Reporting Results

Now that all of the raw numbers are in, it is time to start putting them into conclusions that actually make sense to the reader. For my project specifically, this proves to be a little difficult since I have both a content analysis with numbers to report that connect to overall conclusions, along with a thematic analysis that need to connect with the previous conclusions. In order to find the best way to organize my results section, this blog post will talk about three studies and their organization, and how that is useful to my own paper. 

The first source I look at, "Images of Couples and Families in Disney Feature-Length Animated Films," made use of a content analysis. Their results section had a lot of information in it, however, it was broken down by the different thematic elements of the family analyzed. The first section was about family, the second about parents, and so on. Each section was further divided based on information like who comprised the family or which parents were present. Then in these more specific sections, statistics were given to report information about the different structures. This is useful when thinking about my paper because I have SO MANY moving parts. On the surface level, this reminded me subtopics are very useful. More importantly, it helped me start thinking about breaking my information up into digestible pieces that relate to a theme. As in, it probably is not useful to hear that Belle had 16 instances of authority traits, but instead I can group characters together to say something like a percent of mother were submissive which is greater than the percent authoritative, and do this for each category. 

Again, Subtopics seemed extremely useful in "Post-Princess Models of Gender: The New Man in Disney/ Pixar." As this one is a thematic analysis, there was a lot of deep interaction with fewer numbers of movies, but the bottom line was that there was a subtopic for the type of theme being discussed, and some evidence displayed about the themes found in each movie analyzed. Similarities were drawn between the themes of the movies, however, the themes did not fully interact until the conclusion of the paper. So while I need to draw some more connections between the content and thematic analysis, I still think it is useful to see that this paper was successful in drawing meaningful conclusions when the themes were very separate from each other. 

Unlike the other two sources, "Gender Role Portrayal and the Disney Princesses" made use of a table to exemplify the data collected of each prince and princess. Next there were tables that presented the statistics used to analyze the data, in this case it was the percent of behaviors of princes versus princesses. The written results section then focused more on the big picture statistics (the overall percentage of behaviors) and how statistically significant this was. Then it pulled out the most common and least common, the determined most interesting things to look at for the characters. This organization can be related to mine in that I can use tables to organize my data, and also my results. I have a lot of numbers, so I think this is the best way to organize all of the information without having to state each specific character and movie. Instead then in the written portion I can focus on the movies as a whole set. 

To bring these three examples together, I see myself breaking my results two sections: the family structure versus the thematic analysis of parental control over a child's future. The family structure will be reported using tables of information. Then, I will pull out overall statistics and use subtopics to talk about power dynamics and gender personalities. Next, the thematic analysis will be broken down into smaller subtopics: rejecting or accepting parental ideals, and the success of the child in following chosen path. Finally, these two parts will come together in an overall conclusion for each movie in the form of two tables with two columns. The first table is for movies that fit Marxist family structures, the second for ones that do not. The first column in each table is the name of movie, and the second column is the overall theme for the parental control on the child's future aspect. This highlights specifically that the only movie to fit family structure also displayed an acceptance of parental ideals for the child. The Lion King was one of only movies to show this, while the rest of the movies showed some type of change between the parental or child control over their lives. 

I am sorry this was so long but I think it was helpful looking at these sources to get a better picture for my own research. I look forward to the progression of my paper and conclusions! 

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Inside Out: the numbers of the results section

I am currently finishing up adding my data into my results spreadsheet!

Collecting data, I will admit, took it out of me. If I have to watch another Disney movie in the next three months, I may cry.

However, I got some pretty cool results. Originally, I planned on creating a point scale to evaluate the frequencies of traits a character exhibited; however, the frequency was often too small to make an accurate scale. Now, I simply have the frequency of "submissive," "authority," "gender masculine," and "gender feminine" traits in a spreadsheet. By comparing authority and submission and masculine and feminine, I will come to some conclusions on the character's traits and whether this follows the Marxist role they should fit. 

