So I've been finishing up my Proposal. Doing my presentation last week was good for firming some things out in my mind. I think I do better when I'm presenting something than when I'm writing, just because a visual medium gives you so much more freedom.
These last couple of days I've been doing so more research on little things that I'll be encountering in London. I think I spent about an hour on this blog, London Is Cool, and although this funny Irish guy that has written it since 2009 is as quirky as they come, he sure loves London, and has countless short, readable articles about different places to go in London and just enough pictures to give you taste of what it's like to be there. He's really not very sophisticated, and he repeats himself - a lot - but I actually appreciated that, because the truth is, not every city is just like the guide and travel books paint it. Not every sunset is picture perfect, and not every restaurant has that vintage flair that you're supposed to be looking for when you're abroad. Some parks are fun to go to, but some aren't, and the author of this blog is honest enough to say when it is and when it isn't.
However, I cannot believe how incredible the British Museum looks in these photos. The Great Court is literally the largest enclosed room in all of Europe! And the Reading Room inside it looks absolutely gorgeous. That is one place I'll definitely have to go and see.
But enough tourism, I've been thinking about the interviews that I'll be doing. Sitting here from the comfort of my apartment, with two of my roommates who I've known since my sophomore year of high school, two of my brothers living just around the corner from me, and my Provo city home where I've spent four semesters going to BYU, there's just no sense of insecurity at all. But once I'm in London, with the foreign, unfamiliar streets, and millions of people who I don't know, it's going to be quite different. I imagine going out each day and looking for ways to meet new people who will be useful to my research is going to be extremely difficult. It's not an easy job. But, I'm looking forward to reviewing what I've learned in the Prep class, and especially the readings about interviewing and gaining access to a location. Those two will be especially key to my project, and although it will be a challenge, I fully expect it to be a challenge worth facing. I know that if I can work hard to build connections in the first weeks that I'm in London, the rest of the project will come together. It's just 15 interviews...that's all. And the right gatekeepers to help me get those surveys completed. After the lecture today in PL SC 200 about surveys and the influence of the interviewer, I know that I'll have make myself quite "bland" to the people being interviewed, or I will affect their answers too much. That will be interesting. Maybe I'll bring back that comb-over from 7th grade :) hehe...okay, maybe I won't go that far.
Showing posts with label Research Process. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Research Process. Show all posts
Monday, April 9, 2012
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Journal Entry #32 - 4/4/12
So I've been thinking of a few more questions to ask people. I've been contemplating the extremely private nature of many people in Great Britain. I happened upon this website the other day, and I was thinking about how I need to do better about being punctual. It's less of a "deciding to be late" problem as much as a "I have too much to do, therefore I can't justify being early" problem. In any case, being in London may raise the marginal benefit of being early a bit for me, and perhaps help me overcome my bad habit.
About the slower decision-making process than in the United States, I think that's an interesting one. I'm trying to decide if Brazilians are faster or slower than Americans. Maybe I haven't been around Americans enough since I've been back to know. However, I think Brazilians are pretty slow at making decisions too. I think they're better at faking that they've made a decision than actually making the decision. I've had a lot of people in Brazil tell that they were going to do something and I was dead certain when they said it that they didn't mean it. In America, I think people are a little more prone to tell you straight out if they're going to do something or not. And I think Brazilians like to put of decision making. Maybe that's what this man means when he says that "Decision-making is slower in England than in the United States." In terms of my interviews, I'll have to keep that fact in mind. I may not find anyone in London who will be willing to do an interview with me after only knowing me for a short time. It may take individuals I meet a while to decide that they want to help me.
I was thinking about ways that I might go about just getting the pulse of the population when it comes to religion. If I did succeed in starting up a conversation with someone, either at a museum or at a park (which isn't likely, given how private the British are said to be), how would I turn the conversation to the topic of religion? Undoubtably, they will ask what I'm doing in England. If I tell them I'm studying religion, they may not want to talk about it, since it's not exactly one of those topics you speak about in casual conversation. But if I was to ask something like "You know, the UK isn't near as religious as it used to be," maybe some people will just open up about what they think about it. The essential part here will be holding their attention on the topic for enough time to make it interesting to them too. If they like me and find my conversation amusing or entertaining, there's a chance they might just let me call on them again to do an interview. Just a chance though.
About the slower decision-making process than in the United States, I think that's an interesting one. I'm trying to decide if Brazilians are faster or slower than Americans. Maybe I haven't been around Americans enough since I've been back to know. However, I think Brazilians are pretty slow at making decisions too. I think they're better at faking that they've made a decision than actually making the decision. I've had a lot of people in Brazil tell that they were going to do something and I was dead certain when they said it that they didn't mean it. In America, I think people are a little more prone to tell you straight out if they're going to do something or not. And I think Brazilians like to put of decision making. Maybe that's what this man means when he says that "Decision-making is slower in England than in the United States." In terms of my interviews, I'll have to keep that fact in mind. I may not find anyone in London who will be willing to do an interview with me after only knowing me for a short time. It may take individuals I meet a while to decide that they want to help me.
I was thinking about ways that I might go about just getting the pulse of the population when it comes to religion. If I did succeed in starting up a conversation with someone, either at a museum or at a park (which isn't likely, given how private the British are said to be), how would I turn the conversation to the topic of religion? Undoubtably, they will ask what I'm doing in England. If I tell them I'm studying religion, they may not want to talk about it, since it's not exactly one of those topics you speak about in casual conversation. But if I was to ask something like "You know, the UK isn't near as religious as it used to be," maybe some people will just open up about what they think about it. The essential part here will be holding their attention on the topic for enough time to make it interesting to them too. If they like me and find my conversation amusing or entertaining, there's a chance they might just let me call on them again to do an interview. Just a chance though.
Friday, March 30, 2012
Journal Entry #30 - 3/30/12
While I'm thinking about it, I wanted to brainstorm a few more questions that I will ask people during interviews that I will be doing with them. I had to explain my London project to a friend today, and it's funny how trying to explain your project forces you to make sense of it better than you have before.
So, previously, these the topic of my questions have considered recent statements by the two big camps in religious matters in the UK - at least in the public eye: David Cameron's "We are a Christian country" statement from his December 2011 speech, and a small paragraph published by the British Humanism Association on their website advocating a secular state and the freedom from religion. In addition, I have a question that addresses the large decrease in affiliation with Christian churches by individuals in the United Kingdom as surveyed on the British Social Attitudes survey, asking whether this trend is a positive thing or a negative thing for the country, and another question that cites various studies that have been done that connect religious belief and participation to positive social factors as well as well-known criticisms of religion--the question here will be whether the person sees the net effect of religion as positive or negative.
Now, with respect to these questions, I think some people that I will talk to will have a hard time expressing their real feelings with me. I think they'll probably be fishing around in their responses trying to see what kind of an answer I want from them. I think almost everyone knows that this topic is a pretty hot issue, and nobody really goes around without an opinion on it one way or another. They probably expect that 1) I strongly support religion, or 2) I don't support religion at all, or I support my religion but not others, etc, and they will want to color their responses according to what I seem to want to hear. If they find out I'm very religious myself (which they must if I introduce myself properly, and do not lie, which I won't....because I'm religious and don't believe in that sort of thing....) they will probably try to say things that are positive about religion and religious experience, even if they may have doubts or misgivings personally about it. When they find out that I'm religious, they'll almost definitely take that to mean that I would prefer them to say something positive about churches, or that decreasing religiosity is a bad thing. That does create a real problem, because I must admit that, to some extent, I would like them to say that decreasing religiosity is a bad thing, but I want them to say it if they are going to say it honestly. I'm perfectly alright with them saying that decreasing religiosity is good thing or a neutral thing, as long as that is their honest opinion. I really don't want them to say it's a good thing, only because they think I want them too, when they really don't feel that way at all.
Helping people express how they really feel will depend in large measure on how I conduct each interview. I've noticed that when you ask a question where the answerer feels afraid to say what they really think, they often won't say what it is they are feeling, or they may even say something they don't believe just to save face or to avoid causing offense. I have to project the feeling of someone who would gladly hear the most scandalous and terrifying opinions about religion and not get upset, as long as the person is telling the truth. That's why I've tried to include opinions from both sides of the issue in my questions. I hope that by quoting those who have publicly expressed their opinions on the subject, from both sides of the matter, people I interview will hear an opinion that resonates with them, and open up about their feelings. That's hard, and on second thought it may even be counterproductive, because if I'm trying to fit people's opinions into pre-packaged containers it's not likely that I'm going to get any original material from these interviews, and that's what they are all about. So, although I need to be balanced in my interviewing, I also need to create an environment in the interview where people will express their feelings about religion, even if it's completely different that what I've heard before. It may take some very good observation to sense when what individuals really feel isn't what they're hearing front the two camps that I'll be mentioning, and some real conversational skill to allow that person to open up about their actual feelings without feeling pressured or uncomfortable.
