BOSTON UNIVERSITY

School of Social Work

Spring 2000 Catherine K. Riessman

SSW-SR 906 264 Bay State Rd., #222

353-4611; riessman@bu . edu Office Hrs: Tues. 1 :30-3

Prologue

The Mexican Sierra [a fish] has 17 plus 9 spines in the dorsal fin. These can easily be counted. But if the Sierra strikes hard on the line so that our hands are burned, if the fish sounds and nearly escapes and finally comes in over the rail, his colors pulsing and his tail beating the air, a whole new relational externality has come into being -- an entity which is more than the sum of the fish plus the fisherman. The only way to count the spines of the Sierra unaffected by this second relational reality is to sit in a laboratory, open an evilsmelling jar, remove a stiff colorless fish from the formalin solution, count the spines and write the truth.... There you have recorded a reality which cannot be assailed -- probably the least important reality concerning either the fish or yourself.

It is good to know what you are doing. The man with his pickled fish has set down one truth and has recorded in this experience many lies. The fish is not that color, that texture, that dead, nor does he smell that way.

John Steinbeck

COURSE DESCRIPTION

There are a variety of interpretive approaches that contrast with the natural science model of social research. This course examines three qualitative approaches that especially suit the study of process in clinical settings: grounded theory, narrative analysis, and the study of interaction in psychotherapy/ medical interviews. We will read selected research from each of the three traditions. Methodological topics will include theoretical sampling, thematic and structural coding, the transformation of talk into text, and issues of representation. Students will conduct interviews about a clinical problem, and use the analytic approaches to interpret the transcribed texts.

p. 2 cont.

Hartman, Ann (1990). Many ways of knowing. Social Work, 35, 3-4.*

Mishler, Elliot G. (1986). Research interviewing: Context and narrative Cambridge: Harvard University Press.**

II. (1/31 & 2/7) ISSUES OF REPRESENTATION: those we study, ourselves, the research

process; early examples from anthropology: reflexivity and audience; emotions and fieldwork. .

(1/31)

Frank, Gelya (1995). The ethnographic films of Barbara G. Myerhoff: Anthropology, feminism,

and the politics of Jewish identity. In R. Behar & D.A. Gordon (eds.) Women writing culture

(pp. 207-225). Berkeley: University of California Press.*

Myerhoff, Barbara (1992). Surviving stories; A crack in the mirror: reflexive perspectives in anthropology. In Remembered lives (pp. 277-304; 307-340). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. *

(2/7)

Briggs, Jean (1970). Kapluna daughter. In P. Golde (ed.) Women in the field: Anthropological

Experiences (pp. 18-44). Chicago: Aldine.*

Estroff, Sue E. (1995). Whose story is it anyway? In K.S. Toombs, D. Bernard, and R.A.Carson (eds) Chronic illness: From experience to policy (pp. 77-102). Bloomington: Indiana University Press. *

Rosaldo, Renato (1989). Grief and the headhunters's rage. In Culture and truth (pp. 1-21). Boston: Beacon Press.*

Van Maanen, John (1995). An end to innocence: The ethnography of ethnography. In J. Van Maanen (ed.) Representation in ethnographv (pp. 1-35). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.*

III. (2/14) THE GROUNDED THEORY METHOD 1: theoretical sensitivity; levels

of thematic coding; analytic induction.

Strauss, Anselm & Corbin, Juliet (1998). Basics of qualitative research. Newbury Park: Sage.**

Riessman, Catherine Kohler (2000). Stigma and everyday resistance practices: Childless women in South India. Gender& Society 14(1):111-135.

* In course packet.

** At B.U. Bookstore

p. 3, cont.

Riessman, Catherine Kohler (1990). Divorce talk. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. (Chapter 2 and Appendix) - optional **

IV. (2/28) THE GROUNDED THEORY METHOD 2: social constructionist revisions;

theoretical sampling; memo writing and the analytic process.

