This section discusses the limitations of the current version of FERAL and potential future developments.
6.4.1 Limitations of FERAL
There are a number of limitations with the current version of FERAL.
• Appearance of menus sometimes slow. Due to the dynamic instantiation of
Chapter 6 FERAL
for current medium performance machines. For example, the pop up menu for a segment of text must, among other things, search all windows in all areas to find if there are any memos linked to the selected segment of text and sort all codes in any code set in the active area.
• No multiple h ighlight. No more than one text segment can be highlighted at one
time. This results in flashy behaviour at times and increased difficulty in following through an operation.
• Menu too big. If a menu contains many options and/or options have long names,
such as names of codes, then the menu may fill up the screen and navigating the menu hierarchy becomes difficult. One solution is to replace the end of long menu items with ' ... '.
• Multiple selections difficult. A disadvantage of putting all options in a hierarchical
menu occurs when multiple selections are needed. This occurs in FERAL in the 'font' facility, for example, changing a window's font to bold, underline, and size 1 2 . Using the popup menu, three menu selections are required, which is unsatisfactory compared to the ease of completing the same task using a modal dialogue box with all options displayed.
6.4.2 Potential future development
The long term aim for FERAL is a sophisticated system to assist research and training. The major developments needed are:
• Sophisticated search and retrieval. More sophisticated text and code searching of
documents where codes and text strings can be combined in multiple ways using Boolean operators is needed.
• Conceptual mapping. Laying out concepts graphically and showing their inter
connections can assist in the manipulation of ideas and formulation of theory. A comprehensive conceptual mapping facility for FERAL would include an ability to draw boxes and connecting lines, a maintenance of logical connections between the conceptual map and the data (e.g., the system understands this box called 'code A' refers to code A), and an underlying logic engine that provides intelligent linking in the maps. Optimally, different kinds of links in the maps would be provided. An initial taxonomy for types of links is:
1 . Categories, classes, kind of, types
2 . Components, part of, consists of, whole/parts 3 . Instance, i.e., specific in time or space
4. Analogy, with different degrees of goodness of fit where 1 00% is a synonym 5 . Antonym, opposite
6. Symptoms of, indicative of, e.g., a tidal wave IS indicative of an underwater
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7. Causes, results in
8. Sequential in time, comes before/after
9. Parallel process, concurrent.
Links may also be assigned attributes and weights and have the range of cardinality of one to one, one to many, or many to many.
• Training facilities. Increasing the facilities for training is needed. Currently trainers
have the ability to arrange the interface and use text fields. Research would be needed to ascertain the features most required.
• Quantitative facilities. Providing statistical support, e.g., for testing intercoder
reliability would be useful. FERAL already provides useful features for investigating intercoder reliability, such as, a flexible interface so windows can be arranged to suit the task, multiple independent code and instance sets, and free note windows to place instructions and user feedback.
• Video facilities. Digital video offers the potential for powerful and sophisticated
video control and editing. However, digital video of a quality suitable for analysis tasks is available only on expensive equipment. When this technology becomes more accessible, then FERAL could integrate with an existing digital video suite.
• PC version. A version of FERAL for use on PCs is needed to make it accessible to
most users.
The minor developments that have not yet been implemented are given in Appendix E.4.
Decisions about whether to include certain developments have not yet been made. These potential developments are:
• Give an option for displaying code mark-up in a document's text. One
implementation option is to use coloured, inter-leaved, repeated text to show codes. Another approach would be to change the contents of the instance set. Rather than displaying the indexing information (line and character numbers) as at present, the actual text content could be displayed.
• Use doubleclick for the most common operation in a menu. • Allow different types of note windows.
• Provide logging where every operation is put in a log window with the time and date. • Allow discontinuous time code on a document. For this project's case study, this
would allow comments that are global or not in sequence.
• Get all codes for a specific time period. Currently this requires two steps - highlight
text for time code and then get codes.
FERAL is a new system that has only been used for this project's analysis. Feedback from demonstrations to different groups, including computer system developers,
Chapter 6 FERAL
very enthusiastic and positive. Computer system developers have been impressed b y the interface. Qualitative researchers also like the interface and the ability to incorporate video and temporal information. Psychodramatists have focused mainly on the training
potential of FERAL with the collected commentary and video data which is probably a
Chapter Seven
Data Collection
The fust section of this chapter describes the filming of three psychodramas while the second section describes the collection of expert commentary on the videotaped psychodramas.
7.1 Psychodrama filmings
Three group psychodrama were conducted and videotaped. Each filming is discussed in detail. Approval for the filmings was obtained from the Massey University Human Ethics Committee and the application for approval is presented as Appendix A.
7.1 . 1 Filming one
The fust filming of a psychodrama sessiOn was done at the Massey University television production studio on Monday afternoon, September 5, 1 994. The objectives
were:
1 . To video record a typical, unrehearsed psychodrama session lead by an experienced practitioner for use in the project
2. To explore procedural, ethical and technical aspects of video recording psychodramas
3 . To involve Dr. Max Clayton and the psychodrama community in the research project.
7. 1 . 1 . 1 Background to filming one
In August 1 994 the author attended a psychodrama training workshop lead by Dr. Max Clayton and Ms. Chris Hosking. The author's purpose was twofold, fustly, to increase his understanding of psychodrama process through direct participation as a group member and trainee director. Secondly, to meet Dr. Clayton, ascertain if he was appropriate expert participant for this study and if so, introduce the project to him in the hope of involving him. These objectives were achieved.