Methodological Reflections

Abstract

This article explores the co-constructed nature of interview narratives in the context of a qualitative bereavement study and the implications of adopting a `collaborative paradigm'. This approach encompasses the emotional impact of the interview on the researcher as much as the participant. It considers the importance of and difficulties encountered in engaging with this aspect. It argues that not only is this essential to achieving an ethical stance, but an invaluable methodological tool for enhancing an understanding of one's findings. Only when I was able to `appreciate' the nature and extent of my own part in narrative constructions did I start to `hear' and `appreciate' more fully the meanings that were being shaped. This process was intimately related to the cultivation of an ethical stance, something that cannot be a once and for all position. Rather it develops from an ongoing reflexive engagement with the research endeavour.

Keywords

emotional impact of research ethics interviewing as participation methodology reflexivity

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bell, C. and Newby, H. ( 1977) Doing Sociological Research. London : Allen and Unwin.

Cannon, S. (1989) `Social Research in Stressful Settings: Difficulties for the Sociologist Studying the Treatment of Breast Cancer', Sociology of Health and Illness 11(1): 62—77.

Einagal, V.I. (2002) `Telling Stories, Making Selves', in Liz Bondi , Hannah Avis , Ruth Bankey , Amanda Bingley , Joyce Davidson , Rosaleen Duffy , Victoria Ingrid Einagel , Anja-Maaike Green , Lynda Johnston , Susan Lilley , Carina Listerborn , Shonagh McEwan , Mona Marshy , Niamh O'Connor , Gillian Rose , Bella Vivat , and Nichola Wood (eds) Subjectivities, Knowledges, and Feminist Geographies, pp. 224—35. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.

Gibson, M. (2004) `Melancholy Objects', Mortality 9(4): 285—99.

Guillemin, M. and Gillam, L. (2004) `Ethics, Reflexivity and “Ethically Important Moments ” in Research', Qualitative Inquiry 10(2): 261—80.

Hallam, E. and Hockey, J. (2001) Death, Memory and Material Culture. Oxford: Berg.

Handsley, S. (2001) `“But What About Us?”: The Residual Effects of Sudden Death on Self-identity and Family Relationships', Mortality 6(1): 9—30.

Hochschild, A.R. (1983) The Managed Heart: The Commercialisation of Human Feelings. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Hockey, J. (1990) Experiences of Death: An Anthropological Account . Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

10.

Hockey, J. (2002)`Interviews as Ethnography: Disembodied Social Interaction in Britain', in Nigel Rapport (ed.) British Subjects: An Anthropology of Britain, pp. 209—22. Oxford and New York: Berg.

11.

Howarth, G. (1998) `What's Emotion Got To Do With It?: Reflections on the Personal in Health Research', Annual Review of Health Social Sciences 8: 2—7.

12.

Kellehear, A. (1989) `Ethics and Social Research', in John Perry (ed.) Doing Fieldwork, pp. 61—72. Melbourne: Deaking University Press.

13.

Kellehear, A. (2000) Eternity and Me: The Everlasting Things in Life and Death. Melbourne: Hill of Content Publishing.

14.

Lee, R. and Renzetti, C. (eds) (1993) Researching Sensitive Topics . London: Sage.

15.

Mason, J. (2002) Qualitative Researching. London : Sage.

16.

Moss, M. and Moss, S. (2001) `Four Siblings' Perspectives on Parent Death: A Family Focus', in J. Katz , J. Hockey and N. Small (eds) Grief, Mourning and Death Ritual, pp. 61—73. Buckingham: Open University Press.

17.

Nunkoosing, K. (2005) `Problems with Interviews', Qualitative Health Research 15(5): 698—706.

18.

Oakley, A. (1981) `Interviewing Women: A Contradiction in Terms', in H. Roberts (ed.), Doing Feminist Research, pp. 30—61. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

19.

Rapport, N. (ed.) (2002) British Subjects: An Anthropology of Britain. Oxford and New York: Berg.

20.

Reason, P. (ed) (1988) Human Inquiry in Action. London: Sage .

21.

Riches, G. and Dawson, P. (1996) `Making Stories and Taking Stories', British Journal of Guidance and Counselling 24(3): 357—65.

22.

Rowling, L. (1999) `Being in, Being out, Being with: Affect and the Role of the Qualitative Researcher in Loss and Grief ', Mortality 4(2): 167—81.

23.

Shaffir, W.B. , Stebbins, R.A. and Turowetz, A. (1980) Fieldwork Experience: Qualitative Approaches to Social Research. New York: St Martin's Press.

24.

Stanley, L. and Wise, S. (1993) Breaking Out Again: Feminist Ontology and Epistemology. London and New York: Routledge.

25.

Walter, T. (1996) `A New Model of Grief?', Mortality 1(1): 7—25.

26.

Walter, T. (2001) On Bereavement: The Culture of Grief. Buckingham: Open University Press.