Name: Vicente Arredondo Gilchrist, ENC

2135, Spring 2017

Research Proposal Assignment
This proposal will help you solidify your ideas for the semesters
research. Your proposal should be approximately two double spaced
pages or about 500 words, and it should include the following
information. (See pages 292-294 of the BBG for an example of good
answers to these questions.)

1. Your research question

What is gas-lighting and why is it so difficult to escape from such emotional abuse?

2. A working title for your project

You are not going Crazy

3. A summary of your project. Identify your topic and describe

what you will be looking at in terms of the topic. Include some
key terms and additional questions that will guide your
research.

My research paper is going to explore what the term gas-lighting is. It is a term that is
almost unheard of and many people are unaware of what it is. Many people when they
hear this term have a completely different idea of what it means but the truth is that gas-
lighting is emotional abuse that occurs in toxic relationships as well as apparently normal
relationships. I want to explore and shed more light on this area because it is important to
be aware of the signs of this kind of emotional abuse and put an end to it as fast as
possible. I want to answer questions like, what is gas-lighting?, how often does it occur?,
what can happen if it is not stopped in time?, how fast does it occur and increase in
frequency?, am I being gas-lighted at the moment without knowing?. These are questions
that will be addressed in-order-to create more awareness for gas-lighting and to better
prepare the readers in case they may suffer gas-lighting at the moment or may know
someone that is gas-lighted at the moment or in the future.

4. A description of your purpose for working on this project.

Why did you choose this topic? What do you hope to learn from
this project?

I chose this topic because I just recently went through emotional abuse in a relationship, I
also saw someone go through emotional abuse on a greater scale and it all seem very
strange and very new to me since I had never experienced or d=seen such an aggressive
technique as gas-lighting. One of my college professors that I told my story to told me to
look up the term gas-lighting and that it was what was occurring to me. I researched some
articles online and it was exactly my situation and my friends situation as well. Putting a
name on what was happening to me and being able to diagnose and have a plan to treat it
was just an incredible feeling in term of relief. This is because being able to name on
what was happening gave me a sense of power and to know that I was not the only person
that was going through this made me feel better and now I was able to attack the problem
and know to to resolve it. With my research paper I want to give that sense of power to
my readers because knowledge is power and so I want to inform my readers about such a
harsh issue as gas-lighting.

5. A discussion of the key challenges you will face or you

imagine you will face. What concerns do you have regarding
the research/project?

I am aware that a challenge that I will face during the creation of this research paper is
that it will be hard for me to stay neutral or at least sound neutral in my writing not taking
sides on the topic. Trying to inform about gas-lighting is something that I might make too
personal and sound like I am trying to change the readers opinion on emotional abuse. It
may sound crazy but like there are gas-lighting victim there are also victimizers who may
read my article and not agree with what I am saying. I might push to change a
victimizers opinion instead of just informing them and I could come across as bias
specially since I went through gas lighting myself and have strong opinions about it.
Another concern that I have for this research paper is that I might stray away from the
topic because it can get very broad and talking about emotional abuse gas easily lead to
other topics. This is something that I am aware of but that I will try to focus on my
subject and not talk about the many other ways in which toxic relationships can employ
to hurt each other.