Abstract
Thematic analysis was used as a method of processing the interview. The interview was obtained as study material from The British Library database. In the video material and its transcript, Hussain-Gambles recounts her life journey and the transitional moments she encountered. This report explores the phenomenon of transitional moments as particular phases in personal development, involving a restructuring of the mind and body as a whole. A thematic analysis demonstrated fourteen key themes associated with transitional moments in Hussain-Gambles. In TMA 04, only three of these themes were selected, namely childhood reflection, group identity and disruption of gender expectations. It was shown that Hussain-Gambles addressed these themes to describe her transitional moments, namely the socialisation of the child in the early school years and the transition to a mature, emotionally developed person.
Introduction
Identifying those processes and driving forces that govern personal development is an important issue. In maturation, special attention should be paid to transitions as life events leading to significant changes in lifestyle and ways of thinking (Crafter, 2015). There is no universal definition to describe the essence of life transitions; nevertheless, referring to examples gives a more profound sense of the underlying idea. For instance, Crafter cites migration, growing up, change of occupation, war, and relationship breakdown among illustrative examples. An in-depth study of such moments makes it possible to trace the phenomenon of human development both individually and in a general context, contributing to the theoretical study of human as a biosocial organism.
Developmental psychology aims to study in detail the processes and phases that the individual goes through as a result of growing up. Most researchers perceive these processes as discrete, that is, separated from one another (Crafter, 2015). One of the seminal psychoanalysts, Erikson, wrote about the discrete stages of human personality development; Erikson pointed to the existence of eight specific age stages that underpin an individual’s psychosocial development — passing through these stages is necessary for the evolution of the self, with transitional phases between stages characterised by the presence of conflict (Cherry, 2019). From this perspective, it is helpful to cite research that reports that unpreparedness for major life transitions often leads to depression (Chowdhury, 2019). Changes during transitions also occur at the cognitive level, as Piaget and Kohlberg wrote about, in which case the stages overlap to create a sequential series of evolutionary phases (Crafter, 2015). Against the background of the perspectives described, it becomes clear that transitions are usually associated with emotional upheavals and intrapersonal conflicts, which are necessary for the further development.
One of the main components of personality that is vulnerable during transitions is identity. Identity should be understood as a way of knowing oneself and defining one’s place in life (Crafter, 2015; Solobutina, 2022). According to Crafter, Erikson referred to identity as an essential component of human development; however, this identity can be disrupted by a moment of transition. It has been reported that the sense of meaning in one’s life as a predictor of self-identity is susceptible to damage as a result of trauma associated with transitional states (Altmaier, 2020). In other words, a reassessment of values is characteristic of such a life transformation. Regarding this reassessment, or more precisely, the change in the individual’s relationship to the environment, Lev Vygotsky should be quoted. Vygotsky believed that during personality ontogenesis, the individual changes their relationship with the environment, and thus the personality-medium interaction is interrelated and cannot be viewed in isolation (Zhang, Wang, and Guo, 2018). The impairment of expectations caused by this reassessment of life meanings is also a frequent concomitant practice for individuals around the individual in transition (Crafter, 2015). Disruption of expectations also occurs when real-life practices do not align with how they were imagined; the individual finds themselves unprepared for the changes in their life during this transitional process (Patel et al., 2019). In turn, it can be assumed that such disruption affects one’s understanding of identity when external factors disrupt the stability of the individual. The present report positively contributes to the theory of psychosocial personality development and shows three themes with which transitional states are associated. Specifically, the research question is to identify the themes that Mah Hussain-Gambles uses when discussing her life transitions.
Methodology
Design
The method was a thematic analysis of the interview with the identification of codes and their integration into related themes. Primary data was collected through the semi-structured interview with preliminary development of the areas and issues to be addressed (The British Library, 2013).
Participant
The participant in this interview was Mah Hussain-Gambles, a Pakistani-born female scientist in pharmacology and sociology. In 2004 Hussain-Gambles completed her doctoral thesis on the representation of South Asians in clinical trials at the University of Leeds (Voices of Science, n.d.). The same year the scientist founded her home beauty cream company, Saaf Pure Skincare Ltd.
