Food for thought

Today I am working on a reflective paper for a course I took last spring. The course: Fat Studies. Yes,

... FAT as in obese, overweight or XXXL. In my reflecting, I realized how much I enjoyed this

course.

This course examines body weight, shape and size and an area of human difference subject to privilege and discrimination that intersects with other systems of oppression based on gender, race class, age, sexual orientation and ability’. I took the course as an opportunity to better understand the population I wanted to work with for my dissertation. Little did I know, there was abundant and compelling research on ‘fat’ people. I wanted to share with you all a fantastic journal that promotes a healthy life at any size.... even fat. Here is the link .......
http://www.bulimia.com/client/client_pages/HAESprotected/HAES20-1.pdf

here are more articles from the journal

http://www.bulimia.com/client/client_pages/haespdfs.cfm

Here is my take on the course and part of what I have been working on today - you are forewarned this is a rough draft. 

I have come to learn that fat bias is deeply ingrained in our culture and simply having a conversation about it is challenging.  Several students in the course blatantly stated that fat people were disgusting and bones were sexy. Like most students in the course, I initially believed the traditional health paradigm* that weight equals health. Simply put, the skinnier you are the healthier you are. Most people would agree with this because of the bombardment of ‘weight loss’ promotion and the “War on Obesity” campaign. This class challenged the mainstream mentality about fat people. We looked at cultural and personal biases and questioned them. This class broadened my spectrum and challenged me to view life from another perspective. Several professional and personal aspects of my life were influenced from this course.

            Personally, I regularly weighed myself and based my worth on weight. I had been told my entire life that  ‘if you are not within this BMI range, then you are overweight, that is unhealthy and you are bad’. Looking back, it was emotionally exhausting to get on and off the scale, while holding my breath and thinking, “will I be healthy today?”. Even though I exercised regularly and ate fresh fruits and vegetables, the answer was always no. I finally decided to get off this emotional roller coaster and base my health on the healthy activities I did every day. I have not weighed myself for almost a year while the byproduct of this behavior is my emotional and physical health has never been better.  I feel more encouraged to exercise with the knowledge that I am doing this for my health, not for a number.  This also seeped into my job as a fitness trainer.

            In my professional life, as a personal trainer I work with a variety of body types where the main goal is weight loss. I have now shifted my training style to place the focus to overall health. I now tell my clients that I do not want to weight them. They are always shocked and simultaneously relieved that I don’t want them to get on a scale or even take their measurements.  When they ask why, I say that their worth is not based on the scale and as long as they are being active I can’t ask for more. Needless to say, I have a long waiting list for new clients and have never seen so many physical and emotional improvements.
            Lastly, my professional academic career has been greatly impacted. I never quite understood the emotional stress that fat people are subject to.  As a student studying apparel design, sport and exercise psychology and women’s studies I have come to understand the physical and emotional challenges fat men and women face in our culture.

            The psychological aspects of the course meshed very well with my field of study. I never quite understood the emotional stress that fat people are subject to.  As a student studying apparel design, sport and exercise psychology and women’s studies I have come to understand the physical and emotional challenges fat men and women face in our culture.

            One of the most challenging parts of this course was that I had to look at some of my personal biases. Biases towards myself and others were surprising. I never knew there was such a concept as ‘thin privilege’. Every college student should challenge the mainstream thoughts and broaden their education through this course. 

*paradigm |ˈparəˌdīm| noun1 technical a typical example or pattern of something; a model: there is a newparadigm for public art in this country.• a worldview underlying the theories and methodology of a particular scientific subject: the discovery of universal gravitation became the paradigm ofsuccessful science.

Breathing

What a whirl wind weekend. Friday night was full of grading paper and homework. While Saturday was full of celebrating Jay's 30th birthday. His family arrived Saturday early afternoon and we had lunch then walked around campus. After that, we went to the Tyee Winery and sampled some delicious vino! Then it was necessary to stop back at Jays house to feed Mugsy... or at least that what was Jay thought we were going back for. Little did he know, 30 of his friends and family were waiting at his house with the lights off to surprise him for his 30th birthday. Ohh to see the expression on his face. (Pictures to come) It was an aloha theme with a ton of food and drink. We stayed up late into the night to play pool and spend time with family. Something I value more and more the older I get. There is a lot of transition, growth and wonder happening at this point in life.

