In this final social research blog I will reflect on how the whole research project went and I will consider how I felt the final poster presentation went.
Previous to undertaking this research project I had no prior experience of working in a research group to design and present an academic poster. I was therefore initially quite daunted by the prospect of working in quite a large group (we had six members to begin with - with five members finishing the project), and although everyone in the group were friends - no one had worked together in the academic sense before this.
I was very pleased to find that deciding on a suitable research topic was actually relatively easy, as everyone in the group had a keen interest in how sexual identities are portrayed within contemporary media outlets. Personally I found that I really enjoyed reading Butler's 'Gender Trouble' (1990) and Rich's journal article on 'compulsory heterosexuality' (1980) and I found that having a good working knowledge of the concepts of normative and compulsory heterosexuality helped me in the research process by enabling me to be more acutely aware of images and textual themes that support heteronormativity. 
Although I enjoyed the initial processes of content analysis and collecting the data to support our hypothesis that heterosexuality is the dominant sexual identity that is perpetuated in contemporary British magazines, the process of collating all of the data from various members of the research team was somewhat frustrating. Frustration when working within a research group setting appears to be a common theme present in a collaborative setting. Capdeferro and Romero assert that within 'learning contexts, students do report experiencing a range of emotions, and frustration is one of the negative emotions they deal with.....students engaged in collaborative learning activities can feel a high level of frustration' (Capdeferro and Romero 2012). Having not been part of a research team before I was able to agree initially with Capderro and Romero who postulate that 'A common frustrating experience was associated with a poor work ethic and with some members who did not fulfill their obligations. Creating more work for the other members in the group is [a] direct consequence' (ibid).
Mandler postulates that frustration is 'a negative emotion aroused upon encountering an obstacle in the achievement of a task, goal, or expectation, or in satisfying one’s needs.....People may feel frustrated when they are deprived of their expectations or are not able to complete their plans (Mandler1975). This highlights the ways in which I felt that my expectations of the research group were not being met, and I was consequently disappointed about the situation. In order to overcome my concerns I spoke with the group and found that after a discussion the group dynamic did change and the level of work being created increased which I was very pleased about.
Despite this, I have found that the research process has helped me to understand that everyone works differently and at different paces, and that it is okay for this to happen as it creates a diverse working group that (eventually) provides a multi-dimensional research process. Although there were some frustrations at the beginning of the research process, I found that the complete process enabled me to grow as a researcher and has given me some vital knowledge and skills that will aid me in undertaking further sociological research projects. I thought that the presentation went very well and that ultimately all of the team came together very well to produce a theory and data derived presentation that was both informative and academically appropriate. I enjoyed answering group questions at the end of the presentation as I think that this gave the team more theoretical questions to consider if we ever wish to develop this line of inquiry further. I thought that the poster was set out in a very 'user-friendly' way that helped each group member to explain their data sets and support the theoretical underpinning of the groups hypothesis about the nature of heteronormativity within contemporary British magazines.
Therefore, drawing conclusions, although I would happily work in a research team again, I think I need to work on becoming more tolerant of different group members work ethics. Therefore I need to try and be a little more understanding that not everyone works in an identical manner to me, and that this is okay, as ultimately our research project was not a failure, but a great success in terms of learning new interpersonal and academic skills, and through sharing new experiences involved in the research process.
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