Materials
The Hussain-Gambles interview conducted by The British Library was used as material for this thematic analysis. In addition to the audio file available on the official portal website, a written transcript in.docx format, which allows taking notes as presented in Appendix A, was also used for the analysis.
Procedures
The transcript was read three times after listening to the audio file to identify the initial codes. The codes were determined manually by identifying all unique data segments showing a particular meaning (Familiarisation and coding, 2022). An auxiliary question approach was used to optimise the coding, as shown in Figure 1. Subsequently, the initial codes were combined into related themes, among which the three most appealing themes were selected for this report. MS Excel was used to create a visualisation of the detected themes. It is worth pointing out that in the following sections, the separate numbers in brackets at the end of sentences indicate the corresponding lines of the transcript.
Ethical Considerations
The interview procedure, including informed consent, was part of The British Library’s responsibility. The participant’s name and occupation were not anonymised, as this was publicly available data; the material was used for academic purposes.
Reflexivity
In coding the interview transcript, I was guided by a desire to maximise the generated codes and cover many relevant topics, including gender stereotypes, racism, and ethnic diversity. I did not focus only on the codes that would interest me but created as many of them as possible. Narrowing the scope of the diversity of codes was done according to the research question: the codes I created fully answered the research question and broadened it.
Analysis
For TMA 04, it was necessary to identify only three themes that seemed most attractive for meaningful examination as themes to which Hussain-Gambles referred when discussing their life transitions. Analysis of this interview highlighted fourteen unique themes, each of which provides a field for further research in psychosocial development. Figure 2 demonstrates the list of these themes and their representation in the Hussain-Gambles interview. The quantitative measure is the number of codes combined under a common theme. It is worth clarifying that the transition points in Hussain-Gambles’ life were the early school period and maturity as a phase of assessment of one’s own experiences.
Disruption of Gender Expectations
One of the key themes was the issue of child abnormality or violation of gender expectations concerning the child. About herself, Hussain-Gambles reports that she was “a bit of a tomboy” and preferred more “masculine” activities, be they sports, science or outdoor play, instead of playing with dolls (7-9). Hussain-Gambles particularly emphasises this aspect of her childhood, suggesting that this plays a significant role in her sense of identity; the woman appears to value her uniqueness and personal protest against established gender stereotypes. According to Erikson, childhood itself is a crucial transitional moment in a person’s life, especially in the early school age, when interpersonal relationships are formed, and the foundations of personality are laid. In the third phase of Erikson’s psychosocial development, the child becomes aware of the connection between self and behaviour (Cherry, 2019). Therefore, addressing the topic of protesting gender stereotypes in the interview shows how the respondent experienced childhood transition — different from what is common in society.
Reflexivity of Childhood
The second theme related to transitional moments was the reflection of childhood. A critical stage in becoming an adult, the transition from unconscious phases to a critical mature person, involves the possibility of adequate reflection (Solobutina, 2022). In the interview, the respondent reports that she had “a fairly interesting childhood” (7); subsequently, she tells a story about role-playing with her brother with a smile on her face (9-13). In the context of the interview, these stories may seem like nothing more than a mock narrative of what Hussain-Gambles’ childhood was like. However, on a deeper level, these stories tell of the maturity of adult self-reflection and the ability to look adequately at one’s past to describe its characteristics. Transition moments such as becoming an adult, burdened by financial and maternal responsibilities in synthesis with professional responsibilities as a scholar, do not seem to have erased her memories but allow Hussain-Gambles to address them with humour. It is also possible to look at this topic from another perspective, as it has already been shown that early school age is an important transitional event. When Hussain-Gambles describes her childhood as interesting, this can be seen as an understanding that she became a famous scholar partly because her childhood was like this (7). In other words, the woman draws a parallel between who she is now and what her childhood was like. This forms an understanding of the contribution of childhood to the transitions of further identity formation.
Group Belonging
The third theme found was the issue of group belonging. Hussain-Gambles addressed this theme five times in the interview. The phrases “and I always felt safe,…I felt I could relate to that group” (25-26) and ” I’ve applied science to my life” (56) demonstrate the importance of feeling committed to something bigger. In the first case, the scientist demonstrates belonging to a marginal biker group and, in the second, to a community of scientists. These references demonstrate the need for social integration as part of adapting to difficult transitions in life, whether dealing with peer bullying as a consequence of migration or the need to grow intellectually after finishing school.
