Blog Post #1

Finding the Gap

I began the year with a very clear plan for my project: do a film study about some aspect of psychology. This plan did not make it farther than two weeks. As we began the research process, I dove headfirst into a sources regarding all different types of psychological phenomenons, disorders, and more. However, the further I got into my research, the more I realized there was no gap where I was interested. Many of the subjects I had preexisting knowledge on or was interested in had already been thoroughly studied, leaving nothing for me to further look into. So, I switched my topic.

After this, I decided I wanted to look at archetypes. While I had hated reading Grendel my sophomore year, I loved the countless instances of symbolism and archetypes, allowing readers to dive deeper into the meanings within the book. First I wanted to examine how archetypes reinforced certain stereotypes in readers; it was already researched. Then I decided to look at how frequently different themes were mentioned in archetypes, which had also already been researched.

Finally, after a lot of movement and shifting my project around, I thought I had decided on the perfect project. I wanted to look at the impacts of emotional abuse in books on readers. My research in archetypes had shown me that many of these exist as a method of connecting to readers, building a bridge that links them to the story and the characters. In this, many of these characters often experience a study to help them better relate to anything the reader may be going through. I grew up with 4 psychologist grandparents, all of which were within a 20 minute drive of me. Because of this, I've always been hyper aware of how people are treated, or maltreated, and it often shocked me how poorly some people were treated without eliciting any reaction from them, often times because they don't realize how truly inappropriate these reactions may be. Because of this, I took an immediate interest in how this may be presented in books and how it may impact a reader's understanding and recognition of this.

I finally started working on my project, thinking I had found the perfect idea. I became overwhelmed with the project very fast, leading me to lose interest and get burnt out. I didn't understand why it was so difficult for me until I met with my teacher, who advised me that I was essentially putting two research projects into one. I had gotten too ahead of myself, and I reeled it back in to create my final question.

I developed the research question "How is emotional abuse depicted in the Percy Jackson series?" This question comes from many of the different aspects of my former project, scaling it to a reasonable level. Rather than looking at the 5 most popular fantasy books as I had planned in my former project, I decided to look at the most popular children's mythology book due to the greater relevance of studying this series and the increased understanding it will provide me from looking in a smaller scope. Additionally, I removed the initial survey idea for my project that would have determined ime impact of these indicators on readers. Since Percy Jackson has never been researched for emotional abuse, I need to do research that will lay the groundwork for potential later research on the impacts.

Impactful Research

The research for my topic was initially intimidating, but soon became one of the easiest parts of the project. As my question developed, a significant amount of my research was being cut out or shifted as my project did, making sure I used the parts that aligned best with my questions. However, once I finalized my question, much of my research regarding the presence of different topics in books yielded the same general message: reading helps develop critical thinking, and discussing difficult topics can increase the development of empathy and understanding towards them. Sources such as “Young Adult Literature: Peace-Keeping Forces: YA War Books.” by Chris Crowe continued to develop my understanding of this by focusing exclusively on war books, further relating to much of the content in Percy Jackson and reaffirming that the discussion of these complex issues furthers the understanding around them.

Additionally, much of my interest in emotional abuse specifically came from alarming statistics when I was looking for psychological phenomenons to study. Websites often discussed small percentages of the population being impacted by niche diseases that hadn't been researched before, until I noticed that an issue so prominent such as emotional abuse had almost no research about its presence in books, specifically children and young adult books. This not only sparked interest in me, but also a frustration knowing that so many more people would be able to recognize mistreatment if it was talked about and denounced in books that people related to. 

Methodology

For my methodology, I will be doing a typical literary analysis through coding, and quantifying the parts of my data. Having a qualitative analysis aligns best with the humanities lens as it provides a more in-depth look at the research and explains why this may occur and illustrates a gap that may be explored in further research. The Child Crime Prevention and Safety Center reports 6 recognized types of emotional abuse:

• Rejecting: Using words and/or actions to convey that a child is unwanted and/or worthless (Child Crime Prevention and Safety Center)

• Ignoring: Not giving child affection or attention, not showing interest (Child Crime Prevention and Safety Center)

• Threatening: Cursing, yelling, or threatening a child with any form of harm (Child Crime Prevention and Safety Center)

• Isolating: Preventing a child from engaging in appropriate activities and/or keeping a child away from human or social contact (Child Crime Prevention and Safety Center)

• Corrupting: Exposing a child to inappropriate behavior such as crime, drugs, alcohol, and/or sexual abuse (Child Crime Prevention and Safety Center)

• Exploiting: Forcing or manipulating a child to do something without consideration for their development (Child Crime Prevention and Safety Center)

As I read the given books, I will code for these key indicators of emotional abuse to determine whether or not a character has been subjected to childhood abuse. I will then quantify this data in graphs, and compare the significance of abuse to the reader's perception of the character to see if there is any correlation, whether positive or negative.

Importance of the Research

This study has significant implications as it directly affects the lives of readers and authors. Not only does it quantify the instances of abuse depicted in this series, but it will analyze them and the effect it may have on a character.1 Given the significance of Percy Jackson in the modern literature world, understanding the instances of abuse in these books is crucial for the audience of these books. My study will allow for other researchers to examine the impact of these depictions of emotional abuse to determine how these need to be changed. Since emotional abuse is such a  heavy topic, it needs to be discussed and written about delicately and in a way that isn’t detrimental to readers. Additionally, the direct implications of my research are more transparency for readers and parents of readers, allowing them to understand the content of the book before they begin to read, eliminating any psychological distress or harm.