There's a lot of factors to consider...maybe I should practice doing more interviews before I go?
So, previously, these the topic of my questions have considered recent statements by the two big camps in religious matters in the UK - at least in the public eye: David Cameron's "We are a Christian country" statement from his December 2011 speech, and a small paragraph published by the British Humanism Association on their website advocating a secular state and the freedom from religion. In addition, I have a question that addresses the large decrease in affiliation with Christian churches by individuals in the United Kingdom as surveyed on the British Social Attitudes survey, asking whether this trend is a positive thing or a negative thing for the country, and another question that cites various studies that have been done that connect religious belief and participation to positive social factors as well as well-known criticisms of religion--the question here will be whether the person sees the net effect of religion as positive or negative.
Now, with respect to these questions, I think some people that I will talk to will have a hard time expressing their real feelings with me. I think they'll probably be fishing around in their responses trying to see what kind of an answer I want from them. I think almost everyone knows that this topic is a pretty hot issue, and nobody really goes around without an opinion on it one way or another. They probably expect that 1) I strongly support religion, or 2) I don't support religion at all, or I support my religion but not others, etc, and they will want to color their responses according to what I seem to want to hear. If they find out I'm very religious myself (which they must if I introduce myself properly, and do not lie, which I won't....because I'm religious and don't believe in that sort of thing....) they will probably try to say things that are positive about religion and religious experience, even if they may have doubts or misgivings personally about it. When they find out that I'm religious, they'll almost definitely take that to mean that I would prefer them to say something positive about churches, or that decreasing religiosity is a bad thing. That does create a real problem, because I must admit that, to some extent, I would like them to say that decreasing religiosity is a bad thing, but I want them to say it if they are going to say it honestly. I'm perfectly alright with them saying that decreasing religiosity is good thing or a neutral thing, as long as that is their honest opinion. I really don't want them to say it's a good thing, only because they think I want them too, when they really don't feel that way at all.
Helping people express how they really feel will depend in large measure on how I conduct each interview. I've noticed that when you ask a question where the answerer feels afraid to say what they really think, they often won't say what it is they are feeling, or they may even say something they don't believe just to save face or to avoid causing offense. I have to project the feeling of someone who would gladly hear the most scandalous and terrifying opinions about religion and not get upset, as long as the person is telling the truth. That's why I've tried to include opinions from both sides of the issue in my questions. I hope that by quoting those who have publicly expressed their opinions on the subject, from both sides of the matter, people I interview will hear an opinion that resonates with them, and open up about their feelings. That's hard, and on second thought it may even be counterproductive, because if I'm trying to fit people's opinions into pre-packaged containers it's not likely that I'm going to get any original material from these interviews, and that's what they are all about. So, although I need to be balanced in my interviewing, I also need to create an environment in the interview where people will express their feelings about religion, even if it's completely different that what I've heard before. It may take some very good observation to sense when what individuals really feel isn't what they're hearing front the two camps that I'll be mentioning, and some real conversational skill to allow that person to open up about their actual feelings without feeling pressured or uncomfortable.
There's a lot of factors to consider...maybe I should practice doing more interviews before I go?
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Journal Entry #29 - 3/28/12
In all my thinking about London, one element that I haven't done a wonderful job thinking out is how I'm going to be conducting my interviews. They are, after all, the heart of my project. A successful summer will hang greatly on the quality of these interviews, and on my getting at least 15 of them done.
I imagine myself visiting quite a few churches while I'm in London. The demographic that will be most interesting to me for my study will be traditional Britons--not so much newer immigrants, which there will be bound to be many. While interviewing immigrants will still be a very useful addition to my study, the individuals that I am most interested in talking to will be: 1) Church clergyman from the Church of England, the Catholic Church, and other christian churches (such as an evangelical or Methodist church). 2) Univerisity professors--especially those who are already interested in religious studies and who might be able to help me conduct my survey. 3) Government workers, such as social workers, policemen, or pubic officials.
Talking to people from these three sectors is important because the trend I am researching is focuses on church attendance among other forms of religious behavior, and who better to answer questions about people attending church, and whether it does them good or bad, than church leaders themselves? Secondly, university professors are bound to have a very different take on the role and tradition of religion in the country. Many of them may be atheist or agnostic, they might be religiously indifferent, or even highly religious themselves (the British Social Attitudes Survey confirmed that those who are highly educated and religious tend to be very religious). Since I would like to conduct my survey to college aged young adults around 18-24 years old, if possible, the best gatekeepers for that kind of project would be a university professor who already has an interest in studying religion and who may be intrigued by my research. Talking to public officials would be very interesting because of the current debate going on between those who favor PM David Cameron's assertion that the UK is a Christian country, and those who oppose him, and the role of government with respect to religion is a complex matter that may change a great deal as the country becomes more secular (or not). Thus, finding a thoughtful person in government about the trend would be very interesting indeed.
Gaining access will be a challenge for each of these three, shall we say, target demographics. I believe the easiest to penetrate would be religious leaders. Since most religious events are public, the chance of being able to go to a meeting or a religious service and then go up and talk to a preacher or religious leader afterwards about my project seems very likely to me. One thing is certain - my chance of getting an interview with one of them depends greatly on how well I can talk about my project. If it makes sense and I can make it sound relevant to their work, I may get an interview. If it doesn't sound relevant at all, they'll blow me off. The same goes for professors and government officials - they are all busy people. A whole hour of talking to me isn't something they are likely to just give away unless they feel like it is very important or useful to them too. That's the question I must ask myself: Why would talking to me about religion and religiosity be important?
I imagine myself visiting quite a few churches while I'm in London. The demographic that will be most interesting to me for my study will be traditional Britons--not so much newer immigrants, which there will be bound to be many. While interviewing immigrants will still be a very useful addition to my study, the individuals that I am most interested in talking to will be: 1) Church clergyman from the Church of England, the Catholic Church, and other christian churches (such as an evangelical or Methodist church). 2) Univerisity professors--especially those who are already interested in religious studies and who might be able to help me conduct my survey. 3) Government workers, such as social workers, policemen, or pubic officials.
Talking to people from these three sectors is important because the trend I am researching is focuses on church attendance among other forms of religious behavior, and who better to answer questions about people attending church, and whether it does them good or bad, than church leaders themselves? Secondly, university professors are bound to have a very different take on the role and tradition of religion in the country. Many of them may be atheist or agnostic, they might be religiously indifferent, or even highly religious themselves (the British Social Attitudes Survey confirmed that those who are highly educated and religious tend to be very religious). Since I would like to conduct my survey to college aged young adults around 18-24 years old, if possible, the best gatekeepers for that kind of project would be a university professor who already has an interest in studying religion and who may be intrigued by my research. Talking to public officials would be very interesting because of the current debate going on between those who favor PM David Cameron's assertion that the UK is a Christian country, and those who oppose him, and the role of government with respect to religion is a complex matter that may change a great deal as the country becomes more secular (or not). Thus, finding a thoughtful person in government about the trend would be very interesting indeed.
Gaining access will be a challenge for each of these three, shall we say, target demographics. I believe the easiest to penetrate would be religious leaders. Since most religious events are public, the chance of being able to go to a meeting or a religious service and then go up and talk to a preacher or religious leader afterwards about my project seems very likely to me. One thing is certain - my chance of getting an interview with one of them depends greatly on how well I can talk about my project. If it makes sense and I can make it sound relevant to their work, I may get an interview. If it doesn't sound relevant at all, they'll blow me off. The same goes for professors and government officials - they are all busy people. A whole hour of talking to me isn't something they are likely to just give away unless they feel like it is very important or useful to them too. That's the question I must ask myself: Why would talking to me about religion and religiosity be important?
Friday, March 16, 2012
Journal Entry #26 - 3/16/12
Watching this 26 minute video from the "7 Billion Others" project website really made me think a lot about people. I watched the video because I wanted to see and hear more about how normal, everyday people think and believe about God. I've been doing so much reading lately, and a lot of my sources have been printed sources. However, focusing only on what is printed about his topic - attitudes toward religion, and it positively or negatively affects people's lives - does have a strong selection bias. Only the inteligencia puts their thoughts to print. What about the old man next door, the woman in South Sudan, the young man from China? Well, the young man in China might have a blog, but I don't think the old man will (unless he's an outlier, haha). While I am sure these people think deeply about religion and their belief in God, rarely do we get to hear it. I suppose there's not much of a demand for that kind of material, and only organizations like the Goodplanet Foundation that create projects like 7 Billion others actually provide it. That being said, it was remarkable to watch the movie because the voice of the person asking the question is never heard. The camera is often placed so close to the face of the person, and if feels like they are speaking right to you.
