Artefact!

Hey Everyone!

So i haven't blogged in too long, but i have been so so busy!

Now its time for the Artefact, i'm planning on doing a Webpage to share the advice and help i have found for performers struggling with Psychological problems that they may face.

Would love any advice or ideas on what you feel and effective webpage would look like for you?

I am planning on doing an introduction about myself and then sharing the webpages i have found as well as other coping strategies.

What is everyone else doing for their artefact?

Heather x

Update with Paula

I have just had a phone call with Paula to update about how i am getting on with the inquiry process.

I found this very interesting and helpful, talking about the literature review i realised that i am being to generalised in my review of the articles rather than relating it to my inquiry. I need to make sure that all the literature is relevant and that i can compare it to my findings.

Paula opened my eyes to the different types of sources we may come across, especially expert and practitioners and how i need to make sure i  explain where each source has come from andy how it is helpful. 'Why did i choose it?' 'where did it come from?'

We talked about Harvard Referencing and although i have done it for the previous two modules i now feel a lot happier about how it works.

I am lucky enough to be meeting with dance psychologist Peter Lovett next monday so we discussed how i really need to be prepared in order to get the most out of my experience as he is an expert in his field and will be great for my inquiry.

Peter Lovett is working with Dance UK and Trinity Laban on a new project similar to my Inquiry so it is perfect timing, Peter Lovett has knowledge from his expertise but is also researching so i should come away with a huge amount of new ideas and knowledge.

I will do a blog about how the meeting goes!

Heather X

Research Continued

Today i have emailed dance psychologist Peter Lovett to see if he can help me further with me inquiry. I am keeping my fingers crossed that he replies!

I have been busy finding lots of different pieces of literature, the only problem i am having at the moment is my interview participated are being very slow at getting back to me, i am getting worried as their answers are a key part to my inquiry. Is anyone else having this problem?

I am trying to be one step ahead because it feels like we have very little time in this Module.

Does anybody know of any good sights to create a webpage for free? This will be very useful if anybody does!

Hope you are all getting on well

Heather x

Artefact brainstorming!

I have been Brainstorming and constantly thinking of ideas for my Artefact, i feel like its back to the beginning in some respect, like when i was brainstorming for ideas for my Inquiry! Does anybody else feel like this?

One major improvement in my thinking has been maybe i will do a Website. I did think of a Facebook page at first but i feel that isn't as discreet as it is quite a personal subject, dealing with pressures of the industry.

People may want to search for help about personal issues and going onto a website that shows places to go for help and shares coping strategies may be more useful.

Below are some of my brainstorming sessions i did over the summer:

Any help or ideas that we could discuss would be great, just leave a comment! 

Heather X 

Ethics and Consent Forms

One of the tasks i set out for myself in My Inquiry plan was to read through the Code of Human Research Ethics on 'The British Psychological Society' website. Doing this has really helped me to get all the permission i need and to get underway with my interviews and questionnaires whilst ensuring the safety of everyone involved.

Reading through the Code of Human Research Ethics on  ‘The British Psychological Society’ website has really opened by eyes in how I should approach ethics during my inquiry. I had thought about this in my plan and laid out how I would include ethics, however now I am about to begin my Inquiry I have delved deeper into this subject.

I am about to begin commencing my interviews with my participates and I realized that, ‘Good psychological research is only possible if there is mutual respect and trust between investigator and participants’ (P.4 The British psychological society, 2010)

I knew that I would have to create a consent form for my participates to sign however reading though the guidelines on The BPS website it made me realize that I need to be very clear that the safety of my participates is my main concern.

‘In accordance with the Code of Ethics and conduct, researches should ensure that every person whom data are gathered for the purpose of research consents freely to the process on the basis of adequate information’ (p15 The British psychological society, 2010)

This made me realize that I will have to make it clear to the participate and the article gave me guidelines to do this via my consent forms. I made sure I included these following points:

·      2 copies of the consent form should be signed by researcher and the consenting participant.

·      Contact details left if they have any queries

·      They are aware they can pull out of the inquiry at any time

·      They are aware of the time scale of the project

·      They understand what the inquiry aims to do and how they will be participating

·      Make them feel safe and comfortable and aware that their safety is my main concern.

·      Method of collecting data

·      Confidentially and anoylamity conditions

‘This is because subject to requirements and legislation, including the data protection act, information obtained from and about a particpatant during an investigation s confidential unless otherwise agreed in advance’ (p 22 The British psychological society, 2010)

This also made me realize I will have to assess all possible risks, ‘ Risk can be defined as the potential physical or psychological harm, discomfort or stress to human participates that a research project may generate’ (p 13 The British psychological society, 2010)

As my inquiry is a sensitive topic I will have to use my instinct and be in tune with how my participates are feeling as I do not want to cause anxiety, psychological stress or humiliation. ‘Sensitivity is therefore essential and caution is usually necessary’ (page 12 The British psychological society, 2010) this is because it may cause them to remember and discuss painful memories or moments, which are fragile, to them as well as happy memories.

