Karl Nunkoosing

The Problems With Interviews

Despite the popularity of the interview in qualitative research, methodological and theoretical problems remain. In this article, the author critically examines some of these problems for the researcher. He deals with the problems of power and resistance, distinguishing truth from authenticity, the (im)possibility of consent if knowing is a problem for both the interviewer and the interviewee, and the nature and significance of stories and the self. Although it is not always possible to address these problems directly, the author seeks in this article to create a dialogue with all of us for whom the interview is judged to be the appropriate answer to the research question “How can I know...?”

Attitudes towards animal use and belief in animal mind

Abstract Animals are used by humans in many ways, yet science has paid little attention to the study of human–animal relationships (Melson 2002). In the present study, participants (n= 96) completed a questionnaire on attitudes towards animal use, and individual differences were examined to determine which characteristics might underlie these attitudes (“belief in animal mind,” age, gender, experience of animals, vegetarianism, political stance, and living area). It emerged that participants held different views for different types of animal use, and that belief in animal mind (BAM) was a powerful and consistent predictor of these attitudes, with BAM together with gender and vegetarianism predicting up to 37% of the variance in attitudes towards animal use. Thus, future research should acknowledge the importance of BAM as a major underlying factor of attitudes towards animal use, and should also distinguish between different types of animal use when measuring attitudes. We propose that the large effect of BAM might be due to increasing interest in animal mind over the past decade.

Constructing learning disability: consequences for men and women with learning disabilities

Social constructionism is influential in many areas of scholarship concerning such aspects of the human experience as race, gender, therapy, disability, health and illness. However, these ideas have rarely been applied to the understanding of the lives of men and women with learning disabilities. This paper examines some of the central ideas of social constructionism and their application to the construction of knowledge about learning disability by professionals. It examines the constructionist perspective concerning essentialism, realism and the relationship between language and social action as these relate to learning disability. These ideas are then developed further through the application of four assumptions (Gergen, 1985) about social constructionism to learning disability.

Intellectual disabilities, challenging behaviour and referral texts: a critical discourse analysis

The texts of referrals written by workers in residential services for people with learning difficulties 1 constitute sites where contemporary discourses of intellectual disabilities are being constructed. This paper uses Critical Discourse Analysis to examine referrals made to a Community Learning Disability Team (CLDT). The study finds referral forms position the person with intellectual disabilities as a problem to be solved, as in need of surveillance, and show evidence of the routinisation of daily life, surveillance, and mortification of the self.

Perceived advantages and disadvantages of secrets disclosure

In the present study, 106 college students filled out a questionnaire investigating personality (preferred attachment style), being secretive and perceived advantages and disadvantages of secrets disclosure. The study revealed that participants did not only perceive advantages of secrets disclosure (dominant view in most previous research) but also disadvantages, and that the perception of both advantages and disadvantages were important to predict secrecy. Moreover, the study revealed that secrecy was related to peoples preferred attachment style. Being secretive was positively correlated with avoidant and anxious-ambivalent attachment styles.

Maintaining Dignity and Managing Stigma in the Interview Encounter: The Challenge of Paid-For Participation

The interview is both popular and problematic in social research. In this article, we describe and make problematic interviews from a study conducted with impoverished elders in Melbourne, Australia. Participants were paid

Supporting families in the early education of children with special needs: the perspectives of Portage home visitors

20 for each of two interviews. The result of the paid-for participation was double-edged in that it provided funds for impoverished participants, but the payment modified the exchange of free and open discussion. We describe key exchanges within the research interviews to exemplify how participants managed their experience and presentation of stigma and dignity. We demonstrate, with examples from the transcripts, strategies used by participants to gain agency over the process, while at the same time maintain enough of a semblance of conversational genre to make paid-for participation legitimate. We see this as an interesting methodological event that should inform analysis, interpretations, and the validity of interviews, rather than a problem with the interviewee.

Intellectual Disability Trouble: Foucault and Goffman on ‘Challenging Behaviour’

ABSTRACT This qualitative study focuses on Portage home visiting. In‐depth interviews were conducted with 12 Portage home visitors which were transcribed and analysed according to the procedures of Grounded Theory. The following three main themes were identified: the ethos of the Portage model of early intervention; the process of Portage home visiting; and the Portage home visitor as a family supporter. A proposed model of the factors that influence the Portage practice of family support is derived from the data. The discussion addresses the relationship of these findings to the management of Portage home visiting and highlights the use of qualitative methodology in researching the early education of children with special needs.

‘The seal of approval’: referring adults with intellectual disabilities and challenging behaviour to community learning disability teams

On the night of the 19th, while the news was on television and the middle class was at home watching, seeing people from the most humble sectors crying, women crying in front of supermarkets, begging for or taking food, and the State of Siege was declared, then and there began the sound of the cacerola (the banging of pots and pans). In one window, and then another window, in one house and then another house, and soon, there was the noise of the cacerola.

Causing trouble: the language of learning disability and challenging behaviour

This article describes a study that involved interviewing eight managers of residential services, who have made referrals to community learning disability teams (CLDTs) for challenging behaviour. Thematic analysis and a critical perspective are combined to analyse and interpret what referrers said about the process of the referral. The study found that managers referred people with intellectual disabilities to the CLDT primarily in order to manage organisational problems rather than to directly manage challenging behaviour. The referrals enlisted the services of professionals to legitimise the residential services, to confirm their practices and to provide credibility to existing decisions by managers. In referring a man or woman with intellectual disabilities to the CLDT, the managers submit themselves, their staff and the person with the intellectual disabilities to the power of the health and psy-complex professionals.