A THEMATIC ANALYSIS ON LIFESPAN DEVELOPMENTWITH REAL LIFE EXPERIENCES OF A COUPLE
A THEMATIC ANALYSIS ON LIFESPAN DEVELOPMENT
WITH REAL LIFE EXPERIENCES OF A COUPLE
The aim of this research is to explore a married couple's real life experiences and the possible influences that affect their life development. A qualitative thematic analysis was carried out on pre-existing material of three semi-structured interviews and a video. Two main themes were identified : Various Influences and Changeable. This analysis showed support for some research done regarding Erikson's development stages, Peck's contribution on later life, developmental contextualism and Bronfenbrenner's theory. The findings suggest that life development is multi-facet. A reflexive analysis reviews some limitation on this analysis and recommendations are also made.
INTRODUCTION
Lifespan development is the one among different psychological perspectives. Psychologists are of different views on human development. Some of them split human development into different stages, some of them focus on the people's later development, some are optimistic but some not, and some opined that our development are deterministic but also some do not think so.
Erik Erikson has developed a theory named as Psychosocial in which he stated that there would be eight development stages from birth to later adulthood within our life. (Cooper & Roth, 2002). The theory emphasised that our development is a product of the interaction between the society and individual; and our parents seems to play a key role in our early life. Erikson argued that everyone must develop throughout these eight stages.
While treating later life as a relative stable period, Erikson neglect the room of change during the middle and old stages, to cope with this difficulty, Peck further subdivided these two stages into sub-stages. For middle age, Peck consider that we should acknowledge our loss of physical strength while also appreciate our gaining of wisdom, the main task within these stage is to redefine one's personality and personal relationship. Besides, individual should shift their emotional attachment to both the vertical and horizontal relationship, i.e. the death of parents and friendship (Cooper & Roth, 2002). For old age, in order to cater the crisis of retirement, Peck argued that individual need to seek other meaningful activities, thus accepted by themselves that they are continually contribute to and valued by the society.
Other approach on lifespan development is named as developmental contextualism. It emphasised that development of an individual cannot be seen as an isolated manner, rather, there are internal (e.g. physical fitness) and external (e.g. cultural and social) factors that influences one's development. These factors are referred as a level of explanation by psychologists, they comprise different variables, for instances, interpersonal influence, cultural influence, historical influence and etc. These variables would interact and change each other at the same or a different level of explanation which is known as dynamic interactionism. (Cooper & Roth, 2002)
In contrast to developmental contextualism, Bronfenbrenner is of different view. He argued that individuals are capable to determine their own development rather than simply constrained by internal and external influences. In his 'ecological' theory of development, he suggested that individuals are actively interact with his or her environment during their development. According to the theory, it divided individual physical environment into four parts, i.e. micosystem, mesosystem, exosystem and macrosystem as well. The microsystem refers to one's immediate environment, includes social, symbolic and physical characteristics, e.g. personality, healths, values and expectations. The mesosystem describes two or more microsystems inhabited ...
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In contrast to developmental contextualism, Bronfenbrenner is of different view. He argued that individuals are capable to determine their own development rather than simply constrained by internal and external influences. In his 'ecological' theory of development, he suggested that individuals are actively interact with his or her environment during their development. According to the theory, it divided individual physical environment into four parts, i.e. micosystem, mesosystem, exosystem and macrosystem as well. The microsystem refers to one's immediate environment, includes social, symbolic and physical characteristics, e.g. personality, healths, values and expectations. The mesosystem describes two or more microsystems inhabited by the same person, e.g. family, work and marriage. Links that take place between two or more settings involving the individual is known as the exosystem, i.e. our community. The macrosystem illustrates the patterns of the aforesaid systems that characterize any given culture or society structures. (Cooper & Roth, 2002)
In view of the above approaches, it seems that human development are encompassed by different stages, with internal and external influences; and individuals are with ability to actively change it during the process of development. The purpose of this qualitative research is to see how a couple, Tony and Jo experienced their life and what influence to their development indeed.
METHOD
Three semi-structured interviews were conducted of a (an aging) couple, Tony and Jo. There is no information on the exact ages of the stakeholders, including the interviewees and the three interviewers. For teaching purposes, the process of the interviews were videotaped with the interviewees' consent. The interviews touch topics of identity, separation and attachment and lifespan development. The first interview was conducted by a female researcher Jane who knew that couple for several years. A male researcher has conducted the second interview who knew none about that couple. The last interviewer was a female who asked them about their experiences on the first two interviews.
The research was adopted analysing pre-existing materials. It assumed that the Open University of United Kingdom (OUUK) adhered strictly to the British psychological code of ethics such as obtaining informed written consent, addressing issues around confidentiality, protection of participant's identities, permission to withdraw at any time and sufficient debriefing. (Miell, Phoenix & Thomas, 2002).
I am a Chinese male, a part-time psychology student (36 years of age) of the Open University of Hong Kong, and carried out a qualitative thematic analysis on transcripts and video provided by the OUUK. (see Appendix for the full annotated transcripts and an extracted video of the three interviews is also attached)
The lifespan development research topic and question were selected and supplied by the OUUK (DSE 212, Method Booklet 5, pages 60 and 61). Familiarization of material was done by reading Chapter 1 in Book 2 (Cooper & Roth, 2002). The next stage of the analysis involved my reading the transcripts several times - noting significant points related to my chosen research topic. I then identified recurrent themes from the transcripts. Two main themes were identified and the data was condensed under these themes. This was achieved by photocopying the transcripts and highlighting each bit of the dialogue relating to the themes in different colour pens. Only the first two interviews were used in this research.
