Data analysis
It seems like the right thing to do to come back here and describe how we used the data we collected in our personal Joy journals and in our Joy photographs to do a mock data analysis.
Photos
We all brought our Joy pictures to class and took turns describing them and what they were of and what they meant to us. As each person took their turn, we started to create preliminary categories. For some of us, sharing the pictures with the rest of the group provoked some strong emotions.
Our initial categories were fairly concrete and, for the most part, based on the subject of the picture (rather than, for instance, the emotion that it evoked in the owner and in the rest of us). They included family (broadly defined to include close friends and pets), nature, and hobbies. Over the course of two discussions, between which a week's time passed, a new set of categories began to emerge. We took the structure from the text of an article that we discussed in class on the evening of the first discussion (I'm sorry, I can't remember the title or author just now). Although I think that there was some feeling that we hadn't quite finished the analysis, because of the nature of the project (an in-class exercise) we concluded during the second evening's discussion with the following categories and sub-categories:
Being (Mind)
- music/dancing/art
- helping others
- generations/family
- emotional family
- places/nature
- nature
- remembering the past
- home
- hobbies
- special people
- humor
Sensing (Body)
- music/dancing/art
- nature
- eating
- hobbies
- special things
- humor
Believing (Spirit)
- helping others
- remembering past joys
- religion/beliefs/faith
- future joy
- special things
- humor
I know this doesn't make much sense since you can't see the pictures, but it does, I think, give a good sense of this particular group of people. (Yeah, they ARE a warm, caring, funny, close group and I'm thankful that I've had the privilege of getting to know them and, kind of, become a member of the group)
Journal
As the last part of this assignment, Dr. Nelson asked us to read through the journals we've been keeping on Joy throughout the semester and analyze them using the qualitative methods we've been studying this semester. She didn't require us to share them with each other; it was an individual endeavor. She did ask us to share the results of our analyses with her and the class at the next meeting. Since I've been keeping my journal here, I thought this would be a good place to share the results of my analysis, not to mention that it will be a good way to close this blog.
The first thing that I noticed about what I've written here is that it seems very sense oriented. I mean that almost all of the five senses are represented. In the post called "Initial thoughts", I included links to a couple of sound recordings of music that thought of when I thought of joy, Ode to Joy and Jesu, Joy of Man's Desire. In the next post, called "The usefulness of photos", I wrote about my cats, who, as anyone who knows me at all, are the light of my life. In particular, I wrote about how the sounds that they make, the way the 'talk' and purr make me feel happy. I also wrote about how they feel to touch. In the post called "Things that bring be joy" I published some of the pictures I used in the first part of the assignment. As I was working on this last, analysis part, I realized that they represent things that bring me joy to look at. And I linked (twice I think) to the kitten photos at the Daily Kitten. Smells are mentioned too, both in "The usefulness of photos" (liking the way my cats smell) and in the "Smells like fall!" post a little bit later in the semester.
Here's another angle. I remembered doing the Strengths Quest workshop a couple of years ago when it was offered on campus. It's a program designed to help people discover and understand their strengths that many faculty, staff, and students participated in that involves taking a test where you choose among four or five choices which behavior most closely describes your own behavior in a particular situation. In re-reading some of the information that accompanied the workshop, I now realize that the strengths represent the themes that are so much a part of qualitative research. This lead me to go back to my own Strengths Quest results to see if what I've written here could me categorized using the themes that emerged as my strengths. They were (in order):
1. Empathy which theme is defined as "People especially talented in the Empathy theme can sense the feelings of other people by imagining themselves in others' lives or others' situations."
2. Input. "People especially talented in the Input theme have a craving to know more. Often they like to collect and archive all kinds of information." (Interesting side note: a large percentage of the library staff who participated in Strengths Quest emerged as having Input as a strength)
3. Intellection. "People especially talented in the Intellection theme are characterized by their intellectual activity. They are introspective and appreciate intellectual discussions."
4. Discipline. "People especially talented in the Discipline theme enjoy routine and structure. Their world is best described by the order they create."
5. Responsibility. "People especially talented in the Responsibility theme take psychological ownership of what they say they will do. They are committed to stable values such as honesty and loyalty."
I think there are some representations of both input and intellection in my journal. In the September 2 entry, "Initial thoughts", I turned to a couple of dictionaries to define Joy. That's reflective of a desire to know more before I began the project and thus of the Input theme. The very first post also reflects the Input theme in that in order to make a start, I needed a starting point, a focus or inital way of organizing the thoughts I was going to collect for what was to come.
The intellection theme is most heavily represented in my Joy journal. Several sentences start with some form of the phrase, "I've been thinking..." In the September 27 post I said "sharing it with an interested and appreciative audience." And on September 20, "It's hard to describe on the level of an experience because my intellect keeps wanting to take over and say scientific things..." Finally, I think the journal as a whole reflects the Intellection theme in that I never really settled on a specific focus but was instead continually thinking about different ways to approach the idea of Joy.
