I also recorded her speaking and, occasionally, took notes when something interested me. I also took longhand notes of the names of the ointments in order to remember them.
1. INTERPRET
My cousin looks at herself closely in the mirror as she applies each thing. Here and again, she says' drat' and pronounces that she sees a 'spot' or wrinkle when I see nothing whatsoever. Sometimes she presses her face real close to the mirror so that vapor gathers on the glass. Other times, she takes the magnifying mirror form her bedroom, and she presses her face against the glass.
When she is rummaging for her ointments (like the sunscreen that she finally finds in her purse), she drags everyone else out and leaves it on the floor or bed.
The terms or patterns that appear the most often (and it is also those that I wrote) are 'wrinkles', 'spots / acne', 'old', 'attractive' cool'. It seems as though my cousin is most afraid of getting acne and wrinkles and that she wishes to be attractive. Her ideas too mostly come from TV shows and form fashion magazines and, over and again, there is always the sense of wanting to belong. Like the 'cool' girl who brought them the cream from Mexico -- which 'everyone' applied, and the sunscreen that 'everyone uses'. My cousin apparently wants to belong and perhaps shine and she is therefore using all this stuff.
She does not keep it organized but this may be a part of her personality, in that she is disorganized and thinking about other things. It may be too that she herself is only interested in applying this routine because 'others do it. One of the ways that I can get her to be more organized therefore may be to bring in the 'others do it' (or conformism) as a help.
INNOVATE
my cousin has difficulty finding her ointments....
As I observed, they are in different places, and sometimes she forgets where she puts them. This may be a part of her personality, in that she is disorganized and thinking about other things. It may be too that she herself is only interested in applying this routine because 'others do it. One of the ways that I can get her to be more organized therefore may be to bring in the 'others do it' (or conformism) as a help.
My idea is a prototype of a DOOR HANGING shelf. On the shelf there will be three parts: (1), morning makeup (2) during a day make up and (3) night makeup. Each section would be organized. Also this will hung up at the back side of her bathroom door so she won't forget to use before sleeping since she will necessarily see the door hanging shelves when she goes to use the bathroom before bed.
The form is helpful in that it is right there, simple, and all in one place. Its function is to remind her to apply her lotions and to help her find them by keeping them all in one place. Its features are terrific since it is small, compact, have three shelves and can hold it all without the pieces getting lost. The flow of the idea also makes sense, since it hangs in a place where whenever she opens and closes the door, she is bound to see it. And she uses the bathroom often. The only limitation: I have to make sure that her stuff doesn't become too heavy (or isn't too much) that it will make the piece topple over. Also if my cousin aims to buy more - which is what she said she will do -- she has to remember to put it there.
Finally, being that she used the terms' everyone' and 'wrinkles and acne a lot in her speech, I can use these terms to motivate her by placing these signs on the door near the shelf (such as): 'I'm never going to grow old" and "everyone thinks me beautiful."
