Blog Post #4

Hi everyone! Welcome back, and thank you for joining me on my last and final blog post!

Throughout my year in AP Research, I conducted my project on the Evolution of Healthy vs. Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms Within Common Themes in Popular Teenage Dramas. By conducting this research, I not only learned a lot about my topic, but I obtained numerous skills that I will be able to carry with me for future projects. While I overviewed my data analysis and research findings in Blog Post #3, I will do a little recap below!

Going from left to right, these are a few graphs that represent the majority of my data findings. The first graph was used to represent the evolution of coping mechanisms throughout all the movies, the middle graph was used to quantify the frequency of each listed coping mechanism (the list can be observed in Blog Post #1), and the third graph was used to signify whether healthy or unhealthy coping mechanisms were more commonly portrayed. While there is no noticeable evolution between healthy and unhealthy coping mechanisms, I learned that healthy coping mechanisms were more prominent during the 14 teen dramas I observed. Crying was the most commonly observed coping mechanism, totaling 38 instances, and was followed by Distancing from Family/Friends, Interacting with Family/Friends, then Violent/Destructive Behavior. I also learned this data contradicted my initial hypothesis, which stated: Due to increased awareness and conversation regarding teen struggles and mental health concerns, the evolution of unhealthy coping strategies has become increasingly prevalent over time. These findings present a major gap in the research conversation, as there are no known studies that analyze the evolution of coping mechanisms in teenage dramas specifically. Even though my final data was considered statistically insignificant, future researchers could use this data as a basis to reconstruct their methods/data collection to later show statistical significance. If they are able to show significance, their data can be used to exemplify the importance of healthy coping representations to potentially alter future media to display more accurate and beneficial portrayals of teen culture. 

As for the skills I learned from the final research paper and the oral defense presentation, I was able to obtain and apply many newfound techniques to aid me in the completion of this course. When writing my paper, I learned that perseverance, flexibility, and asking questions were the most beneficial attributes. My research underwent numerous changes that required me to be flexible and persevere to produce a final product. Asking questions was extremely useful as well, as Mrs. Dobos, Mrs. Metzger, and countless others are more knowledgeable in this realm of study, and it was incredibly helpful to receive their advice and guidance throughout the research process. Additionally, I am very unfamiliar with statistics and was lucky enough to have Ms. Uchyn help me with organizing my data into statistics. Asking questions was extremely helpful here, as I was able to gain a deeper understanding of statistics with just one visit with her and was able to present accurate and cohesive statistics in my final oral defense presentation. This presentation was also extremely useful for future endeavors; it helped me learn how to be more comfortable talking in front of people, how to construct a presentation you refer to and not rely on, and how to transform my research to be able to communicate it to an audience. These skills will help greatly with future research projects and in general; I know I will be conducting future research projects that will require methodologies, presentations, and more, in which the skills I learned during this course have served me greater than any other class and will help me succeed in the future!

This project made me realize that I am more capable than I think I am! It sounds extremely overwhelming to deliver a 15-20 minute presentation and write a 25-30 page paper; not only did I complete those but I was also able to learn and develop my personal academic abilities at the same time. This is an extremely valuable lesson to carry forward, as I was able to realize that the initial weight of a project is not as overwhelming as it seems. By progressively picking away at different aspects of my project, I was finished sooner than I thought. Time management was also very valuable throughout the entirety of this process, in which this skill will also aid me greatly in the future, helping me manage my workload, avoid unnecessary stress, and complete projects with accomplishment.

Thank You!!!

I want to take a quick moment to acknowledge anyone who has helped me throughout the entirety of my research process. First and foremost, I want to thank Mrs. Dobos for guiding each and every one of us during the school year. She not only made herself available whenever we needed it, but took the time to get to know our projects individually, and even sacrificed an entire weekend to listen to our final presentations. Her enthusiasm and dedication to research are apparent, and she helped us grow and achieve the best version of our projects possible. Next, I want to thank Mrs. Metzger; no matter the reason, she was more than willing to aid me during the research process. She even prompted the idea of healthy vs. unhealthy coping mechanisms, where my project would have been very different had she not provided her input. She even made time in her busy schedule to view my final oral defense presentation, in which her kindness and willingness did not go unnoticed! Lastly, thank you to Mr. Parker who sacrificed his time one day to help me locate one of my films, and anyone who has either stayed up to date with my blog posts, helped me peer review, or offered any kind of guidance/support during this process. This meant the world to me, and I could not have completed this project without you!!!

I will leave the links to my final presentation and paper below! You will also be able to view an abstract of my project, which will overview my research topic! Any sources I used can be viewed from the Image Links and Additional Sources under the Home tab!

Abstract: 

Film is extremely popular in today’s society for many reasons, but the reflection of modern-day culture is perhaps the most prevalent. Since film's first emergences, society’s culture and ideas of popularity have developed greatly. Due to this evolution within the film industry, this project focused on the development of culture and ideas as opposed to physical effects on an audience. During the entirety of this research, 14 popular teen films were observed to quantify the occurrence and representations of healthy vs. unhealthy coping strategies through the main protagonist. These results were then tied back to common themes and later visualized in graphs. The data showed that healthy coping strategies are more commonly portrayed than unhealthy coping strategies, in which Crying is the most predominant coping mechanism. The themes that were most usually referenced were Coming of Age, Conflict with Parents, and Angst. 

As for my plans next year, I will be attending Colorado State University in Fort Collins! I am not completely sure what my major will be yet, but I am highly interested in Exercise and Nutrition Sciences! I will be minoring in Japanese, as well as joining the AFROTC program. I am so excited to begin this new chapter!

Thank you all so much for tuning in to my research project this year. I am thrilled I was able to present my hard work and be supported by so many people along the way. This is my last blog post, but I am happy to leave on such a good note. Go Rams!