If you went back... (page 3)

larc

Mim,

What is your general field of study before you do your dissertation on JW women?

Does anyone have a schedule for circuit assemblies in eastern Washington State? I would like to go to one for the first time in 7 years. I promise to take massive amounts of notes, and maybe even some tape recording.

TR

larc

Mim,

Perhaps I should have provided some elaboration. In a doctoral program, there are several years of course work that are required before one could ever write the kind of paper that you are suggesting. There is a great deal to learn about research methodology before one can successfully embark on the kind of resarch project you have in mind. Also, there is a great deal to learn about the Psychology and Socialogy of women in a paricular cultural context before you can determine what is unique to the JW culture and how that culture is, in fact, embedded in a larger culture, and to at least some degree, part of that larger culture as well. Although your research question seems straightforward, there are many varialbles to consider when conducting valid research.

Mim

Hi larc:) I have a BA First Class in women's studies and history:) I have deviated widely from my formerly held belief system:)

I have been awarded an International Postgraduate Research Award from the University of Southern Australia. Its a very large scholarship and I have a four year degree from a Canadian university, with 2 years entirely devoted to research methodology from the feminist and non feminist standpoint.

I am a feminist historian. I have worked for two years as a qualitative researcher for my university, in women's psychology actually, and have done extensive research into the psychology of women and religion. My work is angled from a constructivist paragdigm with much emphasis placed on the need for qualitative research to balance out the quantitative edge of most Ph.D work.
I find your reply curiously condescending larc particulary since you don't know me from a hill of beans.

Mim

I am as always happy to discuss my thesis or the book I am currently working on:)

An aside: are there any Aussies on this group who are in South Australia in the Adelaide area? If so I would love to meet you, I arrive at UNISA on or around July 15, if you are at all interested please let me know!

Mim

larc

No Mim,

I don't know you from a hill of beans. I am glad to learn about your background and your preparation. I found your initial post here to be flipant and trite, just as you found mine to be condescending. Anyone who is happy that their work will make the members of their former culture "psychotic" is not very objective when going into their research.

Mim

My my my, how quickly one judges. They don't usually hand out scholarships to those who are "flippant and trite." And I do not have to explain myself to one such as yourself! I am simply enjoying this forum for all that it is. Its supposed to be fun! That reply was a direct comment for someone else's quote about being a pile of trouble for the local congregation. That is why I say "hey that's me."

Make you a deal old timer, you ignore me and I'll ignore you!

Mim

larc

Mim,

I would like to hear more about your research and your hypotheses. Regarding your comment on qualitative versus qualitative analysis, I agree with you that often the statistical, quantitative analysis is over emphasized at the expense of real meaning. However, I believe that good research is an artfull blend of both the quantitative and the qualitative.

Mim

Well...:) I'm always tempted by interest in my work. No umbrage taken:) You know, that comment you made about the need for a blend in research is one of my pet theories actually:) My former boss is a psychologist who is a firm believer in the need for a mix of the two, numbers and the personal if you will, in order to have a more balanced outcome to your work. I have never said that I am objective, my proposal to the university in Adelaide stated that very clearly. As a feminist I don't believe in objectivity as an obtainable, or particularly welcome ideal. With the decline in actual numbers of JW's in Australia I am most interested to see what brought the women in, what factors, (hence the constructivist paradigm), the process that happens when they begin to think of leaving, ie. any resulting cognitive dissonance and what happens when they leave, for good or evil. I would like to talk to women in Australia who are still JW's, and will be spending time up north looking at the particular problems of cultural denial and aboriginal women.

larc

Mim,

There are some really fine women here who can elaborate on the woman's experience that I am sure can validate your own. Waiting posted a particularly eloquent post on the subject. Unfortunately, I don't know how to retrieve it. I know she will be here tomorrow and I think that she will give some assistance. On your particular work in Australia, there are several people who post here from the land down under who might be able to help you.

On the blending of the Quantitative and the Qualitative, there is a method called content analysis where qualitative information like narratives or interviews can be scored quantitatively for different themes. David McClelland used this method to measure motivation.

Anyway, those are some ideas off the top of my head. Be glad to discuss it further.

If you went back...

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