Tuesday, August 2, 2011
rel indexing write up
I actually loved doing the indexing portion. After taking this class I learned a lot about how to research for family history. I learned how to look up names, and enter dates. I also learned that it is not enough for me to know the names and dates of my ancestors, but I should know about my ancestors- enough and more to know that they are people who lived, and loved, and died. Why I loved the indexing so much is because when I do indexing I feel like I am finding old friends. It is a little odd to explain I guess, but unlike research indexing is an easy way to make new friends on the other side of the vial. If I could compare it to something I would say that indexing feels like going to a ward social. You talk a little with the people around you, and then you go home and they go home and you both feel like you have a new friend. Research is exhausting- like sharing your testimony at stake conference is exhausting. I like indexing, and feel like I could continue, and I believe that I will continue to index.
222 last center write up
Brigham Young University
SFL 222 Learning Center Assessment Write-up for Joy Marie Prior
The plan was to asses the children’s ability to create three dimensional objects. To follow Star on the Guideline for Practice I was trying to plan a curriculum that achieved the BYU preschool goals. I thought that painting rocks and making paper bag puppets would be a unique way for the children to start learning about three dimensional objects. Rocks are cheap and I thought that it would be good for the children to see a lopsided object and imagine it as something rather than seeing a symmetrical object. I originally wanted the children to make puppets of themselves, and to use the colors and patterns they were wearing.
My overall positive impressions of the experience were how involved the children were in their creations. I think that preparing the environment was the huge lesson I learned from this activity. I believe firmly now that to create a caring community of learners you need to have a learning environment. The first day we painted rocks and put glitter on them. That day was by far the most crazy. I mean there was paint in Savannah’s hair. I made a lot of modification for the next day. Instead of sponges I used small paint brushes, and I was a lot clearer about my expectations for the paint (only one spoon full, the paint is for the rocks…) The next project was to make paper bag puppets. I wanted to use all sorts of material, buttons, yarn, construction paper, goggle eyes, sticker eyes, and markers. I realize now that all of this material would have cluttered my environment and made it impossible for me to develop a community of learners in such a cluttered environment. Learning how valuable set up is in creating a caring community of learners was my positive overall impression of the project.
I felt like I taught to enhance the children’s learning by doing a lot of talking: self talk, asking questions, and encouraging the children to talk about their project. While we were painting rocks I learned that in order to properly assess a child’s development and learning you have to ask them questions about their project. For example Victor Jay’s rock looked like a paint volcano, but then I asked him what it was Victor Jay was painting a dog of some sort; he used his paintbrush to point to the bends in the rock that were the nose, back, and place were the dog poops. Maribel told me about her two purple and white blobs of painted rocks and said they were unicorns, and Mei painted turtles and snails purple, green, yellow… the rock project particularly taught me how important it is to ask the children questions about their projects and how vital that communication is when assessing their development and learning.
The puppets were a little easier to decipher what the children were making. I could tell that these blobs were eyes, and that swirl was a smile. I continued to ask the children questions about their puppets though and I enjoyed listening to Liam tell me about his crazy puppet, and Eliza only made ghost puppets (I do not know were she got the idea of a ghost puppet, but that is what she was making). As I asked them questions about their puppets their puppets became more detailed. Jackson added a bow to his, and Mirabel cut out “hair” for her black unicorn puppet. By me asking questions intended to assess their progress the children were able to surpass what the level that they were currently working at.
I learned from the partnership model that I have to be really clear about my preferences. When we were painting the rocks the first day the students were spooning mounds of paint onto their rocks. The rocks were looking like paint valcanos. I took a breath and reminded myself that I needed to set clear expectations. So, I told everyone that they could only have one spoon full of paint. A few minutes later I heard Victor Jay, “I only used one spoon full,” It surprised me how happy he was with himself for meeting my expectations, and I made the mental note that clear expectations can make the experience more meaningful for me and the students involved.
