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.

Drawbacks and a little joy

I've discovered that a drawback of journaling online is that everyone knows when I've been slacking off!

Anyhow, the Daily Kitten brings joy to my life every day at 3:07 pm. Check it out.

A friend of mine reminded me of a kind of joy that I hadn't considered yet; the kind that can't be seen (or photographed) or heard or touched or smelled. I gave a presentation yesterday afternoon and went home afterward feeling very powerful and pleased with myself (yeah, joyful). I thought that the presentation had gone well, I had informed the group to whom I presented about a topic of which they had little previous knowledge and (this is the best part) had sparked interest in them about a something that I find fascinating. The comment I made to my friend about it was something like, "There are not very many situations in which I feel the confidence of having more knowledge of something than my audience." But there's even more to it than that. The joy isn't so much in thinking that I know more than someone else (although I do admit that that is nice sometimes and it certainly gives me confidence when I'm presenting or teaching) but in sharing it with an interested and appreciative audience. And now that I think about it, there are some other occasions on which I feel that kind of joy. I feel it when I teach library instruction. I love the moment when I see the understanding dawn on someone's face. I also feel it in group exercise classes and used to feel it in dance classes, even when I'm not the instructor, the feeling that I'm good at something and am setting an example for others.

Everyday joy

Everyday joy is just as important (maybe more important) than the big joys. This is one of my everyday joys...http://www.dailykitten.com/.

Smells like fall!

I hadn't really thought about joyful smells (well except for the cats!) until this morning when I walked outside and smelled fall in the air. At least this is what fall smells like in Corpus Christi. It also reminded me of summer in Vermont where we used to go visit my grandma every year and where I still go to visit my parents. It's hard to describe on the level of an experience because my intellect keeps wanting to take over and say scientific things like, well, the humidity is down and the temperature has dropped (however briefly) into 70's, but I'll try: it smells (and looks) crisp and clean and green. There's a hint of damp earth too (like when you turn over a new flower or vegetable bed), and, now that I think of it, a bit of that nice, composty smell. Maybe its a combination of feel and smell now that I think about it because the (relatively) lower temperatures and the low humidity DO really make it lovely to be outdoors!

Also:

• Dancing


• Pachelbel's Cannon in D


• Rainy days


• The kids next door


• Learning

Things that bring me joy

One thing I've been thinking this week is that at some level (unconscious, subconscious) I've always thought of joy as being a strong emotion, stronger, or maybe deeper, than happiness, delight, well-being, success but that doesn't seem to be the accepted definition. When I first thought about joy for this assignment, my reaction was 'Wow, joy is pretty special [thinking strong] feeling that I don't achieve very often. How will I think of things to photograph? They'll have to be very special photographs.' After thinking about the accepted definition of joy, I've adjusted my personal definition of it a bit. But I am still troubled by the question of if someone else looks at the picture, how can they tell that it represents a source of joy to me if I don't tell them?

Despite my wonderful "Questions to reflect on" from my earlier post, I've been more focused on the definition of joy this week. And I keep meaning to look it up in the OED at work and just haven't gotten around to it. But I have been thinking about the definitions I've already found. The MW describes it variously as an emotion, a state of being (what's the difference?), and/or the cause or source of the emotion or state of being. Under those rules, my last post about my cats makes them the source of my emotion. Ok, I can work with that but it leads to wonder:

do cats feel joy (or emotions of any kind?) I think they do. Even though I anthropomorphize them often (more than I should I suspect), I think that purring is one way that they communicate joy (particularly in the sense of well-being).

if cats do feel joy, what is the source of their joy? I'd like to think I was but I do wonder whether anyone with a warm lap and a soft touch behind their ears would give them equal joy (once the cats got used to them). This lead me to

can a picture of my cats (a representation of the source of my joy) also be a source of joy for me? the same source?
Maybe that's why we consider some photographs art and some not (or less so). The good, artistic photographs are the ones that either (a) evoke an emotion, joy for instance, in the viewer and/or (b) communicate the photographer's joy.

The usefulness of photos

I was thinking of things that I could take a picture of that bring me joy. One of my first thoughts was of my cats. But the more I think about it, the more I began to question the usefulness of trying to photograph things that bring me joy because it's not just seeing the cat that brings me joy.

For one thing, it's hearing them purr. When Pauline purrs you can hear her across the room and she'll purr for just about anyone but Virginia only purrs for me and, very rarely for Tommy or anyone else and when Isaac purrs you can't really hear it at all but you can feel it in your fingertips. Still on the topic of sounds, they all "talk" in different voices and for different reasons. Pauline's voice is a chirp and she talks all the time. Sometimes makes a very soft, almost silent chirp when she wants to be snuggled. Virginia's voice is very strident and she only speaks when she wants something (usually to be fed, allowed to go outside, or brushed) and is very insistent. Isaac hardly talks at all and when he does it's in a very soft, tentative voice which is very interesting because there is really nothing tentative about Isaac!

And it's not just sounds. All three of them are different in the way they feel too. Virginia is solid and chunky and has moderately silky fur while Pauline is much more frail feeling and has very silky fur and Isaac's fur is shorter and thicker than either of the girls'. I also love the way they smell, always have. The cat smell has always been a very comforting smell to me. I used to think that was just the way cats smelled (as opposed to the way dogs smell or fish or birds smell) and I just recently figured out that it's their food that makes them smell the way they do. BUT, while the smell of their food reminds me of them, it's only the way my cats themselves smell that brings me joy.

Which brings me back to my question: how can you convey all of that in a photograph? At the moment, I don't think you can. At least, a photo of one of my cats would convey all of that to me but it might convey something completely different to a researcher who didn't have the context of what I've just written. So how can photographs be useful data in a qualitative research study where the purpose is to elicit rich, detailed data about the participant's experience?