Gender Dysphoria: Introduction and Problem Definition
Gender dysphoria is one of the most prevalent issues in today's culture, so I chose it as my research subject to delve deeper into it to better understand it and uncover the reasons it affects the entire population. There are problems of gender identity crisis in today's generation, and this is one of the topics I'd like to investigate. This issue is linked to sociology's most crucial gender, one of society's most important domains (Melloni, 2016).
My current sociological viewpoint on this important subject is that gender crisis should not be an issue as there exists a clear demarcation between who are male members of a society and those that are female. The problems that arise when one tries to discover who he or she is in terms of gender are insignificant and should not happen in the first place but I want to go through a research in order to discover where the crisis originates from.
Problem Definition
Gender dysphoria, which is in other words referred to as Gender Identity Disorder (GID), is a condition in which a person experiences distress as a result of the gender or the sex assigned to him or her at birth ((Yarhouse, n.d.). In these cases, the assigned gender or sex does not match the individual’s identity and hence he or she is referred to as transgender.
The issue of gender dysphoria has been under scrutiny for ages and progressively it has been discovered that the issue is actually something that is real in the society and ways to accommodate both the female, male, and transgender members of the society have progressively been discovered. One problem exists, however, and this is the absolute inclusion and acceptance of the transgender members of a society, and especially in the developing countries. This problem threatens the transgender persons and makes them hide and in some extreme cases, it has resulted in suicide.
Literature Review
The sources of information that I would use in my research are online journals, e-books, news, and online reports on transgender in various countries across the globe. There are online dailies also that I would use to gain real-time information on the day-to-day lives and concerns of the transgender members of society. Medical research reports on the internet will also come in handy to assist me to understand the origin of this societal problem as well as give me insights into the lives of those affected by the issue of gender dysphoria. The internet is a free-of-access source of information, and hence I will access it freely, timelessly, and regardless of my geographical location. The reason behind using the internet and online information is because it will save me costs and since it is ubiquitous, I will manage to access any desired information even on the move.
Hypothesis Formulation
The hypothesis that I formulate for my research is that in five years to come, due to the societal acceptance and creation of awareness of the issue of gender dysphoria, there will be a rise in the number of transgender members of society. According to statistics, there is a tendency of people with certain conditions coming out of the confinements of fear of lack of acceptance by other members of society, and hence I know that my research will help discover the impact of this awareness creation to the lives of people living with GID.
Research Method Selection
In my research, I plan to use interviews as my means of data gathering (Neuman, 2014). Gender dysphoria affects people on a day to day basis and hence the interview would be the best data collection methodology as it would help attain real-time and first-hand information from those affected either directly or indirectly by this issue. Interviews, as opposed to other data collection methods, help attain information on interviewee's personal feelings, opinions, and perceptions about a particular issue, and hence it would be the ideal methodology to use in this research. Furthermore, interviews allow for detailed questions to be asked by the interviewer and also allow for relatively detailed responses of which are both credible and effective in drawing accurate conclusions from at any time. Through the interviews, the interviewer can clearly identify the implied responses by observing the moods and the reaction of the respondents at particular instances of the association as opposed to other non-face-to-face data collection methodologies.
Data Collection
In collecting my data, I would visit the homes of people living with gender dysphoria and take them through an interview session. Before the actual interview, however, I would conduct an excursion to identify which homes to visit and have the prospective interviewee select an ideal date and venue for the actual interview. I would then prepare the interview questions beforehand and eventually go for the interview as arranged with the interviewees. To ensure the validity and the reliability of the data gathered, I would ensure to be keen in noticing the mood changes and the reactions of the interviewees at different instances of the interview as this would allow me to gauge their actual feelings on various questions.
To ensure that all the required data is collected, I would record the interview sessions in an audio file personally, with the consent of the interviewees of course, as well as jot down some responses on a piece of paper or on an electronic gadget. The data collection undertaking would take an average of a month, right from the time of the excursion to the time of conducting the actual interviews.
Results Analysis
During the interview, I am bound to collect a variety of information and using various means. The data may be recorded in audio files, some may be recorded in Microsoft Word documents, and still, some may be in the form of short handwritten notes. To form an aggregate base of information, I would need to combine all these data (Berg, n.d.). I am passionate about using Microsoft Office tools and hence I would go ahead and use Office Excel tools in classifying different sets of data. Since I would like to have the information in the finest details, I would choose to personally do the data analysis so as to ensure that none of the details are missed or skipped. The process of analysis, right from the beginning of it, up to the time I would come up with the conclusive information analysis document, is estimated to take an average of three weeks. The reason behind the ample time is that I would be personally conducting the analysis of the data collected as well as due to the fact that I aim to analyze all the information I collected without skipping any of it.
Sharing the Results
After a successful analysis, I would need to communicate the information to relevant teams and stakeholders. One of the ways I would use to communicate my findings is approaching persons living with gender dysphoria, and more especially those that I noticed lived in the fear of being discovered and rejected by the rest of the members of the community they came from or their immediate families. The reason behind approaching them would be to help them accept their diversities and become proud of whom they are regardless of the views and opinions of the other members of society.
I would also ensure that I approach the family members of the people with gender crisis condition so as to educate them on the importance of understanding and accommodating the victims in their families (Loyd, Mitchelson & Burridge, 2012). Counselors also form a set of my target audience as they come in handy when talking to persons with suicidal thoughts. I would create in them an awareness of the real existence of gender dysphoria and educate them on how they would approach persons suffering from this condition as well as those who live in the fear of being rejected by their families and the society because they have issues with their gender type.
References
Berg, B., & Lune, H. Qualitative research methods for the social sciences.
Loyd, J., Mitchelson, M., & Burridge, A. (2012). Beyond walls and cages. Athens: University of Georgia Press.
Melloni, C. (2016). Management of Gender Dysphoria and Creation of a "Gender Team". Anaplastology, 05(02). http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2161-1173.1000e117
Neuman, W. (2014). Social research methods. Boston [u.a.]: Pearson.
Yarhouse, M. Understanding gender dysphoria.