I used the learning model in my center by making the experience active. As I mentioned above I originally wanted the children to use a ton of materials because I thought that more stuff would make the activity more active. This was incorrect thinking. When I had the round faces precut, and the rectangles for shirts precut the children could be actively involved in learning and not simply actively involved in trying to figure out what was going on. It was an important lesson to learn about over stigmatization. I was talking to Savannah about her puppet: we talked about colors, crowns, princesses, designs, jewels, and all sorts of topics. Later when I was cleaning up the pile of paper jewels Savannah had cut out I realized that I did not need to provide plastic jewels for her to think to add plastic jewels. That is when it sunk into me that to make an active learning environment I need to provided attention, and activities that interest the children. I do not need to provided a surplus of materials to make an activity active.
Based on this experience what would you change or do differently:
It was the first time that I have ever been at a paint center, and looking back I should have had a little more foresight and asked to be put at a painting center earlier in the semester. That way I could have anticipated what happens when a group of preschoolers gets lots of bowls full of lots of paint.
In my mind I was going to just put the rocks on the creative trays and let them dry throughout the day, but remember particularly the first day we were making paint volcanoes, and the rocks would not dry clean on the trays. The next day I put the rocks on a paper plate and then put the paper plate on a tray on the drying rack. This worked better… but I think next time limiting the amount of paint the children had available would help also.
I would not have used the sponges the first day, and only used small paint brushes. When I paint a rock with a sponge I have the small motor skills to dab the paint all around, but four and three-year-olds use the sponge to put as much paint as they can all over the rock.
I have been trying to think of a better way that I could have set up the glitter boxes, because that was a little of a mess right there in the corner… I think that one simply way I could have slowed down that mess would have been to put the glitter box on a chair or something next to me so that it was at my eye level and I did not have to remind myself to look down while trying to help the children put their wet rock in the box. I liked the glitter because it was unique and it provided opportunities to talk about colors and such, but I don’t know if it necessarily applied to the learning concept I probably would not do glitter again.
I felt really bad when Eliza W. was at the center and I just could not and did not pay a ton of attention to her. We were on the last part of most of the children’s puppets, and she was just starting. I think that when she saw that there was stuff to do she wanted to be apart of the action, but I just did not give her enough encouragement to just grab a marker and jump on in. If I could do it again I would have just talked with her and encouraged her to pick out a marker, but instead when I would turn back to her she would be sitting there waiting for me to give her the next step. It would have only taken me 30 seconds maybe one minute to put a few markers next to her and encourage her with a few questions to decorate her puppet. I would have done that.
SFL 222 Learning Center Assessment Write-up for Joy Marie Prior
The plan was to asses the children’s ability to create three dimensional objects. To follow Star on the Guideline for Practice I was trying to plan a curriculum that achieved the BYU preschool goals. I thought that painting rocks and making paper bag puppets would be a unique way for the children to start learning about three dimensional objects. Rocks are cheap and I thought that it would be good for the children to see a lopsided object and imagine it as something rather than seeing a symmetrical object. I originally wanted the children to make puppets of themselves, and to use the colors and patterns they were wearing.
My overall positive impressions of the experience were how involved the children were in their creations. I think that preparing the environment was the huge lesson I learned from this activity. I believe firmly now that to create a caring community of learners you need to have a learning environment. The first day we painted rocks and put glitter on them. That day was by far the most crazy. I mean there was paint in Savannah’s hair. I made a lot of modification for the next day. Instead of sponges I used small paint brushes, and I was a lot clearer about my expectations for the paint (only one spoon full, the paint is for the rocks…) The next project was to make paper bag puppets. I wanted to use all sorts of material, buttons, yarn, construction paper, goggle eyes, sticker eyes, and markers. I realize now that all of this material would have cluttered my environment and made it impossible for me to develop a community of learners in such a cluttered environment. Learning how valuable set up is in creating a caring community of learners was my positive overall impression of the project.
I felt like I taught to enhance the children’s learning by doing a lot of talking: self talk, asking questions, and encouraging the children to talk about their project. While we were painting rocks I learned that in order to properly assess a child’s development and learning you have to ask them questions about their project. For example Victor Jay’s rock looked like a paint volcano, but then I asked him what it was Victor Jay was painting a dog of some sort; he used his paintbrush to point to the bends in the rock that were the nose, back, and place were the dog poops. Maribel told me about her two purple and white blobs of painted rocks and said they were unicorns, and Mei painted turtles and snails purple, green, yellow… the rock project particularly taught me how important it is to ask the children questions about their projects and how vital that communication is when assessing their development and learning.
