Journal of Research Practice - JRP (Athabasca University Press)
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Current Editorial Initiatives: A Progress Report
Get PDFThis editorial article reports on the progress that the Journal of Research Practice (JRP) has achieved in its ongoing development since November 2011, when a number of editorial initiatives were announced. Several new initiatives are also proposed. In addition, there are some current announcements, including a number of recent awards, distinctions, and nominations
Forms and Levels of Integration: Evaluation of an Interdisciplinary Team-Building Project
Get PDFTeam science models are frequently promoted as the best way to study complex societal and environmental problems. Despite increasing popularity, there is relatively little research on the processes and mechanisms that facilitate the emergence of integration of interdisciplinary teams. This article evaluates a suite of recent team-building and grant-writing activities designed to address water management in the Western U.S. We use qualitative methods to document the emergence of integrative capacity at the individual, group, and institutional levels, with particular attention to the role of graduate students and non-academic practitioners in a team science planning project. Our findings highlight the importance of social integration as a basis for conceptual integration and an ability to relate these concepts to real-world problems. The findings also demonstrate the value of qualitative evaluation measures of team readiness, capacity, and intellectual outputs to complement conventional evaluation indicators that rely on quantitative scientific outputs, particularly for team science projects still in the planning stages
Application of Work Psychodynamics to the Analysis of CEOs' 'Presentation of Self': Resorting to an 'Astute' Clinical Methodology
Get PDFDoes work psychodynamics--a sub-discipline of clinical psychology in the field of work sciences--offer a relevant methodological reference to analyze the psychological processes that come into play when a CEO is working? The objective of this article is to propose an answer to this question by going back to a doctoral research, which focused on the clinical analysis of the CEOs' "presentation of self," noted as one aspect of their work. The author's arguments for a clinical approach are presented as well as the later decision to resort to "astute" tactics that, beyond the traditional frameworks of work psychodynamics, were required to have access to the CEOs' presentation of self. Following the presentation of the research's achievements, the article shows that, while methodologically unconventional, the astute tactics proved useful in ushering in new elements of knowledge that otherwise would have remained inaccessible. Notably, the specifics of the intersubjective relationship that was established between the author and each CEO had a major positive impact on the interpretations. To legitimize this clinical approach further, the conclusion draws a few indications on criteria that could be investigated to scientifically validate the qualitative methods and their interpretive results
Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis of Reported Dreams and the Problem of Double Hermeneutics in Clinical Research
Get PDFThe aim of this article is to show that statistical analysis and hermeneutics are not mutually exclusive. Although statistical analysis may capture some patterns and regularities, statistical methods may themselves generate different types of interpretation and, in turn, give rise to even more interpretations. The discussion is lodged within the context of a quantitative analysis of dream content. I attempted to examine the dialogical texts of reported dreams monologically, but soon found myself returning to dialogic contexts to make sense of statistical patterns. One could cogently argue that the reported statistical relationships in this study, rather than pointing to any interaction among the "signifieds," speak only to the relationships among the "signifiers" that were being played out through various actors on the analytic or scientific stage, since all of the constructs used in theorizing about, interpreting, and telling dreams come from the same discursive system
Autoethnography and Psychodynamics in Interrelational Spaces of the Research Process
Get PDFThis article takes the stance that the subjectivity of the researcher is an integral part of the research process. It should be studied as a key to understanding the interrelational processes of meaning in an interview situation. The article demonstrates how the subjectivity of the researcher can be made accessible methodologically and methodically by combining a psychodynamic approach with an autoethnographic approach. The methodical question is therefore how the researcher can conduct introspection and at the same time reflect upon and analyse the central object of investigation. The approach is psychoanalytically informed, but autoethnography became the actual vehicle for moving beyond reflections on the psychodynamics represented in the texts. The researcher ventured into an introspection of not only the texts, but also her own feelings, fantasies, and bodily experiences at the time of the interview and also when bringing the data into new situations. The abstract reflections after the interview situation were left for a while, and instead a more experiential and sensual/bodily understanding appeared, based on narratives, feelings, and reflections from the research field. In doing so, the affective and experiential personal process became an important step in the interpretation
Self-Identity Theory and Research Methods
Get PDFIdentity disturbances are common in clinical conditions and personality measures need to extend to assessment of coherence in underlying levels of self-coherence. The problem has been difficult to solve because self-organization is a complex unconscious set of mind/brain processes embedded in social roles and values. Theory helps us address this problem and suggests methods and limitations of interpretation that involve self-reports of subjects, observers who rate subjects, and narrative analyses of verbal communications from subjects
Connection and Disconnection: Value of the Analyst's Subjectivity in Elucidating Meaning in a Psychoanalytic Case Study
Get PDFThis article reflects on pivotal concepts of psychoanalytic practice and theory, applied to a single case study to create new meanings. Drawing from the concepts of transference, countertransference, and projective identification, the author presents the notion that the researcher's subjective reactions are created and induced by the subject of study precisely because this is one, and sometimes the only way available to the subject to communicate something that is out of its full awareness. In essence, some unconscious material can be expressed nonverbally by the subject by means of provoking visceral and bodily reactions in the researcher, or in some cases, psychic imagery such as dreams or fantasies. The material can be meaningfully interpreted by the researcher by receiving, containing, and sorting through these inchoate emotional reactions within self
A Psychoanalytic Approach to Fieldwork
Get PDFThis article focuses on what both psychoanalysis and anthropology have in common: the emphasis on the researcher's own experience. An ethnographic fieldwork will be used to illustrate how a psychoanalytical approach unfolds the material when studying conditions for learning from experience among teachers in two Norwegian junior high schools, and also the strong methodological implications of this approach. The researcher's struggle to remain open is elaborated. Here "openness" is regarded as something more than a principle for research practice. It is a way to relate both to oneself and the other, to emotions as well as actions, to the inner as well as the external world
Institutional Barriers to Research on Sensitive Topics: Case of Sex Communication Research Among University Students
Get PDFWhen conducting research on sensitive topics, it is challenging to use new methods of data collection given the apprehensions of Institutional Review Boards (IRBs). This is especially worrying because sensitive topics of research often require novel approaches. In this article a brief personal history of navigating the IRB process for conducting sex communication research is presented, along with data from a survey that tested the assumptions long held by many IRBs. Results support some of the assumptions IRBs hold about sex communication research, but do not support some other assumptions