I'm the kind of person who likes--too much--to interject, to ask additional questions, to clarify certain points, and to direct a train of thought. I know that I cannot do that while I'm in London interviewing people about how they feel about religion and how it affects them and society, and how increasing secularization might be affecting them, for good or for worse. Religion is a very sensitive topic, with strong feelings and fervent beliefs. I will have to learn to listen more. I'll have to become good at those silent prompts and repeating what others say instead of trying to direct them a certain way. The results are more natural that way, I think; I imagine the opinion-coloring influence that I might have, as an interviewer, on their responses will be lessened if can just hear each person out.
I'm the kind of person who likes--too much--to interject, to ask additional questions, to clarify certain points, and to direct a train of thought. I know that I cannot do that while I'm in London interviewing people about how they feel about religion and how it affects them and society, and how increasing secularization might be affecting them, for good or for worse. Religion is a very sensitive topic, with strong feelings and fervent beliefs. I will have to learn to listen more. I'll have to become good at those silent prompts and repeating what others say instead of trying to direct them a certain way. The results are more natural that way, I think; I imagine the opinion-coloring influence that I might have, as an interviewer, on their responses will be lessened if can just hear each person out.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Journal Entry #24 - 3/12/12
What an interesting week it has been. I feel like it has been one of the very best weeks for the development of my project; with all this meeting with professors and filling out course contracts in addition to all the work on the proposal and the IRB application. I feel like my plans are a little bit firmer now, and I'm throwing out the idea of measuring elite opinions. I think I'll be able to do that better by interviewing people anyway. If I can spend more of my time visiting religious meetings, conferences, and churches, and trying to talk to religious leaders, I'll probably be able to find very relevant information from individuals who deal with the religiousness or non religiousness of the people every day. On the other hand, I may be able to find well known individuals such as university professors or leaders from secular societies who would gladly explain their views in an interview. The kind of answers they would give would be more detailed anyway, and then I can decide what questions to ask (which could be good and bad...but mostly good). As for the survey, I'm determined to find out how good a survey conducted by me could get, and if I'm not satisfied, I'll content myself with small scale stuff - a survey of whites in a certain neighborhood, surveys handed out in museums or parks, or a case study of pub owners in highly religious and highly secular parts of London. I don't know, really, but those are a few ideas.
I feel like my proposal has improved a lot though, and although it still needs a bit more work I find it easier to articulate what I want to do now that I've spent time explaining the project to several different people, each with different areas of expertise and levels of experience. The more I do research on religion the more multi-faceted the issue becomes. I thought I had a handle on it when I read my very first source, the 28th British Social Attitudes Survey from 2011, but now I realize how much more there is to understand. History, popular culture, modern entertainment and distractions, the influence of science and liberal attitudes, influential writers and published books, theories, foreign wars, and economic performance--all of these seem to have an influence on religion in some way. In the end, though, it's good to know and appreciate, even if it will all only give me a better context within which to conduct my interviews and case studies.
I feel like my proposal has improved a lot though, and although it still needs a bit more work I find it easier to articulate what I want to do now that I've spent time explaining the project to several different people, each with different areas of expertise and levels of experience. The more I do research on religion the more multi-faceted the issue becomes. I thought I had a handle on it when I read my very first source, the 28th British Social Attitudes Survey from 2011, but now I realize how much more there is to understand. History, popular culture, modern entertainment and distractions, the influence of science and liberal attitudes, influential writers and published books, theories, foreign wars, and economic performance--all of these seem to have an influence on religion in some way. In the end, though, it's good to know and appreciate, even if it will all only give me a better context within which to conduct my interviews and case studies.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Journal Entry #19 - 2/24/12
So this afternoon I met with Dr. Ray Christensen, my professor for Political Science 200: Political Inquiry, and told him about my project. After explaining to him a little bit of the history about the field study project and how it was the reason I decided to take Political Science 200 this semester, I told him about my research project and how I would be studying religion this summer while I'm there.
During our approximately twenty-five minute discussion, we accomplished a great deal. First of all, Dr. Christensen confirmed my observation that a descriptive study of opinions about religion would attract significantly less attention than an analytical one, and I should probably change my research question to reflect that. That, alone, is a pretty big change. He suggested that I study the difference in opinions of the elites about religion and compare those views to the opinions of the general population in England. I explained to him my concept idea for a survey that would ask Londoners to choose how many trends in the country listed on the survey they considered to have a negative effect on the nation. I would have a control group where "declining religiosity" would not be included, and a test group where it would be included. At that point, Dr. Christensen explained that surveys are extremely hard to use because it is so difficult to make them random. Call centers try to do the job by randomly calling numbers and talking to the people who answer, and although that isn't a perfect system either, it's as good as they can get. Since I can't do that, we decided that I could analyze the census data for the whole country and for London, and choose maybe three or four or five districts in London that have an ethnic, social class, and religious makeup that is fairly representative of the whole country. I could go to those districts and ask people to take the survey myself, perhaps knocking on every fifth or tenth door, or asking one man and one woman per bus, or something like that. It would be arduous work, but the payoff would be very interesting. He suggested having a research question with a dependent and independent variable - for example, the secular opinions voiced by elites in the United Kingdom have caused decreasing levels of religious affiliation in the United Kingdom in the last decade. He said I could possibly measure the opinions of elites by searching the Times for the last 5 or 10 years for all references to religious affiliation or secularism and cite how many times secular views were expressed by these elites. I suggested that I could look up comments given about religion by elites in the last year and compare how many positive statements were given as opposed to negative ones. Or, I could find a published list of "the most influential people" in the United Kingdom, or something of the sort, and then study each person on a case by case basis to see what kinds of views they have expressed about religion. Then I could compare that data to the data collected in my survey to see how the views of the elites line up with the views of the masses.
Another idea that I've had just thinking about it now would be to ask people to rate how favorably they feel about a statement made by a well-known person in society without telling them who said it, and include statements that were positive about religion and others that were negative about religion. I could compare how favorably people responded to these statements. I'll have to ask Dr. Christensen to get a better idea of how to do that though.
Anyway, overall, it was an incredibly productive conversation, and I recorded most of it on my iPhone so I can go back and listen again to remember some of the things we discussed. Dr. Christensen said that although he wouldn't be able to collaborate with me for a class over the summer, he would gladly be my faculty mentor. Also, I decided while we were talking that I would do my second Research Design assignment in the class on the topic chosen for the Field Study project, and Dr. Christensen agreed that it would definitely help. I'm more excited than ever about doing this project, and even though it's still pretty frightening, I think it could really make an impact on the debate in the country if it is very well-written and has a good research design. This will be some trip to London ;)
During our approximately twenty-five minute discussion, we accomplished a great deal. First of all, Dr. Christensen confirmed my observation that a descriptive study of opinions about religion would attract significantly less attention than an analytical one, and I should probably change my research question to reflect that. That, alone, is a pretty big change. He suggested that I study the difference in opinions of the elites about religion and compare those views to the opinions of the general population in England. I explained to him my concept idea for a survey that would ask Londoners to choose how many trends in the country listed on the survey they considered to have a negative effect on the nation. I would have a control group where "declining religiosity" would not be included, and a test group where it would be included. At that point, Dr. Christensen explained that surveys are extremely hard to use because it is so difficult to make them random. Call centers try to do the job by randomly calling numbers and talking to the people who answer, and although that isn't a perfect system either, it's as good as they can get. Since I can't do that, we decided that I could analyze the census data for the whole country and for London, and choose maybe three or four or five districts in London that have an ethnic, social class, and religious makeup that is fairly representative of the whole country. I could go to those districts and ask people to take the survey myself, perhaps knocking on every fifth or tenth door, or asking one man and one woman per bus, or something like that. It would be arduous work, but the payoff would be very interesting. He suggested having a research question with a dependent and independent variable - for example, the secular opinions voiced by elites in the United Kingdom have caused decreasing levels of religious affiliation in the United Kingdom in the last decade. He said I could possibly measure the opinions of elites by searching the Times for the last 5 or 10 years for all references to religious affiliation or secularism and cite how many times secular views were expressed by these elites. I suggested that I could look up comments given about religion by elites in the last year and compare how many positive statements were given as opposed to negative ones. Or, I could find a published list of "the most influential people" in the United Kingdom, or something of the sort, and then study each person on a case by case basis to see what kinds of views they have expressed about religion. Then I could compare that data to the data collected in my survey to see how the views of the elites line up with the views of the masses.