The BPS article outlined 4 main principles, which have been really helpful when considering Ethics for my Inquiry. I have displayed some quotes that stood out to me:

1.     Respect for the Autonomy and dignity of persons

‘…Rights to privacy, self-determination, personal liberty and natural justice are of particular importance to psychologists’ (P 8 The British psychological society, 2010)

‘Valid consent, confidentially, anonymity, fair treatment’ (P 8 The British psychological society, 2010)

2.     Scientific Value

‘Psychologists are committed to ensuring that the scientific and scholarly standards of their research are accountable and of sufficiently high quality and robustness’ (p 9 The British psychological society, 2010)

3. Social responsibility

‘Psychological knowledge must be generated and used for beneficial purposes’ (page10 The British psychological society, 2010)

‘In whatever social context they work, psychologists should acknowledge the evolution of social structures in relation to societal need and be respectful of such structures. (Page10 The British psychological society, 2010)

This point made me realize that during my Inquiry I need to be ‘Self-reflective and be open to challenges that question the contributions of psychological knowledge to society’ (page 10 The British psychological society, 2010)

4.     Maximizing Benefit and minimizing Harm.

‘Harm to research participates must be avoided’ (page 11 The British psychological society, 2010)

The last principle stood out to me as this is mainly what I wish to achieve with my Inquiry and with it being a sensitive subject I will have to be considerate of the feelings and wellbeing of my participates.

‘Psychologists need to be sensitivities to the potential impact of their interventions for example to the possibility of individual distress that may be caused unwittingly’

I will debrief my participates afterwards. Making sure I don’t tell them what to do, sharing my findings and results and discussing them with my participates.

I have produced a questionnaire that I have produced and published on survey monkey. I made sure I explained why I was carrying out the survey and again that all the answers will remain confidential and participates who complete the questionnaire will remain anoylamous. Without making people feel at ease people will be less likely to want to take part.

Bibliography

http://www.bps.org.uk/sites/default/files/documents/code_of_human_research_ethics.pdf  (accessed 20/8/2014)

Module 3 Begins!

Well here we are Module 3, The Inquiry.

I am feeling extremely anxious, nervous, exciting, determined and stressed as i begin this final module.
It feels like i have a lot on my plate and i am starting a lot more dance teacher work in September so time management is going to be a very important factor to enable my inquiry to be successful.

After reading the Handbook and Reader 7. I am looking back over my Plan from Module 2 where i had a clear list of things i need to do which i am about to start cracking on with.

 It's been a while since i have Blogged so this is a blog to get back into the swing of things.

My research is well on its way, however the big puzzle now i face is how am i going to present my artifact!

Looking forward to discussing ideas and helping each other along the way!

Heather X

CRITICAL REFLECTION ON PROFESSIONAL PRACTIONER INQUIRY

CRITICAL REFLECTION ON PROFESSIONAL PRACTIONER INQUIRY

Arriving at my Inquiry topic has been a long and intense process, it has sparked lots of exciting new thoughts and ideas and made me realize how egger I am to learn and explore my professional practice.

I first looked at Knowledge this can be seen is this blog post,

http://heathersophiesmith.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/module-2_1.html

After I reflected on the fact that I have a lot of different ways in which knowledge could be learnt or approached the juices started flowing and I started thinking of all the possible topics my Inquiry could cover, as see is this blog post:

http://heathersophiesmith.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/task-4a.html

I realized I had so many questions and a lot more than I thought I would have, initally I thought I would be struggling for ideas. After attending a campus session and discussing with my mentor I realized I needed to narrow my questions down so the topic did not end up so vague or impersonal to me.

I realized that the key to a good inquiry would be something that I am very passionate about and after a brainstorming storming I came up with the topic of pressures of the Industry as seen in this blog post:

http://heathersophiesmith.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/questions.html

I did consider basing my inquiry on something to do with teaching as I teach dance and i am looking to make a transition from performing into teaching soon. I thought that this would mean it would be current and relevant. However I found myself struggling for ideas and I did realize that my thoughts kept coming back to the pressures of the industry and my heart was more set on this line of inquiry. It is something that I want to find more and more about.

I then went on and talked about this topic with lots of my friends and family and I realized that it is a topic that lots of people are really interested and passionate about it, however a lot of people did make a good point about how pressures of the industry could come across as being a vague subject. To solve this problem I decided I wanted to concentrate on solutions and methods on how to cope with pressures of the industry. Reflecting back on this it will allow me to explore new views and ideas. I also realized that people who are not in this industry are also very interested in this topic.