The puppets were a little easier to decipher what the children were making. I could tell that these blobs were eyes, and that swirl was a smile. I continued to ask the children questions about their puppets though and I enjoyed listening to Liam tell me about his crazy puppet, and Eliza only made ghost puppets (I do not know were she got the idea of a ghost puppet, but that is what she was making). As I asked them questions about their puppets their puppets became more detailed. Jackson added a bow to his, and Mirabel cut out “hair” for her black unicorn puppet. By me asking questions intended to assess their progress the children were able to surpass what the level that they were currently working at.
I learned from the partnership model that I have to be really clear about my preferences. When we were painting the rocks the first day the students were spooning mounds of paint onto their rocks. The rocks were looking like paint valcanos. I took a breath and reminded myself that I needed to set clear expectations. So, I told everyone that they could only have one spoon full of paint. A few minutes later I heard Victor Jay, “I only used one spoon full,” It surprised me how happy he was with himself for meeting my expectations, and I made the mental note that clear expectations can make the experience more meaningful for me and the students involved.
I used the learning model in my center by making the experience active. As I mentioned above I originally wanted the children to use a ton of materials because I thought that more stuff would make the activity more active. This was incorrect thinking. When I had the round faces precut, and the rectangles for shirts precut the children could be actively involved in learning and not simply actively involved in trying to figure out what was going on. It was an important lesson to learn about over stigmatization. I was talking to Savannah about her puppet: we talked about colors, crowns, princesses, designs, jewels, and all sorts of topics. Later when I was cleaning up the pile of paper jewels Savannah had cut out I realized that I did not need to provide plastic jewels for her to think to add plastic jewels. That is when it sunk into me that to make an active learning environment I need to provided attention, and activities that interest the children. I do not need to provided a surplus of materials to make an activity active.
Based on this experience what would you change or do differently:
It was the first time that I have ever been at a paint center, and looking back I should have had a little more foresight and asked to be put at a painting center earlier in the semester. That way I could have anticipated what happens when a group of preschoolers gets lots of bowls full of lots of paint.
In my mind I was going to just put the rocks on the creative trays and let them dry throughout the day, but remember particularly the first day we were making paint volcanoes, and the rocks would not dry clean on the trays. The next day I put the rocks on a paper plate and then put the paper plate on a tray on the drying rack. This worked better… but I think next time limiting the amount of paint the children had available would help also.
I would not have used the sponges the first day, and only used small paint brushes. When I paint a rock with a sponge I have the small motor skills to dab the paint all around, but four and three-year-olds use the sponge to put as much paint as they can all over the rock.
I have been trying to think of a better way that I could have set up the glitter boxes, because that was a little of a mess right there in the corner… I think that one simply way I could have slowed down that mess would have been to put the glitter box on a chair or something next to me so that it was at my eye level and I did not have to remind myself to look down while trying to help the children put their wet rock in the box. I liked the glitter because it was unique and it provided opportunities to talk about colors and such, but I don’t know if it necessarily applied to the learning concept I probably would not do glitter again.
I felt really bad when Eliza W. was at the center and I just could not and did not pay a ton of attention to her. We were on the last part of most of the children’s puppets, and she was just starting. I think that when she saw that there was stuff to do she wanted to be apart of the action, but I just did not give her enough encouragement to just grab a marker and jump on in. If I could do it again I would have just talked with her and encouraged her to pick out a marker, but instead when I would turn back to her she would be sitting there waiting for me to give her the next step. It would have only taken me 30 seconds maybe one minute to put a few markers next to her and encourage her with a few questions to decorate her puppet. I would have done that.
sfl 290 rough draft
Introduction
Hypotheses
Summary of Hypotheses.
Study 1: The amount of time spent in the Temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints will have a positive statistically significant relationship to level of happiness. Study 2: The amount of time spent in Cardio exercise will have a positive statistically significant relationship to level of productivity. Study 3: The amount of time spent in personal scripture study will have a positive statistically significant relationship to level of harmony. Study 4(random finding): The amount of time spent with less than ten but more than three family members will have a negative statistically significant relationship to level of energy.
Primary Hypothesis.
