Lindsay O'Dell

Ethical issues for qualitative research in on-line communities

Recent years have witnessed a rapid growth in Internet technologies, which offer new possibilities for researching hard to reach groups. However, research guidelines, which could aid research in this new forum, have not yet been fully developed. The focus of the article will be ethical issues that may arise from using the Internet as a research tool if we are to protect and respect our participants. Questions surrounding gaining informed consent, privacy of participants and new power differentials, which may arise through interaction in an on-line forum, are raised. These are supplemented by reflections from work conducted by the authors using on-line discussion formus as method of research with people with autism.

The problem of interpretation in vignette methodology in research with young people

In this article, we explore how interpretation is dealt with by researchers using a vignette methodology. Researchers using vignette methodology often struggle with interpretation: how to interpret the responses when participants shift between discussing the vignettes as themselves, taking the perspective of the character in the vignette and commenting on what ‘ought’ to happen. We argue that by foregrounding a consideration of the method with an explicitly articulated theoretical position of dialogicality, issues inherent in interpretation become a valuable addition to the research rather than an obstacle to be overcome. In this article, we discuss ‘Louise’ a young carer, detailing the various positions she takes in her talk about the vignette of Mary, a fictitious young carer, to illustrate how a perspective based in dialogical theory contributed to the analysis of her various moves through different identity positions.

Constructing "Normal Childhoods": Young People Talk about Young Carers.

There has been a great deal of attention paid to young carers in recent research, social policy and service provision. In this paper we report on a survey and interview study of 46 young people aged 15 to 18, nine of whom had experience as young carers, to explore the ways in which young people construct the young carer and their disabled parent. A key theme arising from the interview data analysis is the construction of a series of normative assumptions about ‘normal’ childhood through which young carers and their disabled parent are viewed as non‐normative and deficient. The predominantly negative construction of both parent and child/carer is critically analyzed and alternatives suggested in the discussion of these findings.

Smokers’ Representations of Their Own Smoking: A Q-Methodological Study

Little work has addressed how smokers represent their own smoking rather than smoking in general. Research has identified a huge number of variables that contribute to smoking, yet not much is known about how smokers ‘make sense’ of these and construct explanations of the factors that contribute to their own smoking. This study used Q-methodology to investigate smokers’ own representations of their smoking behaviour. Analysis revealed four main factors: smoking as a social tool; the dual identity smoker; reactionary smoking; and smoking as a social event. We argue that an understanding of the diversity of smokers’ representations and explanations of their own smoking could play a useful role in developing more effective targeted interventions.

'Coping quite well with a few difficult bits': living with disfigurement in early adolescence

Facial disfigurement affects approximately one in 500 children and young people in the UK. Four mothers and their four children aged 11—13 years who have a facial disfigurement were recruited through the charity Changing Faces, in order to examine the perspectives and concerns of adolescents and their mothers, and how they live with their disfigurement. Semi-structured interviews were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The implications for research and practice in health psychology are discussed, and in particular the support and intervention of friends, constant vigilance and practical assistance from mothers, and the individual characteristics of the child are highlighted for further consideration.

Exploring the potential for social networking among people with autism: challenging dominant ideas of 'friendship'

Within dominant approaches to autism and relationships, people with autism are assumed to be either unable to form relationships or are in need for educational interventions to be better equipped at managing relationships in a social world dominated by non-autistic people (neurotypicals). In this paper, we argue that broader constructions of friendship are needed in order to best account for the desire and abilities of high-functioning people with autism to have satisfying friendships and that the engagement with online social networking may provide a useful tool in achieving this.

Changing families, changing childhoods: changing schools?

This paper reports key findings from a study of young people’s engagement in ‘atypical’ activities in their families. The project focused on young caring and language brokering as two roles that are not assumed to be ‘normal’ activities for children and young people. The findings presented are from a survey of 1002 young people and from one‐to‐one interviews with a sample selected from the survey sample. The voices of young people in the interview study are used in the paper to illustrate the diverse range of childhood experiences. The paper discusses some of the ways in which pastoral systems in schools can take account of diverse childhoods and family needs more effectively than they have done in the past.

Challenging Understandings of “Theory of Mind”: A Brief Report

Researchers have proposed numerous theories to explain autism, ranging from those that are psychologically focused to those influenced by biology and neurology. Many theories of autism share the assumption that there is a deficit in people with autism that should be researched, classified, and, ultimately, modified if the hypothesis suggests that this may be possible. Therefore, the common link among these theories is an assumption that there is something wrong with the person with autism. One highly influential theory purporting to explain the characteristics of autism is that they are caused by an inability to understand others’ mental states; in other words, autistic people are considered to lack a ‘‘theory of mind.’’ This theory is dominant in explanations of autism, with significant influence within the professional field and in constructions of the person with autism. In this article, we critically examine the theory of mind hypothesis using empirical analysis of online material in which neurodiverse adults, including some who identified with the label of autism, reflected on theory of mind. Neurodiversity is a term that was initially conceived by people with autism in their reframing of deficits and differences and first appeared in an academic essay by Judy Singer in 1999. There has been a call for neurodiversity to be recognized and considered among with the more familiar categories of gender, class, and race (Singer, 1999).

Using Vignette Methodology as a Tool for Exploring Cultural Identity Positions of Language Brokers

This article examines how vignette methodology can aid understanding of cultural identity. This is demonstrated through a study of child language brokers, wherein a child is engaged in the cultural contexts of both the host culture and the home culture and must therefore negotiate new cultural identities. Participants were young people aged 15 to 18 years; some of them were brokers, others were not. Drawing on notions of adequacy and inadequacy, visibility and invisibility, theoretical ideas around cultural identity theory and dialogical self-theory can provide an understanding of how the young people moved through different (often conflicting) identity positions.

Whose development are we talking about? Commentary on Deconstructing Developmental Psychology

Erica Burman asks in Deconstructing Developmental Psychology, whose development privileged in developmental psychology and other disciplines, and whose development is therefore unaccounted for. Reflecting on Burman’s work, particularly on this question, has informed my research and teaching since I first read the book in 1994. In this short commentary, I discuss the impact of Burman’s theorising beyond her original focus on the development of young children and their relationships. I focus on how her work has informed research into understandings and representations of children and families who are for some reason considered to be ‘different’. I focus on three themes addressed in the book: the production of universal development and the ‘normal’ child, selective abstraction and the (im)possibility of singularised representations of traumatised children. I consider how Deconstructing Developmental Psychology has relevance to an understanding of children, young people and families’ lives and (beyond psychology as a discipline) to examine how dominant ideas of children’s development is implicated within national, and international policy and other public arenas that regulate lives of children and families.