Notes From International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry 2015 Champagne Illinois 1: Empathy and Research

For the next few days I am attending this conference and will blog some of my own thoughts each evening as I try and synthesise what I have heard. This is my own way of keeping track, I'm unsure how useful it will be to others.
In the last few days, sightseeing in Chicago, alot of pieces of the puzzle of qual research in psychology have been coming together for me more generally...here are the things I've been thinking about, while shopping, at the Art Gallery, running around the city etc....it's my own internal dialogue.
1. I've figured out that phenomenology implies empathy. Interpretative phenomenology is the study of how people make meaning of their own lives, the dialogue they have with themselves...listening in as a researcher implies intersubjectivity.
Intersubjectivity and the Dialogical imply a meeting "of hearts" just as therapy can involve a " heart to heart"..this occurs when two people "mean it", ie: pass through beyond the superficial and Co-construct meaning. This requires Anderson and Goolishans Not Knowing.
2. Narrative inquiry becomes empathic when we witness the participants inner dialogue. interpersonal Process Research captures this too.
3. Grounded theory, while pilloried can also be saved through engagement with symbolic interactionism and phenomenology.
4. We should first ground our analysis empathically or  phenomenologically, or rather recognise the intersubjective before going on to apply theory, such as how the phenomenon is socially derived or how the talk relates to metanarratives.

Narrative Inquiry: Into the Dialogue

I have been reading alot of different books on narrative inquiry lately to trying to become a little more proficient in one approach, rather than a jack of all trades. The writer that most resonates is the very impressive Ruthellen Josselsson, US clinical psychologist and narrative researcher.

Her book chapter Imagining the Real: Empathy, Narrative and the Dialogical Self  is one of the most insightful pieces i have ever read on narrative inquiry, focusing the researcher on understanding, not explanation, giving permission for the researcher to be concerned with the whole person and most importantly with empathy.....

I am particularity taken by the way in which she demystifies the influence of (Russian philosopher) Bahktin, who is having a heyday still in qualitative research (and family therapy). Bahktin was concerned with literature....

"The form of the novel, as exemplified in Dostoevsky, encourages dialogic speech, as different characters speak in recognizably different voices, and engage with each other in debating worldviews, rather than affirming a single worldview". 

...but in research terms the dialogic implies that a person  can perhaps be best understood as an interaction between the researcher and the different internal voices in the participant ...there is no self to be studied (the self is nothing more than a story), just the recognition and participation of this dialogue...the focus is on realness, not truth..

If your doing narrative inquiry, I highly recommend these readings...

Illness Narrative Typologies

Many of my students are struggling at the moment to develop higher order coding in narrative inquiry research, particularly looking to understand typologies of narratives..I highly recommend France et al. (2013), just out in Qualitative Health Research http://qhr.sagepub.com/content/23/12/1649.abstract which provides a great lead to Frank's typologies of illness narratives..

Fallot (2001), points out, however, that Frank's typologies were constructed for chronic illness, rather than mental illness and that most recovery stories are in fact focused on the Quest types, rather than the Chaos or Restitution types.

These 2 papers provide good leads..

Why Qualitative? The Power of Stories

I had a pretty moving day today supervising clinicians who work with clients with developmental disabilities..they presented a young woman with mild intellectual delay, schizophrenia and visual impairment who was de-institutionalised 10 years ago or so....she was living in a Housing Commission Unit on her own, exploited, beaten up, abused sexually by others and the system was failing to respond adequately to her needs....the conclusion we came to was that the only thing that would move people to work with her properly, in a united fashion, was her own story, one of despair, but also one that demonstrated her need for belonging, safety and respect..that effort needed to be taken to compile, it, write it, research it with her so that it could be used to put some humanity back into her care....

This experience got me thinking about research and how powerful Narratives can be....this is at the heart of Narrative Inquiry as a research technique, and also at the heart of Narrative Therapy, Michael White and David Epston's approach......

see this paper

Django (2011)

Abstract:

In this article, I conceptualize ethnographic, qualitative, and social language research with marginalized and oppressed communities as "humanizing research". Humanizing research is a methodological stance, which requires that our inquiries involve dialogic consciousness-raising and the building of relationships of dignity and care for both researchers and participants. I offer evidence that such humanization is not only ethically necessary but also increases the validity of the truths we gain through research. Working from a 2006-2007 study of language, literacy, and difference in a multiethnic high school and youth community, I provide examples from fieldwork that led to research that attempted to humanize rather than colonize the youth I worked with. I draw on the work of others to extend a long line of methodological thinking in pursuit of representation and humanization in interpretive studies in schools and communities. (Contains 8 notes.)

