Hey everyone!
I’m excited to share that my research has been going really well!!! It was a rocky start at the beginning, I’m not going to lie. From starting a bit late to showing up to a meeting having done something completely wrong, I’m glad my mentor and I are still chugging along during this very interesting and exciting journey. 🙂
The overall premise of my research project is comparing two sets of data and extracting patterns that I would further analyze in a write-up. What’s unique, though, is that although the data itself is quantitative, the numbers or “codes” represent qualitative values, so there’s some mixed-methods going on here. I’m a huge fan of qualitative analysis and mixed-methods, so I like that my mentor is keeping the data analysis less quant-focused and more qual. She’s also a qual person too, so we’re definitely on the same page about that.
The major tool we’re using for data analysis is a software called SPSS. To describe it simply, it’s very similar to Excel where you have categories/variables and then cells to input data. However, SPSS is unique in that it has a separate tab where variables need to be described and tagged in certain ways so the program can run statistical tests correctly with the variables. SPSS is kind of like if R and Excel had a baby now that I think about it. It’s very cool, but definitely had a little but of a learning curve at the beginning because I’ve never used statistical software like that before.
Although the bulk of my project is just looking at SPSS on Zoom with my mentor, I’m super stoked to be meeting with her in person next week! This would be only the second time in a couple years that we’ve met in person largely due to the pandemic, so it’s exciting to work with the data with my hands in our lab. Since my data is coming primarily from body maps completed by survivors of GBV, we are going to lay them all out and make some qualitative observations by just taking a broad look at the maps – are there any noticeable patterns or anything that sticks out which would possibly lead to the formation of a hypothesis?
The whole point of the CENI (which is the interview tool used to gather this data) is to take into account socio-cultural factors that play into recovering from trauma endured due to an assault. As participants speak about their experiences with working with their trauma within the context of their culture, it’s hard NOT to think about how my own social influences compare. I think it’s simply human nature to empathize with them. A social identity that I think about most would definitely be my ethnicity. Although my parents are immigrants from India and I was born in the US, they still brought a lot of those traditional Indian values with them to the states. I tend not to agree with a lot of them that characterize speaking about GBV as bad or attach a hurtful stigma to seeking recovery services like therapy. I find myself feeling more connected to participants whose stories share similar experiences.
-Megan