Theory, Measurement and Hard Times: Some Issues for HIV/AIDS Research

Big Events in Greece and HIV Infection Among People Who Inject Drugs

“…This is because measures have not been developed to accurately assess many of these variables. Ongoing research (Friedman, Sandoval, et al, 2013) is attempting to develop and validate measures on many of the CHAT variables in Figure 5. The questionnaires of the “Aristotle” and TRIP projects also contain some of these scales, on a pilot basis, but certainly more research of this kind is needed.…”

“…They are likely to lead to many deep transformations in the lives of the people and to their forms of social organization and culture (Figure 1) (Friedman et al, 2009). As we discussed in two earlier papers (Friedman et al, 2009; Friedman, Sandoval, et al, 2013), the consequences of these transformations for the future of the HIV epidemic after Big Events may be heavily mediated by the extent of youth experiencing despair over their future prospects and the related degree to which intergenerational normative regulation breaks down such that a large number of youth gravitate toward drug use, sexual hedonism, and perhaps toward trading sex and/or drugs for money, goods, or services. This mediation can be better understood in terms of Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) (Friedman, Sandoval, et al, 2013), aspects of which appear in the “CHAT processes” box in the third column of Figure 5.…”

“…As we discussed in two earlier papers (Friedman et al, 2009; Friedman, Sandoval, et al, 2013), the consequences of these transformations for the future of the HIV epidemic after Big Events may be heavily mediated by the extent of youth experiencing despair over their future prospects and the related degree to which intergenerational normative regulation breaks down such that a large number of youth gravitate toward drug use, sexual hedonism, and perhaps toward trading sex and/or drugs for money, goods, or services. This mediation can be better understood in terms of Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) (Friedman, Sandoval, et al, 2013), aspects of which appear in the “CHAT processes” box in the third column of Figure 5. This points to complex and nondeterministic interactions among the activities in which they engage (which can be thought of in terms of how they use their time and of their organizational commitments as well as in terms of their behaviors); the intersubjective communication they engage in with their friends, neighbors, employers (if any) and other people, including the ways in which this leads them to define their own and others’ life situations; and the creative and routinized ways in which they respond to changes in their environment and activities.…”

“…PWID: People Who Inject Drugs. CHAT: Cultural Historical Activity Theory (Friedman, Sandoval, et al, 2013). …”

Theory, Analysis, Social Justice, and Criminalizing HIV Transmission: A Commentary on Lehman and Colleagues (2014)

“…In contrast to a reductionist approach, CHAT operationalizes variables as overlapping with and influencing each other within a system. CHAT contains three key concepts: ongoing patterns of actions (e.g., HIV risk behavior, social and risk networks), the self as a subjective process (i.e., how people think about themselves) and intersubjective exchange (e.g., local culture, shifts in mores, and interpersonal interactions) [27]. CHAT was originally developed by Lev Vygotsky and thus has roots in the study of psychology, human development, and educational theory [28]; it is only beginning to be applied to HIV research.…”