Lasting Lessons
By Robert Moeller, Ed.M.’05, a project director at the Center for Health, Identity, Behavior and Preventions Studies and a Ph.D. candidate in applied psychology at New York University.
Adolescents would rather be known than know. Research Associate Michael Nakkula, Ed.M.’87, Ed.D.’93, introduced this idea during his class at the Ed School and it has stuck with me. As I continue my studies here at New York University within the Center for Health, Identity, Behavior and Prevention Studies, this seemingly simplistic adage has proven itself time and time again.
Nakkula’s course, grounded in developmental theory, focused on understanding the psychological experience of adolescents, in particular, adolescent risk taking. It is this exact propensity of teenagers that lies at the core of my dissertation. There has been an increase in HIV infections among young gay and bisexual black and Latino adolescents in New York City.
HIV/AIDS continues to be a health crisis within the gay community. As the HIV epidemic reached the 25th anniversary of the first reported cases last summer, the epidemic continues to have a serious impact on the health of minority communities, most recently with Black and Latino young men bearing the brunt of the impact. The prevention strategies used in the past — fear tactics and general HIV education efforts — have been shown to be ineffective. It’s clearly time to shift our HIV prevention strategies.
My current research seeks to improve HIV prevention efforts in New York City by exploring the psychological experiences that lead to risk taking; in other words, that which brings about behavior that on the surface appears to be illogical risk taking. Working in conjunction with Perry Halkitis and Carol Gilligan, our research team is utilizing a unique method of psychological inquiry. Called the Listening Guide Method, it is an inherently relational methodology, with a strong focus on the relationship between researcher and participant.
It is within the context of this current project that my experiences at Harvard, and specifically Nakkula’s wise words, frequently come to mind. Relationships are not only central to the enterprise of education as Nakkula expressed, they are central to the research process. Attuning to the relational dynamics of the research setting provides an opportunity to be invited into the psychological world of another person, and eventually allows us to understand just why it is that adolescents would rather be known than know.
About the Article
A version of this article originally appeared in the Summer 2008 issue of Ed., the magazine of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
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photo by Matthew Septimus
