Introduction
The critiqued article employed a qualitative research method, which was descriptive in design, to identify how middle-aged African American men recognize and express symptoms of depression, and also how MDD impacts the lives of victims within this population group. Apart from providing a summary of the article and its key findings, the critique has been largely premised on assessing the consistency and appropriateness of the various methods and techniques used in the study, including the research method, design, population, and sampling, as well as data collection and analysis.
A major finding of the critique is that although the research method and design are appropriate to this type of study, the results may be speculative in their validity and reliability as the researchers used word-of-mouth of participants as regards their exposure to depressive symptoms instead of relying on medical records. However, the study is relevant in the nursing literature as it identifies the progression of MDD among African American men, hence expanding the possibilities available to caregivers in treating and managing the disorder.
Summary
The article by Bryant-Bedell and Waite (2010), titled “Understanding Major Depression Disorder among Middle-aged African American Men”, employed a descriptive qualitative research design to not only identify how this group of the population recognizes and expresses symptoms of depression but also how this disorder impacts the lives of victims within this group. In findings, it can be suggested that the study brought new information about how life events play a critical role in this group of the population under acting as stressors, which then lead the men to experience feelings of uncertainty (the funk) before transitioning to full-scale depression.
Critique
The initial justification for undertaking this study was premised on the need to undertake more research on African American men with depressive disorders as current research is limited even though this group of the population has a greater propensity for depression than the majority population. A qualitative research method, in my view, was best suited for identifying the life stressors that led men to gravitate into a depression since it provided a framework to explore issues and understand phenomena by studying subjects in a unique social-cultural context and from their perspectives. The descriptive research design used by the researchers is also consistent with the research aims as it assisted them to observe and describe the effects of the identified life events without influencing them in any way (Creswell, 2009). The population selected for the study met the threshold for undertaking new research since the researchers have taken note of the fact that current research on African American men with depressive disorders is still limited.
The researchers employed convenience sampling to come up with a sample of ten African American men between the ages of 40 and 59 years. This is a major weakness of the study as researchers could have utilized medical records in various health institutions to develop their sample based on the size of the population experiencing MDD rather than merely selecting participants because they are easiest to recruit. The researchers heavily relied on word-of-mouth from the participants that they had indeed experienced depressive symptoms rather than relying on concrete medical records, thus giving room to speculation about the validity, reliability, and objectivity of the research findings.
Additionally, a more spread out sample in terms of age could have provided some useful insights into the issue of whether MDD is age-specific, particularly because the researchers were relying on life events to demarcate the progression of MDD. It is common knowledge that age is a fundamental variable in identifying and determining unique life events affecting a certain segment of the population, but the researchers only took into consideration participants between the ages of 40 and 59 years.
Semi-structured interviews were best suited to collect data from the participants as they are not only less intrusive by encouraging a two-way communication process, but also provide researchers with the opportunity to learn new knowledge (Creswell, 2009), as happened in this study. The conceptual ordering technique used in data analysis to organize the concepts into main thematic areas was critical in identifying the three central themes emphasized by the researchers, namely life events, the funk, and the breakdown (Bryant-Bedell and Waite, 2010). The researchers performed well to demonstrate how these themes come into play in the journey towards MDD for African American men, but the little comparison is made in the literature review or in the findings to show if other groups follow similar patterns.
Overall, the study is relevant in the nursing literature as it identifies the progression of MDD among African American men, hence expanding the possibilities available to caregivers in treating and managing the disorder.
References
Bryant, Bedell, K., & Waite, R. (2010). Understanding major depressive disorder among middle-aged African American men. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 66(9), 2050-2060.
Creswell, J.W. (2009). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.