Charmaz, Kathy (1990). 'Discovering' chronic illness: Using grounded theory. Social Science and Medicine, 30, 1161-1172. *

Frank, Gelya (1997). Is there life after categories? Reflexivity in qualitative research. The Occupational Therapy Journal of Research 17 (2): 84-98.*

Orona, Celia J. (1990). Temporality and identity loss due to Alzheimer's disease. Social Science and Medicine, 30, 1247- 1256.*

Riessman, Catherine Kohler (1990). Divorce talk (Chapter 4, 5)—optional **

Bruner, Jerome (1987). Life as narrative. Social Research, 54, 11-32.*

Hyden, Lars-Christer (1997). Illness and narrative. Sociology of Health and Illness 19, 48-69.*

Jackson, Jean E. (1994). The Rashomon approach to dealing with chronic pain. Social Science and Medicine. 36, 823-833.*

Mishler, Elliot G. (1986). The analysis of interview- narratives. In T.R. Sarbin (ed.) Narrative psychology. (pp. 233-255). NY: Praeger.*

Langellier, Kristin, M. (1989). Personal narratives: Perspectives on theory and research. Text and Performance Quarterly, 2, 243 -276. * (optional).

Riessman, Catherine Kohler (1990) Divorce talk (chapter 3)**--optional

Riessman, Catherine Kohler (1993). Narrative analysis. Newbury Park CA: Sage.** --optional

VI. (3/20) NARRATIVE ANALYSIS 2: forms oftelling and interpretive possibilities; types of

structural coding; life history, trauma, and narrative reconstruction.

Gee, James Paul (1991). A linguistic approach to narrative. Journal of Narrative and Life History, 1, 15-39.*

p. 4, cont.

Langer, Lawrence L. (1991). Holocaust testimonies: The ruins of memorv. New Haven: Yale University Press. * *

Riessman, Catherine Kohler (1987). When gender is not enough: Women interviewing women. Gender and Societv, 1,172-207.*

Clark, Jack A. and Mishler, Elliot G. (1992). Attending to patients' stories: Reframing the clinical task. Sociologv of Health and Illness 14, 344-370.*

Mattingly, Cheryl (1991). The narrative nature of clinical reasoning. American Journal of Occupational Therapv 45, 998-1005.

McLeod, John and Balamoutsou, Sophia (1996). Representing narrative process in therapy: Qualitative analysis of a single case. Counseling Psychologv Quarterlv 9, 61-76.*

Young, Katharine (1989). Narrative embodiments: Enclaves of the self in the realm of medicine. In J. Shotter & K. J. Gergen (eds.), Texts of identity (pp. 152-165). Newbury Park: Sage. *

IX. (5/8) APPROACHES TO VALIDATION IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

Maxwell, Joseph A. (1992). Understanding and validity in qualitative research. Harvard Educational Review, 62, 279-300.*

Mishler, Elliot G. (1990). Validation in inquiry-guided research: The role of exemplars in narrative studies. Harvard Educational Review. 60, 415-442.*

Personal Narratives Group (1989). Truths. In Interpreting womenOs lives (pp. 261-264). Bloomington: Indiana University Press. *

Biography and Society (1995). Viewpoints (Fischer-Rosenthal, Kochuyt, Bertaux). (pp. 2-6). International Sociological Association: Research Committee; #38.*

Strauss, Anselm and Corbin, Juliet (1998). Basics of qualitative research, chapter 16. **

p. 5, cont.

EPILOGUE

Telling Science Through Stories

Our society is structured around the telling of stories. Religion tells stories, politicians tell stories, business is in a large way a storytelling profession, and science is a telling of stories.... Science is also a community of storytellers.... The mythic side of science is often as important, and in fact may have a much more profound impact on a society, than the technological side of science. It engenders images for us, and these images then become the metaphors and language by which we think about and describe our world.

D. Spangler & W. I. Thompson, Reimagination of the World