Study 3
Review of Literature
There is reason to study religion in the daily life of a seemly religious individual (Ardagh, 2006). With the current discussion of pop-psychology-as-religion the time traditionally spent on Bible reading and devoted prayer is being spent on extreme diets and meditation (Allen, 2008). During Julia Hills Johnson life time the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was a new age religion that promised harmony and personal satisfaction through church, scripture reading, and commitment to the church; similar to how the pop-psychology-as-religion promise harmony through commitments to the diets and meditation. Both styles of worship promise harmony. In a historical review of the life of Julia Hills Johnson the author credits her involvement in the doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints with her spiritual fulfillment (Thayne, 2007). The possibility that simply the contemporary society expectations of worship increase an individuals harmony level and not specifically the type of worship.
Conceptual definitions
Happiness a feeling of excitement that causes an individual to feel as if they were radiant. Productivity a belief that oneself or ones accomplishments have been purposeful. Harmony an individual feeling of not simply being personally satisfied with but being in tune to the physical, mental, social, and emotional needs of oneself. Energy is not simply to complete an activity but to bring an amount of enthusiasm to an activity that creates a self aflame fire and motivation for the individual.
Contribution
The combination of the results found in the four studies focuses on religious (traditional and modern) activities to discover if there is a correlation between these practices and ones life.
Method
Sample
There was one individual in sample used for all three of the studies. The individual is 20 years old and a sophomore at Brigham Young University. The sample considers herself an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and attends religious services on a weekly bases. She is white, grew up in Spanish Fork Utah (a rural community), and is the youngest of nine children.
Procedure
It began on June 28, 2011 and ended July 20, 2011. The sample filled out two spreadsheets. Both spreadsheets were divided by the date and time of day: A, 6am to 10am; B, 10am to 2pm; C, 2pm to 6pm; D, 6pm to 10pm; and E, 10 pm to 2pm. To add a section F seemed unpractical because the participant was asleep during 2pm to 6pm and was unable to collect data at that time. The first spreadsheet was to recorded happiness, focus, energy, confidence, and harmony levels on a scale from one to seven at each of the sections (i.e. A, B, C, D, or E) of the day. To compute the data the level of harmony, productivity, energy, and happiness were totaled making the maximum in a given day is 35 and the minimum 5. The second spreadsheet was a documentation the amount of time and the time of day (i.e. A, B, C, D, or E) when the participant did a particular activity. The daily activities were divided into five areas: Healthy Living, Social, Education, Spiritual, and Personal Interest-initially there were 24 activities consistently recorded throughout the allotted period. Each day the participant completed both spread sheets before going to bed. The excess data was used to find lurking variables that may influence the hypotheses.
Variables
Independent variables.
The independent variables were for study 1 amount of time spent in the Temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints , for study 2 amount of time spent in Cardio exercise , for study 3 amount of time spent in personal scripture study, and for study 4(random finding) amount of time spent with less than ten but more than three family members.
Dependent variables.
The dependent variables were for study 1 happiness, for study 2 productivity, for study 3 harmony, and for study 4 energy.
Operational Definitions
The operational definition of happiness used in study 1 was defined by a self-report of happiness level on a scale of one to seven: 1: unbearably sad, 2: very sad, 3: quite sad, 4: no notice/normal, 5: quite happy, 6: very happy, 7: unbearably happy. The operational definition productivity used in in study 2 was defined by a self-report of productivity level on a scale of one to seven: 1: nothing accomplished, 2: not directed accomplished, 3: slightly misdirected accomplished, 4: no notice/normal, 5: slightly directed accomplished, 6: directed accomplished, 7: beyond believable accomplished. The operational definition of harmony used in study 3 was defined by a self-report of harmony level on a scale of one to seven: 1: completely disturbed, 2: disturbed, 3: slightly disturbed, 4: no notice/normal, 5: slightly content, 6: content, 7: completely content. The operational definition of energy used in study 4(random finding) was defined by a self-report of happiness level on a scale of one to seven: 1: very slow powered, 2: slow powered, 3: slower than normal, 4:no notice/normal, 5: quicker than normal, 6: powered, 7: high powered.
Results
Statistics
Descriptive statistics used in all three studies table.
