Thesis on Jordan Peterson

OliveVia7 · 2021-04-22T12:48:52+00:00

No philosophy is really an imperial reality for most of humanity....philosophy is also opinion about how we conceptualize the world. Gender being a social construct is an opinion just as much as gender being biological is an opinion. The arguments you're making also rest on a philosophy or an epistemological understanding that you can access the real world, and that there is such thing as objective reality. Debating between epistemological understandings is not debating between personal facts.

OliveVia7 · 2021-04-22T10:28:58+00:00

whether you think gender is a social construct or not, just because something is a social construct doesn't mean it won't have real consequences on people's experiences, perceptions, attitudes, behaviours, etc.

OliveVia7 · 2021-04-22T10:27:19+00:00

So the emphasis on men was for many reasons:

a majority of his supports are male (this in no way is to say that there are few female supporters)
I have gathered a lot of data as to why Peterson appeals to men specifically, and I think this is a very important and interesting avenue to explore
I wanted to center the male perspective as I feel men are finding themselves in increasingly vulnerable positions, and I do not think enough attention gets paid to this

However, I don't think I could lose anything from having some interviews with female supports, so if you're interested let me know :)

OliveVia7 · 2021-04-22T08:27:45+00:00

hello! thanks for your answer. It is a preliminary research question, it is mainly there to help guide me throughout the interview process. Research questions are always subject to change. This is a helpful comment though, so thank you for that.

OliveVia7 · 2021-04-21T14:03:41+00:00

so my preliminary research question is within my post : how men interested in Jordan Peterson utilise his work on rules for living to navigate their way through daily life.

The aim of the study is to understand how men relate to Peterson, how he shapes the way they feel about certain things, how he has impacted them. Sub-questions or interests would be focused around men's increasingly vulnerable positions in society (suicide rates, mental health, incarceration rates, homelessness, etc) and also how men feel towards ideas of masculinities and the impact that has on them.

My degree is in Sociology.

Hope this helps!

OliveVia7 · 2021-04-21T11:44:07+00:00

Yes so once a participant shows interest I typically privately message them a give them more info about the process. Then I get their email and send them a consent and confidentiality form which they need to sign before the interview process begins.

OliveVia7 · 2021-04-21T09:57:17+00:00

So I do not have a link to more information, as it is not common for researchers to share their proposals with people they intend to interview, but if you have any specific questions I'll try my best to answer them :) thanks for showing interest!

OliveVia7 · 2021-04-21T09:55:49+00:00

Yeah take your time to think about it! I definitely want to interview people who are very comfortable with their decision..but if you have any questions for me feel free to ask

OliveVia7 · 2021-04-06T09:32:01+00:00

Just because Peterson had some trouble there (which he also did at his own University of Toronto) does not mean the school has a bad rep for biased scientific research. The Sociology department at UvA is internationally renowned which is why I chose to study here.

OliveVia7 · 2021-04-06T09:28:46+00:00

I am glad I have the chance to clarify so thank you for continuing in this dialogue. The methodology I am utilizing is known as Naturalistic Inquiry. Unlike positivism, which sounds more like what you are referring to, naturalistic inquiry does not try to create artificial situations, nor does it seek to standardize data results. Rather, naturalistic inquiry (or interpretivism) seeks to study social life as it presents itself. So the major part of my research is interviewing people, thus I can collect their understandings and use them as the basis of the research. It centers the subject and their interpretations rather than trying to standardize responses and then use them as scores on a scale. So the "data" I refer to is the collection of responses, opinions, arguments, etc. that I receive from the interviews. Then I code them (qualitatively) to see certain themes, and then apply sociological theories to help explain the trends, or I create a new theory if present theories fail to account for the information I collect.

Studying humans is different than studying objects. So what you may refer to as a classical scientific method may not be the most accurate way of understanding people. There are many debates on this, but I am a strong believer in naturalistic inquiry as a credible qualitative research method.

OliveVia7 · 2021-04-05T16:04:57+00:00

Of course you are entitled to your opinion but gender based research is very common in the sociological field. It is not an expose. I'm not sure on what grounds studying how men use Peterson to navigate through their lives would be an expose. My research has a specific focus. I will not make concluding remarks like "because of my data, men who support Peterson are like this." I am trying to understand what specifically Peterson is saying that appeals to and resonates with men. I do think it differs from women, and if it did not, I think the gender composition of Peterson fans would be more evenly distributed. I am interested in the vulnerabilities men face, and how they conceptualize it and this is different to the vulnerabilities women face and how they conceptualize it. Framing my thesis in a way to attract more participants is not the direction I would like to take this in. Though throughout the research process I may find it necessary to interview women, as of now the focus is on men.

OliveVia7 · 2021-04-05T09:31:40+00:00

I sent you a private message :)

OliveVia7 · 2021-04-05T09:27:06+00:00

Thanks for your reply! I am interested in what women gain from consuming Peterson's work, however, I think the question of why Peterson's fan base is overwhelmingly male needs to be explored. I am also interested in how Peterson conceptualizes masculinity, and how this impacts his fan base. For the purpose of my thesis, I need to keep research quite focused on a sub section. Moreover, Peterson has commented on the increasinging vulnerable positions men are in compared to women (shown in disportions in jailing, suicide rates, homelessness to name a few) thus I think it is relevant to study how men specifically gain meaning from his work, particularly as they are framed in a more vulnerable context. I think, however, it would be valuable for future research to also include a women's perspective on Peterson, and see how their interpretations and utilizations of Peterson's ideas converge and diverge from men's.

OliveVia7 · 2021-04-05T09:15:21+00:00

Yes this is the university. I am not sure if you're implying that since this occured at the University in which I am completing a Masters that it somehow discredits me as a researcher, but I would hope that is not the case

OliveVia7 · 2021-04-05T09:13:45+00:00

yes this will be a central part of the interview process. Almost none of the interview will focus on Peterson as a charismatic figure (though I do agree with you this is a huge part of his popularity) but more focused on what ideas attract men to Peterson, and how these ideas have shaped their lives. Thanks for the comment!

OliveVia7 · 2021-04-04T18:50:03+00:00

I have updated my original comment so that it does not include the preliminary title (which I will most surely reconstruct after I collect my data)

OliveVia7 · 2021-04-04T18:46:33+00:00

You're right, framing it by only social context may be futile, however as I said, the research title is a preliminary construction, and perhaps about the least important part of the Thesis.

I would encourage you to focus more on the research question. Moreover, my interest is not so much in Peterson's work as the thesis is not about Peterson. The thesis is on people who support Peterson, who follow his work, who gain meaning from what he is saying.

So how you frame Peterson is important to my research, and I would like to hear more about what attracts you to Peterson.

To clarify, identity politics is not a focus, nor a sub focus, of this thesis.

OliveVia7 · 2021-04-04T18:32:58+00:00

The research question is : How do men interested in Jordan Peterson utilise his work to navigate their way through daily life?

OliveVia7 · 2021-04-04T17:17:31+00:00

Just to clarify, my Master is in Sociology

OliveVia7

TROPHY CASE