I was unable to sleep last night. I kept

thinking about Professor Kuhn's comments about my thesis, my research question; for some reasons, i have a feeling that she does not feel it was the right research topic to choose, for some reasons I have a feeling that she thinks there would be a lot of bias in my analyses, that i will run into difficulties with it in so many ways. I just felt she does not think that it is a good topic. Mainly, it is because I work for the Organization, and she feels that because of that I will bring a lot of bias in my analyze. I told last night, that although I work for SSA, I do not work close or nearly close to the Initiative, that I do not know much about the Initiative.

Last night I kept thinking about this conversation. I kept thinking that perhaps Dr. Kuhn is right. But then again, I also thought that there would be no way that I would bring bias into the topic, that I will investigate the DSI initiative that was establish to alleviate the problems at ALJ. Last night and this morning also, I thought i will not be interviewing the employees at DDS. To know how the DSI affects the works of the DDS, i will simply get that overall pictures from interviewing the regional director. I had initially planned to interview the employees. To understand the DSI, and it's strenghts and weaknesses, I will focus on the impacts or would have been impacts at the ALJ level. because, after all, 3/4 of the goals of the DSI were to improve decisions, be it in DDS or ALJ, decisions that should not have to be made at the ALJ level.

Is it the cold autumn weather or proscratination that

is causing a blockage in my mind. I can not be having a mental block right now. My mind can not be at a standstill right now. I have too much to do. **ugh***For some reasons, I can't think now in spite the medium cup of caffein I drank this morning, and a bowl of homemade soup I just had for lunch. For some reasons, I can't seem to be able to gather my thoughts together to make them coherant. For some reasons, I can't breath right. For some reasons, I can't use my logic. This can't be caused by the cold autumn's weather that we here in New England are having today. **ugh**

Dammit! I am going to unblog, unclog my mind in this blogspot! Damnnit! I can't stand having this kind of mental block. I need to get going with that damn thesis report. I need to get my interviews ongoing. I need to start my data collection. I need to start writing sections of the thesis now....

I just feel so overwhelmed by so many things....OKAY breath......Breath long.....Hold long.....take one thing at a time...one thing at a time....

AHH!!! Just a while ago, i took care of two things. Emailed to my tenant about the rent payment (I have been proscratinating on that for almost 3 weeks now. I also paid the oil company that worked on changing the oil tanks in the Bristol home. Whewww!! two important things are finally of the way. But wait, here's something else i did now. I sent an email to John Reilly, Regional Director of the DDS, asking to interview him on the DSI today as well!!! wooohoooooooooo! snap out of that proscratination mode!!!!!!

Methods and Validity

Weekly reflection chapter 5& 6


Chapter 5: Method, What will you actually do?

After reading the entire of this chapter, I agree with Maxwell that there is no one recipe or a cookbook for qualitative research. The type of method one employs depends so heavily on the research questions one seek to answer, the context of one research design, and many other variables. One just has to find and decide the best method for oneself. The important points I take away from chapter which I will definitely apply in my research study were some, useful ways to analyze data, by memo, categorizing, and connecting. As my own research study is mainly qualitative research, for quite sometimes I have been mind-boggled over the question how will I analyze all my data. I am very glad that I caught these strategies, I will definitely utilize them.

Chapter 6: Validity, How might you be wrong?

The important point resonates from this chapter is the fact that qualitative researchers rarely have the benefit of planning comparisons, sampling strategies, or statistical manipulations that control for plausible threats. Researchers do not have the benefits to control threats for validity before the research begins. This point is significant in a research study and certainly a very important one for researcher to note. The thought of research validity, how might you be wrong in your study” is really scary, because it takes you back to the goal of developing a study in the first place. What would be the point of all your hard work if at the end it turns out you were wrong. Your research would have no reliability. Aside from this point, also important were the mentioning of two specific threats to validity, researcher bias and reactivity, and the importance of verifying the conclusions and testing the validity of those conclusions. I think the keys to prepare for any possible threat to validity to be consciously aware of the specific threats to it throughout the research process.

case study

research question: why did the implementation of the DSI failed?

propositions: what is the motivation or impetus to having the DSI?, it came too fast and furious (What are the blueprint, the layout plans of the DSI?), it came without a plan? the workers make it fail because it was stressing them out (What was the feeling, feedbacks from the employees? How did the DSI impacted the day to day works?, there was not enough budget to cover it (How much did the DSI cost? What this considered inefficient spending?,

unit of analysis: examine the components of the DSI, examine the organizational theories, examine the key stakeholders positions,

theory building: the case study will show why implementation only succeeded when organization was able to re-structure itself, and not just overlay the new system on th old organizational structure.

methods: triangulation (will collect data from various sources including personal interviews with employees from bottom and top positions, gather quantitative data online, review press releases from position stakeholders, review online radical viewpoints, comparative analysis on similar case that has underwent similiar initiatives.

I did not get a well-rested sleep last night

My dumbfounded next door neighbors who live adjacent to me were outside in their backyard at around two and three o'clock in the morning, yabbing so loud. the fortunate things were my bedroom is close to their backyard that i could hear everything, plus this the sounds often louder than usual at night time. i was so bothered by them talking, but was frighten to get up to tell them to stop because it was so late in the night. instead, i got up around 4am to use the bathroom. after that, i could not go back to sleep. now i have to pay the price for lack of sleep. i can feel that my mind is so tired, my eyes i can't barely keep them open, and physically, i feel exhausted. Especially i had a late class last night too, which ran until 9PM. Because of this, i do not know how productive i will be this evening on my thesis.

I feel wary and intoxicated with

the thoughts that men are from mars, women are from venus. how does one understand the distinctions between the two world. how does one make the connection. how does one find a common ground between the two world. how can one stay sane in all these, this is the question i am bombarded with.

reflection from Qualitative Research Method class

Chapter 4 What do you want to understand?



I got a lot out of this chapter. After reading it the first time, I realized its importance to my thesis writing process that I decided to re-read again to make sure I got all the important main points. Significant in this chapter were the issues, borrowing words from Maxwell, of developing ‘relevant, direct, particularistic, realistic, and process’ building research questions that can connect you to building up your research design, interviews/data collection, hypotheses, and even conclusion. Questions that point you to what is it you want to investigate, what is going with the topic that you wanted to investigate, why you want to study that. After reading this chapter, I went back to my own research questions that I recently submitted to my thesis committee members: “To what extend did strategic planning impacted the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) Disability Services Initiative?” During my defense, members of my thesis committee did not feel that my research question could direct me to what it was I wanted to learn, to investigate, which was “Why did the Social Security Administration’s implementation of the Disability Services Initiative (DSI) failed during the first phase of the implementation?” This latter question is direct, particularistic, realistic, and most of all process building. It leads me to think that are a lot of unanswered questions/speculations that I should and want to understand/investigate as to why the DSI failed. This is after all the goal of my thesis, to understand why the DSI failed. It now makes sense that it should also be my research question. Now that I have verified that this is an excellent research question to pose in my thesis, my qualitative research methods and data that I spent doing and collecting can be optimally use in the study. This is weird. After two years reading and learning about the topic related to the SSA’s Disability Services Initiative, I only come term with the best research question now. J