One step back, two steps forward

Since we are almost done with school (!!!) I am soon turning in the "final" version of my literature review and methods section, so that I am ready to go on my own. In preparation for this step, we had individual meetings with Mrs. Haag.

My meeting was very productive. While there is a lot that I have to do to make my papers as strong as they can, I feel confident in what I have to do to get there. Additionally, I am very motivated to follow through and put the most effort into this assignment, to make my research even more meaningful. Since there was a lot to do though, I consider this a small step back. I completely understand though how Mrs. Haag described the research process as recursive because each time I make a change, or decide to take a single part in a different direction, I have to go all the way back to the literature review so that my research is consistent and justified.

This weekend, I started implementing my research. I faced some challenges but it was exciting actually diving into the research. I watched the incredibles first, thinking that the singular family was very easy to define which would simplify the data collection.

It went pretty well, as I saw a lot of the traits coming up in the characters and actions. However, I think the way I collected the data is still vague and will not give me a nuanced amount of results. Specifically when coding for the authority and submissiveness of Mr. and Mrs. Incredible, they both displayed the traits of very authoritative figures. I simple checked yes or no for the traits though, so even though I would say they were more authoritative, there were still some instances of submissiveness. Therefore, I think a scale would be more nuanced in that I could account for the frequencies of traits, giving me a stronger perception of the characters within the code. The scale would be based on the amount of times a trait is displayed like I conducted for the gender personality.

Another thing I am having some trouble with is how long my code is. Because I have to sort through where to mark certain things, I often had to pause the movie. Obviously this is just a necessary evil, but I plan on trying to organize the sheet better to make it more efficient. There's a lot of information to record, and I am sure I will get more comfortable once I start coding more.

Some Progress & Setbacks

After the critique, I realized that I have a lot of editing to do on my methods section. As a class, we went through the organization and interactions between my results and I still have to effectively convey this. I also overestimated the time I would have this past week since I am still in school and tutoring. For these reasons, I am a week behind on my schedule. 

While this may sound bad, I made my schedule very lenient so that it was flexible. I planned an extra week for figuring out the discrepancies between the two times of coding and I planned to watch 6 movies a week. My schedule also planned on watching each movie twice, but I realized this was not necessary. I am still looking for a reliable statistic, but I think I will only have to watch about 25% of the movies twice for intrareader reliability. When I am done with school I think I can watch more than one movie a day. 

To start my methods, first I really need to finish editing my methods. My code sheet is pretty solid though, so I can start collecting data as soon as possible. For my own organization, I would like to get my written section solid before I jump into watching movies. 

I still think what I have accomplished is on target with the schedule right now. I have plenty of time especially when school gets out to implement my methods, but what is important now is to get feedback on my lit review and methods written section so that I am totally prepared for the implementation and collection of data. 

Another challenging part, for me, is actually starting the implementation. I feel like there is so much work up to this point that I am afraid I will start coding and it will fail. I realize this is a possibility. To combat this, I can adjust my code and finesse my methods. Either way, it is still intimidating. 

An analogy to how I imagine I would feel starting my methods... 

Or a better one for my intimidation is swimming in the winter. You’re cold standing by the pool waiting to get in and you really don’t want to get in. Finally, it gets too cold and you jump in because you have to. It’s a little colder than you expected so you keep swimming, kicking really fast to warm up. Finally after a few laps, you’re really comfortable and ready to complete a good workout. 

I’m still outside the pool. But I know the warm water is waiting, I just have to jump into my implementation.

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What are the Happenings?

Writing the methods section was a fundamental and insightful process in actually determining what in the world my research would take form in. I knew what I had to do for my methods (a content analysis) it was just a matter of figuring out the logistics. After mapping and drafting, I finally came up with a pretty solid code sheet, built off of body language and psychological studies. This will be used to code the sample of movies that I chose based on top-grossing animated films and inclusion of a family. Additionally, since I am one reader and the only person doing the research, I had to make validity precautions. To make my results solid, I am coding the movies twice and using a statistic thing (Cohen's Kappa value) to measure that the two times I coded them are near perfect agreement. With all of these numbers and validity precautions I will have a numerical scale in which I can make a qualitative conclusion on whether or not a character is following the expected stereotype.

I think one thing that I struggled with in my methods was effectively communicating what numbers I am getting and using from the code. I think my explanations of those feel forced, so I need a way to integrate them better and in a more formal, but clear manner. For example, I do not think my explanation of Cohen's kappa is that strong. Would it be helpful to provide an appendix with the equation and defined variables? To me, the averages seem pretty straight forward since everyone knows how to take an average. But what I am doing with these numbers might not be as clear as it should be.

Another weakness, I realized, in my paper was opening with a discussion of my research question in order to get to my methods. I open up by justifying the movies I chose, whereas I think I could add more about justifying a content analysis first, then moving on to the movies. I hope this will be a simple fix, by taking the information/ definitions I already have on content versus thematic analyses and moving this up to the beginning. From there, I can expand on the relation to my own research question.

Although I initially dreaded the process of writing my methods (and it was very intimidating) it has turned out to be a really interesting part for me. It is exciting to start finalizing research plans and envision what the next actions are.

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