I am so excited for the adventure in life and am doing my best to 'just breath' and remember that everything will (and always does) work out for the best.

Me today.

Hello publishing connections!

I am feeling really big time right now, even though I know I am not :) The Fairchild publishing house just called me and asked me where I was in the process of graduation and job search. Well, it was really fun to tell them I am have found a great place to build my teaching and scholarship foundation blha blha bhal that is besides the point..... BUT........ they are sending me possible books to use for the new courses and I love books so I am really excited! ALSO, they were touching base to see if I was still interested in co-authoring a product development book. After I finish my dissertation I will begin the process of writing an academic book for an undergraduate course. It is exciting to think that someday a college student will have a book with my name on it. Another fun fact: college professors write the majority of the books used in educational courses! Now that I have developed myself in the academic field it is really fun to go book shopping because I can say, "oh I know that author, she (sometimes he) was a professor of mine at WSU or I met them at a conference"....... A very exciting thing to think about and a future goal of mine.

Whoa, Totally wiped out

Today is one of those days that feels like it will never end. It has been long and slow and kind of irritating. Can a day be irritating? well, it feels like it. In lecture today I decided to have the students play a jeopardy game in order to help them prep for the midterm exam this Friday. Instead of being nice and playing well with each other, they got very competitive to the point of being rude to me. I was so surprised by their actions, one student even said to me, 'you are corrupt and picking favorites', Whoa, really? In my attempt to make learning fun, I was growled at :(. Instead of having a fun friendly competition, it turned into, 'our hand was up first', 'your cheating', 'this is stupid', do we have to stay? and on and on it went. As much as i enjoy the academic challenge of learning and stretching my brain to think in new ways, I do not like the feeling that I am babysitting children. Some times I feel like I am working with 5 year olds. But I guess that is what college is about, learning who you are, who you want to be, how to interact with others and maybe even trying to fluster your teacher. Well, it worked. I was flustered to the point of not even knowing what to say. It is hard to be a younger teacher as I guess there are challenges teaching at any age but anyways I guess my point is......teaching today was not fun. Hoping teaching tomorrow is better.

Thank you IRB!

I finally got an email from IRB- internal review board- with some feedback. They want me to change the wording of a few sentences so it is legal. Just kind of mumbo jumbo stuff. But, I am happily fixing their requests and hoping to get approval by the end of this week.

I feel as though once I get approval I will be swamped with the responsibility of research. I am so excited to get this thing rolling! I have even more motivation with my job offer. I have four women who are ready to start the research process...... I am not sure if I have REALLY gone over what my dissertation is about. Well... here is an overview of the research process....... only if you are interested.. slightly munbo jumbo as well....... in brief- I want to explore how overweight women feel about exercise clothing. What they currently have (if any) and then I will send them a Nike outfit and see how they feel about that outfit, if anything at all.

PURPOSE:

Description of Research: The purpose of this research is to explore the experiences overweight adult women have with athletic apparel. 

The main objectives of the study are:

1)     To determine overweight adult women’s experiences with athletic clothing.

2)    To describe the preferred styles of athletic apparel for overweight adult women.

3)     To determine if clothing for physical activity among overweight adult women is a factor to engaging in physical activity.

4)    To describe how overweight women view the purpose of athletic apparel in relation to physical activity.

            5)    To determine what coping behaviors overweight women engage in associated with                              social comparison of self to the cultural beauty ideal. 

PHASES:

Phase 1: Recruitment- If a participant desires to volunteer for the study they will contact the student researcher via email: christed@onid.orst.edu. 

Phase 2: The researcher will email the participant the alternative consent document. The email will include the following statement “Thank you for contacting me about volunteering for a research study. Based on your interest, you are a woman ages 30-65, wear a size 16-26, with a waist between 38.5” to 51.5”, a bust between 44.5” and 56.5”, with Internet access/Skype. This study is to explore experiences with athletic clothing. Please read the attached document and contact me to schedule a Skype or phone conversation to clarify the research process. Thank you! Sincerely, Debbie Christel.”

