Christine A. Barry

Using Reflexivity to Optimize Teamwork in Qualitative Research

Reflexivity is often described as an individual activity. The authors propose that reflexivity employed as a team activity, through the sharing of reflexive writing (accounts of personal agendas, hidden assumptions, and theoretical definitions) and group discussions about arising issues, can improve the productivity and functioning of qualitative teams and the rigor and quality of the research. The authors review the literature on teamwork, highlighting benefits and pitfalls, and define and discuss the role for reflexivity. They describe their own team and detail how they work together on a project investigating doctor-patient communication about prescribing. The authors present two reflexive tools they have used and show through examples how they have influenced the effectiveness of their team in terms of process, quality, and outcome.

Critical issues in evaluating the impact of IT on information activity in academic research: Developing a qualitative research solution

Abstract The advent of the electronic library and associated information technology (IT) assisted communication and organization of information, has implications for information-seeking and research in academia. This article, while indicating emerging findings, primarily discusses methodological issues arising from the evaluation of the impact of IT-assisted information systems. Five key issues are outlined: (1) incomplete knowledge of the operating variables in this new area, (2) the complexity of the information-seeking process, (3) the largely implicit nature of research and information skills, (4) the difficulty of detecting impact of new systems on research activity, and (5) the difficulty of explaining learning and take-up of IT-assisted information systems. These issues have required the development of creative research solutions within a framework which includes the following: holistic, inductive research; a fluid, developing methodology; the use of both idiographic and nomothetic approaches; collection of data on behavior, cognitions, and emotions; techniques to bring implicit knowledge into conscious awareness, such as information access stories and research timelines; and the analysis of both research outcome and process and the investigation of strategies for learning how to use systems.

Multiple Realities in a Study of Medical Consultations

A study of doctor-patient communication offers convincing arguments for using multiple methods of data collection incorporating both meanings and practices. Multiple realities emerged clearly that would have remained invisible had only one data source been used. Two case studies illustrate how four factors interact to produce different versions of reality: setting, participants, time, and forms of data recording. The author discusses the apparent markedly different realities of doctors and patients, and the researcher’s role in synthesizing these multiple accounts. Only by using multiple methods can attention be paid to the central tensions, the gaps and white spaces, and the discrepancies and misunderstandings that are so important in understanding human interaction. However, this approach is labor- and time-intensive, and requires skilled, experienced researchers.

Perceptions of Legitimacy: The Influence on Medicine Taking and Prescribing

The terms non-compliance or non-adherence, in relation to medicine taking, contain the assumption that prescribers’ actions are legitimate and should be perceived as such by patients, and that non-adherence is deviant. Yet the high level of non-adherence suggests that patients do not necessarily perceive prescriptions in this way. We consider the relevance today of viewing non-adherence in terms of Weber’s concept of legitimacy. We also consider the more recent concept of concordance. Drawing on an analysis of interviews and consultations from a study of doctor–patient communication about drugs, we argue that decisions about prescribing and medicine taking are complex and take account of social as well as medical criteria. Moreover, any attempt to understand adherence needs to be flexible enough to encompass both a Weberian as well as a concordance approach to prescribing and medicine taking.