Happiness Productivity Harmony Energy
Valid 23 23 23 23
Mean 22.83 21.17 23.13 19.43
Med 23 22 22 19
Mod 23 22 21 19
Std. D 3.172 3.326 4.278 3.883
Range 12 15 16 14
Min 15 15 15 13
Max 27 30 31 27
Sum 525 487 532 447
Temple Cardio Scripture Study Religious Reading Family Time
Valid 2 14 16 6 12
Mean 1.25 .65 .3156 .6833 4.125
Med 1.25 .5 .25 .625 3.5
Mod .5 (multiple) .5 .25 .5 1 (multiple)
Std. D 1.0607 .318 .18504 .40825 1.0607
Range 1.5 1.2 .65 1.15 1.5
Min .5 .3 .1 .1 .5
Max 2 1.5 .75 1.25 2
Sum 2.5 9.1 5.05 4.1 2.5
Summary of statistics in study 1.
There was a significant negative relationship between the amount of time spent in the temple and level of happiness. The r value was -1.0 and this was probably due to the low n value of 2.
Summary of statistics in study 2.
There was not a significant correlation between the length of cardio exercise and the level of daily productivity. In this correlation relationship the P value was .385 and the r value was .252.
Summary of statistics in study 3.
Although not statistically significant the relationship was semi strong with an unexpected negative relationship between the length of personal scripture study and the level of harmony. There was an r value of -.450 and p value of .080.
Graph of personal scripture study and harmony

Summary of statistics in study 3 with controlled variable.
When controlling for the amount of time spent reading religious class text with harmony as the dependent variable and personal scripture study as the independent variable the resulting beta was -.933 with a significance p value of .426.
Summary of statistics in study 4(random finding).
There was not a statistically significant correlation between the amount of time spent with more then 3 but less than 10 family members and energy level. The p value was .932 and the r value was -.027 with a sample size of 12.
Conclusion
Results
Study 1.
The hypothesis predicted a positive relationship but the relationship for this study with the amount of time spent in the Temple to level of happiness was negatively statistically significant. This is probably due to the fact that during the course of the study the participant only visited the Temple two times. To collect clearer results a longer study that included multiple Temple visits would have to be conducted.
Study 2.
There was no significant correlation between the length of a cardio workout and the level of productivity. The mode amount of time the participant ran was 30 minutes, but the method of measuring the length of the work out did not take into consideration the difficulty of the workout. It is highly possible that the workout length could have been 30 minutes but the difficulty of the cardio workout could vary and be a lurking variable. Unfortunately the difficulty was not measured in this experiment.
Study 3.
Although, the relationship of the data showed that the amount of time spent in personal scripture study and level of harmony did not have a statistically significant relationship the results showed a possible negative relationship. The researcher believed that a possible lurking variable for this finding was that the participant read a large amount of religious text for a Brigham Young University religion class and this may have influenced the relationship between personal scripture study and level of harmony. After computing the three sets of data a strong negative beta was found with a low p value.
To better see the results the researchers entered the amount of time spent in personal scripture study and level of harmony into a scatter plot with level of harmony set as the y-axis. This graph can be seen above and shows roughly three groups. The first group appears to be a high outlier group that represents the days little scriptures were read but the participant felt exceptional harmony. A second outlier group is in the lower right corner and appears to represent the days a large amount of scripture reading was done but the participant felt exceptionally disharmonized. The majority of the dots show a possible positive relationship between scripture reading and harmony level and are located in the central area of the graph. These outlier groups influenced the r statistics, but the variable that caused these outlier groups was not identified in this study.
Study 4(random finding)
The participant expected that spending time with more than 3 but less than 10 members of the family would cause energy levels to decrease. There was not statistically significant relationship between the two, and now the participant feels a stronger moral responsibility to spend time with family. Just for fun the researcher entered in the two variables and added the amount of lucky pennies the participant found and controlled for the amount of lucky pennies found. After this was computed there was a highly interesting positive relationship between the amount of time with family and level of energy. This was a random finding, because frankly it made no sense.