Photos
We all brought our Joy pictures to class and took turns describing them and what they were of and what they meant to us. As each person took their turn, we started to create preliminary categories. For some of us, sharing the pictures with the rest of the group provoked some strong emotions.
Our initial categories were fairly concrete and, for the most part, based on the subject of the picture (rather than, for instance, the emotion that it evoked in the owner and in the rest of us). They included family (broadly defined to include close friends and pets), nature, and hobbies. Over the course of two discussions, between which a week's time passed, a new set of categories began to emerge. We took the structure from the text of an article that we discussed in class on the evening of the first discussion (I'm sorry, I can't remember the title or author just now). Although I think that there was some feeling that we hadn't quite finished the analysis, because of the nature of the project (an in-class exercise) we concluded during the second evening's discussion with the following categories and sub-categories:
Being (Mind)
- music/dancing/art
- helping others
- generations/family
- emotional family
- places/nature
- nature
- remembering the past
- home
- hobbies
- special people
- humor
Sensing (Body)
- music/dancing/art
- nature
- eating
- hobbies
- special things
- humor
Believing (Spirit)
- helping others
- remembering past joys
- religion/beliefs/faith
- future joy
- special things
- humor
I know this doesn't make much sense since you can't see the pictures, but it does, I think, give a good sense of this particular group of people. (Yeah, they ARE a warm, caring, funny, close group and I'm thankful that I've had the privilege of getting to know them and, kind of, become a member of the group)
Journal
As the last part of this assignment, Dr. Nelson asked us to read through the journals we've been keeping on Joy throughout the semester and analyze them using the qualitative methods we've been studying this semester. She didn't require us to share them with each other; it was an individual endeavor. She did ask us to share the results of our analyses with her and the class at the next meeting. Since I've been keeping my journal here, I thought this would be a good place to share the results of my analysis, not to mention that it will be a good way to close this blog.
The first thing that I noticed about what I've written here is that it seems very sense oriented. I mean that almost all of the five senses are represented. In the post called "Initial thoughts", I included links to a couple of sound recordings of music that thought of when I thought of joy, Ode to Joy and Jesu, Joy of Man's Desire. In the next post, called "The usefulness of photos", I wrote about my cats, who, as anyone who knows me at all, are the light of my life. In particular, I wrote about how the sounds that they make, the way the 'talk' and purr make me feel happy. I also wrote about how they feel to touch. In the post called "Things that bring be joy" I published some of the pictures I used in the first part of the assignment. As I was working on this last, analysis part, I realized that they represent things that bring me joy to look at. And I linked (twice I think) to the kitten photos at the Daily Kitten. Smells are mentioned too, both in "The usefulness of photos" (liking the way my cats smell) and in the "Smells like fall!" post a little bit later in the semester.
Here's another angle. I remembered doing the Strengths Quest workshop a couple of years ago when it was offered on campus. It's a program designed to help people discover and understand their strengths that many faculty, staff, and students participated in that involves taking a test where you choose among four or five choices which behavior most closely describes your own behavior in a particular situation. In re-reading some of the information that accompanied the workshop, I now realize that the strengths represent the themes that are so much a part of qualitative research. This lead me to go back to my own Strengths Quest results to see if what I've written here could me categorized using the themes that emerged as my strengths. They were (in order):
1. Empathy which theme is defined as "People especially talented in the Empathy theme can sense the feelings of other people by imagining themselves in others' lives or others' situations."
2. Input. "People especially talented in the Input theme have a craving to know more. Often they like to collect and archive all kinds of information." (Interesting side note: a large percentage of the library staff who participated in Strengths Quest emerged as having Input as a strength)
3. Intellection. "People especially talented in the Intellection theme are characterized by their intellectual activity. They are introspective and appreciate intellectual discussions."
4. Discipline. "People especially talented in the Discipline theme enjoy routine and structure. Their world is best described by the order they create."
5. Responsibility. "People especially talented in the Responsibility theme take psychological ownership of what they say they will do. They are committed to stable values such as honesty and loyalty."
I think there are some representations of both input and intellection in my journal. In the September 2 entry, "Initial thoughts", I turned to a couple of dictionaries to define Joy. That's reflective of a desire to know more before I began the project and thus of the Input theme. The very first post also reflects the Input theme in that in order to make a start, I needed a starting point, a focus or inital way of organizing the thoughts I was going to collect for what was to come.
The intellection theme is most heavily represented in my Joy journal. Several sentences start with some form of the phrase, "I've been thinking..." In the September 27 post I said "sharing it with an interested and appreciative audience." And on September 20, "It's hard to describe on the level of an experience because my intellect keeps wanting to take over and say scientific things..." Finally, I think the journal as a whole reflects the Intellection theme in that I never really settled on a specific focus but was instead continually thinking about different ways to approach the idea of Joy.
posted by SWS | 1:23 PM
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