To get me to my question I brainstormed a variety of questions such as, ‘what are the range of experiences?’ ‘How do dances cope with rejection?’ ‘Is talent being sacrificed for the correct look?’ ‘Is there enough support for dancers mentally?’

Asking these questions allowed me to challenge my premise. I then asked some trial questions:

http://heathersophiesmith.blogspot.co.uk/2014_02_01_archive.html

During this module I reflected on Ethics and of course there are a lot of Ethical issues that need to be considered when discussing pressures of the industry. How I approach my inquiry will be important to allow my participates to feel safe, respected and in the know. Below is a link to my blog where I discussed issues that may arise.

 http://heathersophiesmith.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/ethics-5b-and-5c.html

These questions confirmed that I want to have ‘pressures of the industry’ at the heart of my inquiry. Reflecting back it was at the heart of what I wanted to do from the beginning and by exploring other ideas it helped me arrive at my question.

Ethics 5B AND 5C

Reading up about ethics made me think back to my Religious Studies A level that I carried out as we studied Ethics as one of the topics.

Theoretical approaches to ethics really interests me. 

• Consequentialism- Act is only good if it maximises the good. Depends on the outcome (JS Mill and Jeremy Bentham) 
• Deontology- The motive behind an action determine whether or  not it is morally right. (Immanuel Kant) 
• Virtue Ethics- emphasises the character of the moral agent rather than the rules or consequences. what the action reveals about you. (Plato and Aristotle) 

Looking at these approaches from a dance teachers point of view i came up with this example: 

A teacher making a student sit out as they are being disruptive to the class. If i was the teacher in this class and child was being disruptive sitting them out may maximise the good of the overall class, this would be taking a consequentialism view. However someone who follows the Deontology approach may argue that it is not morally right to make that child sit out. Virtue Ethics may conclude that you are willing to sacrifice one child's learning for others, does this make you a bad person? 

This opened up my eyes to appreciate more how everyone has different beliefs and values and as a professional you must respect these at all times. 

In this industry ethics comes into respecting performance choices and choreographic ideas and styles and respect that everyone is unique. 

Professionalism, responsibility, respect policies and rules and regulations. I have just started a new dance teacher job and there is a set of rules which I will have to abide too, some of these are not what I have had to have done before but it Is my ethical duty to understand that these rules have been placed there for the greater good and different societies and groups have different views and different ways of doing things.

Team work and supporting peers is also a very important ethical value.

Ethics also comes into discussion when professional dancers are asked to work for free. This is not ethical, the employee should respect that the performer is a professional and should respect there abilities and talents as they would any other professional. You wouldn't expect a school teacher or doctor to work for free. 

ISTD CODE OF CONDUCT is something after researching that i forgot to put in my initial blog about ethics. Again this is a set of rules that dance teachers enrolled with the ISTD must abide to. 

'Ethics, as a formal field of philosophical enquiry is the philosophical study of morality

and moral issues are imbued with questions of value. Morals and ethics are

entwined and moral issues raise normative questions as opposed to factual ones.'

Ethics relating to my Inquiry 

My Inquiry is a very personal topic as i am discussing the psychological problems caused from the pressures of the industry and how we can cope so ethics will be very important. 

Data protection and confidentiality will be extremely important as well as making sure that i don't make my participates feel pressured to answer things they do not feel comfortable answering. 

I will have to make sure that i respect that every one is different and has different values and different ways of thinking and coping. 

Making sure i gain correct permission from all the participates will also be very important. 

Task 5A. Ethics

Without researching into Ethics these are the aspects of Ethics that i think relate to my Professional Practice.

Data Protection 

Teaching: Safe guarding students information. Any personal or professional recordings must remain confidential when legally required. 

Performing: For example handing out CVs and Headshots at auditions and any notes that have been made about you at auditions, the audition panel have to ensure they don't pass this information on beyond the company. 

From experience i know that Disney Land Paris are only allowed to hold your details for 6months due to the French Law. 

In the UK/USA however i they have our details on their file until they wish to contact/re audition you. 

Discrimination

Teaching: You have to have an equal opportunity when teaching you can not discriminate someone because of their ethnicity or ability or background. Have to treat everyone as equals. 

Performing: The stage: when advertising a job not allowed to write we want 'blonde' people for example. They seems to be allowed to write what the min height is they require, however sometimes the audition breakdown is too vague this is so they avoid being seen as discriminating.  

Reports 

Teaching: Reporting any accidents that may occur. Reporting confidential matters if suspect problems outside of the dance class. Informing the director/ person in charge of the dance school if a problem needs to be discussed. 