Summary of Results
There were no statistically significant and important findings in any of the studies. Due to the lack of data in study 1 the results should not be considered valid. The researcher believes that the method for measuring daily activities in study 2 did not sufficiently measure a possible relationship between cardio exercises and productivity level. The results found in study 3 appear to be the most interesting and the researcher believes that further personal investigation should be conducted to discover the variables that could have caused the possible outlier groups. In study 4(random finding) the hypothesis was not supported and although the amount of lucky pennies the individual found in a day did alter the results there does not appear to be logical reasoning.
Limitations and Future Directions
It is important to note that the participant feel asleep a few days before recording the daily activities and levels, and had to recall on a further date what the supposed activates and levels would have been. The method for measuring cardio exercises should be modified to included the level of difficultly, miles ran, or calories burned to be more specific. Also, to increase the validity of the results the amount of data collected should increase, particularly in study 1.
Conclusion
The purposed question was to validate if traditional forms of worship brought harmony into ones life. After completing the research the participant noted that pop-psychology-as-religions may be the contemporary form to discovery harmony in ones life, but these forms of worship are not culturally accepted as religious practices in Utah Valley. Although, scripture reading and temple attendance may be considered traditional forms of worship these are religious practices that dominate the area the study was conducted in. It is possible that not the time period but the cultural accepted forms of religion cause an individual to feel harmony and possibly to committee to specific religious practices. Unfortunately, this study did not address those issues, and a further study will need to be conducted with the sample in a cultural different environment to obtain further correlations.
Reference List
Allen, Matthew. Living the Dream (2008). PsycCRITIZUES. 2008. Vol. 53(8). ISSN 1554-0138. DOI 10.1037/a0010245
Ardagh, Arjuna (2006). An Exploration of Spiritual Enlightenment in Daily Life. PsycCRITIQUES, 2006, Vol.51(30). DOI 10.1037/a0002995
Thayne, Linda J. Julia Hills Johnson, 1783-1853 MY SOUL REJOICED; Julia Hills Johnson, 1783-1853 MY SOUL REJOICED. Brigham Young University. 2007.
Hypotheses
Summary of Hypotheses.
Study 1: The amount of time spent in the Temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints will have a positive statistically significant relationship to level of happiness. Study 2: The amount of time spent in Cardio exercise will have a positive statistically significant relationship to level of productivity. Study 3: The amount of time spent in personal scripture study will have a positive statistically significant relationship to level of harmony. Study 4(random finding): The amount of time spent with less than ten but more than three family members will have a negative statistically significant relationship to level of energy.
Primary Hypothesis.
Study 3
Review of Literature
There is reason to study religion in the daily life of a seemly religious individual (Ardagh, 2006). With the current discussion of pop-psychology-as-religion the time traditionally spent on Bible reading and devoted prayer is being spent on extreme diets and meditation (Allen, 2008). During Julia Hills Johnson life time the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was a new age religion that promised harmony and personal satisfaction through church, scripture reading, and commitment to the church; similar to how the pop-psychology-as-religion promise harmony through commitments to the diets and meditation. Both styles of worship promise harmony. In a historical review of the life of Julia Hills Johnson the author credits her involvement in the doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints with her spiritual fulfillment (Thayne, 2007). The possibility that simply the contemporary society expectations of worship increase an individuals harmony level and not specifically the type of worship.
Conceptual definitions
Happiness a feeling of excitement that causes an individual to feel as if they were radiant. Productivity a belief that oneself or ones accomplishments have been purposeful. Harmony an individual feeling of not simply being personally satisfied with but being in tune to the physical, mental, social, and emotional needs of oneself. Energy is not simply to complete an activity but to bring an amount of enthusiasm to an activity that creates a self aflame fire and motivation for the individual.
Contribution
The combination of the results found in the four studies focuses on religious (traditional and modern) activities to discover if there is a correlation between these practices and ones life.
Method
Sample
There was one individual in sample used for all three of the studies. The individual is 20 years old and a sophomore at Brigham Young University. The sample considers herself an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and attends religious services on a weekly bases. She is white, grew up in Spanish Fork Utah (a rural community), and is the youngest of nine children.