Phase 3: During the initial conversation, the eligibility screening and informed consent will take place.  The researcher will confirm the participant fits within the eligibility screening.  Upon giving confirmation to screening requiremtns, volunteering for the study, and giving oral consent, participants will be asked to fill out a basic demographic profile including age, socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, income, marital status, occupancy, email, address, if they have children, the Rosenburg self esteem survey and a Social Physique Anxiety measure. The survey takes less than 10 minutes. The basic demographics, the Rosenburg self esteem survey and the Social Psyique Anxiety survey are viewable at the following links:

  

Phase 4: After completion of the survey, they will be asked to select an athletic outfit from a PDF file that is emailed to them. The PDF contains images of four apparel items. Two tops and two bottoms are to be selected from. Each participant will select one top and one bottom that will then be mailed to their provided address in the demographics.

Phase 5: Following garment selection, participants will be introduced to email prompts. The participant’s will respond to prompts including thoughts and feelings about the clothing.

The first prompt will be emailed after the initial contact and oral consent. Approximately one week later, and every week following, another prompt will be emailed until the completion of the interviews. Totaling four email prompts.

Phase 6: Upon receiving the clothing the participants will schedule a Skype™ interview with the researcher within 7 days of receiving the clothing. There will then be one or two follow up interviews four weeks later. Skype interviews will be scheduled through email. The interview(s) will take approximately 30 minutes to one hour.  The following outline describes the questions that will be asked.

The final phase 7: The participants will be asked if they know anyone who might be interested in participating in the study.  

So yeah........ if you have made it this far I hope you are not about to fall asleep!!!! I know the language is verbous and daunting but it is the way the cookie crumbles and I figure I better figure out how to do it! 

Hmmmmm. any other updates from Corvallis, OR...... I got my hair cut today :) That was fun, I really like the lady who does my hair, she is sweet and so fun to chat with. 

This is what Mugsy is up to...... jealous much?

West Virginia University? Why not?

Friday afternoon, sitting in my office, grading papers and my phone rings...... I see on the caller ID Morgantown, WV. I know it is the call that I have been waiting an entire month for. This is the call that is either going to offer me a position at WVU or not. The call was in my favor and they offered me a 9-month, tenure track assistant professor position! Yeah! I was thrilled! I did not accept right away because I have to negotiate a few things first..... salary, a travel stipend (moving from Oregon to West Virginia will not be cheap), some equipment and trainings as well as a teaching assistant. Ahhhhhh, it is still settling in that in 5 months I'll be moving into a career as a professor and researcher. Whoa. Guess the "real world" is just around the corner. Well, I actually think I am in the real world right now. Not much will change, I will still be teaching and researching just in a new place. I will just have my own office, research support, a salary for the first time in my life and an entire mountain of new trials to explore.

Wondering where Morgantown is??? I had to look at a map before I went there because I had no idea.

Welp, there it is. 2,610 miles from Portland, OR. Whoa.

But, if anyone knows me, they know I like adventure. This will be one exciting adventure. Don't worry though, the PNW is my home. My family is in the PNW and when it is all said and done, I know that is where I want to be. 

Mixed emotions right now: Excited, proud, nervous, anxious, relieved, curious and grateful. 

First a Coug, then a Beav, now a Mountaineer. 

Another year gone by

As I lay in bed (still under the firm grip of a sinus virus) I reflect on this past academic year. Tonight is the departments Annual Recycled Fashion Show. For the past tree years I have enjoyed working with the club that produces the show. What an amazing group of undergraduate women I get to work with. I am amazed at their team work and endless energy. I mean, a lot of work goes into putting on a fashion show with over 60 designers, 60 models and not to mention around 900 guest, oh and yeah all the back stage crew that needs to be there including music and technical/ lighting crew. WhOA! So, besides these brilliant students are the creative designers (not to mention that the majority of the students hosting the show are also designers themselves).

Fun fact: Oregon State University hosts the oldest recycled fashion show in the US, dating back to 1995. Back to my main point......some personal reflection of this show over the last few years. Aside from being a studious graduate student I use this show as a creative outlet. Below are my recycled garments from the past three years.

