Create a research result paper based off the following 3 interview transcript. One example of assignment is given, you have no need to quote anything but the interview itself.
The results section presents the questions you asked and then organizes and curates the responses from your participants.
You will necessarily summarize their responses, but you should always include rich direct quotations (indicated with quotation marks) where the language used by your participants is insightful, informative, or interesting.
A good results section is organized and thorough and allows the wisdom (or lack of the same) of your respondents to come through. A reader should not have to reference the transcripts to understand what you learned; it should be here. You should use direct quotes where it is important to capture the language of your respondents.
Organize the results by question. In other words, list a question and then describe the responses of all three persons under that question. This allows for easier comparisons and contrasts as you search for broad themes to include in your discussion section.
A sample of a good results section is below:
A total of six questions were asked of each informant, along with appropriate follow-ups as noted. Each individual who was interviewed has a pre-established relationship with me, the researcher. Because of this, each seemed to be comfortable throughout the interview. The friendly chat that occurred before each interview as well as afterward and their body languages, such as eye contact and head nods, indicated this relatively high level of comfort to me. However, one informant, Bob, was uncomfortable being visually recorded. To accommodate this request, only an audio recording was taken during his interview. Furthermore, all three informants were thoughtful in giving their responses. Each often paused for a moment after a question was asked in order to collect his or her thoughts and give an articulate and insightful response. I am grateful for such willing individuals who made this research possible.
To begin the interview, each informant was asked how happy, on most days, they would say they felt. Two informants, Vanessa and Ms. Mishkin, responded to this question by expressing their happiness level with a measure from a numerical scale of 1 through 10, with ten being the happiest. Eve gave herself a “6 or 7” on the day of her interview but was clear in suggesting that “happiness is a mindset,” so she claims to “try to have a good day every day.” While Cindi described happiness as “not something [she] think[s] about a lot,” she ranked her overall happiness higher on the scale than Vanessa at an “8 or 9.” Bob gave a drastically different answer than the two women. There are numerous confounding variables that could contribute to this, such as his age, gender, and work experience. He was hesitant to answer the question because he views happiness as “a trivial thing” and did not want to entertain the thought of elevating happiness’ importance by reflecting on how often he feels “happy,” instead, he places importance on the experience of peace. This question was important to ask as a way of initiating this research because, as Lyubomirsky asserts, “no appropriate happiness thermometer exists [so]...researchers generally rely on self-reports” (Lyubomirsky, 2007, p. 32).
In order to gain insight into the rationale behind the informant's previous answers, the next question asked, “What did you think about in answering that question?” Again, as expected, the two female informants had similarities in their answers, and the male had an entirely unique response. Eve thought about her “day-to-day activities,” and Cindi spoke about “thinking about [her] normal everyday life” while answering the previous question. These responses indicate that both Eve and Cindi consider life circumstances as having a relatively big role in their happiness, which leads one to want to caution them of hedonic adaptation or “becoming rapidly accustomed to sensory of physiologic changes” (Lyubomirsky, 2007, p. 47). Eve related her happiness to her daily routine of work, class, and spending time with friends in the Catholic Gators student center. Thus, notably, she incorporated her Catholic faith into her answer. Cindi thought of happiness in relation to the home she lives in, her job, friends, and pets. Bob answered the previous question with a focus on the unimportance of happiness and the importance of peace in his daily life, so when asked to describe his thought process, he mentioned his mindset of creating “appropriate goals and appropriate ways to live” in order to achieve “deep peace,” which is much better than feel[ing] good [or happy] at the moment,” according to him. Instead of thinking of current life circumstances, Bob seems to place emphasis on happiness increasing strategies, especially “committing to [his] goals” (Lyubomirsky, 2007, p. 205).
The third question in the interview asked each informant to share their personal definition of happiness. As was expected due to the highly personal nature of this question, each informant responded with varying amounts of details and explanations. After thinking for a moment, Eve defined happiness as “that warm, fuzzy feeling you get when you are probably doing something you really love.” She explained that the feelings of love and happiness are “interchangeable” to her but was clear to explain that, again, she views happiness as a “mindset” and as a “choice you make every day when you wake up.” Cindi provided a less layered answer with a simpler yet still meaningful definition of happiness which was “just being content and grateful for what you have.” In this sense, Cindi defined happiness as an attitude of gratefulness and recognition for the positives in one’s life. Bob defined happiness as “a momentary state of pleasure” and added that, to him, happiness “doesn’t reflect a true value that...most people should seek.”
Next, each informant was asked how important they consider the people in their life to their happiness. All three answered this question similarly and seemed to unanimously provide answers that point towards the suggestion that other people are critical to one’s personal happiness. Vanessa focused on how “the people you surround yourself with affect how you live your life.” She explained that she essentially adopts the mindset of the people she spends the most time with, and the people with whom she surrounds herself with, tend to be “happier or just have the mindset of positivity,” which, in turn, “makes life better” for her. Cindi explained that her “relationships are definitely a priority” to her and that she could not envision her life without them. She looks forward to “all the different texting and phone calls” she engages in daily with her family and friends. Bob claims that “other people are the essential” to “purpose in [one’s] life.” He explained this claim further by describing the reverse by highlighting that “ignoring the other people in our life” will cause “a darkness, a depression, and a sadness” to develop. Finally, Bob concludes his point with an articulate and nuanced statement that explains his opinion of recognizing the importance of others in our life because, in his opinion, it will lead to “find[ing] that deeper sense of peace, which is far [sic] far more important than temporary happiness.” Lyubomirsky’s research coincides with these responses as she found that “investing in social connections” and “nurturing social relationships” are concrete ways to increase one’s happiness level (Lyubomirsky, 2007, pp. 125, 138).
To conclude the interviews, each informant was asked if there was anything else they would like to add to the conversation concerning the topic of happiness. Eve reinforced her belief that “happiness is a choice” and you can “choose to be happy” despite the troublesome or negative events occurring in your life at the present time. Ms. Mishkin concluded her interview with a simple statement that offers insight into her life experiences; she said, “the older you get, you realize life is short...[and] you just don’t have time to be sad.” Bob viewed this last question as an opportunity to give advice to the younger generation and summarize his thoughts on happiness. He advised to stop “trying to achieve in the moment” but to instead “live our life in service of others” so that a “deeper sense of happiness” can be achieved, which he “would call a deep sense of peace.” In his response to this question, Bob has seemingly clarified that happiness and peace are two constructs that are heavily related and influenced by each other. It seems that to him, achieving a high level of sustained happiness can be equated to the feeling of peace.