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Taiwanese Married Women's Lived Experience of Zen Meditation A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED ... PDF

149 Pages·2014·0.81 MB·English
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Taiwanese Married Women’s Lived Experience of Zen Meditation A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Hsin-Ru Kang IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Dr. Yvonne S. Gentzler, Adviser February, 2014 © Hsin-Ru Kang 2014 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I’d like to thank: My advisor, Dr. Yvonne Gentzler, and my doctoral committee members, Dr. Laura Duckett, Dr. James Bequette, and Dr. Mark Vagle. My editor, Peter Gunderson. My friends, Joy Huang and Joseph Ko. The faculty members in the Family, Youth, and Community Program, Dr. Jerry McClelland, Dr. Jane Plihal, Dr. Ruth Thomas, Dr. Lynn Englund, Dr. Betty Cooke, and Dr. Susan Walker. All of the people who responded to my recruitment request, particularly the five participants of this study. ii DEDICATION I want to dedicate this dissertation to my God Jehovah. He has been with me since childhood. Pursuing this Ph. D. degree was one of His plans for me. I also want to dedicate this dissertation to my dear parents. They are from the old Chinese generation in Taiwan and have lived hard lives. Family life plays an important role in developing our inner wellbeing and I together with my parents and family experienced the problems that caused me to pursue this line of study in order to help people improve family lives in the future. iii ABSTRACT Due to the impact of Confucianism on Taiwanese society, Taiwanese married women play multiple family roles including being a daughter-in-law, wife, mother, and working woman. Having to play multiple roles usually brings Taiwanese married women burdens and stress. It is reported that Zen meditation improves people’s physical and mental wellbeing. Zen meditation may be a good means for professionals to help this group of women to improve the quality of their lives. No study has emerged concerning this subject. It is useful to understand the phenomenon of individuals with similar backgrounds who practice Zen meditation in their lives. Based on the research interest, a descriptive phenomenological research design was employed. The research question was: What is it like for Taiwanese married women having roles as a daughter-in-law, wife, mother, and working woman to practice Zen meditation in their lives? Open-ended unstructured phenomenological interviews were conducted with five participants who met the research criteria and were able to provide rich descriptions of their experiences. Recorded interviews were transcribed and analyzed using a descriptive phenomenological method that was influenced by two approaches as seen in the work of Amedeo Giorgi, and Karin Dahlberg, Helena Dahlberg, and Maria Nyström. Text analysis revealed a single structure consisting of six constituents describing the essence of the phenomenon. The constituents that emerged were: (1) self- transformation and personal growth; (2) opening the heart to the mother-in-law; (3) improving relationship with the husband; (4) becoming a warm and respectful mother; (5) iv increasing work efficiency and helping people at work; (6) Zen as a way of life. The findings of this study suggested four factors to be noted when Zen meditation isu sed as a means to help individuals with similar backgrounds improve the quality of their lives. In addition, the problems of Chinese parenting and the application of Zen to these problems were discussed. Reflections on using descriptive phenomenology as research methodology were also discussed. Finally, suggestions for future research in the field of family education were provided at the end of this research report. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................. i DEDICATION .................................................................................................................... ii ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... iii TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................... v CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................... 1 Background of the Study ............................................................................................. 1 Research Purpose and Question .................................................................................. 4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................ 6 Historical Context of Taiwan ...................................................................................... 6 Chinese Self ................................................................................................................. 6 Confucianism ............................................................................................................... 7 The Role of Married Women in Traditional Chinese Culture ................................... 10 Conflicts between Work and Family Life for Taiwanese Married Women .............. 15 Zen Buddhism ............................................................................................................ 17 Zen Meditation .......................................................................................................... 20 Research on Zen Meditation ...................................................................................... 23 Summary of Chapter 2 ............................................................................................... 24 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY .................................................................................... 25 Definitions of Phenomenological Terms ................................................................... 25 Philosophical Traditions of Phenomenology ............................................................. 27 Philosophical Method of Descriptive Phenomenology ............................................. 30 vi Issues of Validity in Phenomenology ...................................................................... 32 Rationale for the Use of Descriptive Phenomenology ............................................. 33 Self-Reflection ........................................................................................................... 35 Guidelines for Phenomenological Research .............................................................. 37 Pilot Interviews .......................................................................................................... 38 Participant Recruitment ............................................................................................. 41 Participant Profiles .................................................................................................... 42 Interview Process ....................................................................................................... 44 Text Development ..................................................................................................... 45 Text Analysis ............................................................................................................. 46 CHAPTER 4: EXPRESSION OF PHENOMENON ........................................................ 53 Structure of Taiwanese Married Women’s Lived Experience of Zen Meditation .... 53 Constituents of the Lived Experience ........................................................................ 54 CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION OF CONSTITUENTS ..................................................... 58 Constituent #1: Self-Transformation and Personal Growth ...................................... 58 Constituent #2: Opening the Heart to the Mother-In-Law ........................................ 68 Constituent #3: Improving Relationship with the Husband ...................................... 75 Constituent #4: Becoming a Warm and Respectful Mother ...................................... 83 Constituent #5: Increasing Work Efficiency and Helping People at Work ............... 90 Constituent #6: Zen as a Way of Life ........................................................................ 97 Summary of Chapter 5 ............................................................................................... 99 CHAPTER 6: REFLECTIONS AND IMPLICATIONS ............................................... 100 vii Using Zen Meditation to Help Taiwanese Married Women .................................. 100 Bringing Zen to Chinese Parenting ....................................................................... 107 Descriptive Phenomenology as Research Methodology ........................................ 111 Future Research for the Field of Family Education ............................................... 116 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................. 119 APPENDIX A: Consent Form ....................................................................................... 132 APPENDIX B: Chinese Consent Form ......................................................................... 135 APPENDIX C: Interview Questions ............................................................................. 137 APPENDIX D: Chinese Interview Questions ............................................................... 138 APPENDIX E: Meaning Units (Clusters of Similar Meanings ).................................... 139 APPENDIX F: Determining Constituents from Meaning Units (Derived from Appendix E) ..................................................................................................................................... 140 1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This dissertation is a descriptive phenomenological study guided by the following research question: What is it like for Taiwanese married women having roles as a daughter-in-law, wife, mother, and working woman to practice Zen meditation in their lives? My goal for this study was to discover the essence of the phenomenon of Taiwanese married women’s lived experience of Zen meditation. The purpose of the first chapter is to frame the phenomenon as it was investigated in this study. This chapter begins with a description of the background of the study and concludes with the research purpose and question. Background of the Study Chinese cultural values predispose Taiwanese married women to play multiple family roles in their lives and the burden from these roles tends to make their lives stressful (Chang, 2009; Chao, 2005; Chao & Roth, 2000; Chen, 2007; Wang, 2000; Wu, 2006; Wu, 2008). Historically, Taiwan was part of China and has preserved most of the Chinese culture and heritage. Accordingly, Taiwanese women inherit traditional Chinese cultural values. One particular value that still remains is that a married woman needs to devote all of her life to caring for her husband’s family (Yu, Liaw, & Barnd, 2004). Taiwanese married women usually need to play multiple roles in the family and consequently live busy lives. People everywhere are shaped and influenced by larger social and cultural contexts. Traditional Chinese culture advocates a collective perspective where

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