In 2010..... I designed this wedding dress out of used dryer sheets, my most fun project.

more pictures on my web portfolio
http://debchristel.webs.com/

Then 2011......I was drinking a lot of tea that year......and I designed the following dress out of Tea Bag wrappers- once you take the tea bag out of the wrapper, what do you do with the foil wrapping? throw it out usually, but I (and countless others) decided to save about 500+ to make this, isn't the model stunning??

Here is a close up of the dress.......

Then, this year 2012 I used a bed sheet from say the 1970s era to made a sun dress. This is actually something that I will wear. It is very soft considering it has been around and used for the last 40 years.

A little blurry but I will get better pictures tonight at the live show. This has been a really fun event for me and I know that I will miss this when I leave Oregon State. Maybe I will have to take the idea with me to my next university........

link to the live show- skip ahead to minute 25 to just see my beautiful model and the dress
http://people.oregonstate.edu/~kempj/media/player.html?pl=playlists/newtv.xml

Final Pics!!!

Looking over these I am feeling inspired to submit them for design publication...... eh' why not?
Taking small steps in the direction of my dreams every day, even though sometimes I am not sure what they are I just keep moving forward. Feeling so grateful for all that is in my life. Thank you J$, Gma, Mugs, Mom, Dad, JGirl, Big C, D-Fresh, other Jgirl, Alf,  roomies, Da-Burns, KMull, E, my kids, workout girls, dridri, banana and the list goes on.......  I so much enjoy abbreviating and donning my loved ones with nick names.

Thoughts on Valentines

So much for 'sweating it out' yesterday. This morning I went to teach spin and it was a disaster. Well, the work out was great for my class but I just peddled lightly on the bike and probably should have stayed in bed. Its funny how the gym works- there are signs that say 'if you are sick stay home and get well' but when you call in sick everyone says 'what?? who is covering for you??", it is an oxymoron- the boss says take care of yourself but when you are sick they give you a guilt trip- wtf? Oh well, I am officially on bed rest for the entire day per Dr. Jay orders. I am having mixed emotions about lounging around. I have to tell myself that it is OK to take a day off, even though it feels really weird not to be in my office. I have been drinking a ton of water, chicken broth and tea. I have got Mugsy snuggled up with me and I am thinking a movie tonight....alone.

Hahaha, let me explain. I know it is valentines and in the past 4 years I have come to strongly dis-like this Valentines Day- not what the day means because I am all for showing those around you that you love them BUT I am not a fan of the Hallmark version where people feel obligated to buy a stupid stuffed teddy bear or a big balloon. I would so much rather go do something together instead of exchange gifts. Although I should add that I do enjoy getting flowers just when it is not expected..... and Valentines is expected hence the main reason I do not promote this day. Oh, I never finished why I am movie watching alone. Well, Jay is studying for his second CPA exam that is coming up in less than 2 weeks and the last thing he needs to get whatever I have. There is little academic progress happening on my end. So, all in all I guess this is as good of a time to get sick as any because I am still officially waiting to start my data collection. A joy of graduate school (sarcastic tone intended). Off to make more tea. Hoping tomorrow I will be back at it!

Ballon in my head today

Waking up at 3am with a stuffy nose was not how I wanted to start this week. I decided to plow through this morning and go to the gym anyways. I was once told, 'sweating it out' was the best way to get over something. So, I definitely sweated but I did not sweat it out quite yet. I have got this balloon feeling in my head, pressure on my ears, ya know? Oh well, I am finally on campus at 12 and starting to get to work.

Well, actually, I worked from home this morning for a while. I have been analyzing the data from a study of mine- the beliefs about obese people in apparel design students. Well, this is what I calculated this morning........... of my study.......