Another idea that I've had just thinking about it now would be to ask people to rate how favorably they feel about a statement made by a well-known person in society without telling them who said it, and include statements that were positive about religion and others that were negative about religion. I could compare how favorably people responded to these statements. I'll have to ask Dr. Christensen to get a better idea of how to do that though.
Anyway, overall, it was an incredibly productive conversation, and I recorded most of it on my iPhone so I can go back and listen again to remember some of the things we discussed. Dr. Christensen said that although he wouldn't be able to collaborate with me for a class over the summer, he would gladly be my faculty mentor. Also, I decided while we were talking that I would do my second Research Design assignment in the class on the topic chosen for the Field Study project, and Dr. Christensen agreed that it would definitely help. I'm more excited than ever about doing this project, and even though it's still pretty frightening, I think it could really make an impact on the debate in the country if it is very well-written and has a good research design. This will be some trip to London ;)
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Journal Entry #18 - 2/22/12
I don't know if I've ever had a semester where I've thought as much or as hard as this semester. Going to Inquiry Conference this week has been another experience that has caused me a great deal of thought.
On a side note, all these thoughts are a good thing because they are reminders that I enjoy my major. I was frustrated for a while while I was trying to decide on a major because I felt like I liked learning about everything. That's good, and some people would say that's why I could just choose a major at random and I would end up happy regardless, but that's actually not it - I enjoy continually learning about everything, which means I needed a major that would allow me to educate myself broadly or I would get bored. So far, International Relations has been a wonderful way to learn widely about many things that I find interesting.
Back to the Inquiry Conference, today's conference lecture included a couple of presentations of students who created specific experiments and conducted them with NGO's in Uganda. I'm currently in PL SC 200, and we've been discussing the elements of a good research design. The students who gave the presentations did a great job of creating valid designs with randomization and control and treatment groups, discussions of internal and external validity, and statistical evaluations of their results. It got me really excited, but when I asked they told me that they took a research design class that taught them how to do each step correctly. Well, I really would like to know everything that they know right now, because I know it's going to be incredibly useful in England. There are at least a couple of experiments that I would like to try while I'm there that would involve randomization, control groups, and clever surveys (like the one I discussed in my last journal entry) that would clearly show attitudes toward religion in England. I have 90 days to do the work, and although that will probably end up being very short once I'm there, it's still a lot of time. I'd like to have meaningful activities every day that would be motivating and productive, and I'm a little afraid about getting there and simply not knowing how to put together the kind of brilliant surveys or experiments that would really make the experience useful.
Zooming out a little bit, I'm thinking back on my mission and the role that numbers played into our work. There were always people on both sides of the issue - those in favor of the numbers and who focused on them heavily and those who did not trust the numbers and held them more or less in disdain. In truth, both sides of the argument have some validity - 200 meaningless contacts in the streets was often much less effective than a couple hours of identifying less active members on the list and visiting them. The same argument comes up in research in the debate between the usefulness of qualitative vs. qualitative work. I agree with Professor Christensen - you have to look at your research question and see what kind of experiments would be possible in your area - quantitative and experimental, quantitative and non-experimental, and qualitative. Some areas of research simply cannot be studied quantitatively (like to what extent people agree or disagree with a certain policy - the variables aren't ordinal, they're just nominal), and some are naturally quantitative (percentage of people in a country who identify themselves as Christian, for example). In the Inquiry Conference today, David Remington talked about how many NGO or international development programs simply aren't useful at all, or do not accomplish what they set out to do (or, even more tragically, they find out that accomplishing what they set out to do would do more harm than good). The HELP International funded program lacked research and careful preparation that would have helped the program be more effective. In cases like Remington's, the research conducted by the other presenters is incredibly important. In contrast to the poorly informed program that Remington participated in last summer in India, the other presenters (Megan, Peter, and Madeleine) designed experiments to see if certain interventions (publicizing facilitating communication between NGO's for example) are actually beneficial based on statistical tests. Clearly, there are ways to use qualitative research in a meaningful way when studying the effect of certain policies. If they are beneficial in one place, they can be replicated on a large scale and be very effective.
In short - I want to use both qualitative and quantitative research on my field study. However, quantitative research takes practice and a lot of help...I'll need a great faculty mentor.
On a side note, all these thoughts are a good thing because they are reminders that I enjoy my major. I was frustrated for a while while I was trying to decide on a major because I felt like I liked learning about everything. That's good, and some people would say that's why I could just choose a major at random and I would end up happy regardless, but that's actually not it - I enjoy continually learning about everything, which means I needed a major that would allow me to educate myself broadly or I would get bored. So far, International Relations has been a wonderful way to learn widely about many things that I find interesting.
Back to the Inquiry Conference, today's conference lecture included a couple of presentations of students who created specific experiments and conducted them with NGO's in Uganda. I'm currently in PL SC 200, and we've been discussing the elements of a good research design. The students who gave the presentations did a great job of creating valid designs with randomization and control and treatment groups, discussions of internal and external validity, and statistical evaluations of their results. It got me really excited, but when I asked they told me that they took a research design class that taught them how to do each step correctly. Well, I really would like to know everything that they know right now, because I know it's going to be incredibly useful in England. There are at least a couple of experiments that I would like to try while I'm there that would involve randomization, control groups, and clever surveys (like the one I discussed in my last journal entry) that would clearly show attitudes toward religion in England. I have 90 days to do the work, and although that will probably end up being very short once I'm there, it's still a lot of time. I'd like to have meaningful activities every day that would be motivating and productive, and I'm a little afraid about getting there and simply not knowing how to put together the kind of brilliant surveys or experiments that would really make the experience useful.
Zooming out a little bit, I'm thinking back on my mission and the role that numbers played into our work. There were always people on both sides of the issue - those in favor of the numbers and who focused on them heavily and those who did not trust the numbers and held them more or less in disdain. In truth, both sides of the argument have some validity - 200 meaningless contacts in the streets was often much less effective than a couple hours of identifying less active members on the list and visiting them. The same argument comes up in research in the debate between the usefulness of qualitative vs. qualitative work. I agree with Professor Christensen - you have to look at your research question and see what kind of experiments would be possible in your area - quantitative and experimental, quantitative and non-experimental, and qualitative. Some areas of research simply cannot be studied quantitatively (like to what extent people agree or disagree with a certain policy - the variables aren't ordinal, they're just nominal), and some are naturally quantitative (percentage of people in a country who identify themselves as Christian, for example). In the Inquiry Conference today, David Remington talked about how many NGO or international development programs simply aren't useful at all, or do not accomplish what they set out to do (or, even more tragically, they find out that accomplishing what they set out to do would do more harm than good). The HELP International funded program lacked research and careful preparation that would have helped the program be more effective. In cases like Remington's, the research conducted by the other presenters is incredibly important. In contrast to the poorly informed program that Remington participated in last summer in India, the other presenters (Megan, Peter, and Madeleine) designed experiments to see if certain interventions (publicizing facilitating communication between NGO's for example) are actually beneficial based on statistical tests. Clearly, there are ways to use qualitative research in a meaningful way when studying the effect of certain policies. If they are beneficial in one place, they can be replicated on a large scale and be very effective.
