Sensitive Research in Social Work 3030850080, 9783030850081

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Sensitive Research in Social Work Sharif Haider

Sensitive Research in Social Work

Sharif Haider

Sensitive Research in Social Work

Sharif Haider Health, Wellbeing and Social Care Open University London, UK

ISBN 978-3-030-85008-1    ISBN 978-3-030-85009-8 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85009-8 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and ­transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: © Alex Linch shutterstock.com This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Contents

1 Sensitive Social Work Research  1 2 The Philosophy of Sensitive Social Work Research 21 3 The Ethical Aspects of Sensitive Social Work Research 81 4 Skills Required for Sensitive Social Work Research123 5 Risk Assessment and Management for Sensitive Social Work Research161 6 Managing Emotion for Sensitive Social Work Research185 7 Collecting Data for Sensitive Social Work Research219 8 Analysing Data for Sensitive Social Work Research289

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9 Interpreting and Presenting Findings for Sensitive Social Work Research325 Appendixes355 Index

359

List of Figures

Fig. 1.1 Six dimensions of sensitive social work research 9 Fig. 1.2 A research process 13 Fig. 2.1 The first set of building blocks forming a piece of work’s research paradigm 24 Fig. 4.1 Gibbs’ (1988) reflective cycle 147 Fig. 5.1 The risk management cycle 171 Fig. 8.1 A basic thematic map 301 Fig. 8.2 Frequency of words used by the research participants to indicate the benefits of widening participation in social work education306 Fig. 8.3 A pie chart of average hour social workers work directly with children, young people and families 319 Fig. 9.1 The process of drafting a dissertation 342 Fig. 9.2 A simple mind map depicting perpetrators’ perspectives of intimate partner abuse 343

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List of Tables

Table 1.1 Table 2.1 Table 2.2 Table 3.1 Table 4.1 Table 5.1 Table 6.1 Table 8.1 Table 8.2 Table 8.3 Table 8.4

Definitions of sensitive research 3 Ontological and epistemological questions 25 Differences between quantitative and qualitative research 41 Teleological vs deontological (developed based on Newham & Hawley, 2007; and Csiernik & Birnbaum, 2017) 87 An example of lists of activities of a research project 140 Risk assessment of a specific matter related to a research participant165 A distress protocol for researchers 195 A table of suitable matches between analytical techniques and types of data 313 A comparison of effective procedures for social workers’ continuing professional development 316 Social workers’ wish lists for their professional development 317 Demographic details of respondents 318

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List of Boxes

Box 1.1 Box 2.1 Box 2.2 Box 2.3 Box 2.4 Box 2.5 Box 2.6 Box 2.7 Box 2.8 Box 2.9 Box 2.10 Box 3.1 Box 3.2 Box 3.3 Box 3.4 Box 3.5 Box 4.1 Box 4.2 Box 4.3 Box 4.4 Box 4.5 Box 5.1 Box 5.2

Sensitive Research and Threats to People Reasoning for the Positivist Paradigm Research Example: Mixed Methods Deductive and Inductive Methods Research Example Digital Storytelling Netnography Bracketing Research Example An Example of Arts-Based Research Case Example Harms Vs Benefits Guidance for Informed Consent Gillick Competence Information Sheet for Children Data Protection Principles Communication Needs Active Listening Tips for Reflection What Is an Argument? The Literature Review Process Principles of Risks Assessment Checklist for Good Practice

8 28 37 38 46 54 56 59 59 67 69 85 98 106 107 112 127 128 144 148 151 165 169 xi

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List of Boxes

Box 5.3 Box 5.4 Box 6.1 Box 6.2 Box 6.3 Box 6.4 Box 6.5 Box 6.6 Box 6.7 Box 7.1 Box 7.2 Box 7.3 Box 7.4 Box 7.5 Box 7.6 Box 7.7 Box 7.8 Box 7.9 Box 7.10 Box 7.11 Box 7.12 Box 7.13 Box 8.1 Box 8.2 Box 8.3 Box 8.4 Box 8.5 Box 9.1 Box 9.2 Box 9.3

Helena’s Safety Protocol Lone Working Checklist Experiences of Physical Harm due to Research Participation Checklist to Ensure Researchers’ Personal Safety Principles of Managing Emotional Distress Managing Emotional Distress Self-Care Techniques Strategies to Manage Vicarious Trauma Support Transcribers Nine Criteria to Become a Successful Interviewer Accept Silence Some Tips to Interview People with Disabilities An Example of Structured Observation Field Notes An Example of Field Notes for a Non-participant, Unstructured Observation A Framework for Recording Field Notes Six Tips for Observation Extract of a Focus Group Discussion Competence of a Facilitator Planning Focus Groups for Sensitive Research Research Example of a Photovoice Research Method Photovoice Research Methods Asking Sensitive Questions Sensitively An Example of an Interview Transcript (Unedited Version) Coding Strategy An Example of Using NVivo Software to Code a Transcript Tips for data analysis in sensitive social work research Statistical Tests Four Components of Data Interpretation Extract from Research Diary and Report Forms of Writing

177 178 192 192 199 203 206 209 209 225 230 238 241 242 243 244 251 252 254 266 267 275 293 296 299 312 320 328 335 340

List of Activities

Activity 1.1 Activity 2.1 Activity 2.2

Develop Your Research Questions 14 Suitability of Quantitative Research for Sensitive Topics 43 Explore and Justify the Research Approach for a Sensitive Research Question 44 Activity 2.3 Challenges in Ethnographic Fieldwork 55 Activity 2.4 Identify the Research Paradigm 70 Activity 3.1 Ethical Frameworks for Research with Human Participants82 Activity 3.2 Collect Data Ethically 86 Activity 3.3 Tuskegee Syphilis Study 89 Activity 3.4 Ethical Principles in Sensitive Social Work Research 91 Activity 3.5 Ethical Research 93 Activity 3.6 Confidentiality in Research 96 Activity 3.7 Case Study Regarding Voluntary Participation 99 Activity 3.8 Case Study Regarding Challenges of Utilising Questionnaires Online 101 Activity 3.9 Informed Consent and Online Discussion Forums 102 Activity 3.10 Payments to Participants 103 Activity 4.1 Case Study Regarding Disclosure 135 Activity 4.2 Develop a Gantt Chart 137 Activity 4.3 Develop a Weekly Activity List 139 Activity 5.1 Identify Risks 168

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List of Activities

Activity 5.2 Activity 5.3 Activity 6.1 Activity 6.2 Activity 7.1 Activity 7.2 Activity 7.3 Activity 7.4 Activity 7.5 Activity 7.6 Activity 7.7 Activity 8.1 Activity 9.1

Conduct a Risk Assessment 173 Develop a Safety Protocol 179 Case Study Regarding Personal and Professional Boundary190 Benefits Versus Risks 194 Relevance of Interviews as a Research Method 231 Develop an Interview Guide 236 Ethical Issues for Observations 246 Children and Participant Observations 248 Different Ways to Conduct Focus Groups 250 Identify Practical Issues Associated with Walking Interviews261 Identify a Suitable Research Method(S) 278 Keyword analysis 305 Techniques for a Writing Plan 342

1 Sensitive Social Work Research

Research is about systematically exploring and expanding knowledge and understanding of a topic. Researchers across the board agree that the success of their research projects depends on the way they approach them. They must think strategically, critically, creatively and sensitively, all of these attributes being important for sensitive social work research because this type of research is different from other types due to sensitive topic, potential threats both intrinsic and extrinsic, risks and harms which oblige researchers to carefully and sensitively prepare, plan and conduct their studies. This book is intended to equip mostly social work students and practitioners with the knowledge, skills and values required to successfully conduct sensitive social work studies. In order to achieve this objective, the first chapter aims to explore a number of definitions of sensitive research, its distinctiveness and the significance of undertaking this type of research in social work.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 S. Haider, Sensitive Research in Social Work, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85009-8_1

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Sensitive Research Although the name ‘sensitive research’ gives an idea of what such research concerns, defining it is difficult because it is socially constructed. Probably for this reason, it embodies a wide range of perspectives. For some authors, it is researching sensitive topics that makes a particular study sensitive, while for others the term refers to researching vulnerable people, which warrants a sensitive approach to conducting research. The term ‘sensitive’ is also often used interchangeably with the terms ‘vulnerable’, ‘hidden population’ and ‘hard-to-reach’ people. Some also hold that if a particular piece of research poses risks to participants and researchers, the study can be deemed as sensitive. So the definition of sensitive research is not simple or straightforward. Nevertheless, a number of writers have made attempts to define it. Table 1.1 gives the various definitions of sensitive research. Based on these examples, one can see that some authors define sensitive research loosely and widely, others narrowly. Some authors concentrate on threats to people involved in research, some only on taboo topics (Farberow, 1963), and some on the ethical aspects of research. Three elements can be identified from these definitions: 1. Research topic 2. Participants 3. Threats Research Topic  The word ‘sensitive’ is subjective, so it can cover a wide range of topics, but some authors argue that some topics are more threatening and arouse more emotion than others. Based on a meta-analysis of sensitive survey studies, Lensvelt-Mulders et al. (2005, P. 462) identify nine main domains of sensitive topics: research studies about sexual behaviour, drug and alcohol abuse, criminal offences and fraud, ethical problems, and attitudes involving abortion, euthanasia and suicide, charity, politics, medical compliance, psychological problems and a diverse miscellaneous category.

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Table 1.1  Definitions of sensitive research Authors

Definition

Farberow (1963) Sieber and Stanley (1988, P. 49)

Farberow (1963) treats ‘taboo topics’ as sensitive.