Results:

A total of 277 students responded to the survey. 241 females and 29 males responded. Of those, seven surveys were incomplete and were removed from the data analysis reducing the sample to 270. Female respondents age ranged from 17 to 47 with an average age of 21. The male respondents age was 18- 38 with an average age of 20. The majors stated were Apparel Design, Merchandising Managements, Interior Design, Housing Studies, Design and Human Environment, pre- apparel, pre-merchandising, pre-interiors or pre-housing. For clarification, every pre-program indicated was grouped into its major. For example- pre-merchandising management and declared merchandising management were grouped into the label MM, pre-interiors, interior design and housing studies were grouped into the label ID and the reminder of students were categorized as label DHE. 

I then broke down the students identified race.

As you can tell, there is very little diversity in this sample but that is OK I just need to remember to add that as a limitation to my study. 

When I am reading my writing, sometimes I feel like the parents in Charlie Brown when they talk..

wha wha wha wha wha wha wha wha- you must look at this video....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss2hULhXf04

I am still working on calculating the actual scores but what it looks like so far is that this sample of students shows a substantial amount of anti-fat bias. Meaning they do not like fat people....... is it a coincidence that some fat people have trouble finding well fitting clothing??? not sure, but that is the direction I am taking this paper. I will let you all know if/when it gets accepted. I am hoping to get accepted to the ITAA conference!!!! 

Off to do more calculations. Good thing I have my sidekick for support today :)

(Mugsy under my desk)

Library day

Spending the morning at the Oregon State Library looking for books on Grounded Theory research methods. Whenever I come to the library I have to keep myself really focused because I love books and I am always amazed at the amount of knowledge and resources there are here. The library is 6 floors and in my journey for Grounded theory I was side tracked and seduced by the women's studies section (by section I mean 14 rows of amazing literature).......Check out the beauty below

Such a wonderful place to be. Well, after an hour of playing around, I finally had to re-group and get my mind back to this grounded theory method that I am supposed to talk about in class in a few weeks. In grad school, instead of the professor lecturing to the students about a topic, the professor assigns each grad student a topic, then we have to go research it and lead discussion on the topic- great learning technique- but my topic is vague and difficult to understand. So....... my task for the day- first, stay on task, second- find explicit reading on the subject of grounded theory, third- eat lunch at some point and play with Mugsy- maybe a trip to the dog park? p.s. Cougs dominated in basketball thursday night against the Beavers- I went to the game and it was awesome. 

If then functions?

I decided that while I am waiting for IRB and other things to be processed, I will pick up another project that has been on the back burner.

Last spring, I collected about 300 surveys from apparel design and merchandising student measuring their beliefs about obese people. In order to convert the results from a crazy excel sheet with a ton of numbers I need to figure out how to do a if = then function.... or something like that. Haha, well my morning has been filled with dull reading of how to create a function to add up the results for me. (Sometime I wonder if taking the time to figure out how to tell a computer to score it is slower than manually adding up the scores myself...)

I am planning to finish this study up and submit it for publication in an academic journal, International Textiles and Apparel Association, ITAA- I went to their conference last year in Philadelphia and it was really fun and educational- I will let you all know the results of the study once I can figure out how to actually do the formulas. Fun fact: the ITAA conference this year is being hosted in Hawaii, life is so rough when you have to go to a conference in Hawaii right? Hoping my paper gets accepted!

Off to a meeting, a lunch lecture then to give my students a quiz on style lines... here is a sample of what the students are being quizzed on...... Do you know what these styles are called? Oh how I love fashion :)

Feeling soooo anxious

I am not sure if it was that extra cup of coffee this afternoon or not but I am on pins and needles just waiting!

I am waiting for IRB approval, Internal Review Board Approval for my dissertation project. They want to make sure that the research i am doing is ethical and my participants are not under harm. It has been exactly 2 weeks - the given timeline for a response- and I have not heard anything soooo I called the IRB office, and I know they do not like it when grad students call and say helllooooooo WTF are you doing over there?? But I did, the response was: We are giving your reviewer until Monday and if he (they are not supposed to disclose the gender of the reviewer...) does not get to them then they will nudge him. That is all I got. In the mean time, I am ethically bound to not collecting any data and I am getting antsy.