Discussion
The thematic analysis identified the main themes that Hussain-Gambles addressed when discussing life transitions. The issues of gender expectation violation, childhood reflection and group identity were selected for the TMA 04. The respondent addressed these themes with varying frequency, but they were chosen as the most appealing from a research perspective because of their found correlation with the literature.
Crafter (2015) observed that developmental psychology defines an individual’s transition from childhood to adulthood. The reflective analysis demonstrates the reversal of this that Hussain-Gambles used. The way the respondent talked about her childhood reflected an essential part of her identity; the woman acknowledges the interest in her past and refers to it with a smile. This may indicate that by adulthood, she has completed the early transitional stages of life according to Erikson and, therefore, emotionally maturely recalls them, successfully realising her identity (Crafter, 2015). When the respondent refers to her childhood as interesting, childhood reflection responds to Piaget’s cognitive age development, indicating the ability to view old experiences through new constructs (Crafter, 2015). Moreover, the woman sees meaning in her childhood, which means it has not been damaged in the transition between different personality stages (Altmaier, 2020). Thus Hussain-Gambles demonstrates the importance of childhood reflection as a tool for successfully mastering the transition to adulthood.
Erikson’s theory of conflict reveals an interesting perspective on social group identity. According to this theory, in the penultimate age stage, the central conflict is generativity versus stagnation (Cherry, 2019). By highlighting her commitment to a group of academics and talking about the importance of her work, Hussain-Gambles demonstrates the successful completion of this conflict in favour of generativity. Hussain-Gambles has succeeded in creating a legacy after herself, be it her children and/or scientific achievements, and it is this recognition allows her to adapt to the transition process of maturity. The interaction with the environment is also noteworthy: Hussain-Gambles showed atypical behaviour patterns in the early school period for a girl. From Vygotsky’s perspective, this demonstrates a cultural and social interaction of the girl with her environment, in which Hussain-Gambles’ personal development was influenced by external cues (Zhang et al., 2018). As can be seen, the girl who became an adolescent retained this characteristic of stability in her personality by following the path of protest, but with maturity, this trait in her personality seems no longer defining.
Conclusion
The thematic analysis allowed for fragmentation of the transcript and highlighted critical themes in light of the research question. This is a proper qualitative research strategy that has shown to be viable for TMA 04. However, there are some limitations to such a strategy, one of which is related to the researcher’s bias. It is impossible to achieve complete objectivity in the thematic analysis as each researcher cannot see beyond the codes and themes that resonate with them. In addition, the full biography of Hussain-Gambles was not known for this report, so there is a risk that the themes detected will not be close to the respondent.
This, in turn, creates a field for future research and interviews. Questions that force the respondent to name these moments in life should be used to assess transitions more accurately. A more detailed examination of the respondent’s personality will enable the identification of traumas and ways of coping with them, which is essential in personal development (Patel et al., 2019). In addition to the successfully identified themes, the list of themes can be expanded in the future to understand better the interviewee’s personality, which is what thematic analysis is used for.
Reference List
Altmaier, E.M. (2020) ‘Meaning in life amidst life transitions. In Navigating life transitions for meaning,’ Academic Press, 3-12.
Cherry, K. (2019) Understanding initiative vs. guilt. Web.
Chowdhury, R. (2019). Parting the veils of silence: a woman’s quest for meaning through the life transition of menopause. Web.
Crafter, S. (2015) Chapter 5: can people really change? Changing self-identity and ‘other’ relationships across the lifespan. Web.
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Hussain-Gambles, M. (2015) Mah Hussain-Gambles: life as a scientist. Web.
Patel, D., Blandford, A., Stephenson, J. and Shawe, J. (2019) ‘Understanding the use of social technologies during a life transition: men’s experience with fertility problems,’ Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 19, 1-6.
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Voices of Science (n.d.) Mah Hussain-Gambles. Web.
Zhang, X., Wang, H. and Guo, D. (2018) ‘Embodied cognition from the perspective of Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory,’ Philosophy, 8(8), pp. 362-367.