Procedure
It began on June 28, 2011 and ended July 20, 2011. The sample filled out two spreadsheets. Both spreadsheets were divided by the date and time of day: A, 6am to 10am; B, 10am to 2pm; C, 2pm to 6pm; D, 6pm to 10pm; and E, 10 pm to 2pm. To add a section F seemed unpractical because the participant was asleep during 2pm to 6pm and was unable to collect data at that time. The first spreadsheet was to recorded happiness, focus, energy, confidence, and harmony levels on a scale from one to seven at each of the sections (i.e. A, B, C, D, or E) of the day. To compute the data the level of harmony, productivity, energy, and happiness were totaled making the maximum in a given day is 35 and the minimum 5. The second spreadsheet was a documentation the amount of time and the time of day (i.e. A, B, C, D, or E) when the participant did a particular activity. The daily activities were divided into five areas: Healthy Living, Social, Education, Spiritual, and Personal Interest-initially there were 24 activities consistently recorded throughout the allotted period. Each day the participant completed both spread sheets before going to bed. The excess data was used to find lurking variables that may influence the hypotheses.
Variables
Independent variables.
The independent variables were for study 1 amount of time spent in the Temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints , for study 2 amount of time spent in Cardio exercise , for study 3 amount of time spent in personal scripture study, and for study 4(random finding) amount of time spent with less than ten but more than three family members.
Dependent variables.
The dependent variables were for study 1 happiness, for study 2 productivity, for study 3 harmony, and for study 4 energy.
Operational Definitions
The operational definition of happiness used in study 1 was defined by a self-report of happiness level on a scale of one to seven: 1: unbearably sad, 2: very sad, 3: quite sad, 4: no notice/normal, 5: quite happy, 6: very happy, 7: unbearably happy. The operational definition productivity used in in study 2 was defined by a self-report of productivity level on a scale of one to seven: 1: nothing accomplished, 2: not directed accomplished, 3: slightly misdirected accomplished, 4: no notice/normal, 5: slightly directed accomplished, 6: directed accomplished, 7: beyond believable accomplished. The operational definition of harmony used in study 3 was defined by a self-report of harmony level on a scale of one to seven: 1: completely disturbed, 2: disturbed, 3: slightly disturbed, 4: no notice/normal, 5: slightly content, 6: content, 7: completely content. The operational definition of energy used in study 4(random finding) was defined by a self-report of happiness level on a scale of one to seven: 1: very slow powered, 2: slow powered, 3: slower than normal, 4:no notice/normal, 5: quicker than normal, 6: powered, 7: high powered.
Results
Statistics
Descriptive statistics used in all three studies table.
Happiness Productivity Harmony Energy
Valid 23 23 23 23
Mean 22.83 21.17 23.13 19.43
Med 23 22 22 19
Mod 23 22 21 19
Std. D 3.172 3.326 4.278 3.883
Range 12 15 16 14
Min 15 15 15 13
Max 27 30 31 27
Sum 525 487 532 447
Temple Cardio Scripture Study Religious Reading Family Time
Valid 2 14 16 6 12
Mean 1.25 .65 .3156 .6833 4.125
Med 1.25 .5 .25 .625 3.5
Mod .5 (multiple) .5 .25 .5 1 (multiple)
Std. D 1.0607 .318 .18504 .40825 1.0607
Range 1.5 1.2 .65 1.15 1.5
Min .5 .3 .1 .1 .5
Max 2 1.5 .75 1.25 2
Sum 2.5 9.1 5.05 4.1 2.5
Summary of statistics in study 1.
There was a significant negative relationship between the amount of time spent in the temple and level of happiness. The r value was -1.0 and this was probably due to the low n value of 2.
Summary of statistics in study 2.
There was not a significant correlation between the length of cardio exercise and the level of daily productivity. In this correlation relationship the P value was .385 and the r value was .252.
Summary of statistics in study 3.
Although not statistically significant the relationship was semi strong with an unexpected negative relationship between the length of personal scripture study and the level of harmony. There was an r value of -.450 and p value of .080.
Graph of personal scripture study and harmony

Summary of statistics in study 3 with controlled variable.
When controlling for the amount of time spent reading religious class text with harmony as the dependent variable and personal scripture study as the independent variable the resulting beta was -.933 with a significance p value of .426.
Summary of statistics in study 4(random finding).
There was not a statistically significant correlation between the amount of time spent with more then 3 but less than 10 family members and energy level. The p value was .932 and the r value was -.027 with a sample size of 12.
Conclusion
Results
Study 1.
