Great use of the blog Alex!

I'm really pleased that you are finding some use for the blog - it will make writing up the summary of your research much much easier...

R

Dissertation

Started writing: 23rd november

sites for psychology introduction

https://notes.utk.edu/bio/greenberg.nsf/0/df440cb14669ea1e8525709a0051f7bd?OpenDocument

http://psychology-forum.com/general-psychology-forum/stereotyping-an-evolutionary-basis/

SO FAR.

So far, the goa has been to accumulate data: stereotypes of English people. The data needs to be collected from as many cultures as possible and using as many research methods as possible. I have used:
Qustionnaires – 19 responses
Interviews – 2 (another is scheduled)
Opinion poles – 76 responses
Books – 2 (2 more coming up)
Dvds – 3
TV shows - 1
A travel article
A chat forum – 6 responses
Cultural groups represented so far in my research include: Canadian, Chinese, German, Japanese, American, Belgian (Flemish), Belgian (French), Colombian, Finnish, Australian, French, Polish, Swedish, Turkish, United States, Ukrainian.
Most of my data has been collected through the questionnaires that I have used. They turned out to be efficient, easily transferable and non-intrusive. I think people feel more comfortable expressing their views about the English completely anonymously. Using questionnaires therefore eliminates social desirability bias. Looking at articles and chat forums + opinion poles has given me a huge stack of information and quotable material to back up my choice of stereotypes to be investigated.
I have found an online dissertation format, which I have looked through to help me picture how my essay will be set out. Ordering information is key to this piece of writing. I think I should open my essay with an introduction to stereotypes from a psychological perspective. This I have read up on and I hope it’s not too much of a problem if my introduction goes over 250 words. For example, I would like to discuss Tajfel’s Minimal group paradigm and how it might be applied to a pattern I have noticed in my findings: most stereotypes are negative. This could obviously be explained by Tajfel’s theory + study, but interestingly, the majority of stereotypes pinned on the English by Ukrainian people (according to my interviewee) are positive. Why is this I wonder?...Going off on a historical/political tangent might be inappropriate though.

Interview with dina.

did that. very good stuff. That makes 2, plus the one with simona tomorrow. it's the 23rd of nov.

people and their pasts

john siblon's bit. not really relevant as such. not even that interesting.

To future self

if you have trouble getting ideas on how to test stereotypes, just post the question on a chat forum.

wiki travel

wiki travel is AWSOME. packed with quotable stuff.

need to find out who wrote the article..

Interview with Darya

success! said some  interesting things. some common. others less so. lots about politics. said more nice things than i expected.

is this because i'm English? ...interviewer bias. damn.

interview

interview on monday 14th november

Facebook question

you can do this 'ask a question' thing on facebook. I did that. awaiting responses...

chavs- owen jones

started reading. good book but it's more focused on intra-cultural stereotyping of a social demographic..something i'm trying to avoid in the interest of consistency.

i.e if i start dividing up england into subcultures with their own stereotypes, participants would be talking about different things. better to keep it simple, generalised.

chat forum

got feedback from chat forums. veryy useful

psychology content

got some starters from rizma. maybe a good idea to interview her aswell

Google scholar

found a lot of waffle but some stuff is usable. probably better just to go straight to psychology text book

*added to EPQ to-do list

newspaper articles

gaurdian and independent archies didn't have anything achedemic enough.

emiail questionnaires

created, sent, completed and recieved.

An idiot abroad

so the idea is that this typical English guy is the most culturally ignorant person ever.

he doesn't like foreign food, foreign clothes, foreign transport, accommodation.. hygiene standards.

all that remains is to see if what the producers are trying to portray, matches what my interviewees think.

Interview Strategy Idea

What if i were to show my interviewee some photograghs/cartoon images of different people, and asked them to tell me which one is more english. Then explain why.

I would have to:

- not have already decided which is more english because i may then influence the decision.

- not create any images myself or my own notions of English people would biasly affect the products.

..Would this technique seem patronising?

extraneous variable in interview strategy!

if i am interviewing someone i don't know, they may base their responses (views on English people) on what they think of me.

However, this would only be if:

- I struck them as English
- They didn't have many preconceived notions of English people in the first place

Izzard- Glorious

American films are sex driven. 1 hour

the English are polite/reserved. 1 hour

Australians drink larger and have BBQs. 1 hour 2 mins

Izzard- Glorious

italians drive dangerously. 56 minutes

Izzard- Glorious

italians all drive vespas. 54 minutes

Izzard- Glorious

Germans are very precise. 38 minutes

media resource

eddie izzard: unrepeatable.

really funny but completely useless.

Fist Blog

28/09/11

hopefully i don't get bored of this.

alex