Seconddddddddly, I am getting an additional email address through OSU so I can easily keep my research and student emails separate. However, I am not allowed to apply for it, our office assistant has to do that. Yeah so about 3 months ago I asked him to, his response was yeah yeah of course I will, then 3 weeks later he asked if my additional email was approved and I was like DUHHHHH. So Monday I emailed him to ask where we were in the process and his response, "ohhh I forgot". Awesome. Waiting on office assistant to get it together.

Besides that..... I am waiting to hear from WVU and MSU about my interview and if they have an offer to make. I have been doing a great job of keeping myself busy with small project and attending extra seminars but today has been slow for me and I am anxious. Hmm tips for combating anxiousness- stop thinking about whatever it is that makes you anxious. Jay and I are going to take Mugsy to the dog park and walk along the river. Hoping that will help take my mind off all the waiting I feel like I am doing right now.....

enough ranting for the day :) p.s. 75 pages of writing for my dissertation done so far! yes!

p.p.s. I was very disappointed this morning, after working out to find no bra in my bag...meaning I was hanging loose for the first class of the day... hahahaha

Amazing Night!!!!!

Last night Jay and I went to a Panel Discussion about.... FAT
FAT: Size Discrimination Series Part 1: Deconstructing Size Discrimination, Myths, and Stereotypes 
Tuesday February 7, 7-8:30pm                                                                                                  What does it mean to be fat in our society? Come discuss, learn, and breakdown the social stigmas and stereotypes surrounding size in our country. Learn about size discrimination and ways we can beat it, bust myths about fat people, and learn more about embracing all body types, shapes, and sizes.


It was amazing! I briefly talked about it yesterday but the experience was so great. I got to hear overweight, fat, obese, large women talk about their lives and the experiences they have everyday. It was very touching and eye opening for both me and Jay too. 


I reached out to a few women who said they wanted to work out but didnt feel emotionally 'safe' at the college gym. I gave them my card and invited them to a lunch presentation I am giving tomorrow.....

Got Motivation?

This session will mentally and physically get you ready to go exercise, go to Dixon, or any physical activity program. Are you lacking the motivation or just lacking the knowhow? This will give you all the tools to not only feel good when being physically activity but to look good while doing it! Come learn what to wear and what to bring before you exercise, go to the gym or engage in any type of physical activity program.

That is the blurb that is posted about my talk. I am talking from a Health At Every Size approach about physical activity.

Here are a few links that go into that approach a bit further. For now I need to prep for lecture, finalize a paper due tomorrow and make sure the fashion club is selling tickets when they said they would..... for the Recycled Fashion show! Coming up next week!!

http://www.haescommunity.org/

Ciao!

A motivational story

Stories like the one below are a huge motivator for me. I dream of a place where young children are celebrated for their differences in shape, size, color, voice and whatever else defines a person. I feel a need to at least try and make a difference.

 From: Book- Weight bias: nature, consequences, and remedies By Dr. Kelly D. Brownell


Story written by Carol. A Johnson

UUhhhh so boring

Totally how I felt this morning...... hahahahah I LOVE THIS picture :)

I am taking a course titled "Qualitative data methods", there are these 2 students in the course from Anthropology and they cannot stop talking about their programs and their methods and how they do everything. Uhhh it is soo annoying. Both of our disciplines use the same methods we just use different language and that is fine but instead of talking about the methods, these Anthro guys just want to talk about themselves. Haha whatever, what is everyones favorite topic? themselves! But my point is that you have time outside of class to talk about your self but while we are here we should stay on topic.........

Time to focus on the topic and not how it relates to me or my research just how it relates to methods.

Going to a panel discussion tonight at the Womens Building:

FAT: Size Discrimination Series Part 1: Deconstructing Size Discrimination, Myths, and Stereotypes 

Tuesday February 7, 7-8:30pm                                                                                         


What does it mean to be fat in our society? Come discuss, learn, and breakdown the social stigmas and stereotypes surrounding size in our country. Learn about size discrimination and ways we can beat it, bust myths about fat people, and learn more about embracing all body types, shapes, and sizes.


Excited!

Interdisciplinary research is awesome.

Today I had a meeting with Dr. Patti Watkins, a certified clinical psychologist who taught the course "Fat Studies" and teaches several courses in women's studies as well as psychology. We are working on a project together to publish in Women's Psychology Quarterly. I always enjoy meeting with her because she is so genuine and I am left feeling inspired and positively reinforced.

