It Is Done

[From Erling Jorgensen (2003.02.27.1830 EST)]

It has been quite a while since I have posted to the net. I wanted to bring folks
up to date on a significant milestone for me.

Finally, some eight weeks after commencement, I received my doctoral degree in
the mail - I think this means they can't change their minds :slight_smile: ... It's a Ph.D. in
Counseling Psychology from the University of North Dakota, begun many years
ago - (shortly after my last appearance at a CSG Annual Conference) - and
finally finished. I have not been subscribed to CSGNet for quite some time while
I've been completing this, but I do check the Archives from time to time, to see
what is being discussed.

I have included below a copy of the abstract from my dissertation, for those who
may be interested. It is not particularly about PCT, but some of its approach was
stimulated by a cybernetic appreciation for time.

The title of the dissertation is "Time Matters: Temporally Enacted Frame-Works
in Narrative Accounts of Mediation." It delineates various forms of temporal
progression and temporal duration, that participants utilized for creating meaning
from their mediation experiences. It was more a study of the process of building
narrative meaning, than the actual content of the specific participants.

All the best,
        Erling

The abstract follows:

TIME MATTERS:
TEMPORALLY ENACTED FRAME-WORKS IN
NARRATIVE ACCOUNTS OF MEDIATION
Erling O. Jorgensen, Ph.D.
The University of North Dakota, 2002
Faculty Advisor: Professor Denise Twohey

        Bateson's (1979) method of double description is utilized to examine
narrative accounts of participants' mediation experiences, as a way to
investigate significant change events. Comparing what changes to what remains
more stable suggests that temporal differences are an indicator of
contextualization, providing a framework for how meaning is made meaningful.
Case studies of two of these structured interview transcripts are intensively
analyzed, with triangulating measures of different logical type. Specifically,
these include narrative analysis of key story points, temporal analysis of the
frequency and distribution of in vivo codes to yield repetitive themes, and a
modified lag analysis of codes in joint proximity to yield reliable thematic
clusters. Results are integrated by means of grounded theory procedures of
open and axial coding, arriving at semi-saturated categories dealing with
temporal enactment of meaning-making.

        A lexicon of temporal devices for the social construction of common
frames of reference between speaker and listener is developed. These are
partitioned into three types of temporal progression (i.e., sequence, episodic
structure, and co-occurrence) and three types of temporal duration (i.e.,
repetition, framing, and selection / deselection). Defining conditions and
exemplars of each are provided, along with further permutations, including
transposition, chained incidents, rival narratives, adjacency, inclusio,
asymmetrical bracketing, and chiasm. These provide varied narrative solutions
to address the limited attentional focus of a listener.

        An initial hypothesis--that longer duration meanings contextualize
shorter--is given provisional support, in that it appears useful to construct
and compare relative durations, with longer duration lying deeper in a
hierarchy of logical types. A second hypothesis--that an increase in duration
means an increase in perceived significance--is not sustained, in that
deselection (and thereby decreasing a meaning's duration) can nonetheless be a
significant vehicle for therapeutic change.

        The study amounts to building a set of tautological linkages that
"time matters," and mapping descriptive territories such as narrative accounts
onto it, with resulting increments in explanatory understanding. It is shown
how participants shaped their accounts via temporality, by selecting themes,
contextualizing, repeating, grouping, ordering, and weaving into stories. The
tautology is reflexively applied to itself, and avenues for future theoretical
sampling are suggested.

[From Dick Robertson,2003.02.28.1331CST]

Erling Jorgensen wrote:

[From Erling Jorgensen (2003.02.27.1830 EST)]

It has been quite a while since I have posted to the net. I wanted to bring folks
up to date on a significant milestone for me.

Finally, some eight weeks after commencement, I received my doctoral degree in
the mail - I think this means they can't change their minds :slight_smile: ... It's a Ph.D. in
Counseling Psychology from the University of North Dakota, begun many years
ago - (shortly after my last appearance at a CSG Annual Conference) - and
finally finished.

Congratulations Erling,

Hope this frees you up to update your contributions to PCT as well,

Best, Dick R