In short - I want to use both qualitative and quantitative research on my field study. However, quantitative research takes practice and a lot of help...I'll need a great faculty mentor.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Journal Entry #17 - 2/21/12
Working on Section B of my research proposal has caused me to think hard about my project this coming summer. It is one thing just to go to class, to participate, to do some minimal research and writing on a regular basis, and then to actually submit a finalized introduction to and justification for my research in London this summer. Drafting a careful, rational argument for the research I will do pushes me into a corner a little bit and forces me to come up with more valid arguments for my research than ever before. "It means gathering yourself together into a single point rather than letting yourself be dispersed everywhere into a cloud of electronic and social input," as William Deresiewicz said in a lecture given at West Point in October, 2009 (see the full speech here). However, preparing for the proposal draft has been very helpful, and I have had a lot of thoughts (mostly scattered, as usual) that I want to keep track of because they will be useful later, so I'll put a few down here:
First of all, I don't have a faculty mentor yet. However, I think I'm going to talk to my PL SC 200 teacher Ray Christensen and see if he could be mine. Dr. Christensen is so passionate and fascinated by social science research, and I think he will really be able to help me create the kind of really effective research design that will make this summer's project incredible. For instance, last week we talked about whether our "x's" in our research could be manipulated or not (i.e. randomized). I think that mine could. Because I have a hypothesis. I believe that although citizens in the United Kingdom have shown themselves to be decreasingly religious and increasingly liberal in their attitudes toward things such as the role of religion in forming public policy (74% agree or tend to a agree that religion shouldn't affect public policy according to a Ipsos MORI survey that was released last week) or whether it is wrong for a woman to have an abortion in the legal time limit (only 20% agree that it is wrong), I think that most British citizens generally feel that the decreasing religiosity of their country is hurting their country and their society. I read about a clever study that was done in the United States that sought to discover how supportive Americans really are of a Mormon President. They placed several unrelated characteristics in a list and asked the survey takers to give the number of negative characteristics on the list (without saying which ones they thought were positive). A control group was given the list without "is a mormon" or something to that effect, on the list, and the results were compared to those who were given a list that had "is a mormon" among the other characteristics. The results showed that there were significant concerns felt by many American about having a Mormon president, because the mean number of negative characteristics on the list increased when "is a Mormon" was added to the list. So, going back to my project, I think I might be able to use the same model to find out how Englanders feel about the decreasing religiosity in their country, and I could do it one of two ways. First, I could create a list of current trends or events occurring in the UK (like devolution, keeping the British pound, involvement in Syria, etc) and ask people to list the number of positive movements in the country from the list. I would have a control group that would take the survey without "decreasing religiosity" on the list, and another group with "decreasing religiosity" included. Then I would compare the results afterward. To do it the other way around, I could ask them to list the number of negative movements or events occurring in the country and perform the same experiment, with a control group and a normal group taking the survey. I think the latter would be more convincing, since if the reported number of negative movements in the country increased among those who had "decreasing religiosity" on the list, the change could be directly attributed to the negative feelings that Britons have toward the decreasing religiosity in the country. I theorize that most British citizens are aware of the positive effects that religious beliefs have in peoples lives, and although they are increasingly irreligious, most do not view the change in a positive light. Through interviews and surveys and talking to people, I hope to evaluate the various attitudes that people have toward the trend of decreasing religiosity in the country. The results of the study could either validate or vilify the actions of government in the United Kingdom in defense of religious liberties and Christian values.
First of all, I don't have a faculty mentor yet. However, I think I'm going to talk to my PL SC 200 teacher Ray Christensen and see if he could be mine. Dr. Christensen is so passionate and fascinated by social science research, and I think he will really be able to help me create the kind of really effective research design that will make this summer's project incredible. For instance, last week we talked about whether our "x's" in our research could be manipulated or not (i.e. randomized). I think that mine could. Because I have a hypothesis. I believe that although citizens in the United Kingdom have shown themselves to be decreasingly religious and increasingly liberal in their attitudes toward things such as the role of religion in forming public policy (74% agree or tend to a agree that religion shouldn't affect public policy according to a Ipsos MORI survey that was released last week) or whether it is wrong for a woman to have an abortion in the legal time limit (only 20% agree that it is wrong), I think that most British citizens generally feel that the decreasing religiosity of their country is hurting their country and their society. I read about a clever study that was done in the United States that sought to discover how supportive Americans really are of a Mormon President. They placed several unrelated characteristics in a list and asked the survey takers to give the number of negative characteristics on the list (without saying which ones they thought were positive). A control group was given the list without "is a mormon" or something to that effect, on the list, and the results were compared to those who were given a list that had "is a mormon" among the other characteristics. The results showed that there were significant concerns felt by many American about having a Mormon president, because the mean number of negative characteristics on the list increased when "is a Mormon" was added to the list. So, going back to my project, I think I might be able to use the same model to find out how Englanders feel about the decreasing religiosity in their country, and I could do it one of two ways. First, I could create a list of current trends or events occurring in the UK (like devolution, keeping the British pound, involvement in Syria, etc) and ask people to list the number of positive movements in the country from the list. I would have a control group that would take the survey without "decreasing religiosity" on the list, and another group with "decreasing religiosity" included. Then I would compare the results afterward. To do it the other way around, I could ask them to list the number of negative movements or events occurring in the country and perform the same experiment, with a control group and a normal group taking the survey. I think the latter would be more convincing, since if the reported number of negative movements in the country increased among those who had "decreasing religiosity" on the list, the change could be directly attributed to the negative feelings that Britons have toward the decreasing religiosity in the country. I theorize that most British citizens are aware of the positive effects that religious beliefs have in peoples lives, and although they are increasingly irreligious, most do not view the change in a positive light. Through interviews and surveys and talking to people, I hope to evaluate the various attitudes that people have toward the trend of decreasing religiosity in the country. The results of the study could either validate or vilify the actions of government in the United Kingdom in defense of religious liberties and Christian values.
Friday, February 17, 2012
Journal Entry #15 - 2/16/12
So, this journal entry is really late. I was planning on doing it the normal time, but the Library Assignment due in PL SC 200 (which ended up being almost 14 pages long....whew!) took longer than expected. That being said, the Library Assignment was incredibly helpful in educating me more about databases and scholarly articles and how to make correct citations of unique documents. Quite like our source document analyses that we complete for our field study prep class, I created a research question about something I was interested in and then found numerous sources from books, articles, dissertations, government publications, and more to find out more information about the topic. For ten of the sources I wrote a summary and a description of how the source would be useful to my research. In the end, I definitely learned quite a bit about the costs and benefits of bilingual education :) However, more than learning just about my topic, I discovered that there are a huge amount of databases and research resources that I haven't even used in my research for the this field study, much of which I will have to take a closer look at during this next few weeks (in fact, sometimes I wish I could just spend an afternoon going through each database in the HBLL website just to figure out what each one is for). Still, although there are a lot of resources that can be used through the library, I have noticed that many of the articles written by researchers in the social sciences are extremely dry. While this doesn't go for all of them, sometimes I feel like these social scientists are capable of taking any topic of study and sucking the life out of it with all their theories, jargon, regressions and research models. Of all the documents that I looked at studying bilingual education, the ones that had the largest effect on me were a book written by a very passionate and talented educator and a government document written by yet another educator. The latter was personally involved in bilingual education and gave specific strategies for helping immigrant Spanish-speaking children not only to learn better but to adjust better to culture in America.
Now, I'm trying not to get too far off topic here, because this does relate to my research in this field study. In fact, this may have a lot to do with my own career, not just the field study. These last few months it has dawned upon me several times that I might write a few scholarly articles someday and present my research at a conference or get published in some sort of a journal somewhere. I've even thought of giving my field study project a more statistical basis so I could include regressions and experiments and control variables and the like in my final write-up after my project is done. I may still do that. However, I'm finding more and more that although these research articles are a wonderful way to talk to experts and specialists in the field, they're not really a great way to talk to most people. To say the least, most people don't have scholarly journals sitting on their coffee tables. Moreover, I'm not sure I see myself wanting to spend all my career writing these stiff, dry articles to experts who, at least in my observations of researchers for bilingual education and in my PL SC 200 class, seem rather disconnected from normal, everyday people.
That's why I really like what I get to do this summer. Because, you see, the point isn't just to write stiff, dry articles about a certain scholarly topic and cite all my articles correctly, dot my i's and cross my t's. I actually get to go out and talk to people. Just like the two educators who wrote passionately and personally about bilingual education, I like being able to work directly with individuals, see who they are and what challenges they face, see their personalities and those things that make them human and real. That's what's most interesting to me. I know those two educators loved their work and had great love for the children they have taught--that much was evident from their writing. Their words showed passion and love for their work and great optimism about making a actual differences in the lives of people--to me, that was more touching than all the scholarly articles I read put together. If I decide to spend my career writing journal articles and getting published, I'll probably feel very satisfied if I get thirty people to cite my articles and get a half dozen studies published in reputable journals. But how many people actually read those anyway? Bro Christensen, who teaches PL SC 200, teaches hundreds of students each year, and dozens have written back to him or visited him and told him that the class was the most useful one they took at BYU. In light of the difference he makes every day in the lives of hundreds of students, what are a few articles that he has published during the last 20 years? Well, they're sort of important, but they're not as important as the work he does with people each day.
Again, that's why I'm excited I get to work and talk with people during this field study. I may not really get to know too many people well, I still hope to talk to a fair few. Religion and spirituality play a big role in my own life, so it's something I like to talk about. As a missionary, I've talked to thousands who don't care very much about it beyond superficial affiliations passed on through their families or traditions. I've talked to others who care about nothing more than their religion and their beliefs. The English are a very different people than the Brazilians though, so I will have to be prepared to face opinions and beliefs that may be completely different than what I've experienced before. Especially since London is such a big city, and I'll be sure to run into individuals from a wide range of backgrounds, many of them not even British at all. But like the two educators who spoke passionately and powerfully about their work in bilingual education, if I'm to gain something from this experience, I hope it will include a fair amount of love and appreciation for the diverse people who live in London. If I can explain about the religious feelings of Londoners in a language suitable for scholars without losing that passion and love for the people I meet and work with in London, I believe I'll be satisfied.