Renzetti and Lee (1993, P. ix) Lee (1993, P. 4) Wellings et al. (2000, P. 256)

Campbell (2002, P. 33)

Barnard (2005, P. 2) Dickson-Swift et al. (2008, P. 11)

‘[S]tudies in which there are potential consequences or implications, either directly for the participants in the research or for the class of individuals represented by the research. For example, a study that examines the relative broad social implications and thus can be considered socially sensitive. Similarly, studies aimed at examining the relation between gender and mathematical ability also have significant social implications’. A sensitive research topic is ‘intimate, discreditable or incriminating’. They are ‘laden with emotion or which inspire feelings of awe or dread’ (Lee, 1993, 6). ‘Research which potentially poses a substantial threat to those who are or have been involved in it’. ‘If it requires disclosure of behaviours or attitudes which would normally be kept private and personal, which might result in offence or lead to social censure or disapproval and /or which might cause the respondent discomfort to express’. Campbell (2002) asserts sensitive topics are often ‘difficult’ topics such as ‘trauma, abuse, death, illness, health problems, violence, crime – that spawn reflection on the role of emotions in research’ (33). A sensitive research project deals with ‘socially charged and contentious areas of human behaviour’. The sensitive research ‘has the potential to impact on all of the people who are involved in it … the potential harm to the researchers conducting the research as well as to the research participants taking part’. (continued)

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Table 1.1 (continued) Authors

Definition

Liamputtong ‘I refer to the “vulnerable”, “difficult-to-access” and “hidden (2007, P. 4–6) populations” of several social groups: Homeless people, children and adolescents, older people, people with disabilities, chronically and terminally ill persons, women who have experienced violence such as rape and domestic violence, female and male sex workers, gay men and lesbians, indigenous populations, people from ethnic minority backgrounds, the mentally ill, illicit drug users and dealers, and those who are affected by stigmatised diseases such as mental illness and HIV/AIDS. The list is not exhaustive, but these groups of people are often hard to reach; they are the silent, the hidden, the deviant, the tabooed, the marginalised and hence ‘invisible’ populations in society … A closely related issue with vulnerable and marginalised people is the concept of ‘sensitive research … I would include issues like miscarriage, abortion, exploitation of the marginalised, the critically ill, being old, children who work as prostitutes and so on, as sensitive research’. Mallon et al., ‘Sensitivity is often thought of in terms of two key elements: (2020, P. 2) Firstly, the inherent sensitive or taboo qualities of the research topic itself and secondly the methodological and practical means of sensitively addressing such “sensitive” issues’.

Although the domain of sensitive topics emerged from survey research, it resonates with qualitative research as well. Many research areas in social work can be deemed as sensitive, so by definition they fall within the category of sensitive research. Mallon et al. (2020) agree that the core of sensitive research is ‘emotion’. This could be a result of undertaking research project, and it could be experienced by participants, researchers and others associated with the research, including readers. However, they advise against using the term ‘sensitive research’ normatively and routinely for a range of research topics related with emotions. This does not imply they deny that emotions should not be used to categorise sensitive research—indeed, far from it. They advise that researchers critically explore the complex mix of emotions experienced by everyone in their research before labelling their studies as sensitive research. According to them, researchers should take account of

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broader experiences, including the reactions of others to our research, and complex emotions that fundamentally affect how researchers make knowledge claims about all sorts of divergent issues. (P. 1)

Participants  As mentioned earlier, research on ‘vulnerable’ people is also associated with sensitive research, probably because vulnerable individuals may experience the ‘risk of potential harm require special safeguards to ensure that their welfare and rights are protected’ (Moore and Miller, 1999, P. 1034). The term ‘vulnerability’ is applied ambiguously, and only a few authors have defined it (Bracken-Roche et al., 2017). The word ‘vulnerability’ originates from the Latin ‘vulnerabilis’ and the verb vulnerare, meaning ‘to wound’. The term is thus used to describe the potential for risk, danger and poor outcomes (Dorsen, 2010). For Boldt (2019), vulnerability is ‘a state of physical, emotional and cognitive stability that is in danger of being disturbed or destroyed due to being susceptible to destabilizing influences’ (P. 2–3). Nyamathi (1998) asserts that vulnerable individuals are ‘impoverished, disenfranchised, and/or subject to discrimination, intolerance, subordination, and stigma’ (P. 65). According to Nyamathi’s definition, vulnerable people include children, minority ethnic groups, immigrants, sex workers, users of and dealers in illicit drugs, the unemployed, homeless, gay people, lesbians and the chronically ill, including those with mental distress and their caregivers. Vulnerable people are also associated with ‘hard-to-reach’ and ‘hidden’ populations (Melrose, 2002) because they are invisible (Stone, 2003), silent groups in society (Liamputtong, 2007). Ten Have (2016) holds that we all are vulnerable, but our vulnerability increases because of concerns about our physical and mental health (Boldt, 2019). Quest and Marco (2003) view ‘social vulnerability’ as also making people vulnerable, so vulnerability becomes manifest if someone is unable to protect their own interest or lack autonomy. People are perceived vulnerable if they • cannot decide for themselves to participate in the research • cannot make decisions due to their position in hierarchical ordered institutions • are socially disadvantaged • have cognitive impairments or are mentally distressed

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lack autonomy have limited access to services (Johnson et al., 2016) are stigmatised have particular health conditions associated with stigmas are excluded from the main spheres of public and economic life are in environments that constrain freedom and restrict access to most resources (Johnson et al., 2016).

This list allows the conclusion that assumptions are made when labelling people as vulnerable. In some instances the person may not be vulnerable, even though they have one of the above characteristics. Another way of exploring vulnerability is by concentrating on the interaction between an individual’s characteristics and their environment (Luna and Vanderpoel, 2013). Vulnerability is therefore context-­ dependent. This way, researchers can explore layers of vulnerability, which will help to fully safeguard their participants. According to Millum et al. (2019, P. 4) a woman, in herself, is not vulnerable, but a woman living in a country that is intolerant of reproductive rights acquires a layer of vulnerability. In turn, an educated and well-off woman in that same country might overcome some of the consequences of such intolerance, while a poor woman acquires another layer of vulnerability. Moreover, an illiterate, poor woman acquire sill another layer. On this view, vulnerability is not binary category: the metaphor of layers gives flexibility to the concept.

Sensitive researchers must carefully explore the interactions between an individual’s characteristics, their situation, their environment and the nature of the study in order to decide whether and how they should approach their project sensitively. Threats  If a project poses substantial threats to both participants and researchers, it can be called sensitive research. This definition moves away from focusing on research topics, concentrating instead on the vulnerability of participants, and on threats to researchers and participants. Lee (1993) proposed three threats for sensitive research:

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Intrusive threats:  These are concern areas that are private, stressful and sacred. An example is topics related to sexual practices. Bereavement-­ related research can also be sensitive because of its association with emotion; it is a highly emotionally charged topic. This subject could upset people and make researchers feel uncomfortable. According to Lee (1993) research into such areas may be threatening to those studied because of the levels of stress which it may induce. An additional problem here, which also affects research into the private sphere, has to do with maintaining and appropriate demeanour in face-to-face contact with the researcher. (P. 6)

So both researchers and participants can experience psychological and emotional harms, which makes research in these areas sensitive. Threats of sanction: Studies related to deviance and the presence of a researcher could instigate fear because of the possibility that deviant activity will be disclosed and participants will consequently be stigmatised or incriminated. The presence of researchers can also sometimes make participants frightened because ‘it produces a possibility that deviant activities will be revealed’ (Lee, 1993, P. 6). For example, the fear of scrutiny can cause participants to perceive researchers investigating organisations or managements to be organisational agents. Lee (1993) provides an example, when John-Johnson (1975) was openly accused by one of the social workers of being a spy for the state governor’s office. Some researchers have also had to hide or leave their own countries because of their research. Research into an area which is hidden, and findings from these studies, are unwelcome. Engaging with this type of research could put researchers at risk of harm and abuse. Finally, sensitive researchers will conduct their research with people and groups who are oppressed, powerless and marginalised, such as ethnic minority groups, asylum seekers and refugees. Participants may fear ‘exploitation or derogation or be sceptical about the research’ (Lee, 1993, P. 7). Political threats: These occur when researchers are involved with social conflicts, mostly with powerful individuals. Arbitrary rules and regula-

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tions by corrupt individuals pose risks and entails risks and threats to researchers conducting their legitimate research. Furthermore elites, powerful organizations and governments are often sensitive to the way in which their image Is portrayed. As a result, in an attempt to forestall what they regard as genitive criticism they may be led to impugn a researcher’s motives, methods and credibility. (Lee, 1993, P. 9)

It is rare, but not unheard of, for researchers to be arrested, detained, expelled or even killed. The death of Giulio Regen is an example of the risk researchers undergo when carrying out sensitive research. Regen was a PhD student from the University of Cambridge who was tortured to death while involved with field work on trade unionism in Egypt (Glasius et al., 2018). Although this is an extreme example, with the risk of such extremes as this being statistically low, it does indicate the risk to researchers of conducting sensitive research. Box 1.1  Sensitive Research and Threats to People Lee and Renzetti (1990) assert that, although any topic can potentially become sensitive depending on the context, some areas can pose more threats than others. For example: a) where research intrudes into the private sphere or delves into some deeply personal experience; b) where the study is concerned with deviance and social control; c) where is impinges on the vested interests of powerful persons or the exercise of coercion or domination; and d) where it deals with things sacred to those being studied which they do not wish profaned. (P. 513)

These three dimensions of research focus on what to research with whom, and on the threats to both participants and to researchers themselves. These three dimensions are to an extent interlinked, and are certainly helpful when categorising sensitive research, but the concerns are that these they fail to acknowledge the complexities associated with social work research because such research is closely linked with social work practice, meaning that it deals with the uncertainties, unpredictabilities and complexities stemming from a diversity of interests including social,

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political, economic, environmental and administrative ones. It deals with the power relationships that are inseparable from the conduct of research. It cannot be denied that the definition of sensitive social work research must go beyond these three dimensions and incorporate what such research does, how and to whom. The three dimensions emerged from the social sciences, and although social work is within that realm, it has three additional facets (Fig. 1.1) that make social work research sensitive: • Outcomes • Accountability • Inclusiveness A definition of sensitive social work research can thus be delineated along six analytical dimensions. Outcomes: Research mostly aims to extend theoretical boundaries, provide new insights and address gaps in our understanding. Not only social science research but also most social work research is criticised because of its perceived failure to help shape the development and implementation of policy (Shucksmith, 2016). As Donnelly et al. (2019, P. 832) say: social work research is often seen as intrinsically people-oriented, reflecting the focus of our professional work, and has often been driven by top-down

Sensitive social work research Fig. 1.1  Six dimensions of sensitive social work research

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policy rather than practice driven initiatives which has arguably compromised its significance and impact.

One of the fundamental aims of sensitive social work research is that it should generate and produce knowledge to change the practice social work practice. It should also help shape the development of policy at local, regional, national and global levels, as well as its implementation that would improve the life of vulnerable, marginalised and stigmatised people. Dominelli (2005) suggests that social work research should bring about social change and enhance well-being, and in doing so it should seek to transform social work practice. Shaw and Gould (2001) likewise maintain that it ought to enhance the body of theory and knowledge about social work and provide evidence to improve social work practice. Sensitive social work research should go beyond the norms of academic research that is restricted to explaining, exploring and describing social reality: it should bring about positive social change, and in doing so should serve the best interest of the research participants. Not only individuals but families and communities should benefit from the positive outcomes. A sensitive social work research study should be judged on the effect it has on people’s lives. Accountability: Commitment to enhancing the well-being of participants should be a sensitive social work researcher’s first priority. They should proactively take every action they can to safeguard their participants and others involved in their research. They must manage every aspect of the research process in order to avoid the risk of injury, abuse, exploitation and harm. However, they should not hesitate to report any maladministration and neglect of duty they observe. Duty of care to participants and others should be exercised throughout the period of the study. Researchers must also act to forestall harm to others. For example, if they come across instances of abuse while the study is underway, they must report it. They should also offer psychological and emotional support to participants and others involved. Researchers must play a significant role in protecting the rights and promoting the interests of research participants, and must be accountable for the quality of their research.