Her main area of study is anti-fat bias and eating disorders. I was so excited when she asked me to write an article with her to submit for publication in a scholarly journal. She also invited me to attend a conference in Portland in a few weeks.

Here is the link to the Conference titled: Rethinking Obesity: A Compassionate and Collaborative Approach to  Weight Concerns.

http://graduate.lclark.edu/live/news/10089-credn-conference-for-professionals

I am really excited to go and listen to other professionals perspectives about innovative approaches to obesity. I am hoping to gain knowledge and techniques for teaching fitness classes as well as conducting my interviews with overweight women in the future.

Aside from my meeting with Patti, today was fairly busy. I did a fitness class at the gym, then went to campus and graded mid-terms for a few hours (cannot wait to have a TA), then I read several articles for a  class I have Tuesday mornings, lectured and walked home at 5. My students were really tired today and I had very little participation- wondering if it is because of the Super Bowl yesterday...... either way it is really tough to lecture when your entire class looks like they are going to fall asleep. It is also challenging when not a single student did the required reading. How can we have a group discussion if no one does the reading? A little frustrating from my perspective but I am hopeful they will have the reading done for Wednesdays class...... We shall see!!!

Well, off to make a little dinner then snuggle with Musgy :)

Superbowl sunday

Today is the Superbowl Sunday - While I painted my nails I watched about 30 minutes, mostly for the commercials. I am now sitting down at my desk getting ready to read about Case Studies. A case study is an analysis of a person or group and their development in relation to a certain life situation. That is the best I can describe it right now.

Today was really great. It was sunny and about 57 for the high. I did laundry, worked on my dissertation, worked on a theory paper, the Nike paper and did some yoga with Jay. I went to the grocery store and got tea, broccoli and rice for the week. I also baked some g-free cookies, I had a sweet tooth. Nothing new about that!

Well, off to read and take some notes then to bed! I have got the 5:45am wake up call for workout class at the gym. Then I am in week 5 (out of 11) for the Winter quarter! Feels like time goes by so fast!

Defining my approach to research

The first part of my goals today were accomplished!

Below is a rough draft of my methods section for my dissertation. I am working on explaining the why question of my project. I always welcome feedback!!

Methods: 

First, it is necessary to clarify the research perspective. The researcher is conducting the study from a feminist paradigm in an attempt to interpret the experiences overweight women have with athletic clothing.  In order to “elicit authentic accounts of subjective experience” an emotionalism method will be used to conduct semi-structured in-depth interviews (Silverman, 2001). A feminist approach to social research contains several characteristics. Women, who use multiple research techniques in an attempt to give a voice to women, are often considered conducting feminist research. “Feminist research assumes that the subjective experiences of women differs from that of men” (Nueman, 2009). The characteristics of feminist research align with the purpose of the study as well as the researchers personal feelings. The study recognizes the emotional and mutual-dependence proportions of human experience. This study is action oriented and seeks to facilitate personal and societal change.  The study also strives to create empathetic connections between the researcher and the participants in the study. This lead to an emotionalism method for conducting the interviews that aligns with a feminist approach.

            An emotionalism method for conducting interviews follows certain beliefs. The main concern when using an emotionalism method is with the lived experience of the participant. The emotions of the participant are treated as central to such experience. This technique encourages interviewers to become emotionally involved with the participants and to convey their own feelings to both participants and readers (Gubrium & Holstein, 1997).  “If interviewees are to be viewed as subjects who actively construct the features of their cognitive world, then one should try to obtain inter-subjective depth between both sides so that a deep mutual understanding can be achieved” (Silverman, 2004). This method utilizes a semi-structured or unstructured interview style. The main reasons for this preference are 1) It allows respondents to use their ‘unique way of describing the world’, 2) It assumes that no fixed arrangement of questions is suitable to all respondents, 3) it allows respondent to ‘raise important issues not contained in the schedule’. (Silverman, 2004). Using a feminist approach with an emotionalism method will allow the researcher flexibility in choosing research techniques.