Now, I'm trying not to get too far off topic here, because this does relate to my research in this field study. In fact, this may have a lot to do with my own career, not just the field study. These last few months it has dawned upon me several times that I might write a few scholarly articles someday and present my research at a conference or get published in some sort of a journal somewhere. I've even thought of giving my field study project a more statistical basis so I could include regressions and experiments and control variables and the like in my final write-up after my project is done. I may still do that. However, I'm finding more and more that although these research articles are a wonderful way to talk to experts and specialists in the field, they're not really a great way to talk to most people. To say the least, most people don't have scholarly journals sitting on their coffee tables. Moreover, I'm not sure I see myself wanting to spend all my career writing these stiff, dry articles to experts who, at least in my observations of researchers for bilingual education and in my PL SC 200 class, seem rather disconnected from normal, everyday people.
That's why I really like what I get to do this summer. Because, you see, the point isn't just to write stiff, dry articles about a certain scholarly topic and cite all my articles correctly, dot my i's and cross my t's. I actually get to go out and talk to people. Just like the two educators who wrote passionately and personally about bilingual education, I like being able to work directly with individuals, see who they are and what challenges they face, see their personalities and those things that make them human and real. That's what's most interesting to me. I know those two educators loved their work and had great love for the children they have taught--that much was evident from their writing. Their words showed passion and love for their work and great optimism about making a actual differences in the lives of people--to me, that was more touching than all the scholarly articles I read put together. If I decide to spend my career writing journal articles and getting published, I'll probably feel very satisfied if I get thirty people to cite my articles and get a half dozen studies published in reputable journals. But how many people actually read those anyway? Bro Christensen, who teaches PL SC 200, teaches hundreds of students each year, and dozens have written back to him or visited him and told him that the class was the most useful one they took at BYU. In light of the difference he makes every day in the lives of hundreds of students, what are a few articles that he has published during the last 20 years? Well, they're sort of important, but they're not as important as the work he does with people each day.
Again, that's why I'm excited I get to work and talk with people during this field study. I may not really get to know too many people well, I still hope to talk to a fair few. Religion and spirituality play a big role in my own life, so it's something I like to talk about. As a missionary, I've talked to thousands who don't care very much about it beyond superficial affiliations passed on through their families or traditions. I've talked to others who care about nothing more than their religion and their beliefs. The English are a very different people than the Brazilians though, so I will have to be prepared to face opinions and beliefs that may be completely different than what I've experienced before. Especially since London is such a big city, and I'll be sure to run into individuals from a wide range of backgrounds, many of them not even British at all. But like the two educators who spoke passionately and powerfully about their work in bilingual education, if I'm to gain something from this experience, I hope it will include a fair amount of love and appreciation for the diverse people who live in London. If I can explain about the religious feelings of Londoners in a language suitable for scholars without losing that passion and love for the people I meet and work with in London, I believe I'll be satisfied.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Journal Entry #14
In our last class period, we analyzed our projects and our project research and identified areas where we could do more research to strengthen our understanding of our topics. I noticed that one area where my research was weak was in current opinion leaders in the United Kingdom. My only cited source taken from a current well-known leader in the UK was PM David Cameron. Last week, however, I did cite an article that reported on the plan of one well-known atheist to build a "temple to atheism", but other than Cameron's words I have not researched the views of any specific individuals whose opinions might resonate with people in the UK.
For today, I cited a speech given by Sayeeda Warsi that was given on January 20, 2011. To me, it was a remarkable speech to be given by a member of Parliament and of the current government about religion, and was cited by the 28th British Social Attitudes Survey that was published at the end of 2011. Her comments, coming from the first Muslim member of Parliament, were very bold in their condemnation of religious bigotry in the nation and the persistence of attitudes such as Islamaphobia and other stereotyping of religious groups or minorities. It's interesting to note her boldness with that of David Cameron's, for it shows how willing the current Conservative government is to express opinions about religion very openly. In the British Social Attitudes Survey made this last year, the author Lucy Lee commented that with the decreasing influence of religion in the lives of Britons, the opinions expressed by current government leaders is likely to resonate less and less with average citizens than before. I suppose it may never have been studied to what degree the opinions expressed by government leaders has an effect on the opinions of the populace. I, however, do believe that the influence of well known people in society have a significant influence on the normal members of society because they shape the debate of the country. It could be that Britons simply have thought much about their religious attitudes very much. Debating it openly may bring about a more assertive response from the populace about where their values really lie - whether they are for or against religion. It will interesting to use these comments as I ask questions to individuals while in London to discover how they feel about them.
For today, I cited a speech given by Sayeeda Warsi that was given on January 20, 2011. To me, it was a remarkable speech to be given by a member of Parliament and of the current government about religion, and was cited by the 28th British Social Attitudes Survey that was published at the end of 2011. Her comments, coming from the first Muslim member of Parliament, were very bold in their condemnation of religious bigotry in the nation and the persistence of attitudes such as Islamaphobia and other stereotyping of religious groups or minorities. It's interesting to note her boldness with that of David Cameron's, for it shows how willing the current Conservative government is to express opinions about religion very openly. In the British Social Attitudes Survey made this last year, the author Lucy Lee commented that with the decreasing influence of religion in the lives of Britons, the opinions expressed by current government leaders is likely to resonate less and less with average citizens than before. I suppose it may never have been studied to what degree the opinions expressed by government leaders has an effect on the opinions of the populace. I, however, do believe that the influence of well known people in society have a significant influence on the normal members of society because they shape the debate of the country. It could be that Britons simply have thought much about their religious attitudes very much. Debating it openly may bring about a more assertive response from the populace about where their values really lie - whether they are for or against religion. It will interesting to use these comments as I ask questions to individuals while in London to discover how they feel about them.
Friday, February 10, 2012
Journal Entry #13
As it happens, thirteen is my favorite number, and this is my thirteenth learning journal post. Bangarang.
As I've been doing research these last few days, I've been trying to look at the work I've done and the direction I'm going with this project in a more global way. My work so far has been somewhat arbitrary, as I've searched for articles and studies online, and essentially read the first ones that have come up. However, religion is something that has been heavily researched for more than fifty years, and entire journals are dedicated to the study of different aspects of religion. In order to focus my work while I'm in London, my research beforehand has to be more focused.
So I started collecting references to other papers using the research articles I have already read. A lot of the referenced articles are rather straightforward, using statistical tests and surveys to prove correlations between religiosity and attitudes about premarital sex, drug use, criminality, marriage and marital longevity, family unity, work ethic, academic performance, and physical health. Then, I created another sections for studies that have analyzed the academic strength of religious schools. The study that I cited for last class had a different unit of analysis: it analyzed academic performance and religiosity comparing the connection between individual academic performance and individual religiosity instead of the religiosity of the school and the academic performance of that entire school, which many previous studies had done. Lastly, I am creating a list of cited studies that concern religion and religious beliefs in a more general way, including how to measure religiosity.
This is all well and good, and should be very helpful in the future as I'm deciding on what research papers to study for my project. I want to have a pretty thorough understanding of what has been researched and understood by social scientists about religion and religious behavior in various contexts of life. While I'm in London, I will probably decide on a couple of aspects of religiosity to focus on in the surveys I'll be giving and the interviews I'll be conducting, but it will be very good to have an over-arching understanding of how religiosity has been shown to be a contributing factor to certain behaviors, attitudes, and social factors. It will be very interesting to see how individuals in London believe religion makes a difference in their lives and how past research has provided evidence supporting or disproving these assumptions. Since my research question focuses mainly on what Londoners believe are the positive and negative effects of decreasing religiosity, my topic allows for changes in public policy that might better inform the public about how religiosity affects individuals and society. Then again, if what they all think matches up perfectly with what has been proven to happen, that would be pretty remarkable all by itself.
As I've been doing research these last few days, I've been trying to look at the work I've done and the direction I'm going with this project in a more global way. My work so far has been somewhat arbitrary, as I've searched for articles and studies online, and essentially read the first ones that have come up. However, religion is something that has been heavily researched for more than fifty years, and entire journals are dedicated to the study of different aspects of religion. In order to focus my work while I'm in London, my research beforehand has to be more focused.