It also made me think about my own story, how my journey to becoming a researcher has been one that has come from the hardship and turmoil involved in being a therapist for a living and how grateful i am that I have been able to still contribute without continuing to sacrifice my own well-being......being a therapist was a calling at one point in my life, one that had it's cost...s but now i have found something new and i want to try and make this meaningful as well....

It seems to me that one of the contributions of qualitative research is that it aims to humanise the research endeavor, regardless of which method you chose to use....to make sure that the person isn't forgotten and that their own story is priveleged and considered to be knowledge worth seeking and archiving...

Lets make sure we continue to do this.

Narrative Inquiry Lecture PowerPoint

If your interested in Narrative Inquiry here are the powerpoints for a lecture I am giving next Monday for QUALITATIVE HEALTH RESEARCH Sydney School of Public Health with PhD candidate Lisa Dawson

Narrative inquiry

View more presentations from Paul Rhodes.

Steps to Narrative Inquiry?

In the past few years or so I've been trying to learn a variety of new methods, from participatory

action to interpersonal process recall and narrative inquiry.

Narrative inquiry has been particularly useful as it allows you to capture a person's story in full without chopping it up a la Grounded Theory...you are still able to look at typologies of stories but the meaning and plot remains intact...they are naturally more emotive than 'themes' which can become too mechanical and the researcher can serve to "bear witness" rather than simply gather data.

I have found one of the great frustrations when you are learning something new though is that writers in qual research seem hesitant to operationalise their methods, therefore making them amenable to learners. Maybe when your more experienced you want to be creative and not pin things down but this makes it pretty hard to get a grip on the method initially. 

One way I have tried to overcome this is simply to write notes on my own "Dummys Guide" to each 
new method I try and learn...here is what I came up with for Narrative Inquiry..pretty sure however its close to Clandinin and Connelly's description

1.Develop an interview schedule: eg, a set of questions or guidelines (Journals and diaries can be
used to augmented by graphical representations)

2.Transcribe interview with line numbers and interviewer/side issues removed

3.Read it through with research question in mind making notes on another column with ref to line numbers

4.Create stories: use first person, past tense, chronological order, plot, scenes, character,

5.Member check with participants

6. Create a new document for each story with line numbers

7. Analyse each sentence/paragraph by asking “what is this sentence/paragraph  

about”/write in a running column

8. Repeat until the meaning of the story runs along side

9. Repeat for all stories

10.Change these notes to categories or codes

11. Cross code with supervisor or other researcher

12.Develop the combination of categories inherent in each individual story into a typology

13.Develop across subject analysis of the relationship between codes and typologies with 

classifications/attributes

At the moment we have completed one study using this process: 

Huynh, L. & Rhodes, P. (2011). Why do People Choose to Become Psychologists? A Narrative Inquiry of Aspiring Therapists. Psychology Teaching Review, 17 (2), 64-71.

Abstract

Research suggests that mental health professionals have more problematic family backgrounds than those in other professions, but little is known about the role that early experience has on career choice. This is of particular importance for the education of psychologists, given the current emphasis on skills and research training and the call for a greater focus on personal development. This study aimed to explore connections between distressing events and career choice, using a qualitative narrative inquiry research design. Fifteen students participated, each undertaking junior psychology courses. For many distressing experiences in childhood, adolescence or early adulthood were directly related to career choice, supporting the development of empathy for others and inspiring them through both good and bad encounters with helping professionals. While a majority of participants followed this route to psychology training others were inspired by positive experiences, particularly in the satisfaction and the recognition of personal suitability gained from a variety of helping roles. More research is required, to assess the personal development needs of students, to map their occupational prognoses and to trial personal development initiatives in university settings.

Three others are in play....

Archiving Insider Knowledge in Hearing Voices Network de Jager, Rhodes &  Blaszczynski

The Role of Exercise in Recovery From Anorexia nervosa: A Narrative Inquiry Young, Hay & Rhodes

Recovery From Chronic Anorexia Nervosa ? A Narrative Inquiry Dawson and Rhodes

If you want to know more about this method you cant do better than the book above...Ive found this site great too

http://www.storycoloredglasses.com/p/participatory-narrative-inquiry.html

Paul Rhodes