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Inclusiveness: Participants should be seen as individuals with agency (Dominelli, 2005). This means that they should actively contribute to the research, and therefore that they must be treated with respect and dignity. They should not be perceived as passive actors in studies; whenever possible, researchers should involve them in the design, data collection, implementation and dissemination phases of the research (Dominelli, 2005). This is important because it helps ‘hold practitioners and academics accountable to those who are affected by their work and question the privileging of their research’ (Dominelli, 2005, P. 249). Sensitive social work research should be underpinned by the principles of human rights, and researchers must adopt processes and practices that are ethically and culturally sensitive. Butler (2002) holds that social work research should focus on emancipation. Strier (2007) accuses mainstream research of being a microcosm in which ‘the research realities of oppression of the larger society are reproduced’ (P. 861). Sensitive social work researchers should therefore focus on social liberation through radical transformation of the power relationships between researchers and their participants. One path to achieving this would be to actively create and provide room for the participants to be actively involved in the research wherever possible. Egalitarian power relationships create such opportunities for active participation. Researchers are also perceived to have expertise as well as the power and authority over the production of knowledge, and are therefore seen as taking pride and ownership of the production of knowledge produced as part of their research. The production of knowledge from sensitive research should acknowledge the interdependency and intersubjectivity between researcher and participant (Bilotta, 2020; McLaughlin, 2006; Rogers, 2012). Strier (2007) suggests that researchers voluntarily renounce the privileges associated with their hegemonic status in favour of shared ownership of knowledge. Given that research is in fact a shared journey, researchers are called upon to reduce the exclusionary barriers to genuine participation and to provide participants with a sense of real control over the research process. (P. 862)

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Although this suggestion is based on anti-oppressive social work research, it should also be the case for sensitive social work research because the core of that research is equality and fairness, which entails active and profound commitment by researchers to protecting social work values and ethics in their research endeavours.

Why Sensitive Social Work Research Some social work researchers may not see sensitive social work research as an attractive way of producing knowledge because of the ethical, social, political, legal, psychological and emotional challenges it might pose, all of which require the researcher’s full attention. To manage these challenges effectively, researchers must invest time and be committed and motivated. That does not mean that other types of social work research do not demand equivalent levels of attention. They do indeed, but sensitive social work research adds additional layers of responsibility in terms of research input, process, output and outcome. Sensitive social work studies therefore demand that the researcher carefully consider a number of factors throughout so as to reduce the risks, threats and harm to research participants and others involved, including researchers themselves. Sensitive social work research is about transforming marginalised, stigmatised, oppressed and discriminated people’s lives influencing or changing policy, practice and service provision and serving the best interests of those who should gain the most from the research. Not to conduct sensitive social work research could mean a significant number of people and some subjects becoming invisible, which may consequently affect the development of policy and service provision. This would be morally and ethically unacceptable and does not fit with wider social work values. As Sieber and Stanley (1988, P. 55) argue strongly: sensitive research addresses some of society’s most pressing social issues and policy questions. Although ignoring the ethical issues in sensitive research is not a responsible approach to science, shying away from controversial topics, simply because they are controversial, is also an avoidance of responsibility.

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Conducting sensitive social work research can be complex, risky, emotionally demanding, time-consuming and morally, ethically and legally challenging, but is nevertheless desperately needed in order to understand the lived experiences of people who are likely to be vulnerable in various respects. This understanding of lived experience will inform and improve both those people’s lives and the practice of social work.

Research Process A research process enables the systematic conduct of studies. Figure 1.2 illustrates a prototypical research process. It has six distinct stages. Meticulous consideration must be given to a number of issues and challenges, and decisions about how to proceed at each stage must be thought through and made. Although the research process looks linear, the researcher will most likely move forward and backward between stages when undertaking their research. The process is thus not always as orderly as presented in Fig. 1.2; it can become messy, in particular as regards sensitive research, where the researcher must constantly go back and forth to ensure the quality of research. For example, while designing the data collection stage, researchers may wish to tweak research problems.

Collect Data

Research Problem

Literature Review

Fig. 1.2  A research process

Research Design

Analyse and Interpret data

Write the Research Report

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The desired research topic must firstly be chosen, a choice based on considerations of practicability and value. Once the subject has been identified, the researcher can concentrate on developing their research question(s). Activity 1.1  Develop Your Research Questions Based on the chapter so far as regards the aspect of sensitive social work research, think carefully about • the area you are planning to explore • why this area interests you • what you know about the area Note your answers. Now develop your research question(s). Keep a record of those question(s). You will need to return to them as you study each chapter of this book. By doing so, you will develop your understanding of research paradigms, methodologies, methods, ethics, risks and benefits, emotions, data analysis and interpretation and the presentation of sensitive social work research. This activity will also help you develop your own research as you study each chapter.

The nine chapters of this book will enable the researcher to understand every stage of the research process and equip them with the tools and techniques they need to undertake their sensitive social work research.

Structure of the Book The introductory first chapter discusses the definitions and significance of sensitive social work research. Chapter 2 concerns research paradigm and methodology. It begins by defining the terms ‘research paradigm’, ‘axiology’, ‘ontology’, ‘epistemology’, ‘methodology’ and ‘method’. Understanding these concepts is pivotal to understanding how researchers’ philosophical positions and worldviews affect their research. The chapter advocates question-led research design, and in doing so it establishes the relationship between ontology, epistemology and methodology. The chapter also gives readers an understanding of positivism, constructionism, interpretivism, feminism, post-modernism, critical social research and pragmatism, and of the distinction between quantitative and qualitative research, and mixed

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methods as an alternative to solely quantitative and qualitative research. The second part of the chapter focuses on research strategies such as survey, ethnography, narrative, case study, phenomenology, participatory action research and visual arts–based research. All these strategies are discussed in a way that informs sensitive social work researchers’ selections of suitable research strategies. Both the advantages and the disadvantages of these strategies and the way they should be employed are discussed in the chapter. Chapter 3 concerns ethical frameworks for sensitive social work research. Ethical theories, principles and rules are discussed in this chapter. Readers will obtain an overall understanding of how, where and when they can apply ethical theories, principles and rules. Case studies and activities supplement the discussion of the complexities associated with ethical issues in sensitive social work research. Anonymity, confidentiality, privacy, informed consent, voluntary participation and data management are explored, with examples for readers to grasp how they must carefully plan their studies. The chapter concludes by discussing the process of gaining ethical approval. Chapter 4 outlines some of the core skills such as planning, prioritisation, organisation, time management, self-aware, reflection, critical thinking, active listening, probing and prompting that are required to undertake sensitive social work research. All of these skills are crucial to successfully conducting sensitive social work studies. This chapter also focuses on the practical issues involved in using these skills. It also examines the ways in which researchers should build relationships and rapport with their participants, discussing the issues of silence, dealing with anxiety, and self-disclosure. Techniques to conduct debriefings and review the literature sensitively are also presented. The emphasis in Chap. 5 is on the risk assessment and management of researchers, participants and others involved in sensitive social work research, all of whom might run physical, psychological and emotional risks. The chapter explores the significance of risk assessment and management of sensitive social work research and the way researchers should undertake these. A clear account of managing physical safety in sensitive social work research is given, along with a description of how to develop a safety protocol. Finally, the chapter presents the techniques required to deescalate violent and disruptive behaviour. Chapter 6 covers the emotional aspects of sensitive social work research. It begins by defining emotion and its significance for sensitive social work

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research. It then provides techniques to manage emotion in the conduct of studies. Finally, vicarious trauma and its management are discussed in order to help researchers conduct their research in a sensitive manner. Chapter 7 is about research methods in sensitive social work research. The aim of the chapter is to provide a detailed account of the widely used research methods in this field and the processes involved in the design and deployment these methods. Interview, focus group, observation, walking interview, photovoice and participatory arts research methods are explored in this chapter and each one’s strengths and weaknesses highlighted, which will help researchers decide what method(s) will best fit with their research question(s). The pragmatic issues of employing all these methods are explored. Analysing qualitative and quantitative data is the focus of Chap. 8, which begins by discussing techniques of organising and preparing data for analysis. It then deals with the analysis of qualitative data, briefly discussing widely used forms of qualitative data analysis such as thematic, narrative, keyword, constant comparison, ethnographic, conversational, semiotic and content analysis. The strengths and weaknesses and the process of implementing these forms of analysis are also discussed. The last part of the chapter focuses on quantitative data analysis. Both descriptive and inferential statistics are briefly discussed. Chapter 9 concerns a number of ways in which sensitive social work researchers can interpret and present their findings. The chapter covers the main techniques for interpreting findings and several structures suitable for their research. The last part of the chapter focuses on writing research reports and dissertations. Tips and techniques for writing effectively and efficiently are explored. Key Summary Sensitive social work research is more than just collecting and analysing data about a sensitive topic from vulnerable people; it is about making positive differences in vulnerable people’s lives. In the process of doing so, it includes them in the research process. Furthermore, human rights and empowering values should be part of every aspect of the research process. The research processes and the outcomes of sensitive social work research should both be emancipatory and transformative in nature. Sensitive research should not only contribute to theory but also improve the practice of social work.