Performing: Reporting on mis conduct/ incidents that occur in the work place. 

Health and Safety 

Teaching: Insuring that a safe environment is created for the children. Fire procedures known by the children and staff. Incident book if required. Ice and heat packs available if needed. First Aider on sight. 

Performing: Insuring a safe environment is created for the performers, (on stage and off) Fire procedures known. Ice and heat packs available if needed. First Aider on sight. 

Research Continued

I have been researching different types of support there is for dancers who are struggling mentally with the pressures of the Industry, the thing that keeps popping up is how dancing is a great form of therapy. I find it ironic that this keeps popping up when I am searching for different therapies for dancers, who have a great deal of stress and self doubt from the dancing industry. This made me question is it the pressure of dancing that causes the problems or is it mainly the pressures the Industry or both? I have found this piece of literature below, it tries to answer the question, ‘does dancing change a person’s self-esteem?’ 


Understanding Dancers  Performance psychology
Richard Butler’s Sports Psychology in Action (1996) or Taylor and Taylor’s Psychology of Dance (1995)

Does dancing change a person’s self-esteem? I think dancing had a positive effect on my self-esteem. It made me feel confident, I was reasonably good at it when I was younger and I defined myself as a “dancer”, I was proud of that. When I talk about dance and self-esteem people always say the same, that dancing increased their sense of self-worth. But the scientific literature tells us a different story. Some of the scientific studies have found no evidence that dancing increases a person’s self-esteem and other studies have concluded that dancing can actually have a negative impact a person’s self esteem. The jury is, therefore, still out. We are undertaking a very large study into the relationship between dance and self-esteem in people of all ages and across all dance styles. 


I have found this very interesting and is definitely something to think about when carrying out my inquiry. Considering scientific evidence and looking more into the psychology views of pressures of the industry. A lot of dancers feel that when they are dancing it is their 'safe place' and boost there self-esteem after they have done a good performance, but it seems we have to injure a lot of self doubt and pressure to get to this point. 


 On March 9th 2014 I came across this really interesting article online,  'Teenage dancers endure pressure from all angles'  the link is below:

http://www.shsoutherner.net/a-e/2011/12/01/teenage-dancers-endure-pressure-from-all-angles/  

This article made me realise that for my inquiry to be successful when talking about in what ways do  professional performers/dancers cope with the pressures, as well as highlighting and discovering what the pressures are i need to look at where the pressures have come from. This article highlights that the main pressures can come from: 

• Instructors 

• Parents

• Friends/Peers 

• Self Pressure 

Self pressure seems to be the most dangerous, however you could argue that self pressure is created because of all the pressure that has been put on you by others.
This article again is very interesting as it points out the issues and the pressures, but it does not say how the dancers cope or what support or help there is out there for dancers with psychology issues triggered from the pressures of the professional dancing world. This makes me even more passionate about my inquiry in researching ways to help dancers become away of the support there is for them.


"Ballet is, as Hartnett puts it, “trying to succeed,” and part of succeeding is earning respect and reward from their instructors for losing weight. “Teachers will reward them for a while, but then when they see that they’re really sick, they have to stop,” explains Hartnett." 


This section of the article stood out to me as i do feel that Instructors do need to be careful when the teach as students all interpret things differently and continuous 'one off 'comments could trigger self doubt and lead to problems such as eating disorders. From my own personal experience i know that some teachers of dance do reward people for loosing a bit of weight or only pick the 'smallest' girls to be in the show numbers. This does make me question, 'is this necessary/fair' and what support is then given to the girls who are not picked? Are they told why this is the case or are they left wondering, 'it's because i'm not small enough' 'maybe i need to loose some weight' this then can become dangerous if the necessary support is not given. As dancers could begin to over think and this just becomes an added pressure.

Below is a section from a very interesting article, ' Behind the Curtain: The Body, Control and Ballet' http://www.siue.edu/sociology/EJS/v32kelso.htm

One director told one of his dancers to “drop the weight in three weeks. I don’t care how you do it”(Benn & Walters, 2001, p.145).  When she did in fact drop the weight by basically not eating, she was rewarded with a role in the performance that the company was rehearsing.  Dancers learn at an early age that rewards and punishments are based upon weight.  If a dancer loses weight, she is praised and rewarded with a role in a ballet.  If she does not, she is punished by not being cast at all (Gordon, 1983). 

Although this article is just from a Ballet point of view and i want to have a more generally performers overview for my Inquiry, I think this sums up this blog post that its is not only the pressure that you put on yourself that is dangerous, the pressures of others is equally as bad.

There needs to be more coping solutions for when this pressure gets too much.