Community Interview Research Paper

I have interviewed a very good friend of mines and to my surprise she has different views on a lot of things than I do. Although I always thought of us as being so much the same and we truly are in a lot of ways, I come to see that we really are different in so many. Before the interview process with my friend that I will call Nikki for now, this is not her name but just to keep the interview confidential as promised this is what I will refer to her as.

I had the pleasure of interviewing one of our church parisinors, Ms. Maria. Ms. Maria is 75 years old Hispanic woman who has been a widow for the past three years. Ms. Maria was basically a stay at home Mom when her children were young and when she did work she worked as an assembly line worker. Her wages were low and her pension that she currently receives is not enough to meet her monthly needs. Her husband was the main bread winner prior to him dieing of a massive heart attack at the age of 78 while he was at work. Her husband was a cook in a resturanrt and had decied to continue to work until some of their loans were paid off. Since his death, Ms. Maria has been depressed, anxious and struggling to make ends meet and has recently been diagnosed with hypertension. Her three children live out of state a don’t get to visit often.

I chose my friend, Rheanna Lynn Esparza, as my interviewee for my cultural interview. While I was interviewing Rheanna, I used the same questions I answered about myself during my cultural diorama presentation. During the interview, I was able to grasp a better understanding of Rheannas culture while allowing her to develop a better understanding of her own culture and family history.

The lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community has never received as much attention as they are right now. Much of this attention is stemming from this population struggling to obtain the same rights given to the remainder of the population. The LGBT community faces many challenges in their personal system, social environment, and then in the public system. In working with the LGBT population, the social worker needs to examine how the individual views themselves, not only through sexual identity, but as an individual. We need to look at the prejudices and condemnation they have encountered which may have led to further uncertainty or confusion.

1. Question: Share some of the background of your interviewee (or couple). What was this person’s/couple’s story?

The most important piece of information that must be taken away from this chapter, is the Counselor’s understanding of their own limits in counseling a client struggling with sexual identity. The clients in this chapter are referred to as sexual minorities, which Sanders defines as “individuals with same sex attractions, or behavior, regardless or self-identifications.” (Sanders, 2013, p.252) A Counselor will want to understand most clients are not seeking help for the reasons of changing their sexual identity, but seeking help for issues that have arisen because of their struggle in understanding their sexual identity. In order to understand the issue itself, the Counselor will want to dive into the history of homosexuality and sexual identity. Etiology play an important role in understanding ones sexual identity, according to Sanders, research shows biological and environmental factors can contribute to homosexuality. (p.253,

The most significant part of the interview was how we have shared similar struggles. R.C.’s husband was away from home a lot for work on the railroad while she raised their daughter, mine has also been away from home a lot due to work while I raised my son. There is a certain bond that is built when two people know the language of one struggle.

There are many controversies and issues that come along with the sexual minority client. Many times clients hear of treatments that have proven to work for others through avenues that they esteem as proper or popular, and believe they have discovered the correct treatment for themselves.

On the social level, prejudice and discrimination against lesbian, gay, and bisexual people are reflected in the everyday stereotypes of members of these groups. The widespread prejudice, discrimination and violence to which lesbians and gay men are often subjected to mental health concerns. Even though social support is crucial in coping with stress, antigay attitudes and discrimination may make it difficult for lesbian, gay and bisexual people to find such support (APA, 1975).

Amanda and I were introduced through a common friend. I had expressed to this friend that I needed to interview someone of a different race, and culture. As it sounds, I did not place much consideration into specifically choosing a person. I simply wanted to interview someone that was different than I was. I made contact with Amanda over text, and we met at the local Starbucks. We met for an hour on the 6ht, 8th, and 13th of September. While beginning the process of gathering questions for the interview, I realized that over the years I have had many friends of different races. However, I have never taken the opportunity to ask my friends about their culture, or race overall. The conversations that I had with my friends mostly consisted of

She had come to visit after work on Sunday, February 5, 2017. I had interviewed her in my room with the door closed to prevent as much background noise as possible and I had locked the door to ensure that no one would disturb us. I recorded the interview on the voice recorder application in my phone and had place it on my nightstand. I did not want Sara to see the recorder because she would be more self-conscious of her answers and worried. I did not take notes since I wanted it to be as relaxed as possible and taking notes in front of an informant would scare him or her. I allowed Sara to speak as much as possible without interrupting her. I occasionally nodded my head in agreement and made noises so that she did not get the feeling that she was talking to a wall. I learned that doing a formal interview is hard since, despite the preparations, it does not go as you intend it to. I had written a list of questions that had a certain flow to it but Sara answered a couple of them without giving me a chance to ask them. Thus, I was flustered and once she finished answering the question, I had to go over my list and quickly reject the ones that were answered and search for the ones that weren’t. The key questions that my informant addressed were in regards to the topic of marriage and religion. She talked about why she is not interested in marriage and the reasons why she would consider it as well as talking about the effect

I decided to interview one of my close friends, Annalis Belperio. I chose her because I come from a very different home and grew up in different ways than she did. I saw this as seeing people’s lives and how everyone has a different life, although people may seem the same/act the same, we’re all different in our own way. Before I proceeded to interview her, I put together what questions I was going to ask her. I wanted to make them personal, but not ones that seemed intrusive or over the line. I then chose what questions were perfect for this interview.

She is taking a fair amount of courses which include things like english, sign language , human anatomy and health and wellness. As the interview proceeded i decided to just have fun and not take this too seriously.

Although Gender Identity Disorder (GID) and homosexuality has been in the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) for many years, I was personally unaware of the controversy that surrounded it. I realized that I needed to educate myself in the issues and changes that have occurred in the DSM regarding GID and homosexuality over the years.

Upon entering this course, my understanding of human sexuality was decent; I was aware of certain aspects of sexuality such as being straight, gay, lesbian, queer, transgender, etc. Nevertheless, I did not realize how expansive sexuality is; it never occurred to me that sexual health, prostitution, marriage, rape, sex trafficking, divorce, families, etc., all fell under the umbrella of human sexuality. Books and essays such as Renee Hill’s Walk Together and David Shneer’s “Out of School” showcased the multiple facets of human sexuality and how terms like queer are not directly related to homosexuality. While sexuality and homosexuality are linked, frequently, people mistake them as being synonymous; before entering this class, I was searching for a definition of sexuality, and often in the thesaurus section of dictionary websites homosexuality and or sexual orientation was considered a synonym of sexuality. Formerly, I too would have agreed they were the same, however, after taking this course, I concluded that homosexuality is just one topic in the broad discussion of sexuality. My understanding of sexuality now is that it