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Although existing social work research aims to embed equality and fairness in the research process, it falls back into the traditional researcher/ participant roles. Existing power imbalances therefore still operate, and to some extent have the potential to reinforce existing social discrimination. Sensitive social work researchers start from the premise that research participants have the capacity to generate information and knowledge, and that they are in the best position to tell their stories and their interests. Sensitive social work research and social work practice are intertwined, as both aim to make positive differences. Respecting diversity and inclusiveness should be the priority of all researchers including sensitive social work researchers. Sensitive social work research accepts the principles of anti-oppressive practice. Researchers must therefore adopt anti-oppressive practices including the sensitive use of language for all the associated research activities. It is paramount for sensitive social work researchers to be politically astute and grasp the political matters that intersect with all aspects of their research process, both overtly and covertly. Questions for Critical Reflection How do you define a research problem? How can you involve service users as a partner in your research? After developing your research questions, what you need to do next? Key Terms Sensitive research Sensitive social work research Research topic Taboo topics Hidden population Hard-to-reach Research participants Research threats Vulnerabilities

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Stigma Economic life Intrusive threat Threat of sanction Political threat Research outcomes Research accountability Research inclusiveness

References Barnard, M. (2005). Discomforting research: Colliding moralities and looking for ‘truth’ in a study of parental drug problem. Sociology Health and Illness, 27(1), 1–19. Bilotta, N. (2020). Anti-oppressive social work research: Prioritising refuges voices in Kakuma Refugee Camp. Ethics and Social Welfare, 14(4), 397–414. Boldt, J. (2019). The concept of vulnerability in medical ethics and philosophy. Philosophy Ethics and Humanities in Medicine, 14, 6. https://doi.org/10.1186/ s13010-019-0075-6 Bracken-Roche, D., Bell, E., Macdonald, M. E., & Racine, E. (2017). The concept of ‘vulnerability’ in research ethics: An in-depth analysis of policies and guidelines. Health Research Policy Systems, 15, 8. https://doi.org/10.1186/ s12961-016-0164-6 Butler, I. (2002). A code of ethics for social work and social care research. British Journal of Social Work, 32, 239–248. Campbell, J. L. (2002). Ideas, politics, and public policy. Annual Review of Sociology, 28, 21–38. Dickson-Swift, V., James, E. L., & Liamputtong, P. (2008). Undertaking sensitive research in the health and social sciences: Managing boundaries, emotions and risks. Cambridge University Press. Dominelli, L. (2005). Social work research: Contested knowledge for practice. In R. Adams, L. Dominelli, & M. Payne (Eds.), Social work futures, crossing boundaries, transforming practice. Macmillan. Donnelly, S., Raghallaigh, M. N., & Foreman, M. (2019). Reflection on the use of community based participatory research to affect social and political change: Examples from research with refugees and older people in Ireland. European Journal of Social Work, 22(5), 831–844.

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Dorsen, C. (2010). Vulnerability in homeless adolescents: concept analysis. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 66(12), 2819–2827. Farberow, N. L. (Ed.). (1963). Taboo topics. Atherton. Glasius, M., de Lange, M., Bartman, J., Dalmasso, E., Lv, A., Del Sordi, A., Michaelsen, M., & Ruijgrok, K. (2018). Research, ethics and risk in the authoritarian field. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave. Johnson, J. (1975). Doing field research. Free Press. Johnson, M. E., Kondo, K. K., Brems, C., Ironside, E. F., & Eldridge, G. D. (2016). Mental health research in correctional settings: Perceptions of risk and vulnerabilities. Ethics and Behaviour, 26(3), 238–251. Lee, R. (1993). Doing research on sensitive topics. Sage Publications. Lee, R. M., & Renzetti, C. M. (1990). The problem of researching sensitive topics: An overview and introduction. American Behavioural Scientist, 33, 510–528. Lensvelt-Mulders, Gerty J. L. M., Joop J. Hox, Peter G. M. van der Heijden, & Cora J. M. Maas. (2005). Meta-analysis of randomized response research: Thirty five years of validation. Sociological Methods and Research, 33(February), 319–48. Liamputtong, P. (2007). Researching the vulnerable: A guide to sensitive research methods. London: Sage Publications. Luna, F., & Vanderpoel S. (2013). Not the usual suspects: Addressing layers of vulnerability. Bioethics Jul, 27(6), 325–332. https://doi.org/10.1111/ bioe.12035. Epub 2013 May 30. PMID: 23718852. Mallon, S., Borgstrom, E., & Murphy, S. (2020). Unpacking sensitive research: A stimulating exploration of an established concept. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 24(1), 1–5. McLaughlin, H. (2006). Involving young service users as co-researchers: Possibilities, benefits and costs. British Journal of Social Work, 36, 1395–1410. Melrose, M. (2002). Labour pains: Some considerations on the difficulties of researching juvenile prostitution. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 5(4), 333–351. Millum, J., Campbell, M., Luna, F., Malekzadeh, A. & Karim, Q. A. (2019). Ethical challenges in global healthrelated stigma research. BMC Medicine, 17, 84. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-019-1317-6 Moore, L. W., & Miller, M. (1999). Initiating research with doubly vulnerable populations. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 30(5), 1034–1040. Nyamathi, A. (1998). Vulnerable populations: A continuing nursing focus. Nursing Research, 47(2), 65–66.

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Quest, T., & Marco, C. A. (2003). Ethics seminars: Vulnerable populations in emergency medicine research. Academic Emergency Medicine: Official Journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, 10(11), 1294–1298. https:// doi.org/10.1111/j.1553-2712.2003.tb00616.x Renzetti, C. M., & Lee, R. M. (1993). Researching sensitive topics. New Bury Park, CA: Sage Publications. Rogers, J. (2012). Anti-oppressive social work research: Reflection on power in the creation of knowledge. Social Work Education, 31(7), 866–879. Shaw, I., & Gould, N. (2001). Qualitative research in social work. Sage Publications. Shucksmith, M. (2016). How can academic and the third sector work together to influence policy and practice. Carnegie UK Trust. Sieber, J. E., & Stanley, B. (1988). Ethical and professional dimensions of socially sensitive research. American Psychologist, 43, 49–55. Strier, R. (2007). Anti-oppressive research in social work: A preliminary definition. British Journal of Social Work, 37, 857–871. Ten Have, H. (2016). Vulnerability: Challenging bioethics. London: Routledge. Wellings, K., Patrick, B., & Kirsti, M. (2000). Discomfort, discord and discontinuity as data: Using focus groups to research sensitive topics. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 2(3), 255–267. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3986663

Suggested Reading Dickson-Swift, V., James, E. L., & Liamputtong, P. (2008). Undertaking sensitive research in the health and social sciences: Managing boundaries, emotions and risks. Cambridge University Press. Lee, R. (1993). Doing research on sensitive topics. Sage Publications. Liamputtong, P. (2007). Researching the vulnerable: A guide to sensitive research methods. Sage Publications.

2 The Philosophy of Sensitive Social Work Research

Their philosophical positions generally influence researchers, both consciously and unconsciously, in the way they undertake their research. This chapter aims chiefly to outline the paradigms sensitive social work researchers draw on to help formulate their philosophical positions. The chapter argues that it is vital for sensitive social work researchers to be explicit about their philosophical positions, which should help determine the research approaches and methods they adopt. Understanding philosophical research perspectives not only informs researchers how they need to conduct their research, but also improves their choice of research approach and method and enables them to defend those choices robustly. This chapter therefore explores: • the definitions of key research concepts such as paradigm, axiology, ontology, epistemology, methodology, approach and method. • the way in which positivism, interpretivism, constructionism, postmodernism, feminism, critical social theory and pragmatism can be used in sensitive social work research • quantitative and qualitative research and the differences between them

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 S. Haider, Sensitive Research in Social Work, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85009-8_2

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• a number of research strategies to help researchers select those suitable to answer their research question(s) • the strengths and weaknesses of the various research strategies A number of questions occur to researchers when they intend to conduct research. Some researchers probably know which specific area they want to focus on, but they may have questions such as whether it is viable to study in that area; whether it is feasible; how they go about it; how they collect data and from whom; how they access, analyse and interpret data and how to write, among many others. All of these are legitimate and practical questions, but the answers depend on a number of factors such as the resources available and the amount of time and degree of access to participants. Meanwhile, they need to formulate research questions. For example, whether a researcher wishes (say) to ascertain the experiences of domestic violence and abuse against older men or investigate the prevalence of personality disorders among young female prisoners, they will need firstly to understand how their target populations views the world, meaning how they construct knowledge and social reality. Answers to these questions are important when conducting research systematically, ensuring the methodological rigour that ultimately enables them to achieve academic legitimacy. When researchers, whether sensitive or not, develop research questions, they engage with a concept called the ‘paradigm’, which will be explored next.

Paradigm The word paradigm originated in the late fifteenth century via late Latin from the Greek paradeigma, from paradeiknunai, ‘to show side by side’, with the elements para- (‘beside’) and deiknunai (‘to show.’) Kuhn (1970) in his influential book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, based on his work on the philosophy of science, defined paradigm as universally recognised scientific achievements that, for a time, provide model problems and solutions for a community of researchers’ i.e.

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• what is to be observed and scrutinised • the kind of questions that are supposed to be asked and probed for answers in relation to this subject • how these questions are to be structured • how the results of scientific investigations should be interpreted • how an experiment is to be conducted • what equipment is available to conduct the experiment. (Kuhn, 1970, Section V, P. 43–51)

Simply put, a paradigm is an assumption about ‘how things work’ (Brown & Duenas, 2020)—that is, a set of beliefs that guides the way research is conducted. A research paradigm will thus guide researchers’ answers to research questions, meaning that it will influence and shape the research process. Although it may not be explicitly referenced by some researchers, acknowledging it helps readers understand and examine the philosophical basis of a given research study. Hesse-Biber and Leavy (2011, P. 38) thus state that paradigms or worldviews are neither right nor wrong; one way of seeing is another way of not seeing. However, paradigms are powerful ways of looking at that reality, and they are windows giving us information about the social world and often frame the particular questions we seek to answer.

Building Blocks of Paradigms Brown and Duenas (2020) suggest that the paradigm of a piece of work is constructed from a few building blocks, the first four being: • • • •

Axiology Ontology Epistemology Methodology

They developed this model based on Grix’s (2002) paradigmatic building blocks, which embody philosophical assumptions that direct researchers’ thinking and action (Mertens, 2014). Figure 2.1 illustrates the way building blocks are interlinked, leading researchers to begin with their philosophical position and proceed to the selection of research method.

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Axiology

Ontology

Epistemology

Methodology

Methods

Fig. 2.1  The first set of building blocks forming a piece of work’s research paradigm

Axiology This refers to the study of values and value judgements. It has two components: • Ethics, which deals with morality • Aesthetics, which deals with beauty, taste and judgements (Farrow et al. [2020]) Chapter 3 of this book explores the ethics and values of conducting research.

Ontology The origin of this term can be traced back to the eighteenth century, from the Latin ontologia, in turn from the Greek ōn, ont (‘being’) and λογία (logia), meaning ‘the study of a certain subject’. Ontology seeks to answer the ‘what’ question of the nature and form of reality (Corbetta, 2011), whether the investigated reality is indeed real and exists objectively and independently of human interpretation—that is, outside the human mind. That is a singular truth is out in the world for researchers to explore.

