Curiosity

I have recently been reading the book Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends on It by Ian Leslie (2014), I see many applications of the book in dissertation work. Leslie defines curiosity as a need to make sense of the world and discusses several levels of curiosity. First, is diversive curiosity; in adults, this is a restless desire for the new and the next. Our modern technology seems designed to stimulate this level- every email, tweet, new smart phone or computer calls to us a promise to satisfy our needs. Unrestrained diversive curiosity drags us from one object to another without gaining any real insight. 

A deeper and more disciplined type of curiosity is epistemic curiosity. This type is related to problem solving, combining ideas, and creating new experiments to test those ideas. This is the level of curiosity needed for dissertations, to have the desire to dig deeper and make new connections. 

Leslie makes the argument that the internet has actually hurt our curiosity, making us more readily satisfied with quick answers and feeding into the diversive level. Quick answers results in less of a need to search and understand the connections between ideas and try to solve problems.  

A final type of curiosity is empathic curiosity, a search for understanding the thoughts and feelings of other people. This is not gossip or superficial details; rather it is putting yourself in another's place and to understand the world through their eyes. As an example, diversive curiosity may make you wonder what Emily does for a living. Empathic curiosity makes you wonder why she has chosen to be a dental hygienist. Empathic curiosity is the basis for much of psychology, to try to get at the underlying reasons for behavior. 

Next time I will look at the relationship of curiosity to pleasure. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Would you like to be a guest writer? Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu 

Leslie, I. (2014). Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends on It. London: Quercus.

 

The research journal as an organizer

What is a research journal? This is a journal, either on your computer or paper, where you keep track of everything related to your research project. If you have it on your computer in word, I suggest using a Research Journal folder and separate files within it. So it might look like this:

Research Journal

             Dissertation progress notes

             Library

             Future research ideas 

This will make it much easier to find things later. Within your files, I suggest always including the date and you may find it helpful to post the newest item at the top of the page. That way you don't have to scroll down to find the end. 

If you have a paper version, consider some type of dividers, you can use post it notes for this if actual folders aren't practical. Divide your journal similarly to the sub files above and always date your entries. 

In the section "Dissertation progress notes," keep a running log of what you are doing on your dissertation. It is also a good idea to write down comments from your chair or committee member. This is where you can vent your frustrations and share your excitement. 

In the section on "Library," write down your search terms and data bases used. You might want also to keep track of articles that you want to look up or ones that people suggest to you. 

In the section "Future research ideas," keep track of the connections that you see to other possible research studies. Even if right now, you don’t see yourself doing research in the future, write them down anyway. Someday you may be in a position to conduct more research and this will give you a start (or suggestions for future students). 

Next time I will begin a series on curiosity. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Would you like to be a guest writer? Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu

An Announcement

I am excited to announce the publication of a book based on the Dissertation Mentor blog! Finding Your Way to a Ph.D.: Advice from the Dissertation Mentor is a guidebook to help the dissertation student through the process of completing the dissertation. It provides tips on handling committee members, walks you through the writing various chapters, gives a refresher on statistics and qualitative analysis, and provides motivational messages along the way. 

Finding Your Way to a Ph.D. differs from other books in the topic area, in that it gives specific advice lacking in other books. For example, readers are taken through the process of finding topics for their research study, and how to search for relevant research. Many examples are provided along with suggestions of additional resources. It is now available on Amazon. 

Next time I will talk about using a research journal as an organizing tool. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Would you like to be a guest writer? Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu

The dedicated office

What do I mean by a "dedicated office"? It is a room that is used primarily as an office; it may occasionally be used for other functions, such as a guest room, but it returns to its office use. Often a guest room is used for this purpose. I want to make it clear that none of the workspaces I have discussed are "bad" they each have challenges, it just a part of working from home that must be dealt with. 

The advantages of an office are that you have a door that you can shut, reducing the noise and intrusions. Of course, if you have children, that may not make much difference! In general, it makes it easier to maintain privacy and confidentiality of your data. I still, however, recommend a locked cabinet, to reduce any chance of a confidentiality issue (the IRB will insist upon it). The disadvantages are that you may feel cut off from your family and you may need to enter transient mode when guests take over the room. Make sure you remove or lock up any papers or data you are working on. Otherwise, you may discover the guest has accidently packed them and taken them home. 

 

Next time I will post an announcement. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Would you like to be a guest writer? Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu

Shared workspace

Previously we looked at ideas for people who had transient workspace – with no area of their own. Today I want to consider people who have shared workspaces. You fit this category if you have your own workspace and it is in a shared part of the house. So, if you work at a desk in the family room, kitchen, bedroom, etc. you fit this category. 

The shared workspace has some advantages over the transient one- work does not have to moved frequently and there is stability in your work process. However, it does share with the transient space the lack of privacy. You may have to work with the TV going in the background and other people coming and out of the room. This become of concern with you reach the data collection phase. As with the transient, you need a locked file cabinet, somewhere you know that no one else has access. Think about the worst-case scenario, your child decides to use a completed survey to draw on or to cut up for a craft process for class. This is a breach of confidentiality and would require you to report it to the IRB. 

Having a desk does allow for piling of information, which can quickly get out of control. To help with this tendency you may want get some organizers with vertical or horizontal dividers (I am attaching a photo of mine, so you can see what I am talking about). 

I suggest setting one day a week for filing paper, that way it doesn't get out of control. 

Next time I will look at the dedicated office and make some suggestions. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Would you like to be a guest writer? Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu