We actually have to TAKE OUR OWN NOTES - HEAVEN FORBID!!! I don't even remember when PP began to become popular in teaching, but I do know that since its implementation, I am much more likely to work on something else or zone out in class when I know that I can always refer back to my slides later. I do think that some PP presentations can still be presented in an interesting manner. However, I experienced one that was terrible (even though the topic was very interesting) first thing Tuesday morning - the day after this week's class. I was shocked that one of my supervisors had such a terrible presentation. She literally read from her slides and did not incorporate any additional info. on most of them. She also seemed surprised by some of the slides' content, even though she had made the slides herself. I was embarrassed for her, really.
Anyway, the rest of the class was fine, too, but I had done the active listening exercise one too many times in other psych. courses, so that was not much fun for me. Seeing that others got a lot out of it was interesting, though. It is a good exercise when done for the first time!

Anonymous said...

I am excited for the group project too! As far as Danette's question about making theory approachable and fun, its not so don't bother (jk). I think presentations shoudl be interactive and kinestetic. Model the theoretical principles in a way that is interactive and fun. Designing your own conceptual model, rolling on the ground as the philosophical "river of people". Anyways...As far as this module is concerned I feel pretty comfortable with teh material. Most of it was either covered in my social marketing class or public speaking, and repetition is how we learn. Having said that, I truly appreciate moshe's insight, in entertainment particularly. It is also immensely helpful/ slightly muddled in my head having all my classes dovetail so well. I am excited to get started with the next module.

Amanda Miller said...

This was the last week of Module 1 in our syllabus. The biggest lesson I learned was DON'T FORGET TO PLAN! I'm not a big theory lover...or at least I didn't used to be. I thought it wasn't important...until now. A theoretical framework is a necessary step in the beginnings of a health communication plan. The readings, activities, etc from the past few weeks sressed the importance of putting "THEM" at the center, not "ME". I am reminded that it is inefficient and, frankly, backwards to create a campaign, message, etc before testing out your audience and learning what they are all about.

Wrong Reason Health Promotion was another concept that I was drawn to this week. I'm all for wrong reason HP in most cases. Hey, if you can't get your 3 year old to eat vegetables with the basis that they are good for him, tell him whatever he wants to hear...as long as he eats them, right? What about young adults and skin cancer? If scaring them with threats about dying from melanoma won't stop teenagers from being in the sun without protection, let's hit them with the fact that all the beautiful models and celebrities use sunscreen daily, to maintain their flawless skin. In my opinion, say and do whatever will work!

ldt said...
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ldt said...

The past few weeks of class have been interesting, but I must admit, I'm excited to move beyond theories and research! Although, it’s not really moving “beyond.” Research is crucial to developing any good campaign, and I know I will be referencing these theories throughout my career, but I'm looking forward to getting into the more practical portion of class.

The lab that we did really made me pay attention to the details of conversation. It was tough to fly by the set of my pants, grab a topic that seemed relevant to the interviewee, and talk for a few minutes… I was a bit nervous (or maybe just completely sleep deprived from Austin City Limits!), and I think I wound up talking too fast... It was good to watch and discuss others interactions and note techniques I would like to employ.

After the break we talked a bit about presentation skills, and then set out the group projects. I am stoked to get started motivating college students to take action against global warming and climate change! I wonder what approaches our groups will take… Increasing consumption of local produce and products? Increasing use of public transit? Biking? Carpools? Recycling? Maybe we can get some volunteers to stand near groups of trash cans, and scold people for not recycling! Or… how about we just put receptacles next to all the trash cans? Seriously, it seems like there are less than ten places on campus (outside of cafeterias/commons) to toss paper/plastic/glass/cans… compared to trash cans every ten feet!

Lindsay said...

Week 4 blog: End of module 1
The top 3 things from module 1 that stick out in mind:

*Duel process persuasion: The idea that generally people think heuristically, therefore we need to think about how to grab people’s attention with health concerns, but this ties into the “house” example Dr. Engelberg was talking about with the idea of just getting people in the house no matter what way. We also need to consider the population we’re working with. It is good to be confident in our knowledge of public health and everything that we have learned, but we have to also realize that no matter how much we study, we don’t know what it is like to be in someone else’s shoes and we have to show the respect to the community of people and ask them. This all falls into what we have been talking about in class with formative research, S-M-C-R-D, wrong reason, selectivity and simply what motivates people to care about an issue?

*Focus groups: I think that this is a great way to communicate with someone, it lets the other person know that you are interested, you’re paying attention, you care about what they’re saying and that you understood it. However, I think that most of us do not talk this way and when we do, especially in peer group situations, the other people think we’re crazy. I think that this is a really nice and considerate way of talking to someone, so why don’t we do it more often outside of focus groups so that it is the norm? Are we too busy to care to get the full story or really hear out what someone is saying? Or are we too self-absorbed that we just don’t care what they say? Or do we think that we interpret everything the way the story-teller meant us to?