ANALYSIS
The purpose of this qualitative research is to see how a couple, Tony and Jo experienced their life and what influence to their life development indeed. Upon reading the transcripts and watching to the video, two main themes emerged :
Theme 1 : Various Influences
In a number of occasions, the participants stated various influences, including historical, cultural, parents factors that influence their life :
I was taken ill when I was eleven and didn't go to school much before I was eleven because of the war ...... [lines 24 to 26]
I went to school in Leeds 'til I was just eight and then I was evacuated. [lines 44 to 45]
It's part of our background, it's the Victorian work ethic ... [line 54]
Our parent's influence [line 59]
...., that our fathers were taken away from us because of the war. [lines 90 to 91]
... you create as being the stability because children like stability. [lines 153 to 154]
Theme 2 : Changeable
The interviews recognizes that something are not fixed :
I had a very interesting year the year's education I had was very interesting situation in at a boarding school in Sussex. Where I was I learned a great deal actually. [lines 34 to 36]
I suppose I am self-educated ... [lines 40 to 41]
And I think that you can do so much more now with with less qualification. [line 84 to 85]
... now it's applauded that women have equal rights as men ... [line 143]
I, I think that that life has moved on or changes... [line 150]
DISCUSSION
The afore-quoted examples describes Tony and Jo's different experiences on their life development. The themes shall now be analyses in connection to the relevant literature and the questions as explained in the introduction part.
From my perception, both Tony and Jo are experienced with something that influenced their life (Theme 1). Tony has no opportunity to study; and both Tony and Jo were forced to leave their country because of war. Their behaviour seems to be guided by the rules of being a Methodist. Also, they use the word 'workaholic' to describes themselves is followed by the contemporary cultural, i.e. the Victorian work ethic. Apart from the above, Jo also experienced there is no chance for her to do a work which she is actually want to do.
The above examples also correspond to Erikson's theory that parents have play a key role in one's development. For instance, Tony and Jo's parents are Methodists, so they must behave as what a Methodist should be. And their fathers take them away from their home country due to the reason of war, thus change their lifestyle. Also, for the sake of stability, Tony has deliberately created a stability environment for his children.
Besides, contextualism's perspectives of historical and cultural influences were also reflected from Tony and Jo's dialogues. The war which bring them leave the country or deprive their schooling opportunity, which I treated as a historical influences. Their work were followed by the outdated Victorian work ethic; and Jo's loss of channel to pursue her interest with biology plants could be seem as cultural influence at that moment.
While Tony experienced a new life after living in Sussex in his eleven. He actively changed his identity from 'uneducated' (line 28) to 'self-educated' (line 41). He also opined that their children are of more opportunities to do more with less qualification. As for Jo, she also experienced women's right are improved. Those examples not only congruent with contextualism that "these variables would interact and change each other at the same or a different level of explanation"; but also Bronfenbrenner's 'ecological' theory of development, that is "Individuals are actively interact with his or her environment during their development". It obviously reflected that even though you yourself do not change any more, the historical and cultural factors might also affect one's life.
All in all, I consider that there is no clear cut on whether individual's development is influenced by one single factor, but multi-facet factors, yet, individual could also change his/her development actively. However, we should also appreciate that something are really determined and despite you have endeavour to pursue, it is no guarantee that you could success ultimately. For instance, Tony and Jo have no choice of having a Methodist parent, and they are inevitably to face the war. Therefore, I will accept one of the humanistic's perspective that we have our limitation, many things are inevitable and out of our control.
On the other hand, I consider that there would be other factors that will affect my findings. The first one is the pre-existing relationship between the interviewer and the interviewees, since the first interviewer Jane already knew the couple, but the second interviewer Dan not, whether the couple will only disclose least information to Dan? Furthermore, as the whole interview process will be videotaped, that means their dialogue will be disclosed to many people for teaching purpose, whether this point will led them to hide some important information? The second point is the imbalance power setting. As the whole process is dominated by the interviewers, i.e. all the questions are asked by them, the interviewers are neither opportunity to ask questions nor to raise other issues regarding their life, whether this will debar us to know the true picture.
REFLEXIVE ANALYSIS
This analysis is only based on the pre-existing materials, i.e. the transcript and the video; there is no chance for me to ask any questions about the interviewers and the interviewees. And as I stated before, I am a part-time student, I have no experience on research interview, that means I am not sure whether the interview questions setting and the materials provided are adequately for me to do the analysis.
Since I am not mature enough, I cannot really experience what the couple experienced. For instance, I have no experience on war, leave my country, or with a parent of Methodist. Furthermore, as the interviewees are not Chinese, the wording they are using may not what exactly I think due to cultural influence.
Therefore, in future studies, I would recommend that there is no pre-existing relationship between the interviewers and the interviewees. Videotaped interview is considered appropriate, but the crew members should be released, because I consider they will affect the interviewees' emotion. To reflect the content more precisely, it is also suggest that the studies should be done by native students, such arrangement could lower the cultural difference.
(2,050 words)
REFERENCES
Miell, D., Phoenix, A., and Thomas, K. (2002).
Mapping Psychology 1 (Book 1). Milton Keynes : The Open University Press
Cooper, T., and Roth, I. (2002).
Challenging Psychological Issues. Milton Keynes : The Open University Press
Methods Booklet 5. The Open University Press
DSE212 - TMA05
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