Epistemology This term dates to the mid-nineteenth century, being derived from the Greek epistēmē (‘knowledge’), in turn from epistasthai (‘know, know how to do’). Insofar as it concerns social work research focuses on the

2  The Philosophy of Sensitive Social Work Research 25 Table 2.1  Ontological and epistemological questions

• What is there? • What types of things are there? • How can we describe existence? • What kinds of categories can things be assigned to? • Are the categories of existence hierarchical? (Farrow et al., 2020: 9)

• What is knowledge? • How can we claim to know anything at all? • What justifies a belief? • What is the relaitonship between the knower and what can be known? (Farrow et al., 2020: 9)

Ontological questions

Epistemological questions

relationship between researchers and participants. Answers to epistemological questions (Table 2.1) depend on those to ontological ones.

Methodology and Methods Research methodology and research methods are two distinct concepts, although some use them interchangeably. Simply put, research methods are techniques to collect data, while methodology is the logic of scientific inquiry; in particular with investigating the potentialities and limitation of particular techniques or procedures …The term pertains in the science and study of methods and the assumptions about the ways in which knowledge is produced. (Grix, 2002, P. 179)

A researchers’ methodological approach is underpinned by specific ontological and epistemological assumptions. However, the research methods of any given study are inextricably linked to the research question(s). Figure 2.1, which is adapted from Grix (2002) and Mertens (2014), shows the interrelationship between a researcher’s ontological, epistemological and methodological positions. Researchers’ ontological positions

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can affect what and how they decide to study (Grix, 2002). The aim of this diagram is to demonstrate the logical relationships between key concepts in research. Methods should be viewed as free from ontological and epistemological assumptions, and the choice of research method should be guided by research question(s) (Grix, 2002). This diagram also constitutes a warning to researchers to refrain from ‘method-led’ research that uses familiar methods prior to working out the methodology, epistemology and ontology. Instead it encourages ‘question-­ led’ research in which research questions indicate the appropriate research method(s). Grix (2002) maintains that choosing the research method first (i.e. ‘method-led-research’) undermines the interconnectedness of the five key components of research, and argues that a research study should be judged the way its constituent components logically cohere.

Positivism There are two versions of positivism. The one initially developed in the nineteenth century is now not used even by those who fully subscribe to the core principles of positivism. In the twentieth century a new version of positivism developed in order to minimise some of the weaknesses of the previous version. The principles of positivism indicate that the social world can be understood and explained through observation, measurement, mathematical methods and models and statistical analysis. These generate hypotheses based on what is known about the subject of the research, and try to test those hypotheses using samples of the population. Explore Box 2.1 for an example of a research study based on positivism. Although positivism enables the natural sciences such as physics and chemistry to advance our knowledge and understanding, a particular criticism doubts that it can answer all questions. Its ability to predict, control variables, measure precisely, exist independently and replicate research is also disputed (Bryman, 2016). Its research outputs have been scrutinised, and different ways of seeing the uncertain, unpredictable, complex and volatile social world have been developed. Rather than believing that absolute truth exists independently, some researchers have

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started to look for provisional truths for their research outcomes. For example, Freud’s perceived unconscious mind is constructed by both internal and external factors and is fluid and dynamic, in that the interaction of internal and external factors shapes that unconscious mind.

Characteristics of Positivism • Positivism is based on the principle that the world (in the present case, the social world) exists outside the individual and can be investigated by borrowing the methods used by the natural sciences. • The social world can be understood objectively by using scientific principles of deductive logic (see Box 2.3), logical determinism, rationality and causality, as well as mathematical and statistical analysis. • It is inductive, meaning that researchers focus on a specific issue, then extrapolate these to the general; it aims to generalise findings based on empirical observation. • The researcher’s role is to be neutral and objective; they must conduct their research rationally and logically. • There is a concern about whether objectivity possible. Grbich (2004) asks how objective objectivity actually is. • Statistical analysis and modelling fail to capture the complexity, contingent and context-specific reality of the social world. It is difficult to understand human beings, their interactions and behaviours. • In some cases it is of prime importance to observe social interactions rather than relying solely on questionnaire or structured interview responses. • The social world is complex, chaotic, uncertain and volatile, so the value and influence of rational, ordered, logical and systematic analysis might be limited. • Predetermined and mostly closed questions fail to recognise the diverse responses of respondents that reflect the reality of the social world. • Some authors (e.g. Bryman, 2016) suggest that the focus on causal explanations do not always portray the real picture of the social word under investigation.

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• Ignoring the role of intuition and subjectivity in generating knowledge leaves positivism to tell one side of the story which can be wrong, and in doing so it contravenes the fundamental principle of positivism. • Although positivism flaunts its ability to replicate research studies, it is not always possible to achieve this because of the difficulties of verifying hypotheses and analyses. Box 2.1  Reasoning for the Positivist Paradigm Choi et  al.’s (2019) quantitative study investigates the effects of volunteer support on female survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV). They do so by comparing those who had received voluntary support (VS) and those who had not after leaving their abusive partners. All participants of this study were Chinese females aged over 17 who had left their abusive partners. Baseline data were collected, and a follow-up measurement conducted after six months. Thirty-two female IPV survivors who had received VS and 48 who had not participated in the study, which collected quantitative data using a number of measurement scales: the Abuse Assessment Screen used to assess the occurrence of IPV, Brief-COPE to measure the various coping strategies, the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List-12 to assess the participants’ perceptions of social support, the Dispositional Resilience Scale to measure the resilience of the female IPV survivors, the Short Form Health Survey to determine their health-related quality of life and the Beck Depressing Inventory, version II to determine the participants’ symptoms of depression. They also collected participants’ demographic and socio-­economic characteristics. Their findings suggest that women who received VS are more likely to use adaptive coping strategies than those who did not, and that VS helped them develop skills to deal with their lives and with stressful situations. Comment If you read the article fully, you will understand how the authors justify the research and how, when they present and analyse data gathered from the questionnaires, they attempt to adopt objectivist perspectives in that they view social reality as independent of consciousness or experience. In so doing they identify objective meanings. In short, they assume that ‘social facts exist independently of people’s perceptions’ (May, 2011, P. 9).

Interpretivism Interpretivists reject the idea of using methods intended to understand the physical sciences. Human behaviour is different from physical objects, so, what humans do and why they do it cannot be investigated using the

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same principles as those used to study physical phenomena. People act and react to others’ acts as mediated by interpretive processes in which they actively engage and make sense of their surroundings. They do not passively respond to external stimuli. Interpretivism is based on the understanding that social realities are fluid and dynamic, that our viewpoints are constantly changing, as therefore is the way we interpret our world; indeed, those interpretations are constantly contested. The notion of an objective reality in the social world waiting for researchers to discover it is a myth, one that makes it difficult for researchers to employ research methods that are effective in the physical sciences. According to Thomas (2009, P. 75), the main point about interpretivism is that we are interested in people and the way that they interrelate – what they think and how they form ideas about the world; how their worlds are constructed. Given that this is the case we have to look closely at what people are doing by using our own selves, our own knowledge of the world as people. We have to immerse ourselves in the research contexts in which we are interested – for example talking to people in depth, attending to every nuance of their behaviour, every clue to the meanings that they are investing in something.

Characteristics of Interpretivism • People interpret and make sense of their experiences in the contexts in which they live. They create their realities through interpretation. Multiple realities are thus possible, as different people experience the same phenomena differently. • Subjectivity, rather than objectivity, is crucial for this stance. • Interpretivism tends to be associated with the use of qualitative research methods such as semi-structured and unstructured interviews, focus groups and observations. • Human behaviour and thinking processes can be studied only in the social environment in which they operate. • This position focuses more on issues related to the micro or individual level—that is, to individual action. It could thus ignore the macro issues of structural influence on people and their actions.

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Constructionism Constructionism, sometimes labelled as constructivism, asserts that social phenomena and their meanings are continually being accomplished by social actors. It implies that social phenomena are not only produced through social interaction but are in a constant state of revision (Bryman, 2016, P. 29). This school of thought does not subscribe to the idea that social reality can be explored through standardised measurement and observation, basically therefore rejecting the fundamental principle of positivism. They see that people construct their understandings of themselves and their world at particular times, occasions, and, for particular purposes, drawing on many discourses from their contexts. So the idea that knowledge is a ‘mirror of reality’ is replaced by the conception of the ‘social construction of reality’ where the focus is on the interpretation and negotiation of the meaning of the world. (Kvale, 1996, P. 41)

Social constructionist researchers typically focus on dialogue and negotiation with a view to co-constructing realities, which make it different for them to remain detached from the subjects of their research. Researchers and participants are jointly involved in making sense of social reality, so the researcher’s role is not that of conveyor and receiver of knowledge, but as a co-constructor of knowledge together with their participants (Savin-Baden & Major, 2013). Hammersley (2014) argues that, although there are similarities between interpretivism and constructionism, some differences do exist. According to him interpretivism tends to assume that people’s behaviour is governed by stable perspectives built up to make sense of and deal with their circumstances, [while] constructionists view people as constructing particular understandings on particular occasions in a much more fluid way, drawing upon a range of conflicting discourses available to them. Similarly, interpretivism assumes that it is possible for researchers to grasp the modes of experience and ideas of others, even those who belong to quite different cultures, whereas constructionists raise questions about whether such

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understanding is possible. Indeed, constructionists often question whether understanding other people and perhaps even understanding oneself, is ever fully possible. They argue that the ‘understandings’ we produce of others’ intentions and motives reflect our own cultural or personal assumptions and practices. (P. 181)

Characteristics of Constructionism • The main principle of constructionism is that social reality is socially constructed, implying that objective facts do not exist and that reality can be known only through individual interpretations. • Knowledge is constructed and subjective. • Knowledge is multifarious rather than singular. • Knowledge is power, so whoever creates knowledge gains power. • Researchers fully participate in the research process. • This position tends to be associated with qualitative research methods.

Postmodernism Grand theories such as Marxism tried to explain social world through patterns of interrelationship (Agger, 1991). Postmodernists such as French philosopher Lyotard rejected the idea that grand theories are able to explain the world because it is complex, chaotic and uncertain. Hence, postmodernism views the social reality is constructed in a number of ways depending on individuals and social groups. So, truth is multifaceted which is opposite to positivism. Meaning postmodernists refuse to accept social world is ordered and can be investigated objectively reality. Instead, they view social world as chaotic and unknowable (Grbich, 2007). The realities are constructed within a specific social and cultural context (Grbich, 2004). So, meaning cannot be separated from that specific social and cultural context. Postmodernism perceives multiple realities and they are not fixed. So, no true reality exists; truth and reality exist only in the subjective experiences of individuals, their perceptions of their daily lives and the way they make sense of all these (Fontana, 2002; Grbich, 2004).

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The nature of postmodernism encourages researchers to adopt qualitative and use multiple methods to provide voices to different research participants.

