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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Sociology

The Qualitative Report

2024

Reflexivity

Articles 1 - 9 of 9

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Living With An Altered Body: A Qualitative Account Of Body Image With Cancer Diagnosis And Its Treatment Among Women In Kolkata, West Bengal, India, Mehboobun Nahar Milky May 2024

Living With An Altered Body: A Qualitative Account Of Body Image With Cancer Diagnosis And Its Treatment Among Women In Kolkata, West Bengal, India, Mehboobun Nahar Milky

The Qualitative Report

Cancer diagnosis and its treatments influence the body image of patients in addition to bodily functioning. This qualitative study explores cancer patients' experiences with their bodies following cancer diagnosis and its treatment. For this study, in-depth, semi-structured interviews with five female cancer patients were conducted in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. The interviews were transcribed verbatim to include the insider’s perspective and then analysed using thematic analysis. The findings are divided into three major themes and eight sub-themes: the altered body (changed appearance, failing functional capabilities), emotional conflicts (feelings and emotions, loss of identity), and coping strategies (avoidance, clothing adjustments, social …


The Power Of Qualitative Research: Cultivating Autoethnography For Personal Awakening, Humanity, And Transformation, Kien Nguyen-Trung Dr May 2024

The Power Of Qualitative Research: Cultivating Autoethnography For Personal Awakening, Humanity, And Transformation, Kien Nguyen-Trung Dr

The Qualitative Report

This article is an autoethnography of how engaging with my previous autoethnographic article facilitated my recovery and self-growth. I wrote my previous piece (Nguyen-Trung, 2022) while stranded in Australia due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which prevented me from visiting my grandfather one last time before his passing in 2021. If my past autoethnography focused on the themes of death, grief, and loss, the current article’s autoethnography revolves around awakening, healing, and self-transformation. In this current article, I reflexively look back on my autoethnographic journey and reflect on how it impacted me as a grandchild and a human being on the …


Exploring The Use Of Diary Entries For Qualitative Researchers: Mitigating Challenges When Investigating Sensitive Topics On Indian Women, Pavitra Mishra, Amit Gupta May 2024

Exploring The Use Of Diary Entries For Qualitative Researchers: Mitigating Challenges When Investigating Sensitive Topics On Indian Women, Pavitra Mishra, Amit Gupta

The Qualitative Report

This study seeks to understand the challenges encountered by qualitative researchers while investigating sensitive topics. We make a valuable contribution to the existing literature on researcher well-being and the mitigation of potential adverse incidents during data collection in studies on sensitive topics. The researchers maintained a comprehensive diary while conducting a study on the sensitive topic of work-family conflict among Indian working women. The analysis of these diary entries revealed three primary categories of challenges: (a) emotional challenges encompassing emotional sustenance, self-awareness, the element of care, building rapport, reciprocity, breaking the connection, preparing for exit, and researcher exhaustion; (b) methodological …


The Role Of Emotions In Qualitative Analysis: Researchers’ Perspectives, Hilary Lustick, Xiaoye Yang, Abeer Hakouz Apr 2024

The Role Of Emotions In Qualitative Analysis: Researchers’ Perspectives, Hilary Lustick, Xiaoye Yang, Abeer Hakouz

The Qualitative Report

Qualitative research is an inherently social and relational endeavor that relies on and engages our emotions. Yet, researchers receive little guidance on how to engage emotions without being swayed by personal biases. Lustick (2021) developed a framework called “emotion coding” for systematically engaging thoughts and emotions in qualitative data analysis by asking what a chunk of data can teach us about ourselves, our participants, and our study. In this study, we interviewed 15 researchers who had tried using the emotion coding technique, about their impressions of this technique and the role of emotion in qualitative research overall. Framed by Goffman …


My Journey In Researching Depression Among Black People: Experiences Of A Researcher In A Sensitive Study, Brightness L. Kgatla Apr 2024

My Journey In Researching Depression Among Black People: Experiences Of A Researcher In A Sensitive Study, Brightness L. Kgatla

The Qualitative Report

The interest in qualitative research on mental health within Black communities is rapidly growing. However, there are still debates on the conceptualization of depression among the Black community. This paper focuses on the researcher’s experiences as a young Black South African experiencing depression, and their reflections on interpretivist qualitative research focused on the realities of Black South African youth experiencing depression. The paper highlights the importance of reflexivity in a qualitative study and how the topics researched by a Black South African experiencing depression which is still considered a taboo within some parts of the Black community. If a researcher …


Photovoice: A Method To Interrogate Positionality And Critical Reflexivity, H. Shellae Versey Feb 2024

Photovoice: A Method To Interrogate Positionality And Critical Reflexivity, H. Shellae Versey

The Qualitative Report

Photovoice is a visual method for interrogating subjective perspectives. Rather than solely relying on investigator-developed tools, photovoice allows participants to inform research by “showing” their lived realities through photographs, resulting in a more collaborative, inclusive, and community-informed process. Though applicable to a wide range of social science research, photovoice remains relatively underutilized, especially as a tool for interrogating reflexivity. Given its power to reveal the unseen, this paper considers the potential for photovoice as a self-reflexive tool by turning the lens towards the investigator. Though typically used by the researcher to enhance transparency and navigate power differentials in community-based participatory …


On Restorative Validity: Reorienting Inquiry Toward Peace, Justice, And Healing, Giovanni P. Dazzo Feb 2024

On Restorative Validity: Reorienting Inquiry Toward Peace, Justice, And Healing, Giovanni P. Dazzo

The Qualitative Report

This work begins with a simple premise: (re)imagining a healing and restorative space for inquiry. Drawing on the work of John H. Stanfield II (2006), who first suggested the restorative functions of qualitative inquiry, this manuscript forms the basis for an axiologically-actuated conceptual model, restorative validity, which asks what it would take to (re)humanize researcher and researched alike. Beginning with the knowledge of co-researchers in our collective, the formulation of this framework was organized to understand the importance of orienting our research and ourselves toward relationships, justice, and liberation. After this review, I discuss a series of reflexive questions, rooted …


Sexuality Research During A National Lockdown: Reflexive Notes And Lessons From My Ph.D. Fieldwork, Tshepo B. Maake Mr Feb 2024

Sexuality Research During A National Lockdown: Reflexive Notes And Lessons From My Ph.D. Fieldwork, Tshepo B. Maake Mr

The Qualitative Report

The COVID-19 pandemic presented challenges for qualitative researchers since many countries had to implement lockdown policies to control the spread of the virus. Within the South African context, research on sexual minority identities and experiences is automatically sensitive and risky given the extent of intolerance and high regard for heteronormative ideologies and beliefs that continually exclude sexual minorities from the “normal.” The sensitivity is intensified during a national lockdown since there is an excessive reliance on digital public spaces to recruit participants and conduct interviews. Based on the experience of Ph.D. fieldwork, this paper pays attention to a sexuality researcher’s …


Reflection, Reflexivity, Learning And The Influence Of Formalised And Experiential Piano Training, Dorothy Li Jan 2024

Reflection, Reflexivity, Learning And The Influence Of Formalised And Experiential Piano Training, Dorothy Li

The Qualitative Report

This autoethnographic study examines how music learning is influenced by teachers and socio-cultural environments and how this influences not only our musical journeys but the way we view our lives, of the progress we have made, the goals in which we hope to achieve, and the way we perceive we will achieve them. This study explores how my musical background, understanding, learning, music-making abilities, and skills have shaped my present beliefs, attitudes and identity as a musician, educator, and researcher. Focusing on teacher pedagogy and practice, the study reveals how prevailing teacher-centred and didactic approaches to teaching impact the perspectives …