*Presentations: I think presentation skills are a really important part of communication and getting across a message. Unfortunately my education thus far has not required me to do many presentations, which I feel puts me at a real disadvantage. I realized after listening to the lecture on presentation skills that I DO everything that I am NOT suppose to. One key point was to “own your space” and “be confident”. I think that if you show a lack of confidence it makes your message seem less important. I know that I tend to stand like a stork on one leg looking like I’m about to fall over, clearly not owning my space. Another tip was to “put a smile in your voice”. I don’t know how many times as a stubborn teenager I heard my step-dad say that to me. It used to make me so mad. However, I now understand the benefit especially at work when talking to people over the phone, they can tell when you have a smile on your face. Thus, I will be working hard at acquiring these skills!

Anonymous said...

Blogging is turning out to be awesome... I think I'm going over to the dark side. I honestly find myself spending a lot of time (way to much time) surfing the internet looking for anything that I can add to my blog. Ads, pictures and commercials...OH MY!!

I'm really enjoying the overall interaction and pace of the course in Module 1. And find myself very excited to get going on the final project (I wish I had more hours in the day).

I'm glad we talked about presentation skills, which is something I believe I lack. I am definitely one of those people who gets extremely nervous at the thought of presenting. Which most people who know me, find surprising; because I am very outgoing. However, there is a huge difference in talking in front of a bunch of people you know and talking in front of total strangers.

Unfortunately, I didn't exactly choose a career where I could avoid presenting. So I guess I'll just have to work on it.

Check out my blog... I learned how to add videos. YES!

Shelbs said...

klj

Shelbs said...

Week 4, week 4....The stork reference I found quite humorous! I think I laugh more in this class than any other PH class...but then again is Epi funny? Is HSA funny? How about 668? Not really. Anyway....although I don't do the stork (at least I don't think so) I am guilty of hiding behind the podium if (thank God) there is one! In Moldova I tried to get my kids used to public speaking and I found many of them tried their darndest to emulate a stork while in the front of the class. However, I noticed that it was just the girls who stood on one leg. The boys stood like soldiers..not really owning their space but not about to fall over---perhaps something left over from the good ol' Soviet days.

I agree with Sarah and the "problem" of having Powerpoint as a presentation. I, too, tend to find other things suddenly more interesting to do, knowing when it comes study time...I have the entire wonderful presentation on pages of 6 little slides. Now that I am done criticizing, I must admit that I really like Powerpoint because it takes the focus of me and my red face and shifts it to the bells and whistles and neat little pictures I have incorporated into my presentation. On this subject I am not too much of an "outside the box" thinker and need to learn other, more engaging methods of presenting--especially when it come time to defend my thesis. Terrifying!
Coffee break...
OK, that's better!
One last thing that stood out was the discussion regarding focus groups. Although I have not moderated any, I have had the privilege of helping with a handful of them in Mexico. During the VIIDAI trip last semester the (Spanish-speaking) group with whom i was working, led a number of focus groups with women who had migrated from Oaxaca to San Quentin. The objective was to determine if and how nutritional patterns had changed post-migration and the affect upon health. Being a speaker of Romanian and not Spanish, I had the unique angle of watching body language and interpersonal reactions as opposed to honing in on the actual conversation. What I noticed was that the older women dominated the conversation and the younger women didn't contribute much, if at all. Not knowing this culture very well...my question is: was this a result of an age hierarchy in the village or were our groups simply comprised of outspoken and bold older women and timid younger women? I can't say, but was made aware that when planning/conducting focus groups, it is vital that every cultural angle which could pop up be examined beforehand.
Happy Friday! Yeah!!

Shelbs said...
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Josie said...

Its interesting that this class has me looking at things in my life and how they relate to topics of discussion. I like this and I feel that the info sticks in my head better. Im finding my self analyzing my friends as to how they conversate and "present"things, very interesting..

Ceci said...

Presentations...Haven't we all gotten sucked into some of the things Dr. Engelberg pointed out on what NOT to do! It really drives home the point that it's not necessarily about how much knowledge you have on the topic you are presenting if your presentation is not engaging the audience.
I'm really looking forward to the group projects since this will be the first time I really get to get involved with a health promotions campaign in the community. I'm sure it will be an eye opener for me.
Spill You Guts: So this has been a daily thing for me at work. I work for a hotel and in a way, it's just good customer service. Everyone likes to tell their story. I don't usually know the guests name when they arrive, but I simply ask them or ask them a question about a shirt their wearing with an event logo on it and away the questions go...Looking back this tactic has worked on me many times!