So I started collecting references to other papers using the research articles I have already read. A lot of the referenced articles are rather straightforward, using statistical tests and surveys to prove correlations between religiosity and attitudes about premarital sex, drug use, criminality, marriage and marital longevity, family unity, work ethic, academic performance, and physical health. Then, I created another sections for studies that have analyzed the academic strength of religious schools. The study that I cited for last class had a different unit of analysis: it analyzed academic performance and religiosity comparing the connection between individual academic performance and individual religiosity instead of the religiosity of the school and the academic performance of that entire school, which many previous studies had done. Lastly, I am creating a list of cited studies that concern religion and religious beliefs in a more general way, including how to measure religiosity.
This is all well and good, and should be very helpful in the future as I'm deciding on what research papers to study for my project. I want to have a pretty thorough understanding of what has been researched and understood by social scientists about religion and religious behavior in various contexts of life. While I'm in London, I will probably decide on a couple of aspects of religiosity to focus on in the surveys I'll be giving and the interviews I'll be conducting, but it will be very good to have an over-arching understanding of how religiosity has been shown to be a contributing factor to certain behaviors, attitudes, and social factors. It will be very interesting to see how individuals in London believe religion makes a difference in their lives and how past research has provided evidence supporting or disproving these assumptions. Since my research question focuses mainly on what Londoners believe are the positive and negative effects of decreasing religiosity, my topic allows for changes in public policy that might better inform the public about how religiosity affects individuals and society. Then again, if what they all think matches up perfectly with what has been proven to happen, that would be pretty remarkable all by itself.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Journal Entry #12
I have to say, the IAS 360 Field Study Prep class has been incredibly helpful so far. I remember being very excited about the whole idea of the Field Study when I first learned about it and made the decision to sign up. Then came the preparation interviews, the paperwork (purposefully signing my life away), and the class. Jumping through the hoops was all well and good until this point, but during the last few weeks I started thinking seriously about my day to day in London, and the reality of this ninety day adventure actually happening at the end of this semester actually started hitting home. At the same time though, the discussions in class and the research sources that I've been looking up and writing about three times a week have had a bracing effect. I can say that I'm more excited about going to London today than I have ever been. I feel more confident about my research topic, the methods I'll be using and the activities I'll be doing on a day-to-day basis while I'm there. The semester has been extremely busy with Political Science 200 and huge papers to turn in on an almost weekly basis. I enjoy learning about the topic I'm researching in London this summer I could spend hours and hours reading articles, poring over maps of the underground, and watching Youtube videos of different bus routes :)
At the same time, however, so man of the things I've been involved in have been helpful as I've prepared and thought about this summer. First of all, PL SC 200 is exactly the kind of rigorous writing and research preparation that I need in order to do this project effectively. My job as a sales person at Bluehost 20 hours a week has given me opportunities to talk to people from London, England several times this semester already, and I've told almost all of them about how I'm going there this summer. One of them even gave me his number and email and gave me some tips about where to get a place to live and places to go visit. He told me to call him if I needed to ask some questions while I'm there. That's sweet :D Studying in my History of England class has been incredible as I've been refreshing my memory of English history that I learned when I took AP European History as well as the study of the political system in the UK when I took AP Comparative Politics. Since HIST 323 is a class that focuses only on the history since 1689, I've been able to understand the history in a lot more detail than I have before.
There are still a lot of variables that I don't understand and haven't thought about. However, I'm feeling really good about it all :)
At the same time, however, so man of the things I've been involved in have been helpful as I've prepared and thought about this summer. First of all, PL SC 200 is exactly the kind of rigorous writing and research preparation that I need in order to do this project effectively. My job as a sales person at Bluehost 20 hours a week has given me opportunities to talk to people from London, England several times this semester already, and I've told almost all of them about how I'm going there this summer. One of them even gave me his number and email and gave me some tips about where to get a place to live and places to go visit. He told me to call him if I needed to ask some questions while I'm there. That's sweet :D Studying in my History of England class has been incredible as I've been refreshing my memory of English history that I learned when I took AP European History as well as the study of the political system in the UK when I took AP Comparative Politics. Since HIST 323 is a class that focuses only on the history since 1689, I've been able to understand the history in a lot more detail than I have before.
There are still a lot of variables that I don't understand and haven't thought about. However, I'm feeling really good about it all :)
Friday, February 3, 2012
Journal Entry #10
My thoughts are a little scattered today, but there are a few common threads among them as I have been thinking about my project these last couple days.
Another member of the field studies program, whose blog you can find here, made a wonderful and truthful comment that made me realize my lack of open-mindedness when it comes to religion in society. I do have a bias, and recognizing that is good, but her comment was important because I really haven't been doing much in my research aimed at understanding secular points of view. I believe that I understand secular arguments on the surface, but perhaps I have an underlying tendency to demonize those contrary to religious activity, and that tendency is out of place. After all, there are a great number of principled people in the world, and to characterize all those without religion as unprincipled is extremely unfair and untrue. So, I've made it a goal to understand secular viewpoints more thoroughly. Just as living in Brasil made me aware of many unfortunate and uncomfortable realities about the country, in two years living there I was able to look beyond those deficiencies and appreciate the heart of a people that I find very loving, spirited, and creative. In only ninety days in London, I will have to move quickly to understand the English as a people--much faster than I did as a missionary. When I was in Brasil, it took six months to a year just to begin to understand and appreciate the brazilian people with any real depth, although that time was compounded by the fact that I also had to learn the language. In England, I won't have to learn the language entirely, but in part there will still be so much to learn about the people, the customs, habits, and mindsets that I may find myself hard-pressed to comprehend it in just ninety days. And just as living in Brasil meant coming to accept (if not agree) with the drug dealers that lived in the favelas down the road, the less-than-trustworthy policeman driving the streets, and the blasting of "funk" music on the next block that continued ceaselessly all night during weekends; living in London will mean living with realities far different than what I've gotten used to here at BYU for a few months. I hope I can look beyond that though, and see the heart of the people behind some aspects that might be easily visible in the streets, on billboards, or on "the tube". In the same way, I hope I can see beyond the opinions of people that might make them openly unreligious or anti-religion to their human hearts and lives that are much more than a statistic. I don't want to misunderstand the people I'll be studying about, and I do want to produce useful results from my study there. To be sure, I'm learning a methodology, a pattern, and a skill that will be useful later in life as I go into business or social research later on. But whatever I end up doing, I hope I don't do it to the detriment of the people about whom I do research, or with whom I do business.
Another member of the field studies program, whose blog you can find here, made a wonderful and truthful comment that made me realize my lack of open-mindedness when it comes to religion in society. I do have a bias, and recognizing that is good, but her comment was important because I really haven't been doing much in my research aimed at understanding secular points of view. I believe that I understand secular arguments on the surface, but perhaps I have an underlying tendency to demonize those contrary to religious activity, and that tendency is out of place. After all, there are a great number of principled people in the world, and to characterize all those without religion as unprincipled is extremely unfair and untrue. So, I've made it a goal to understand secular viewpoints more thoroughly. Just as living in Brasil made me aware of many unfortunate and uncomfortable realities about the country, in two years living there I was able to look beyond those deficiencies and appreciate the heart of a people that I find very loving, spirited, and creative. In only ninety days in London, I will have to move quickly to understand the English as a people--much faster than I did as a missionary. When I was in Brasil, it took six months to a year just to begin to understand and appreciate the brazilian people with any real depth, although that time was compounded by the fact that I also had to learn the language. In England, I won't have to learn the language entirely, but in part there will still be so much to learn about the people, the customs, habits, and mindsets that I may find myself hard-pressed to comprehend it in just ninety days. And just as living in Brasil meant coming to accept (if not agree) with the drug dealers that lived in the favelas down the road, the less-than-trustworthy policeman driving the streets, and the blasting of "funk" music on the next block that continued ceaselessly all night during weekends; living in London will mean living with realities far different than what I've gotten used to here at BYU for a few months. I hope I can look beyond that though, and see the heart of the people behind some aspects that might be easily visible in the streets, on billboards, or on "the tube". In the same way, I hope I can see beyond the opinions of people that might make them openly unreligious or anti-religion to their human hearts and lives that are much more than a statistic. I don't want to misunderstand the people I'll be studying about, and I do want to produce useful results from my study there. To be sure, I'm learning a methodology, a pattern, and a skill that will be useful later in life as I go into business or social research later on. But whatever I end up doing, I hope I don't do it to the detriment of the people about whom I do research, or with whom I do business.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Journal Entry #9
I have been repenting during the last two days, and I have gone back and read the four articles assigned during class that I neglected to review during the bustle of the last two weeks. They were extremely helpful and very well chosen, and while I was reading them I took some notes about some of the main points. Most important to me were the sections taken from Babbie's book and the article "Monochronic and Polychronic Time" by Hall. And just as a disclaimer, I apologize for my thoughts being somewhat scattered here.
