Eli Buchbinder

The Interactive Construction of Narrative Styles in Sensitive Interviews: The Case of Domestic Violence Research

Awareness of the possible power relations and conflicts between interviewer and interviewee in qualitative research has grown in recent years; however, scant attempts have been made to analyze this phenomenon empirically. The current work uses interviews conducted with battered women and batterers to understand the co-construction of the narrative of domestic violence. The emergent narrative style is shown to be the product of the interaction between interviewer and interviewee. Four different narrative styles are identified: the narrative style (a) as a struggle, (b) as deflection, (c) as negotiation, and (d) as a self-observation process. The divergent goals and agendas of interviewers and interviewees are discussed, as well as the replication of relational patterns of the interviewee in the interview process. Emphasized are the implications for the study of sensitive domains and power relations in qualitative research.

Subjective Experience of Family Stigma as Reported by Children of Alzheimer’s Disease Patients

In this study we explored the subjective experience of family stigma as reported by children of persons with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Our data indicated that family stigma in the area of AD was primarily experienced in three dimensions: caregivers’ stigma, lay public’s stigma, and structural stigma. We found that in all these dimensions family stigma follows a process characterized by three core elements: cognitive attributions, emotional reactions, and behavioral responses. Findings of this study highlight the profound stigma confronting caregivers of persons with AD. What emerges is a poignant picture of adult children living with stigmatic beliefs while providing care for their parents with AD. We suggest that swift steps be taken to deal with these stigmatic beliefs. Mainly, structural discrimination must end if all citizens are to receive truly fair and equitable health care services and benefits.

Battered women's entrapment in shame: A phenomenological study

The present study is part of larger research aimed at understanding the impact of the family of origin on battered womens lives, world views, and emotional setup in the context of dyadic life in violence. The sample constitutes 20 Jewish Israeli battered women. Every woman was interviewed in depth for 3 hr. This was done in 3 sessions. Shame was found to be prevalent in battered womens phenomenological biographies. This cuts across both the family of origin and the subsequent intimate dyadic relationship. Shame traps the battered women, having a pervasive influence on the self, relationships with others, and emotional experiences (shame as emotional abuse), and becomes an obstacle in leaving the violence. Implications for intervention are suggested.

Beyond Checking: Experiences of the Validation Interview

Credibility is a unique concept in qualitative research. One of the main means of achieving credibility is by performing a member check or validation interview. The present article describes and analyzes dilemmas facing researchers when validating themes emerging from member checks. This was done through validation experiences interviews. The article is based on 18 in-depth interviews with social workers who conducted member check interviews as part of a research project. Three main themes were identified: (a) ‘What are the boundaries?’ This refers to determining boundaries when granting legitimacy to interpretations. (b) ‘Close-Distant’ refers to the degree of acquaintance or non-acquaintance with the interviewee and its impact on the relationship and content of the validation interview. (c) ‘Conflict with Power’ refers to the transfer of power to the interviewer during the validation interview, and how the interviewer copes with this power and its consequences. The implications of these findings on conducting member check/validation interviews are discussed.

The Stress and Coping of Israeli Emergency Room Social Workers Following Terrorist Attacks

The authors of this qualitative study analyze Israeli hospital social workers’ emotional responses to working with civilian casualties in the wake of an unprecedented surge of terrorist violence. Data are based on four focus groups conducted with 38 hospital social workers in relation to their experience with clients in the emergency room. Three themes were identified: (a) Restoring a lost sense of personal security as a necessary stepping-stone toward resuming professional performance, (b) Meeting the families’pain and responding to it, and (c) Disconnecting emotionally in the service of the professional self. The authors discuss the findings in light of the literature on peritraumatic dissociation among helpers.

“Like a Wounded Bird”: Older Battered Women's Life Experiences with Intimate Violence

ABSTRACT Intimate violence against older battered women has been neglected by researchers as well as by practitioners and advocates. The aim of this paper is to describe and analyze the experiences and perceptions of older battered women in coping with and surviving the violence. Qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with twenty older battered women prior to group intervention. The analysis of interviews revealed four major themes: (1) Experiencing the self from two opposite poles: heroines or fools; (2) Giving up the self for the sake of family members; (3) Children as meaningful others: Friends or foes? (4) Lost in time between a painful past and a trap-like future. These findings are discussed in terms of womens overall existential experience. Some implications for future intervention are suggested.

Between Normality and Deviance: The Breakdown of Batterers’ Identity Following Police Intervention

With the transformation of intimate violence from private trouble to social problem, police intervention in domestic violence cases became more prevalent. Research has focused mainly on battered women’s perception of police intervention, their evaluations, and their level of satisfaction with the intervention. However, there is little research examining the perpetrators’ subjective perceptions of such interventions. The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze battering men’s perceptions of police intervention. The study is based on semistructured, in-depth interviews with 20 batterers who had repeated encounters with police. Findings show a continuum of self-management, ranging from attempts to preserve a normative identity in the first encounter to struggling against criminalization in the second encounter and adopting a victim identity in the third encounter. The findings are discussed in the context of gender identity and power relations.

What It Was Won't Be Anymore: Reaching the Turning Point in Coping With Intimate Violence

This article presents a study of the experiences of 20 battered Israeli women in the process of reaching the turning point in their experience of abuse—the point at which they refused to live with violence and took active steps to stop it while living with the perpetrators. The process needs to be understood as a series of losses on the personal and interpersonal levels that, taken together, lead to a total change in the womens meaning systems.

Talking Control Metaphors Used by Battered Women

The purpose of this study was to present battered womens perceptions of violent events and their development, as reflected in the metaphors they use. The study was conceptualized in the phenomenological-constructivist tradition and used feminist theory to interpret the findings. It is based on 25 in-depth interviews with battered women, selected purposefully from a larger study, based on the richness and variation of metaphors encountered in the data. The qualitative data were analyzed inductively using cross-case analysis. The theme of control was prevalent in battered womens metaphoric descriptions and was divided into two major grounded categories: one of womens metaphors of male self-control, including gaining and losing self-control, containing the partners lack of control, and bridging between the mans violent and good self; and second, womens self-control, including controlling the violence through self-control, gender-related control, and womens loss of control. These findings are discussed in terms of gendered language and relationships.

Talking Violent A Phenomenological Study of Metaphors Battering Men Use

The purpose of this study was to describe and analyze battering mens intrapersonal and interpersonal worlds by studying the metaphors they use. The sample included 27 men who had physically abused their cohabiting partners at least once during the year preceding data collection. Data were collected using a semistructured qualitative interview guide. Content analysis yielded three major content categories for organizing the findings: (a) conflict and violence expressed in war metaphors; (b) metaphors presenting the self as a dangerous inner space and as the locus of inner struggles; and (c) metaphors of deescalation and balancing. The findings indicated that the metaphoric language of violent men is meaningful in helping us to understand the structure of their violent behaviors.