#qualitative

Hi, everyone! For my Qualitative Research Methods class, I am trying to conduct a study on how participants in fanfiction communities talk about mental health. This study has been approved by the IRB, protocol #22-2801. Ultimately, I aim to increase the bodies of research surrounding fanfiction and mental health, as well as encourage readers of the final paper to seek help for mental health if they need it. More elaborate study details are provided under the “Keep Reading”. You must be at least 18 years old and active in a fanfiction community (either a reader, writer, or both) such as Archive of Our Own or Fanfiction.net to participate. Your usernames and personal information will be kept confidential, and you are free to back out of the study at any time. After you read all of the study information, please message me privately if you’re interested or if you have questions. This is to ensure confidentiality. The deadline to message me will be Friday, October 22nd at 11:59 p.m. (since I’m on a bit of a time crunch).

DeRobertis conducted a narrative qualitative study, including a textual analysis, that nicely summarizes what the founders of humanistic psychology discussed as the fields' intended aim at the beginning of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology. Here's a snippet of the results:

From its inception, humanistic psychology was envisioned to be a unique amalgam of what would today be considered cultural psychology, cognitive psychology, and developmental psychology, but without being reducible to any one of these subfields. Humanistic psychology’s inaugural vision looked on human beings as cultural without endorsing a cultural determinism, as cognitive without endorsing an intellectualism, and as developmental without endorsing an individual or collective historicism. Humanistic psychology was offered as an inclusive, integrative psychological perspective that would make an effort in earnest to do justice to a truer self, engaged in the process of becoming, operating within biological and cultural parameters.

Citation:

DeRobertis, E. M. (2021). The humanistic revolution in psychology: Its inaugural vision. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 61(1), 8-32.

You lock the door

and close the windows

You have to keep your curtains shut

You sleep with one eye open

It's not safe here anymore

You build the walls higher

Make the lights brighter

But they will come

they will come whether you're home or not

Whether the lights are on or off

We are not safe anywhere

It is the truth

Perhaps it shouldn’t be this way but it is

People are going to judge you

By what you wears

What your size

What your color

And what your gender is

We are not safe anywhere

As time goes by

You can't go out without apprehension

You can't go walk without trepidation

You can't go out alone without feeling of fright and timidity

But you have to keep your eyes and ears wide open

So you can see the state of your surroundings

The deafening cry of the people

The cluster of unbothered greedy people

And the bunch of avaricious people

Please keep your eyes and ears broad open

Feel the whole refresh supply of hope

This is your time

Look down at your outfit

Now look up and don’t ever put your head down again

Your clothes are not your consent

Your clothing is not an invitation

Your bodies aren't responsible for their thoughts

The way you dresses does not give them the right to assault you

to harass you

and to abuse you

Don't let them teach you how to dress

Instead, teach them how to respect

Don't let them teach you that being nice is important than having a voice to save

Live your life to the fullest

Continue climbing your mountain of greatness

And carry on surfing the giant wave of life with reckless love

Don't just fly, soar high!

They say when you dream

Make it bigger than ever

Even if it’s impossible

At least you will never regret it later

One day I dreamt of becoming a teacher

Every morning coming to a classroom

Where you can find happiness and different emotions

Isn’t that beautiful?

Seeing the youth learning and dreaming

On the second day of dreaming

I am now in a law court

Defending the defendant

Whether he is guilty or not

On a third day of dreaming

In the middle of the road

Wearing a uniform of a traffic enforcer

Preventing any vehicles from crashing each other

“It is the job of traffic lights, why do we even need that?”

Ask yourself, when no one is watching you, do you follow the rule?

On a fourth day of dreaming

Sleeping peacefully in my bed

And then I feel a sudden touch in my forehead

Slowly opening my eyes

And there he is, the man of my dreams

The only man who I cherish the most

On a fifth day of dreaming

The moon is shining in its full

Oh man, I landed in the earth’s only natural satellite

Wearing my space suit

Holding a flag and bury it in the ground

On a sixth day of dreaming

Carrying my luggage in my hands

Setting my wings in the sky

“Good morning ladies and gentlemen, welcome onboard”

And now I am ready to fly

On a seventh day of dreaming

I look around and everyone is crying

Look where we are, wearing a black gown

Smiling and giggling

Holding a piece of paper— a paper that will always tell you that,

“Your first dream has come true, now chase the others”

One night I woke up

Realizing all is just a dream

But I have the power and ability

To make it into reality

First exercise: Here and Now: LYNDA SIMMONS

Photographs of my Abstract and Atmospheric Model from my very first exercise, Here and Now by Lynda Simmons for ARCHDES 102: Design 1, one of three courses I’m studying in my Bachelor of Architectural Studies.

My thesis project has IRB approval and is in the data collection stage! So excited!