The hypothesis predicted a positive relationship but the relationship for this study with the amount of time spent in the Temple to level of happiness was negatively statistically significant. This is probably due to the fact that during the course of the study the participant only visited the Temple two times. To collect clearer results a longer study that included multiple Temple visits would have to be conducted.
Study 2.
There was no significant correlation between the length of a cardio workout and the level of productivity. The mode amount of time the participant ran was 30 minutes, but the method of measuring the length of the work out did not take into consideration the difficulty of the workout. It is highly possible that the workout length could have been 30 minutes but the difficulty of the cardio workout could vary and be a lurking variable. Unfortunately the difficulty was not measured in this experiment.
Study 3.
Although, the relationship of the data showed that the amount of time spent in personal scripture study and level of harmony did not have a statistically significant relationship the results showed a possible negative relationship. The researcher believed that a possible lurking variable for this finding was that the participant read a large amount of religious text for a Brigham Young University religion class and this may have influenced the relationship between personal scripture study and level of harmony. After computing the three sets of data a strong negative beta was found with a low p value.
To better see the results the researchers entered the amount of time spent in personal scripture study and level of harmony into a scatter plot with level of harmony set as the y-axis. This graph can be seen above and shows roughly three groups. The first group appears to be a high outlier group that represents the days little scriptures were read but the participant felt exceptional harmony. A second outlier group is in the lower right corner and appears to represent the days a large amount of scripture reading was done but the participant felt exceptionally disharmonized. The majority of the dots show a possible positive relationship between scripture reading and harmony level and are located in the central area of the graph. These outlier groups influenced the r statistics, but the variable that caused these outlier groups was not identified in this study.
Study 4(random finding)
The participant expected that spending time with more than 3 but less than 10 members of the family would cause energy levels to decrease. There was not statistically significant relationship between the two, and now the participant feels a stronger moral responsibility to spend time with family. Just for fun the researcher entered in the two variables and added the amount of lucky pennies the participant found and controlled for the amount of lucky pennies found. After this was computed there was a highly interesting positive relationship between the amount of time with family and level of energy. This was a random finding, because frankly it made no sense.
Summary of Results
There were no statistically significant and important findings in any of the studies. Due to the lack of data in study 1 the results should not be considered valid. The researcher believes that the method for measuring daily activities in study 2 did not sufficiently measure a possible relationship between cardio exercises and productivity level. The results found in study 3 appear to be the most interesting and the researcher believes that further personal investigation should be conducted to discover the variables that could have caused the possible outlier groups. In study 4(random finding) the hypothesis was not supported and although the amount of lucky pennies the individual found in a day did alter the results there does not appear to be logical reasoning.
Limitations and Future Directions
It is important to note that the participant feel asleep a few days before recording the daily activities and levels, and had to recall on a further date what the supposed activates and levels would have been. The method for measuring cardio exercises should be modified to included the level of difficultly, miles ran, or calories burned to be more specific. Also, to increase the validity of the results the amount of data collected should increase, particularly in study 1.
Conclusion
The purposed question was to validate if traditional forms of worship brought harmony into ones life. After completing the research the participant noted that pop-psychology-as-religions may be the contemporary form to discovery harmony in ones life, but these forms of worship are not culturally accepted as religious practices in Utah Valley. Although, scripture reading and temple attendance may be considered traditional forms of worship these are religious practices that dominate the area the study was conducted in. It is possible that not the time period but the cultural accepted forms of religion cause an individual to feel harmony and possibly to committee to specific religious practices. Unfortunately, this study did not address those issues, and a further study will need to be conducted with the sample in a cultural different environment to obtain further correlations.
Reference List
Allen, Matthew. Living the Dream (2008). PsycCRITIZUES. 2008. Vol. 53(8). ISSN 1554-0138. DOI 10.1037/a0010245
Ardagh, Arjuna (2006). An Exploration of Spiritual Enlightenment in Daily Life. PsycCRITIQUES, 2006, Vol.51(30). DOI 10.1037/a0002995
Thayne, Linda J. Julia Hills Johnson, 1783-1853 MY SOUL REJOICED; Julia Hills Johnson, 1783-1853 MY SOUL REJOICED. Brigham Young University. 2007.
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