what is the impact of dreaming on the dreamers life?
Writing Brief
The question that is trying to be answered is: what is the impact of dreaming on the dreamers life?
Objectives: what is the experience of vivid dreams, how do dreamers make sense of these experiences and how do dreamers make meaning and sense in the context of their lives.
The method is using a phenomenological analysis tool. Themes should be derived from the experience of what the participants are saying. For example if 3 participants express a concern and show the meaning. If 10 participants express a concern etc. Follow the uploaded articles and chapters from Jonothan smith chpter seven and nine.
Use IPA to look at the objects of concern and the meaning to the participants then write the theme. Use SEA as a two step analysis to explore existential issue that arise. Existential perspective **.
15000 word count does not include the verbatim phrases extracted from the participants text. Include at least 5000 words discussion.
Each super-ordinate theme should be a minimum of
The analysis and discussion will form separate sections
Reporting and discussing your findings
This page deals with the central part of the thesis, where you present the data that forms the basis of your investigation, shaped by the way you have thought about it. In other words, you tell your readers the story that has emerged from your findings. The form of your chapters should be consistent with this story and its components
Finding your focus
How will you decide which aspects of your findings are the most interesting and important? It is useful to remind yourself what the task of writing up research is all about:
This will involve looking at the data and forming themes that emerge. Also, aspects that relate both to literature review and new knowledge.
• the analytic story (a common framework for theses in the social sciences)
• What are the key concepts you have used in this study?
• How do your ‘findings’ shed light on these concepts and, through them, on the substantive topics you studied?
• What, therefore, has become of your original research problem and the literature regarding it?
• the mystery story
• starts from empirical examples
• develops the questions by discussing them
• gradually leads the reader to interpretations of the material and to more general implications of the results.
The big picture
The challenge for every thesis writer is to hold the detail of the data in focus without losing sight of the big picture of the research. This is why reporting data analysis is not enough; you need to:
• establish the connections between the patterns that emerge from your analysis and your research questions
• relate those connections to the existing research and theory
in order to make clear your contribution to knowledge in the field.
Present the findings
Overview (example) – The phenomenological analysis of the semi-structured interviews with eleven dreamers one male and 10 female are is presented in this chapter. The analysis led to the emergence of ____ super-ordinate themes.
Table example
Super-ordinate theme Emergent themes
1. The Struggle Coping
Emotion release
medication
2.
3.
4.
5.
Introduction to the themes: The four super-ordinate themes provide an overview of the accounts of HIVpositive gay men who feel they have experienced PTG since their diagnosis. The first theme, the Struggle, highlights participants’ account of their struggle in coping with their HIV diagnosis and taking their HIV medication. The second theme, Change in relationships, explores the men’s experience of the changes in relationships with the self and with others. It also highlights the way the men began to relate to their HIV. It considers the process of changing their perception of who they are, in light of their diagnosis, and the way they perceive other people. The third theme is Positive growth. This theme explores the different ways the men started to engage with their world, developing coping strategies while they navigate through their diagnosis. The final theme, Identity, highlights that despite experiencing PTG, the men still face challenges whilst living with HIV, in light of their struggles from the past, and with their identities as gay men.
Explanation of Sub-theme – Coping The men remembered vividly and felt the need to tell the story of their struggle to cope when receiving their HIV-positive diagnosis. There was a sense that some of the men expected their diagnosis and some of them did not; nevertheless, it was still a shock as they tried to cope with their news. What is interesting in the following extracts is the ways in which the men go into autopilot and show the importance of being able to ‘get on’ with their lives and get through their day:
(quotes used from an interview) Kristof: “I was in denial. I went to the gym and then burst out crying. I had to keep going. I just didn’t expect it to be honest.”
Marley: “I was in shock and couldn’t get my head around it. I just had to get on with it, I suppose. There have been a couple of times when I’ve been on my hands and knees thinking ‘why the fuck has this happened to me?’ but it has.
” Matteo: “I was like ‘oh fuck’ and I just felt a disappointment in myself but I had to get on with it.”
The quotes are drawn from the participants interview verbatim. Use the excel cell number to reference the location of the quote which should make this easier.
Summary of theme – In summary, this emergent theme shows how these men went into autopilot, as a way of coping with their news, whilst trying to get on with their lives. There is sense of powerlessness through a lack of personal control, as they fight their emotional reactions towards their deeply shocking news yet show high levels of resilience in their will to survive. Despite the diagnosis they still found it highly important to get through the day as ‘normally’ as possible. This way of coping can be interpreted as denial, as the men split from strong emotions in order to get on with things, until they are ready to engage with them at a later time.
Summary of super-ordinate theme – Summary of super-ordinate theme This super-ordinate theme captures the men’s experience of an HIV-positive diagnosis. They recognised that their lives would not be the same again, as they struggled to come to terms and cope with the diagnosis. Although medication is available, some men struggled with introducing and accepting the commitment and dependency of having to take it every day for the rest of their lives. This was something the men battled with, whilst also perceiving it as another milestone in the process of getting an HIV diagnosis. It is interesting to see how important it was for the men to tell their story and relive the moment they received the shocking news of their diagnosis – this is the starting point from which they had to learn how to cope and to develop PTG. This super-ordinate theme gives an overview of the struggle to cope when receiving an HIV-positive diagnosis and offers insight into what it is like for gay men to go through this experience. The next section will attempt to demonstrate the ways in which the men have developed PTG through a change in their relationships since their diagnosis. These include relationships with self; relationships with others; and relationships with HIV.
Each super-ordinate theme needs an introduction outlining its organisation.
Qualitative data is difficult to present neatly in tables and figures. It is usually expressed in words, and this results in a large quantity of written material, through which you must guide your reader.
Structure is therefore very important.
Try to make your sections and subsections reflect the themes that have emerged from your analysis of the data, and to make sure your reader knows how these themes evolved. Headings and subheadings, as well as directions to the reader, are forms of signposting you can use to make these chapters easy to navigate.
Qualitative data
The reporting of qualitative data is much less bound by convention than that of quantitative data. The data itself usually consists of words, from written documents or interview transcripts (but may include images), which have been analysed in some way, often into themes. In reporting the data, it is generally important to convey both the themes and some of the flavour of the actual words.
The data needs to be connected back through the layers of detail to the overarching research question it relates to. This can be done through the introductions to carefully-structured sections and subsections. Individual data extracts can be connected back into this structure through a process of ‘tell-show-tell’.