Characteristics of Postmodernism • Postmodernism does not strive for generalisation, but rather focuses on short narratives in specific contexts. • No objective reality exists in the world of social work, so there is no single truth. • Self-reflexivity is crucial to the creation of knowledge, as therefore is the way in which researchers’ own beliefs have been socially constructed and how they affect their research. • Truths, realities, logic and reasoning are constructed within particular societies and cultures. • The roles of researchers and participants are blurred and traditional relationships between the two are not neutral (Liamputtong, 2007). • Participants’ own understandings of social realities are the man facet of postmodernism (Liamputtong, 2007). • Postmodernism challenges traditional premises such as objectivism and grand narratives. Instead, it focuses on mini-narratives within specific social and cultural contexts where ‘no pretensions of abstract theory, universality or generalisability are involved’ (Grbich, 2004, P. 26). It is difficult to come to a conclusion when objectivity and certainty are rejected. • Multiple social realities made it difficult to make policy decisions about particular subject areas. • The rejection of logic, rationality and grand narratives leaves postmodernists very limited options for theoretical explanations.

Feminism The main aim of feminist research is to capture women’s life experiences in a sensitive manner that should be beneficial to women. It thus focuses on both the process of conducting research and on its outcome. Feminism

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challenges the ‘passivity, subordination and silencing of women’ (Maynard, 1994, P. 23). According to Stanley (1990, P. 14) ‘it is the experience of and acting against perceived oppression that gives rise to a distinctive feminist epistemology’. McCarthy (1996) has conducted research on the sexual abuse of women with learning disabilities in London, focusing on the lived experiences of individual women with the aim of improving their lives. She positions her research in a wider political context. O’Neill (1996) asserts that this methodological approach enables research participants (i.e. women, in this case) to become involved and to play an active role constructing knowledge, and in doing so to strive for empowerment and social change. She believes that feminist research should bring benefits to women, and that their voices need to be heard and listened to. The knowledge generated from this study did indeed empower women and bring about social change. So feminism is thus an action-­oriented research methodology that aims to give a voice to marginalised people. Feminism proactively encourages the inclusion in their research of emotions and researchers’ own feelings. For Campbell and Wasco (2000), researchers should be open about their identities, beliefs, values and emotions in the research context, and should discuss them and make them public. Some sensitive researchers also hold that research should discuss the emotions and feelings involved in conducting sensitive research. This will be explored in Chap. 6.

Characteristics of Feminism • It aims to root out gender discrimination, and by doing to achieve gender equality. • Not only moral but also political commitment is the bedrock of feminism, which seeks to bring fairness and equality to females and to change their lives. • It gives voice to women and other marginalised people (Cancian, 1999; Renzetti, 1997). Hence, qualitative research has gained more currency among feminist researchers compared to quantitative research, but a few writers have suggested the use of mixed methods research. Some advocate the use of participatory research methods.

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• Feminism is a social movement that strives to bring about social change to improve the lives of women as well as marginalised people. • In relation to conducting research, feminism challenges the traditional structure of power between researchers and participants by allowing more power to the latter. • Researchers who subscribe to feminism work in partnership with their participants, rejecting the traditional divide between the two (Renzetti, 1997) • Self-disclosure, the building of trust and rapport, and the establishment of reciprocity are fundamental to the successful conduct and completion of feminist research (Renzetti, 1997). • It creates caring, egalitarian environments (Liamputtong, 2007). It is flexible, so researchers can use its strategies and methods creatively in their research. • Feminist researchers encourage reflexivity • which critically scrutinises how social structures like gender, ethnicity, social class, and sexual orientation as well as larger social, economic and political conditions of the researchers may impact on the research process. (Liamputtong, 2007, P. 14) • By its nature, feminism aims for subjectivity rather than objectivity. Hence it can be criticised as biased research. However, Renzetti (1997) argues that all social science research is subjective and biased. She explicitly states: In my view, what sets this type of research apart is that it is also good social science; that is, it seeks to give voice to and to improve the life conditions of the marginalized, and it transforms social scientific inquiry from an academic exercise into an instrument of meaningful social change. (P. 143)

Critical Research This philosophical position takes a critical stance regarding social arrangements and orders with a view to transforming society. This philosophical tradition is heavily influenced by Karl Marx’s critiques of capitalist exploitation and profit-making and its use of power. This research strategy not

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only describes, explains and explores but also evaluates social work perspectives and practices. According to Hammersley (2014, P. 183), critical research involves evaluative as well as factual concepts – for example those using this approach are concerned with the ‘exploitation’ or ‘oppression’ of one group by another, or with the denial of ‘rights’. And research is seen as properly directed towards achieving particular kinds of political goal: reducing or eliminating exploitation and oppression, bringing about emancipation, and/or ensuring that rights are respected.

Although some principles of critical research originated from Marxism, which focuses on social class inequalities and conflicts, critical researchers are not restricted to investigating this area only; as a matter of fact, some of them are have concentrated on several other social divisions such as race, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and age. Like interpretivism and constructionism, critical research to an extent attempts to understand the cultures of research participants in their own ways and insists that people’s behaviour will often need to be explained by factors that are beyond their awareness. Indeed, ‘critical’ researchers argue that in many cases this awareness will have been systematically distorted by social processes, in other words it will be ‘ideological’. (Hammersley, 2014, P. 183)

Critical researchers believe that they have the responsibility to resist dominant discourses and ideologies by challenging inequality in social relationships.

Characteristics of Critical Research • Critical research not only describes and explains the research area but also assesses and evaluates it. • Using the lens of critical research philosophy, researchers aim to understand the problems and concerns of social and political systems, politics and structures. By assessing and evaluating these matters critically, researchers bring about progressive change.

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• Transforming the life of oppressed and marginalised people is the desired outcome of this type of research. • This position assumes that specific issues, actions, situations and incidents can only be understood in the context of wider social, political and economic systems and structures and their histories. • Reality is perceived as being directed by power and multiply constructed (Grbich, 2007). • There is a question about the extent to which researchers promote social transformation.

Pragmatism In late 1800 pragmatics was developed by a group of sociologists at the metaphysical club at Johns Hopkins University. They challenged traditional empiricism and focused on subjective experiences of the social world (Savin-Baden & Major, 2013). They felt that researchers should use the most appropriate research methods for their research questions. Pragmatism is an applied philosophy and aims to bring social change. Knowledge, according to pragmatists, is both constructed and based on the reality of the world in which we live and which we experience. As such, pragmatists advocate that researchers should employ a combination of methods that work best for answering their research questions. (Liamputtong, 2017, P. 15)

According to Johnson and Onwuegbuzie (2004), pragmatism finds its place in a middle ground between philosophical dogmatism and scepticism and rejects traditional dualism, whose tenets are: rationality vs empiricism Realism vs antirealism Free will vs determinism Platonic appearance vs reality Facts vs values Subjectivism vs objectivism. (18)

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Characteristics of Pragmatism • It advocates a moderate and common-sense version of philosophical dualism that works well in solving the research problem (Johnson & Onwuegbuzie, 2004). • Pluralism and eclectism are fundamental for pragmatics, which is based on using whatever works to obtain the answer to the research question(s). • It prioritises research questions. • It leverages the unique points of view afforded by qualitative and quantitative research (see Box 2.2 for an example of a mixed methods research study). • It suitable to studying complex phenomenon in real-world settings. • The underlying theme is that there are many legitimate approaches to exploring, investigating and understanding the social world through a mixed methods research. • Pragmatism offers both broad and deep understandings of social reality. In summary, a number of philosophies that might inform sensitive social work research have been explored so as to enable researchers to identify their philosophical stances. It is imperative that sensitive social work researchers understand those positions because they profoundly affect the quality of their research. The next section will focus on the three types of research, namely quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods. Box 2.2  Research Example: Mixed Methods Campbell et al. (2011) used mixed methods (i.e. quantitative and qualitative) to understand how and why a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) programme contributed to increased prosecution rates of adult sexual cases. They wanted to capture both outcomes and processes, determining whether SANE programs could contribute to increased prosecution rates, and, if so, how. They selected mixed methods because outcomes are generally assessed by quantitative research, but qualitative research methods were used to investigate processes. This study used a sequential explanatory mixed methods design, and the researchers gathered quantitative data first, then qualitative data, using the latter to explain and interpret the quantitative findings. They collected data from nurses, the police, prosecutors, survivors and advocates, arguing that mixed methods enabled them to make appropriate recommendations based on the findings. According to them, (continued)

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Box 2.2  (continued) without the qualitative data from the survivors themselves, we may have erroneously concluded from the quantitative data that SANE programs should directly encourage victims to report and persecute their assaults. Our findings seriously question the utility of such recommendations. The SANE program’s de-emphasis on legal matters and focus on patient health was paramount, and in the field this practice philosophy did contribute to increased victim participation in the criminal justice system. We did not fully understand that fact until we interviewed the SANE nurse; this was the only component of the study in which we were working more fluidly with multiple data sources. (P. 386)

Types of Research Sensitive social work researchers have three options regarding the types of data they can collect: Quantitative: collecting quantitative data through structured questions and experimental research methods. Some authors view quantitative research as a quantitative approach. Qualitative: This relies on narratives and texts to describe and explain social realities. Mixed: This uses both quantitative and qualitative data to describe and explain social realities.

Box 2.3  Deductive and Inductive Methods It is expected that social work should be guided by theory. Should the same apply to research? The simple answer is: yes and no. It depends on what researcher is trying to achieve. The relationship between theory and research can be explained by two forms of logic: deductive and inductive. (Instead of the term ‘logic’, some authors use ‘methods’—that is, deductive and inductive method.) When a researcher sets out to empirically test a theory, they use deductive logic, which involves starting with a theory and developing hypotheses to test it. As part of this process, researchers also define variables, so that they can precisely specify the way they will collect data. The last stage of this process is to test the hypothesis in order to accept or reject it. The inductive method is the exact opposite, meaning that theory is the outcome of the inductive method.

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Quantitative Research The aim of the quantitative researcher is to be objective, because quantitative research studies use numbers. In theory it is possible to replicate the study. For example, if a sensitive social work researcher wants to generalise findings about the prevalence of intimate partner abuse among Syrian refugees in England, then quantitative research would be a suitable option. In order to answer the research question, the researcher may want to use questionnaires or structured interviews of a selective sample from the overall population.

Characteristics of Quantitative Research • Quantitative research is used to test theories and hypothesis in practice, and follows a deductive approach (Box 2.3). • Research questions are tightly defined. • It views social world as an external and objective reality (Bryman, 2016). • This type of research gives a superficial picture of social reality.

Qualitative Research Qualitative research is most often associated with interpretivism, constructionism and postmodernism; textual data is at its core. If researchers wish to obtain the experiences of (say) intimate partner abuse in Syrian refugees residing in England, they can use qualitative research methods such as interviews.