Alicia said...

On Tuesday morning I was reading the newspaper at work and I came across an article titled TV Ads Promote Poor Diet.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070918/news_lz1c18notes.html
My immediate reaction was "No kidding!" Now I know it's been awhile since I've watched Saturday morning cartoons (being a kid was so fun!) but I can remember seeing commercials for Lucky Charms and Captain Crunch, Lunchables, Gushers, Kool-Aid, and Squeeze-Its (remember those sugary drinks - BTW there is a petition on the Internet to bring them back!).

See photo and video on my blog!

Of course not all kids are going to pay attention to all of these commercials but I think it would be a safe bet to say that a lot of kids remember most of these messages. This is their means of health communication for nutrition. No wonder we are in a battle against obesity!

Continued on my blog...

Jennie N said...

It looks like there is some agreement that many people can use some pointers about presentations-- yes, that includes some people in Public Health. We need to make Public Health more palatable to everyone in order to combat all those negative influences... I'm looking at you food commercials!

MariaF said...

As usual I learned a lot in class today about active listening and question asking. I found a good site in the internet that talk about active listening and what we can do to improve it in our career and everyday life. It's an interesting site. Here it is and I hope you all find it relevant to our class like I did: http://www.mindtools.com/CommSkll/Mind%20Tools%20Listening.pdf.
The lab in our class was again a little tough to do. It was certainly hard to apply my active listening skills...such as paraphrasing, asking open ended questions, and paying extra attention to the verbal and non-verbal cues. The person in my group was really good at playing a 15 year old boy! Since I don't usually "deal" with teenagers other than in mall setting...it was tough to "actively listen" and apply, without hesitation, the skill that we talked about in class. Anyway, I also like the part in our lecture on "value of selective" such as selective attention, perception and memory. Selective memory is what my husband accuses me of always practicing on him when I'm "mad". I think it's a good skill to have to survive in any relationship!!!
Check out my "selective memory" cartoon in my blog.
Have a great weekend everyone!

Anonymous said...

I love that tiffany referred to blogging as moving to "the darkside". And in regards to crystals frustration with less-than-ethical practices of the junk food industry, they use the same principles big tobacco used. It fits with the "fact v. myth" study moshe posted in class. Unfortunately people perceive what they want, heuristic suckers well call them, and doubly unfortunately we as practitioners need to decide if we will use the same tactics to fight for the heuristic suckers or let them die for choosing to sucumb to higher rates of morbidity and mortality due to clever marketing schemes.

Sapan said...

Well, i think I don't have a whole lot to say for the class...I had to miss the class,being sick and sneezing all the time, it was never a good idea to be in the class and expose my friends to the germs. I shall make it to the class this time, and though I might still sound sick, but guys, don't worry!!! I am not infectious any more..I have had the antibiotics, and though I might have the occasional cough,but you guys are safe now, as far as me being the source is concerned. Reading through what others have to say, i feel I missed a real good lecture.
And I totally agree with some of the folks, that really the lab, which makes you to put into practise what you have learnt is the most amazing aspect of this class. Well, Dr Engelberg is a very interesting guy, and the class is so interesting that there is no reason to be bored, but even if you want to, you can't, because you know, the lab is just around..and you shall be asked to implemet what you learnt.

Michelle Plata said...

I found y'all! Thanks for the link, Juanita.

I've had fun with the "spill your guts" homework. I learned a lot about my plumber, though I won't display his guts for you here.

My mom thinks it's funny that we have to learn how to get people to talk. She and my dad live in northern Nevada where it is completely normal to ask anyone to see their guts, strangers included. I remember going to the grocery store once and the gal in front of me was buying a home pregnancy test. A several-minute-long conversation ensued between the customer, the checker and a few people in line about if she was hoping for a positive or a negative and what she would do in each case.

I think it's actually kind of sad that we have to learn how to be present with people and how to listen :(

Jennie N said...

Laura S. comment:
September 17, 2007 8:35 PM


So... today's class was good for me. How was it for you? What comes to mind when I say "Week Four"?

Let's begin with Wrong Reason. Like how wrong reasons motivate people to do things that are actually good for them. For example, my boyfriend is a gym freak and in order for me to look good next to him, I must go to the gym. See. :D Hey... at least it works. Now I'm passionate about it.

I agree with Tiffany though. . . girls at SDSU's gym do just go for the attraction of the opposite (or same, for some) sex. I see girls wearing skimpy outfits that moms (well, some moms) would not approve and seriously, wearing make-up while working out? THINK OF YOUR PORES LADIES!!!

More on my blog...

http://lsirikul.blogspot.com