Jennifer L. Buckle

The Space Between: On Being an Insider-Outsider in Qualitative Research

Should qualitative researchers be members of the population they are studying, or should they not? Although this issue has been explored within the context of qualitative research, it has generally been reserved for discussions of observation, field research, and ethnography. The authors expand that discussion and explore membership roles by illustrating the insider status of one author and the outsider status of the other when conducting research with specific parent groups. The strengths and challenges of conducting qualitative research from each membership status are examined. Rather than consider this issue from a dichotomous perspective, the authors explore the notion of the space between that allows researchers to occupy the position of both insider and outsider rather than insider or outsider.

Qualitative bereavement research: incongruity between the perspectives of participants and research ethics boards

A central feature of the majority of qualitative research is the interactive nature of data collection which generally involves direct and meaningful communication between the individuals conducting the research and the individuals participating in the research. This core aspect of data collection, however, is frequently flagged as the most concerning or potentially harmful aspect of qualitative bereavement research by research ethics boards. Further, there has been a tendency to conceptualize the bereaved as vulnerable and in need of protection in the research process. Instead of thinking that a research interview which explores the complex, personal issues of grief would potentially harm participants, it may be seen as potentially beneficial to participants when the therapeutic aspects of the interview are considered. Participants’ responses to the interview process in two bereavement studies are offered as illustrations to complement the literature on the potential for the researcher‐participant relationship and the research interview to be perceived as beneficial by bereavement research participants.

Women Gamblers Write a Voice: Exploring Journaling as an Effective Counseling and Research Tool

With a record number of women reporting gambling addictions, and more and more gaming facilities being built throughout Canada, evidence-based treatment protocols need to be developed to best treat women who develop gambling addictions. This article focuses on the effectiveness of the journaling process—as a qualitative data collection approach and as a therapeutic technique—by exploring the opinions and perceptions of the women participating in a women-only problem-gambling counseling group. Results illustrate that the reflective and intellectual processes of journaling make it an effective counseling tool and research technique.

University Students' Perspectives on a Psychology of Death and Dying Course: Exploring Motivation to Enroll, Goals, and Impact

This study provides an in-depth investigation of the motivations, goals, and impact on 23 university students enrolled in a Psychology of Death and Dying course. Through a grounded theory analysis of precourse perspective and postcourse reflection assignments, several key themes emerged. Participants were motivated to enroll in the course by their self-identified lack of knowledge on the topic and its professional and personal relevance. They identified three main course goals: cognitive comfort, preparation to support others, and personal growth. At the end of the course, participants noted heightened awareness of personal mortality and increased comfort with death-related topics, as well as reduced fear, surprise at the depth of the thanatology field, and enriched context for their experiences with death and dying. The implications of the results for death educators, researchers, and students are discussed.

Meaning-making after partner suicide: A narrative exploration using the meaning of loss codebook

ABSTRACT This study explored meaning-making in the narratives of survivors of partner suicide. The 117 posts of 50 users of a public online grief support forum were analyzed using the Meaning of Loss Codebook (MLC; Gillies, Neimeyer, & Milman, 2014). There was evidence of substantial psychological distress and an ongoing struggle to make meaning of the death, in addition to focusing on memories, longing for the deceased, and efforts to actively cope with the loss. Given the importance of meaning-making in the adjustment to loss, and through the application of the MLC, these findings deepen the understanding of this component of grief.

Reflection/Commentary on a Past Article: “The Space Between: On Being an Insider-Outsider in Qualitative Research”: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/160940690900800105

The 20th anniversary of the International Institute for Qualitative Methodology is an appropriate time to revisit our article The Space Between: On Being an Insider–Outsider in Qualitative Research (Corbin Dwyer & Buckle, 2009). We are honored to have our article selected for inclusion in this Special Issue. When reflecting on this article, the number of times it has been cited and the breadth of researchers with whom it has resonated were certainly surprises, as we did not anticipate the topic and the article to be so influential. Due to the acknowledged subjective nature of qualitative research, it is critical that researchers be reflexive because, as we noted in our article, “we are firmly in all aspects of the research process and essential to it” (p. 61). We explicitly and implicitly situate ourselves throughout the research process but in particular in data collection and analysis. This led us to want to consider our methodology in parallel to using it to explore our research questions. Consequentially, the article has had a lasting impact on our work. It has heightened our awareness of our status as insiders–outsiders as we conduct our research. When we considered our membership roles in our recent collaborative research on memorial tattoos (Buckle & Corbin Dwyer, 2017), our continuing occupation of the third space, the space between, was reaffirmed. One of us was more of an outsider to the tattoo community but an insider to the study of grief and loss, while the other was the opposite—more of an insider to tattoo culture but an outsider to thanatology. We contemplate the ways in which these different but complementary identities, and our shared identity as qualitative researchers, inform the specific information we gather and our analysis of the information. The many citations of this article demonstrate that it added to the field by highlighting the important issue of researcher positioning and engaged the broader qualitative research community in reflecting on their “space between” status. In our article, we challenged the dichotomous perspective of insider–outsider and argued instead for a third space that allows researchers to occupy the position of both insider and outsider. Researchers can only ever occupy the space between, as we cannot fully occupy one or the other of those positions. More qualitative researchers are exploring moving beyond an insider–outsider dichotomy in their specific field of research (e.g., Kerstetter, 2012), including “a hybrid insider/outsider position” (Paechter, 2013). Other qualitative researchers have explored how to negotiate “fluid identities” (Razon & Ross, 2012) and “multipositionalities” (Ryan, 2015). As we wrote, “Surely the time has come to abandon these constructed dichotomies and embrace and explore the complexity and richness of the space between entrenched perspectives. As qualitative researchers we are uniquely equipped for the challenge” (p. 62). Indeed, qualitative researchers continue to take up the challenge, which appears to be the one thing that we think has changed the most in this area since we published the article: the attention to the impact of the “space between” status in conducting qualitative research. We are grateful to the International Journal of Qualitative Methods for giving us the opportunity to contribute to this important discussion.

How age-of-death and mode-of-death impact perceptions of the deceased

Abstract The goal of the current study was to explore how age-of-death (AOD) and mode-of-death MOD simultaneously influence ratings of sympathy, empathy, and tragedy toward the deceased in order to assess social value. Three hundred and fifty-eight participants, mainly undergraduates, responded to a series of vignettes that described a MOD (suicide, accident, or stroke) counterbalanced with three AODs (younger, middle-aged, and older). Overall, ratings of sympathy, empathy, and tragedy declined as AOD increased; however, the effect of AOD was not consistent across all MODs. The pattern of results suggests that death norms and perceived control of death impact the perception of the deceased.