Characteristics of Qualitative Research • The focus of qualitative research is narrative, rather than the quantification of data. • It mostly adopts the inductive approach (Box 2.3)

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• Its focus is thus predominately on generalising theories (Bryman, 2016) rather than testing and confirming causal relationships. • Social reality is constructed and changing. • Samples are generally small and are unable to be generalised to the whole population.

 imilarities Between Qualitative S and Quantitative Methods Table 2.2 makes the differences between the two types of data obvious, but some similarities between them do exist. Hardy and Bryman (2004) identify eight: Data reduction: Both types of research collect large amounts of data. In order to analyse it, it is vital to use data reduction techniques to provide meaning for findings. Both types of research follow different paths to achieve this. For example, the process of data reduction for quantitative research uses descriptive statistics such as frequency tables and the calculation of mediums, means and modes, while the equivalent for qualitative research involves coding, exploring themes and developing concepts from textual data. Evidence: Both types of research aim to answer the research questions by using different research methods. By answering the question, both suggest the nature of social reality. Linking analysis with literature: Researchers need to link their findings and analyses with the existing literature regardless of the types of research they utilise in their research. Variations: Both aim to explore and present variations. Frequency for analysis: Quantitative researchers identify frequency in their datasets. Similarly, qualitative researchers explore themes in their dataset—that is, how often certain themes occur, which helps them interpret the results. Avoid deliberate distortion: Both qualitative and quantitative researchers attempt to avoid conscious bias in their research.

2  The Philosophy of Sensitive Social Work Research 41 Table 2.2  Differences between quantitative and qualitative research Criteria

Quantitative

Qualitative

Nature of data gathered Nature of data Common theoretical approach General aims

Numbers

Texts

Structured Deductive

Unstructured Inductive

Aims to test hypothesis and generalise findings Contextual Typically, less contextual details detail Generalisation Possible to generalise findings Scope Generally large-scale research with large sample sizes; aims to indicate social trends and connections Researchers Generally, researchers are proximity distant—that is, they do not become involved with participants in order to remain objective Objective or subjective Settings Time

Aims to understand matters in-depth and collect rich data Needs more contextual detail to understand the social reality Mostly contextual but possible to achieve theoretical generalisation Focuses mostly on small-scale, with small sample sizes

Objective

In order to understand participants’ views and perspectives and to see social reality through their eyes, qualitative researchers become involved with participants Subjective

Artificial It is not time consuming compared to qualitative research

Natural It is time consuming, in particular when researchers must collect, analyse and interpret data

Ensure transparency: Both qualitative and quantitative researchers take every opportunity to carefully illustrate the way they conduct their research in order to ensure transparency so that readers can judge the quality of their studies. Reduction of error: Both types aim to reduce errors in data collection and analysis. The results are therefore accurate, and represent social reality. Alongside the undoubted differences, therefore, there are undoubtedly also similarities between the two types of research. Awareness of these

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similarities and differences enables sensitive researchers to carefully decide what types of data they require in order to answer their research questions. However, it is vital to keep in mind that the use of different approaches does not exclusively reflect philosophical disagreements about the nature of reality – different approaches are used to answer different types of questions about that reality. (Polit & Beck, 2006, P. 15)

Mixed Methods Research Social workers aim to conduct holistic assessments of service users or carers. In order to achieve this, they talk with a number of individuals and agencies, thereby also establishing a comprehensive picture of their needs. They are therefore used to finding information from several sources in different ways such as interviews, observations, reading reports and case notes, asking questions, engaging in conversations and using biological, social and psychological frameworks, models or measures. By working in this manner, they strive to make sense of the story told by the involved individuals, and to see coherence and consistency in their stories. If these are inconsistent, contradictory or incomplete, researchers scrutinise and evaluate the information they have gathered. Basically, they examine the information to validate or reject their initial hypothesises. These working practices fit with the principles involved in mixed methods because such methods enable researchers to explore complex and sensitive topics. Gioia (2012) feels that mixed methods approaches suit social workers’ aim to explore micro, meso and macro issues of services users, carers and families. After reviewing 19 definitions of mixed methods Johnson et al. (2007, P. 123) propose the following definition: [mixed methods] is the type of research in which a researcher or team or researchers combines elements of qualitative and quantitative research approaches (e.g. use of qualitative and quantitative viewpoints, data collection, analysis, inference techniques) for the purposes of breadth and depth of understanding and corroboration.

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Activity 2.1  Suitability of Quantitative Research for Sensitive Topics Based on your reading so far, do you think quantitative research could be useful to conduct research on sensitive topics? Comments It is likely that respondents would be asked particular questions on sensitive topics that some might perceive as being personal and threatening (Lensvelt-Mulders, 2008). A survey produces standardised information, mostly from a large number of respondents, which can be used to set up services and improve their delivery, and can influence the development of new policies and guidance, and shape existing ones. By conducting surveys, governments as well as institutions can monitor their progress regarding some unpleasant and sensitive matters. If the questions are related to illegal activities, crimes deviant acts, respondents may feel threatened because they may imagine that, by answering those questions, they are putting themselves at risk of legal and criminal repercussions. Lensvelt-Mulders (2008) labelled these types as extrinsic threats, as in certain responses carrying the risk of sanctions. On the other hand, threats could be intrinsic when respondents ask sensitive questions; if the questions inflict distress and consequently makes the respondent feel embarrassed, guilty, ashamed or angry. Such responses can affect the relationship between respondents and researchers and consequently the data the latter will be able to collect. For example, respondents might not tell the full story, or, worse, give a false one. The probability of such outcomes occurring is higher in interviews. Furthermore, respondents might also feel uncomfortable in relating their activities, views and experiences in interviews, especially when trusting relationships have not been developed. In this kind of situation, surveys could be an effective methodology. For example, Vicky wants to study child poverty in England; in particular, she would like to investigate how single parents on welfare support maximise their income to support their children. More specifically, she needs to understand whether single parents work while they are on benefits, and, if so, whether they work outside their allocated hours or earn more money than allowed, and work cash-in-hand. If she aims to focus on these matters, some participants might not feel comfortable and probably will not give honest answers. Surveys could be effective in asking these questions effectively, but still it is vital to do so in a sensitive manner. This will be covered in Chap. 7, along with other difficulties in the use of this method. However, the point is that researchers should not rule out survey-based research because the dominant discourse in conducting sensitive research in social work is qualitative. Surveys should be considered on the same basis as any other research strategy.

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Broadly, there are two types of mixed research methods: Concurrent: This involves researchers collecting and analysing both qualitative and quantitative data at the same time. Sequential: In this case, researchers focus on one type, then the other.

Characteristics of Mixed Methods Research • Issues related to diversity, social justice and empowerment are core to social work practice. The mixed methods approach enables researchers to respectfully engage with respondents and explore different perspectives and views. • Mixed methods research integrates multiple strategies and methods with the aim to understand multifaceted sensitive social phenomena better than any single method (Creswell & Garrett, 2008; Greene, 2007). • Integration of the results of both qualitative and quantitative methods allows researchers to collaborate with each other. • Combination of both research methods will provide breadth, detail and richness to findings. • Mixed methods research enables researchers to use different methodologies and methods to answer their research questions. Given the diversity and flexibility of mixed methods research, sensitive social work researchers can therefore use it to understand complex social phenomena. • Because it is an eclectic approach, researchers can select and integrate the most appropriate methods to answer the research questions. • The main difficulty of mixed methods research is the integrated analysis and interpretation of results. Activity 2.2  Explore and Justify the Research Approach for a Sensitive Research Question Devise and make notes of a sensitive research question. Consider whether qualitative, quantitative or mixed research would best answer your question. Now give your reasons. (continued)

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Activity 2.2  (continued) Comments Some of you might have already framed your research questions within a paradigm. Your ontological and epistemological position could lead you to decide the type of research you want to adopt. Some of you probably considered qualitative or quantitative or both without considering your ontological and epistemological position. It is highly recommended that you systematically consider your oncological and epistemological position first.

It is important to understand paradigms that will enable researchers to identify their world views. It is equally important to acknowledge that the dichotomy between quantitative and qualitative research is not absolute. That does not mean that there are no differences, but there are also quite a few similarities. The nature of sensitive social work research leads most authors to lean towards qualitative research and argue that this type is compatible with the principles of social work research, including sensitive research because quantitative research is associated with positivism, which tends to deprioritise and delegitimate the views of research participants (Hammersley, 1995; Bonell, 1999). However, quantitative research can be separated from the positivist framework, or researchers can at least choose aspects of positivism to adopt. As Bonell (1999, P. 115) argues: quantitative research can be undertaken without signing up to the positivist tenets … such work can concern itself with: describing associations; identifying locally applicable theories and considering how they might apply to other locales; acknowledging the contextual nature of any analysis generated.

Hammersley (1995) also questions the distinction between positivism and interpretivism, and suggests that researchers not become overly concerned with seeing all features of positivism as a united whole, because this is neither logically nor empirically necessary. Bonell (1999) therefore proposes interpretivist-informed quantitative research, which allows researchers to record and understand participants’ views sufficiently during the process of developing measures. He illustrates his point by referring to the Sigma project conducted at the University of Essex (Box 2.4).

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Box 2.4  Research Example Project Sigma aimed to explore the sexual activity of cohorts of gay men. Rather than researchers developing and using concepts to develop the research instruments, participants were asked to keep diaries of their sexual activity. In the diaries, they recorded time, place and antecedents: day, hour; location (for example, in whose accommodation or external sites, such as parks, toilets, the activity took place), together with antecedents such as the use of alcohol, drugs, and nitrites; the participants: (if any); description of the sexual partner/s involved in the session; the sexual activity: for each constituent sexual act in a session – the behaviour; the modality (who did it to whom) and the outcome (whether and how ejaculation occurred); accompaniments: especially use of condoms, lubricants, ‘toys’, etc. (Coxon, 1994, P. 130) The aim of this activity was to explore the meaning of the key concepts so that both researchers and participants understood the terms used in the same way (Bonell, 1999). This was in order to reduce researcher and participant confusion and ambiguity about the terms they used and to increase joint, accurate understandings, which then helped researchers to develop the research instruments. Bonell (1999, P. 116) asserts: rather than using concepts that were developed by the researchers and that could not in reality be assumed to have the same meanings for the gay men involved in the research, the diaries used basic descriptive concepts that could reasonably be assumed to have the same meaning for researchers and researched.