Comments on "Reading and Writing Social Research":
I must create an organized study of the previous literature concerning my topic of study in Great Britain. I am concerned that my study be "an extension of what has previously been learned about a particular topic".
-In doing so, I must create a list of key concepts that I would like to study.
-Read cited sources on papers or articles that I find useful. This is the "snowball sampling" technique.
-Study the "Evaluations of Research Reports" in thinking about my research project in England. My project needs to be good.
Comments on "Qualitative Field Research and Research Design":
I must decide what the focus of my project will be: to explore, to describe, or to explain.
I need to decide how I will go about my study and research, and I must do it in the next few weeks. I have to prepare that research proposal...
A good place to start for the research proposal would be to outline what questions I'll be studying and how I will go about answering them. I can create a framework for my research by coming up with statements that I want to be able to make when my research is complete.
After that, I need to clarify what I mean by the concept of religiosity.
How tightly structured will my research be? At this point, I see my research as being somewhat open-ended. The idea is to discover the "different dimensions, aspects, or nuances" about my topic (declining religiosity in the UK). As is said by Babbie in ch. four of her text, "the research itself may uncover and report aspects of social life that were not evident at the outset of the project". That's what I want to do.
Comments on "Monochronic and Polychronic Time":
We talked a lot about these concepts in class on Monday, and I have to say it really helped me synthesize my experience in Brazil as an LDS missionary. Truly, the brazilian people work on a polychronic sense of time, and only the very elite and highly educated do not. I noticed that the concept of getting home by 9:30 because it was a mission rule was hard to understand (or, at least very easy to gloss over) for many church members, native missionaries, and normal brazilians that we taught. If there was an important lesson or event going on, the 9:30 M-time rule didn't seem to matter any more. The longer I was there, the more I came to adopt the P-time way of "doing everything at once", and I can honestly say that I really enjoy it. Maybe P-time is more common in our day and age of texting, reading newspapers, doing homework, and managing a dozen open tabs on our web browsers all at the same time. Still, regardless of how much P-time slips in, the clock-in, clock-out of M-time still governs our society, and I personally love being able to put aside time for one specific activity. Compartmentalizing can also be a solution for sanity.
Comments on "Reading and Writing Social Research":
I must create an organized study of the previous literature concerning my topic of study in Great Britain. I am concerned that my study be "an extension of what has previously been learned about a particular topic".
-In doing so, I must create a list of key concepts that I would like to study.
-Read cited sources on papers or articles that I find useful. This is the "snowball sampling" technique.
-Study the "Evaluations of Research Reports" in thinking about my research project in England. My project needs to be good.
Comments on "Qualitative Field Research and Research Design":
I must decide what the focus of my project will be: to explore, to describe, or to explain.
I need to decide how I will go about my study and research, and I must do it in the next few weeks. I have to prepare that research proposal...
A good place to start for the research proposal would be to outline what questions I'll be studying and how I will go about answering them. I can create a framework for my research by coming up with statements that I want to be able to make when my research is complete.
After that, I need to clarify what I mean by the concept of religiosity.
How tightly structured will my research be? At this point, I see my research as being somewhat open-ended. The idea is to discover the "different dimensions, aspects, or nuances" about my topic (declining religiosity in the UK). As is said by Babbie in ch. four of her text, "the research itself may uncover and report aspects of social life that were not evident at the outset of the project". That's what I want to do.
Comments on "Monochronic and Polychronic Time":
We talked a lot about these concepts in class on Monday, and I have to say it really helped me synthesize my experience in Brazil as an LDS missionary. Truly, the brazilian people work on a polychronic sense of time, and only the very elite and highly educated do not. I noticed that the concept of getting home by 9:30 because it was a mission rule was hard to understand (or, at least very easy to gloss over) for many church members, native missionaries, and normal brazilians that we taught. If there was an important lesson or event going on, the 9:30 M-time rule didn't seem to matter any more. The longer I was there, the more I came to adopt the P-time way of "doing everything at once", and I can honestly say that I really enjoy it. Maybe P-time is more common in our day and age of texting, reading newspapers, doing homework, and managing a dozen open tabs on our web browsers all at the same time. Still, regardless of how much P-time slips in, the clock-in, clock-out of M-time still governs our society, and I personally love being able to put aside time for one specific activity. Compartmentalizing can also be a solution for sanity.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Journal Entry #7
So, yesterday for a project for my Political Science 200 class, they asked us to access the database called JSTOR.
Well, it's absolutely gigantic, to say the least. It contains links to journal databases for a huge number of topics, from psychology to archeology. Just for Political Science, it has hundreds of JOURNALS, not just hundreds of articles, and each journal has a particular emphasis within the area of study. I found a journal that deals with religious ethics, and after spending a bit of time going through some of the titles over the past couple of years, I decided it didn't have much to do with my area of study.
It appears that many individuals studying "religion" care a lot about reactions to homosexual behavior, ecofeminism, and unethical decisions made by Augustine a thousand years ago. I can't say that I do. However, for just Religion there are seventy different journals to look through, and there's plenty of places here to rove around. We'll see if there aren't any about religious schools.
Looking around here, it's remarkable how many resources that the Harold B. Lee Library puts at your fingertips. Countless articles that ask you to "verify" or pay to access can simply be accessed by clicking the "Get at BYU!" button. Incredible. There was a summary of doctoral dissertations in the Harvard Theological Review published at the end of 2010. Through BYU I was able to access the full text, and one of these dissertations analyzes the work of a particular multi-faith organization that worked in Massachussetts that helped in the development of the progressive health care program that was created there, and that has gotten a lot of news recently because it was presided over by then Massachussetts Governor Mitt Romney, and later became a key model for the creation of Obama's national health care program. Interestingly, the dissertation summary states that "when religious practice engages CBCO democratic practice, it can produce pluralism without reducing difference." I'm assuming that means that this faith based organization was able to organizationally unite people of different faiths without reducing their theological differences. This part is the clincher though: "This case study demonstrates that congregations engaged in civic activity have religious resources to mediate conflict that might be intractable in the political sphere." In other words, faith based organizations can unite communities in ways that politics cannot.
So what if religiosity continues to decrease in a society? Does it weaken the social "glue", so to speak, that holds people and communities together? And how can I possibly measure how "glued together" a society is as a research student in London, England?
In any case, this JSTOR is great place to start studying these questions....even if some of these papers are a little obscure :)
Well, it's absolutely gigantic, to say the least. It contains links to journal databases for a huge number of topics, from psychology to archeology. Just for Political Science, it has hundreds of JOURNALS, not just hundreds of articles, and each journal has a particular emphasis within the area of study. I found a journal that deals with religious ethics, and after spending a bit of time going through some of the titles over the past couple of years, I decided it didn't have much to do with my area of study.
It appears that many individuals studying "religion" care a lot about reactions to homosexual behavior, ecofeminism, and unethical decisions made by Augustine a thousand years ago. I can't say that I do. However, for just Religion there are seventy different journals to look through, and there's plenty of places here to rove around. We'll see if there aren't any about religious schools.
Looking around here, it's remarkable how many resources that the Harold B. Lee Library puts at your fingertips. Countless articles that ask you to "verify" or pay to access can simply be accessed by clicking the "Get at BYU!" button. Incredible. There was a summary of doctoral dissertations in the Harvard Theological Review published at the end of 2010. Through BYU I was able to access the full text, and one of these dissertations analyzes the work of a particular multi-faith organization that worked in Massachussetts that helped in the development of the progressive health care program that was created there, and that has gotten a lot of news recently because it was presided over by then Massachussetts Governor Mitt Romney, and later became a key model for the creation of Obama's national health care program. Interestingly, the dissertation summary states that "when religious practice engages CBCO democratic practice, it can produce pluralism without reducing difference." I'm assuming that means that this faith based organization was able to organizationally unite people of different faiths without reducing their theological differences. This part is the clincher though: "This case study demonstrates that congregations engaged in civic activity have religious resources to mediate conflict that might be intractable in the political sphere." In other words, faith based organizations can unite communities in ways that politics cannot.
So what if religiosity continues to decrease in a society? Does it weaken the social "glue", so to speak, that holds people and communities together? And how can I possibly measure how "glued together" a society is as a research student in London, England?
In any case, this JSTOR is great place to start studying these questions....even if some of these papers are a little obscure :)
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