My Brain is Full
I am taking Research this semester. Call it my Lenten wilderness if you want, but I am actually enjoying it. I have found through this class that i might just qualify for nerd status. Give out a nerd alert. Bring out the scarlet "N." Jackie enjoys researching! I am loving the experience of finding, gathering, and summarizing research. I enjoy getting lost in it and forming my own ideas about my topic. I love seeing the way all of the ideas fit together and how each finding builds on the previous finding. Of course it also puzzles me how so many people can pretend to be the first person to discover something or "prove" something when really they're finding the same exact thing the girl next door did five years ago.
So for this semester I get to pursue a topic of my choice (the effects of parental divorce on young adults' intimate relationships). The research is pretty much suggesting that people whose parents divorce are at a higher risk of marital dissolution themselves. The question I ask myself is "why?" Is it because of social economic factors such as the tendency for them to finish less education, live closer to the povery line than others, or to cohabit or marry earlier in life, all of which have been associated with a higher risk of divorce themselves? Or is it because they have failed to gain certain relationship skills such as healthy communication, conflict resolution, or compromising because of poor relationship models? The problem with this is that not all divorces are precipitated by marital conflict and poor skills. Is it because of skewed attitudes of commitment that children of divorce often develop after watching their parents walk away from marriage? All of these ideas are valid and have support behind them. Maybe it's a combination of all of them. Who knows. It's a very complex issue. And I guess that's why I chose it. Well, that and other personal reasons. Isn't it funny how personal experience shapes what you're interested in? But I knew I wanted to be interested in my topic since I'm stuck with it all semester. I'd be wanting to hurt myself right now if I wasn't interested in it.
What I might be interested in zeroing-in on is if the observation of a postive relationship model attained through the custodial parent's remarriage is beneficial to the self-concept and the attitudes about committed relationships of adult female offspring of divorce. I think I'll find that it will be. Again, there's a personal element to this decision of what to study. I am a child of divorce but I don't really ever think of myself that way. I have had a very positive and influential relationship with a loving step father who I have considered "Dad" since I was age seven. I hope I'm not just doing this to prove to myself that I'm not warped. But I know I can't totally escape my personal agenda since it hits so close to home.
Our personal expereinces shape who we are, what we're interested in, and how we think. I am more or less just hypothesizing about something that might buffer the relationship between parental divorce and poor functioning in intimate relationships based on my own experience. I think people like to use their own experiences when they think about things because that's the way we learn best: when it happens to us. Maybe we're all self-centered but maybe there's more to it. I think that God has given us our personal experiences so that we can use them to help other people and to contribute to the lives of others. When something happens to us we develop a sensitivity. We operate out of those sensitivities so that we might be there for people and indentify with people who have the same sensitivities. And God gives people different experiences so that we can all be passionate about different things so that everything has someone to be passionate about it and therefore we can more fully reflect the body of Christ communally. I think it's a beautiful thing.
Now my head is feeling a little less full, beside the fact that it still feels like it will explode because of the ever-changing Kentucky Spring weather. Ahhhh....gotta love it when your head's a human barometer.
So for this semester I get to pursue a topic of my choice (the effects of parental divorce on young adults' intimate relationships). The research is pretty much suggesting that people whose parents divorce are at a higher risk of marital dissolution themselves. The question I ask myself is "why?" Is it because of social economic factors such as the tendency for them to finish less education, live closer to the povery line than others, or to cohabit or marry earlier in life, all of which have been associated with a higher risk of divorce themselves? Or is it because they have failed to gain certain relationship skills such as healthy communication, conflict resolution, or compromising because of poor relationship models? The problem with this is that not all divorces are precipitated by marital conflict and poor skills. Is it because of skewed attitudes of commitment that children of divorce often develop after watching their parents walk away from marriage? All of these ideas are valid and have support behind them. Maybe it's a combination of all of them. Who knows. It's a very complex issue. And I guess that's why I chose it. Well, that and other personal reasons. Isn't it funny how personal experience shapes what you're interested in? But I knew I wanted to be interested in my topic since I'm stuck with it all semester. I'd be wanting to hurt myself right now if I wasn't interested in it.
What I might be interested in zeroing-in on is if the observation of a postive relationship model attained through the custodial parent's remarriage is beneficial to the self-concept and the attitudes about committed relationships of adult female offspring of divorce. I think I'll find that it will be. Again, there's a personal element to this decision of what to study. I am a child of divorce but I don't really ever think of myself that way. I have had a very positive and influential relationship with a loving step father who I have considered "Dad" since I was age seven. I hope I'm not just doing this to prove to myself that I'm not warped. But I know I can't totally escape my personal agenda since it hits so close to home.
Our personal expereinces shape who we are, what we're interested in, and how we think. I am more or less just hypothesizing about something that might buffer the relationship between parental divorce and poor functioning in intimate relationships based on my own experience. I think people like to use their own experiences when they think about things because that's the way we learn best: when it happens to us. Maybe we're all self-centered but maybe there's more to it. I think that God has given us our personal experiences so that we can use them to help other people and to contribute to the lives of others. When something happens to us we develop a sensitivity. We operate out of those sensitivities so that we might be there for people and indentify with people who have the same sensitivities. And God gives people different experiences so that we can all be passionate about different things so that everything has someone to be passionate about it and therefore we can more fully reflect the body of Christ communally. I think it's a beautiful thing.
Now my head is feeling a little less full, beside the fact that it still feels like it will explode because of the ever-changing Kentucky Spring weather. Ahhhh....gotta love it when your head's a human barometer.
posted by Jackie | 3:54 PM
1 Comments:
That is a really interesting topic! I have seen personally how my parents' divorce has affected my intimate relationships. And not just romantic ones but close friendships too. You will have to let me know what your research turns up!
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