What follows will hopefully be a comprehensive guide to the current state of the database and its content – David Zeitler

 

I.            SETUP:

 

So far, the database (or template) has two main categories of information:

 

   Category One: Fully coded articles

   Category Two: References/Abstracts only

 

Category one contains mostly JTP codings, but also includes a number of re-codings from the first two rounds of article hunts. this is pretty straightforward, and it is where all the articles in category two are headed.

 

Which brings me to category two.  We are currently searching for references (with or without abstracts) which we will do a full coding of later. These references will vary according to level of importance.

 

Because of the variance in importance, we are using a system that will quickly let people who are searching the database know which articles should be coded first, and which can wait until a later time.

 

The references are broken down in order of importance thusly:

 

   high-priority

   medium-priority

   low-priority

   measure

   theory

 

High-priority articles must be empirical, must be rigorous, and must be directly related to human transformation (not simply healing; if healing is involved, it should be secondary to transformation of consciousness).

 

Medium-priority articles are also empirical, rigorous, and related to human transformation - but not always all three together. So, there might be rigorous hermeneutical studies that deal with trauma from a developmental perspective. There might be empirical studies with a small participant pool (for that population) that deals directly with human transformation. etc., etc. (we will have to work on this one as we go along)

 

Low-priority articles are those which deal with developmental psychology in an indirect way. Perhaps their theory is transformative, but their procedure and measures are translative. Perhaps they deal exclusively with alcoholism, have a small participant pool, but their measures show transformation. (again, this one will take effort to define)

 

References denoted as "measure" will be articles that specifically test a measure's capabilities, or a study which uses a unique or new measure that seems well suited for integral studies.

 

Finally, references denoted as "theory" will be non-empirical articles with direct relevance for AQAL - Integral theory.

 

 

II.            NAVIGATION:

 

Okay, so now that you have the mental structure in place, here is how to use it.  It sounds more complicated than it actually is, as one visit to the template will show you.

 

When you do a search in the database - any search - you get a list of articles that are "hits" for your parameters. Included as part of each hit are five fields: author, title, date, "coder," and record number. These fields (except for record number) are all a part of Section IV in the template.  You then hit any one of the highlighted links which appear in your hits list to get the full coding.

 

Using this pre-given structure, we decided to use the DATE field for denoting the priority level of the article, and the CODER field to denote whether or not the reference also contains an abstract. This way, all relevant information is delivered to anyone doing a search immediately.

 

One thing on abstracts: the coder field will contain either "abstract", "no abstract", or "para-abstract" (a search-engine's paraphrased abstract; it will be noted at the end of each abstract from which search engine this came from, e.g., "PsycInfo Abstract").

 

Each of these truncated codings which contain only references/abstracts will also contain the name of the person who gathered it in the "Suggested By" field (also in Section IV.).

 

This setup makes it easy to search for specific types of articles when we eventually do the entire thing.

 

One more thing: sometimes there will be information in Comments section IV. as to the reasons behind the priority-level given. This might help us come to a definition eventually.

 

 

III.       DATA ENTRY:

 

For those of you who are gluttons for punishment, what follows is a painstakingly precise set of rules for entering data into the template.

 

The first rule is that anything in quotation marks is taken directly from the article.  Anything without quotes is the HCP's writing.

 

 

references –

 

Obviously, these should be APA format.  If there are only two authors, don't use a comma, and use the " & " instead of " and ".  The same with multiple authors, i.e., treat the last two authors in the list the same way: 

 

Doe, J. & Doe, J.  (1999).  title.  *journal, 9,* 120-122. ~~

 

notice the double space before and after the date (with period), also the asterisks flanking the journal name and volume (the second asterisk AFTER the comma), and finally, the double ~~ which indicates a double return in our schema (for future downloading ease).

 

All denotations for priority level and abstract will go in [brackets].

 

Finally, triple-check your spelling, as we need to use this as a SEARCHABLE TOOL !!