In terms of the notes I took on children's understanding of their future, I came up with four themes: 

Child rejects parents’ view for future, child gives in eventually

Child rejects parents’ view and is successful with own path

Child accepts parents’ view and is successful

Child accepts parents’ view, but realizes that is not the best way and changes

 

After I place each movie under a theme, I am making a list of movies that fit family definitions then naming the theme on future, and a list of movies that do not fit the family definitions, also with the theme on future named next to it. I will then look for a trend between the two parts, as in I am looking if the families that do not follow the structure also do not create a cycle of parent and child.  

This past week I finished collecting all of the raw numbers and themes, filled in the conclusion of the characters’ traits, and have begun categorizing movies based on family theme. I still have to finish the family themes, and find trends with the structure and family theme. The majority of it is going very well. The conclusions are pretty straightforward right now, but I am worried about finding trends. Right now for that section I have a simple table set up, but I am trying to think of a better way to convey the correlation between structure and cyclical family theme. 

All in all, I am relieved that the collection aspect is done, and I am looking forward to the analysis portion so that I can begin to really delve into what all these numbers are showing me.

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WOW the third trimester is great!! I get to watch movies all day! 

Honestly though, starting to watch movies has made me even more excited about this project. I think it is because I was starting to get sick of talking theory and now I can actually see how all of the pieces are working together. 

One cool thing. I watched the Lion King, and we all know Simba is to be the king when his father passes away and he was expected to fill this role since the day he was born. Then he runs away and the main story continues. But, the end he becomes king again, therefore filling the role his parents (and his whole society) expected him to fill. The end scene is even his own son being raised on the rock. So, this movie was perfect for the thematic analysis on children fulfilling the world the parents create for them and continuing the cycle. 

After I analyzed the movie, but I realized "duh the circle of life." 

But I'm still very pumped and hope this can come into conversation of themes throughout the movies. 

I am feel very good about my research. Another big decision I made this week was cutting movies out of my sample. Movies like Toy Story and Monsters, Inc. had too little of family interactions for me to analyze their gender or the future perceptions. This makes my job a little easier with less movies to watch, but also limits the scope of my research. However, I still feel like my results will be meaningful and relatable to Disney as a whole. I also think this could be a point of future research to expand the character types or structures analyzed. 

I fell a little behind on the movies to watch based on my day to day schedule. However, I have a whole day tomorrow to watch movies and that’s the only plans I have. So I will be right on schedule again. I am only two movies behind so I’m looking forward to watching them tomorrow. The coding is going a lot easier now that I am getting into it. I look forward to starting to analyze my data to find trends. It’s finally all coming together! 

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We're Done! (with school at least)

This week was very exciting in that we had our last day of school! Then, the next day I flew to Hawaii. I am so relieved to be done with classes, but I know that my work is far from over. Looking at the AP Research schedule was pretty overwhelming since there is a lot that needs to be done and the days are flying by.

Since I left for Hawaii, I have not been able to complete more of my data collection. However, I am in good shape to get everything done by the due date still since each movie is only about an hour and a half.

I also realized that I will have to add another movie to my list: Moana! I am actually really looking forward to this because I haven't seen it yet and I heard good things.

In order to turn in my final draft of my literature review and methods, I had to do some big edits. Basically, I was skirting around the main idea that parents create childhood ideals for their children to live in outside of the hardships of labor. Because of this, the children only perceive the world through the roles they think they must fill in the future, becoming the model parent their own parents created. The parent acts as a producer of his own children's ideal childhood, creating a capitalist cycle. Now that these connections are made between parent, child, consumer, and producer, I have a clear conclusion that I can link my methods to.

Now that we are on our own, I think the biggest pitfall I imagine I would fall into, is pushing off my data collection. However, I will put together a revised schedule when I get home so that I can stay on top of my movie watching. Overall though, I am really looking forward to continue watching the movies. With all of the deadlines in place, I know I can manage my time to get everything together. I think being done with classes will have a positive effect on my project because now I have larger chunks of time I can dedicate to watching movies.

I'm writing this research blog in a swim suit looking at the ocean, but I'm anxious to get back and working!

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