Deborah Borisoff

What Makes Qualitative Research Qualitative

The discipline of communication is marked by an increasing number of means of understanding. Given the recent research explosion, specialization has accordingly become a major way of dealing with research and methodological diversity. Within this context, this analysis is predominantly definitional, seeking to isolate the unique features of qualitative research. This analysis first provides a survey of six major definitions of and approaches to qualitative research. Second, commonly shared characteristics of qualitative research are outlined, including the role that natural setting plays in the research design, the role of the researcher as both observer and participant, how subjects influence the content of a communication study, the influence of subject intentionality on the research report, and the pragmatic uses of qualitative research. Third, it is suggested that qualitative research is theoretically unique, satisfying the requirements for grounded theory. Finally, it is concluded that qualitative research is increasingly finding its own identity when viewed in terms of the goals and procedures of quantitative and critical approaches to communication.

Transforming Motherhood: “We've Come a Long Way,” Maybe

For de Beauvoir’s protagonist, the “prison without bars” is a metaphor for the condition of women during the mid-20th century whose autonomy was limited by the unwritten rules for women’s lives. There have been significant strides forward in how women create their lives since the publication of de Beauvoir’s Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter in 1959. Despite these advances, however, several recent books suggest that these metaphoric constraints continue to exert powerful influences, especially in how our culture proscribes the landscapes of motherhood and careers for women. It is important to examine how these prison bars are being constructed and their implications for women today. The potential for women to find their professional voices and forge a career while wearing the mantle of motherhood has remained a centerpiece of many scholarly and popular writers. Especially since the 1970s, it has seemed that while potent barriers to true equality in the workplace persisted for women, the patina of having the choice to create their personal and professional lives was on the horizon. In recent years, I have been struck by stirrings which suggest that how we regard this horizon and how close we are to reaching it is more nuanced and problematic than

From research to pedagogy: Teaching gender and communication

In this paper we examine pedagogical issues related to the teaching of gender and communication. Specifically, we explore how the tendencies to dichotomize womens and mens behavior according to expected roles, and modes of researching gendered communication have led to linking and privileging mens modes of communication in the professional arena and womens modes of communication in intimate relationships. We conclude by raising several challenges and responsibilities communication educators confront when they teach the topic of gender and communication.

Thinking with the body: Sexual metaphors

The language of sexual metaphors communicates cultural stereotypes which are incorporated into the behaviors of men and women. These influences are especially compelling in the realms of sexual behavior and the formation of intimate bonds. In this manuscript we explore the relation between the sexual metaphors and contemporary gendered behavior, including the possibility of escape from the semantic bonds.

Dimensions of Intimacy: The Interrelationships between Gender and Listening.

Abstract In the introduction to their text on intimate relationships, Perlman and Duck (1987, p. 9) note that psychologists, sociologists, family scientists and communication experts “are all making important contributions” to the study of personal relationships, thereby reflecting the recent multidisciplinary aspect of this field. However, in many important works on intimacy and intimate relationships, the gender differences that often create barriers to intimacy, and how these differences are reflected in the communication process, have, until recently, been notably absent.1 While alluded to repeatedly, nowhere, in fact, is the connection directly made between intimacy and the listening behavior of women and men. This paper therefore attempts to fill this absence by integrating into the literature on intimacy the salient aspects of listening that affect the quality of intimate relationships between women and men. Hopefully, such understanding will contribute to our knowledge of the concept of intimacy i...

Charting the Terrain of Interpersonal Communication and the Landscape of Social Interaction: Traditions, Challenges, and Trajectories

ABSTRACT An updated version of a chapter originally appearing in A Century of Transformation: Studies in Honor of the 100th Anniversary of the Eastern Communication Association, this piece examines the history and continued development of interpersonal communication. We begin by examining the progression of interpersonal communication from the 1920s through the 1980s. We then explore contemporary trends in interpersonal communication since the 1990s. Finally, we consider the challenges and future trajectories of interpersonal communication as it continues to develop and transform. We identify major aspects of research and how they are informed by identity and raise critical challenges to studying interpersonal communication. We end by exploring how transformations in technology are inexorably connected to our understanding and valuing interaction with others, and identify emerging areas of inquiry.

Home Is Not “Where the Heart Is”: The Millennial Motherhood Dilemma

The terms 24/7 , raising the bar, micromanaging , outsourcing , stressful , Mommy Track , burned out , life’s work , and achieving balance all recur repeatedly in articles about the landscape of professional life. They reflect certain challenges we have come to associate with the public sphere. Such terms are understandable in this domain as the work world is often viewed as defined from without. It is an arena over which the majority of the workforce perceive they have little or no control. Recently, however, these very words have been mapped onto the private sphere / the home / suggesting that the motherhood terrain is similarly beset by challenges. These words, however, seem woefully out of place when applied to the domestic front, particularly when this arena traditionally has been regarded as a respite from the exigencies of the work world. The importation of the phraseology from the public to the private sphere suggests that something has changed to cause the home to come to resemble the work world. What constitutes this change as well as the implications of this transformation merits our scrutiny. During the past decade, several high-visibility works posit a blurring of the boundaries between our home and work lives. In Arlie Hochschild’s (1997) The Time Bind and Ilene Philipson’s Married to the Job (2002), loss of community, fragmentation of the traditional family, and a pervasive lack of support and respect for work in the home have converged to drive many, women especially, to seek in their work environments the respect, friendship, and acceptance they find lacking in the work they perform in the home. More recently, Susan Douglas and Meredith Michaels’ The Mommy Myth (2004) implicates the media industry for overexaggerating the potential dangers to children that lurk outside of the home. Implicit in these media messages is that parents (meaning mothers) must be hyper-vigilant