Cargando…

“Anxiety or enjoyment, I feel pleasant to welcome them both”: thematic analysis of a Chinese PhD student’s personal growth experiences

Engaging with research is an emotionally demanding experience and a trajectory full of difficulties, challenges, and stress. This autoethnographic study explored my personal experiences as a PhD student in a four-year program and conducted a qualitative thematic analysis by analyzing 550 research di...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Chen, Hua
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10501852/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37720658
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1173734
_version_ 1785106196325203968
author Chen, Hua
author_facet Chen, Hua
author_sort Chen, Hua
collection PubMed
description Engaging with research is an emotionally demanding experience and a trajectory full of difficulties, challenges, and stress. This autoethnographic study explored my personal experiences as a PhD student in a four-year program and conducted a qualitative thematic analysis by analyzing 550 research diary entries collected between September 2018 and June 2022, in which supervisor feedback and reviewer comments were part of the content. Three recurring, unique, and salient themes pertaining to my personal experiences were identified: being fraught with anxiety, gaining a sense of enjoyment, and achieving personal growth. Whereas anxiety was from publication and dissertation writing, foreign language writing, and individual stressors, enjoyment was gained from the support network and conducting research. My personal growth was reflected from sustained engagement and improved autonomy. In the process, I experienced some negative emotions, but found more enjoyment. The findings indicate that anxiety and enjoyment are fluctuating, co-occurring, and reciprocal. The findings call for more attention to the role of research diary writing in scaffolding PhD research, providing emotional support, and facilitating personal growth and well-being of PhD students.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-10501852
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2023
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-105018522023-09-15 “Anxiety or enjoyment, I feel pleasant to welcome them both”: thematic analysis of a Chinese PhD student’s personal growth experiences Chen, Hua Front Psychol Psychology Engaging with research is an emotionally demanding experience and a trajectory full of difficulties, challenges, and stress. This autoethnographic study explored my personal experiences as a PhD student in a four-year program and conducted a qualitative thematic analysis by analyzing 550 research diary entries collected between September 2018 and June 2022, in which supervisor feedback and reviewer comments were part of the content. Three recurring, unique, and salient themes pertaining to my personal experiences were identified: being fraught with anxiety, gaining a sense of enjoyment, and achieving personal growth. Whereas anxiety was from publication and dissertation writing, foreign language writing, and individual stressors, enjoyment was gained from the support network and conducting research. My personal growth was reflected from sustained engagement and improved autonomy. In the process, I experienced some negative emotions, but found more enjoyment. The findings indicate that anxiety and enjoyment are fluctuating, co-occurring, and reciprocal. The findings call for more attention to the role of research diary writing in scaffolding PhD research, providing emotional support, and facilitating personal growth and well-being of PhD students. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-08-31 /pmc/articles/PMC10501852/ /pubmed/37720658 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1173734 Text en Copyright © 2023 Chen. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Chen, Hua
“Anxiety or enjoyment, I feel pleasant to welcome them both”: thematic analysis of a Chinese PhD student’s personal growth experiences
title “Anxiety or enjoyment, I feel pleasant to welcome them both”: thematic analysis of a Chinese PhD student’s personal growth experiences
title_full “Anxiety or enjoyment, I feel pleasant to welcome them both”: thematic analysis of a Chinese PhD student’s personal growth experiences
title_fullStr “Anxiety or enjoyment, I feel pleasant to welcome them both”: thematic analysis of a Chinese PhD student’s personal growth experiences
title_full_unstemmed “Anxiety or enjoyment, I feel pleasant to welcome them both”: thematic analysis of a Chinese PhD student’s personal growth experiences
title_short “Anxiety or enjoyment, I feel pleasant to welcome them both”: thematic analysis of a Chinese PhD student’s personal growth experiences
title_sort “anxiety or enjoyment, i feel pleasant to welcome them both”: thematic analysis of a chinese phd student’s personal growth experiences
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10501852/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37720658
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1173734
work_keys_str_mv AT chenhua anxietyorenjoymentifeelpleasanttowelcomethemboththematicanalysisofachinesephdstudentspersonalgrowthexperiences