            Now that the perspective is defined, a triangulation method will be used to clarify the research question. The question, how do overweight women experience athletic apparel? Is clothing a source of social physique anxiety?

The next section of the study goes on to the triangulation method (meaning I am using 3 methods to collect data- interview, survey and journaling) then I get into the exact protocol or process of the study. Hope you are too bored..... :)

Today in Phd land

Good morning,


Today in PhD land (that is what I call my life sometimes) I am planning to work on a few articles. Take Mugsy for a long hike and then take the night to relax.


After a fantastic night sleep I am settling down to my computer to work on 2 projects. The first, a theory and methods paper for a qualitative research methods course I am taking. The second, an analysis that I am submitting for publication through a marketing journal. 


So, theory - how do I view theory.....In social research (working with human behavior) A theory is an unproven idea or speculation. So anything can be a theory really- you know how people sometimes say "well in theory....." But i think In medical or scientific fields, a theory is actually tested and provable. If you have any thoughts on theory I would love to hear them. As much as I enjoy theory I really like methods. Right now I am exploring different interviewing techniques (interviewing technique = method). I have decided to use an emotionalism technique for my dissertation (like a senior capstone project or major research project). Side note- I feel like I have literally had to learn an entire new language.......


Here is table that gives a general overview of the three most common methods for conducting interviews. 

Due to the nature of my dissertation (Overweight women's experiences with athletic apparel), I want to use an emotionalism method for interviewing. This means that I want to have a semi-structured list of questions to go over with my participants (the people I interview) but I want to make the interview more of a discussion to really understand the emotional aspects of the clothing. I also have a specific type of woman that I want to work with so using a positivism approach would not work for me. Aside from my method I need to justify it......... If only it were as easy as saying, "I want to use emotionalism!" Because I know my committee will say "why?". The question I have heard a billion times since I started graduate school, "Why are you doing that?"...... 


So, one of my projects this morning is learning why I want to use that as opposed to other methods. 


Hmmmmmm, what else... I will also work on the analysis of customer reviews. I analyzed 70 consumer reviews from the Nike website (content analysis= a methodology in the social sciences for studying the content of communication. Earl Babbie defines it as "the study of recorded human communications, such as books, websites, paintings and laws.") I used that technique with plus size athletic apparel from the Nike website. It was a lot of fun and I am hoping to have it published this spring through a marketing and consumer behavior journal. 


Time to get to it. 

In the beginning.....

Hi Everyone!

I decided to start blogging about the experiences and meanings of being a PhD student/candidate. First, if you are a PhD student that means that you have not completed your required classes and have not yet completed your preliminary exams. Preliminary exams are a series of test that evaluate if you are ready to conduct independent research - research without the help of your advisor. What is great about the preliminary exams is that you pick the people who give you the exams. I have selected a group of five people who are experts in their fields. I have chosen a social psychologists (who is also my advisor or major professor - Dr. Burns), a functional apparel design professor - Dr. Mullet, a sport and exercise psychologists - Dr. Ebbeck (who is my minor professor), Dr. Bee an expert in consumer behavior and Dr. Roper the VP of Student Affairs at OSU. I picked these people because I knew they would challenge me and support me throughout the journey. Long story short, I am a candidate not a student - but that is simply logistics and not the essence of the post.

I am in the last phase of my degree, meaning that I have finished my coursework (about 112 hours of in class meetings), completed my preliminary exams, proposed my research project and am waiting on IRB approval. (IRB - Internal Review Board - every higher educational institution that conducts research has one of these and it is theory job to make sure that the professors are conduction safe and ethical studies.) I have 7 more months left and I decided this would be a great way for me to share the process, trials, tribulations and successes with those who are interested.

OK,  great. But still, what does it mean to be getting a PhD?

Well, to me it means several things. It means broadening and challenging my scope of thinking. It means challenging social norms. It means questioning why we (humans) do the things we do. It also means educating. It means 9 years of college. It means a lot of debt. It means a passion for analytical thought processes. It means I challenge the norms of our society. It mostly means that I want to become more intellectually engaged with and more critically sophisticated in the study of human behavior.

What does it mean to you?