The diversity of sensitive social work research requires researchers to use more than one research method, so the total rejection of quantitative research methods might not be in the best interests either of sensitive social work researchers or of their participants. Each type of research also has its strengths and weaknesses, and both can independently play pivotal roles in revealing complex, uncertain, unpredictable, ambiguous and volatile social work realities. When used appropriately, quantitative research methods can thus complement qualitative research in sensitive social work research. Furthermore, it could be that mixed methods offer researchers the best of two worlds when conducting sensitive social work research. Although mixed methods are currently not widely used in sensitive social work research compared to qualitative research, it can provide holistic pictures of complex social realities.

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Tip Keep in mind that it is not just the research methods themselves but the way in which they are used and what they are used for that are fundamental to sensitive social work research.

It must be considered how best to match the methods to the research question(s), and researchers must be creative in relation to their research methodologies and methods in order to change the practices and enhance the well-being of their participants. In addition to this, the quality of research, whether it be qualitative, quantitative or mixed, must be a matter of general concern. And all sensitive social work researchers, regardless of whether they adopt qualitative or quantitative methods, must abide by their ethical and moral duty to ensure that they safeguard the interests of their participants and those involved in the research.

Research Strategies Denscombe (2017) states that the purpose of a research strategy is to establish a plan of action by which to conduct the study. In the research literature, the terms ‘approaches’, ‘methodologies’ and ‘strategies’ are used interchangeably. According to Denscombe (2017) a research strategy entails a broad approach that has: • a distinct research logic and rationale that shapes; • a plan of action (research design) to address; • a clearly identified research problem (a specific goal that can be achieved). (P. 3)

This section focuses on a number of strategies suitable for sensitive social work research: survey, narrative approaches, ethnography, phenomenology, participatory action research, arts-based approach and case study.

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Survey Survey is one of most frequently and widely used research strategies, one that originated with and is related to the positivistic tradition. Survey strategy enables the researcher to understand the prevalence, attitudes, measurements, distribution and interrelationships of variables in a sample population. It can thus be categorised as explanatory research. It is mostly used to test theories by testing hypotheses. However, some authors maintain that it can be utilised to develop theories. A survey seeks information from a sample, mostly via questionnaires or structured interviews, as its origin is in positivism and it follows the same research principle as the physical sciences. It thus attempts to remove bias from the research process as much as possible in order that the research can be replicable by other researchers following the same process. In order to achieve replicability, it is also vital to ensure that the survey is standardised. This is the way questionnaires are designed, administered, collected and analysed.

Characteristics of Survey • A survey has the potential to collect data from a large number or respondents. • It generally produces standardised quantitative data, but it can generate qualitative data by using open questions. • A survey can be descriptive as well as explanatory, in that it can describe issues related to the research topic. It also explains by demonstrating ‘why things might be the way they are’ (O’Leary, 2004, P. 153). It can determine cause and effect, as well as relationships between variables. • It does not provide detailed data because it aims for breadth rather than depth. It provides an overall view of the topic under investigation. • A survey can be an observation of people’s behaviours and an analysis of documents.

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Data Collection A survey strategy is generally linked with questionnaires, structured interviews and observation research methods.

Advantages • It does not cost much to deploy compared to other research strategies. • It is relatively less time-consuming to conduct compared to other research strategies. For example, within a five-day period Bhutta (2012) received 2700 completed questionnaires, and 4000 within a month. She used the Internet to conduct her survey. According to her, • data collection was extremely fast and incredibly cheap. Within five days 2,700 individuals completed the survey, and a modest license fee for the web-based software was the only expense. (2012, P. 80) • This strategy helps to access hard-to-reach groups. Additionally, with the help of Internet a sensitive social work researcher can access not only these, but also hidden groups. • Surveys can be useful in engaging participants regarding some sensitive topics. • Self-administered questionnaires are normally used to collect quantitative data. Surveys can, however, also be used to collect qualitative data. For example, Bates (2019) conducted an anonymous online qualitative survey to explore men’s experiences of intimate partner violence, in which she used questionnaires to collect data from 161 men.

Disadvantages • Surveys can produce data that might lack depth and detail (Denscombe, 2017). However, qualitative surveys can produce rich and detailed data. • Response rates can be low, and it can be difficult to obtain the appropriate number of responses for some forms of statistical analysis. • It can take time and alternative engagement techniques to access hard-­ to-­reach and hidden groups (Denscombe, 2017). • Some questions in questionnaires could cause distress to some participants, and some may be unwilling to answer some sensitive questions.

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Narrative Approaches Narrative approaches enable researchers to ‘conceive, capture and convey stories and experiences of individuals’ (Savin-Baden & Major, 2013, P 231). The narrative approach is underpinned by narrative theory, which postulates that people create meaning and sense through narrative. Narrative knowledge is constructed through the lived experiences of people who present their experiences and feelings as their stories. When these are collected, the researcher tries to understand their respondents’ feelings, views and perspectives and, while listening to the stories, to clarify and explore the way the respondents make sense of them. Narrative approaches can be thought of as process, data and product. Narrative as data: Frye (1957) treats narratives as text, meaning data that can be analysed and interpreted. Narrative as a research approach: Narrative approaches aim to understand social issues by exploring stories because people’s lives are full of stories and their associated social interactions. The researcher’s role is thus to capture the stories of people’s lives and present them as narratives of experience (Savin-Baden & Major, 2013). Some sensitive topics can be explored by using narrative approaches more effectively than other ones. For example, if the intention is to explore adults’ experiences of Islamophobia in the UK, a narrative research strategy can be used. Storytelling is also helpful in understanding the history of discrimination and prejudice. Narrative as a research product: Denzin (1997) argues that most qualitative research is a narrative production. Although some writers propose that researchers use plot and character or a storyline structure to engage readers in their research, this is not always required or even expected (Savin-Baden & Major, 2013).

Characteristics of Narrative Approaches Focus on stories: Focussing on individual stories to collect and present data is fundamental to narrative approaches. The single participant or

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handful of participants who generally participate enables researchers to give a platform to those whose voices otherwise might not be heard (Creswell, 2007). Focus on writing: Narrative is a form of qualitative research, so thick and rich descriptions are expected. Some researchers use character, plot, context and image metaphors to convey complex and multi-layered meanings (Savin-Baden & Major, 2013). A narrative approach can be used to tell a story that confirms or denies truths, and can thus be used as a verifying tool to collect and present research. A number of mechanisms such as images, photographs and texts can be used to tell stories that can be regarded as data. Tip Difficult and uncomfortable truths or life events, especially in sensitive social worker research, can be told by using narrative approaches. Underlying power dynamics, control and surveillance can be revealed using a range of media offered by narrative approaches, including pictures, photographs and videos.

Some researchers collect stories from several respondents, interpret them and restate them so that readers can understand their research areas. However, it cannot be denied that the researcher’s own stories and stances affect the way they present respondents’ stories.

Types of Narrative Approach • • • •

Life course research Life history research Biography and autobiography Digital storytelling Life Course Research This approach focuses on specific stages of respondents’ lives. For example, early years, old age or youth can be the subject of study. Researchers mostly explore life courses over time, but there are vari-

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ous ways to conduct life course research. The weaknesses of this approach are that researchers can focus closely on time and critical incidents which prevents them from exploring local, national and global contexts (Savin-Baden & Major, 2013). Respondents’ personal histories are the focus of this approach. Life History Research This approach focuses on the series of events that constitutes individual life histories. By using this research strategy, researchers describe and explain events and aim to see things through respondents’ eyes. Biography and Autobiography A biography is the sketch of a life written or told by another person. On the other hand, autobiography is written or told by the subject. Both provide in-depth information about respondents’ stories. Savin-Baden and Major (2013) state that in both approaches research participants make sense of their own data and their own constructions of their own identities within the story. Digital Storytelling This strategy concerns the use of digital technologies to tell stories. Digital stories are mostly short and presented in the first person. They are basically video narratives using any combination of music, voice, graphics and animations. Through this approach, researchers can capture respondents’ ideas, feelings and experiences digitally (see Box 2.5). To tell respondents’ stories, researchers can use other narrative approaches such as biography. In order to analyse them, researchers can use interactional data analysis or performance analysis.

Data Collection As narrative approaches focus on stories, researchers can collect data in a number of ways including field notes, journals, letters, conversations, interviews, photos and other images. Leggo (2008, 6–7) provides a framework for the collection and analysis of data called RITES:

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R—Researchers must read the narrative carefully to make general sense of the story. I—They must then use 5Ws and 1H (Who, What, Where, When, Why and How) to interrogate the narratives, and should also use ‘so what’. T—They must now read the narratives carefully to generate themes and classify the story’s elements accordingly. E—Researchers should reflect on themes to expand on the stories by making sense of them, exploring connections and associations for possible meanings. S—In this stage, researchers should summarise the theme and indicate what has been learned from the narratives.

Advantages • By using narrative approaches researchers could see how participants construct, interpret and reconstruct their identities through stories. • It provides in-depth and rich data that could enable researchers to explore meanings holistically and comprehensively. • Stories invite researchers to see someone’s beliefs, values and the way their identity shapes and informs their actions in intricate detail.

Disadvantages Interpreting stories is not an easy task because of the risk of them losing their contexts and accuracy in the process of interpretation. It is thus the researcher’s responsibility to be careful when presenting the stories they have gathered from their participants. Savin-Baden and Major (2013) suggest that researchers need to agree about the ownership of the story and how the research participant would interpret and present it. Negotiating the interpretation and presentation of narrative data can be troublesome (Savin-Baden & Major, 2013). An open discussion regarding these matters with research participants can help researchers avoid problems later A sensitive social work researcher should be accountable and have tried everything in their efforts to avoid misrepresenting their participants’ stories and telling inaccurate stories.

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Box 2.5  Digital Storytelling Digital storytelling is a narrative research method. According to Willox et  al. (2012, 132), it ‘is the process of illustrating personal narrative and stories with photographs, artwork, music, voice-overlay, video clips, and text  – a first-person mini-movie of sorts’. It is generally an arts-informed research technique that allows participants to share their personal and professional stories. The aim of this research method is to enable marginalised people to share their lived experiences with a view to bringing about changes in their lives. Typically, immersive workshops are utilised to develop stories. In those workshops, participants share their own stories in a group, listen and provide feedback to each other. In doing so, they have the opportunity to work in partnership so as to tell and share their stories using digital technologies. It is not only an individual but a collective endeavour to portray communal experiences, with their rich and detailed contents. In this research method, researchers generally analyse stories only after participants have created theirs, because the main focus is participants’ stories and lived experiences. Researchers’ involvement thus has the purpose of analysing the data until stories are produced. This research method is becoming popular due to its potential to empower marginalised people, but other methods can be used alongside this one. This research method requires participants to possess digital skills such as software programming, video editing and story design, so they must be trained appropriately before they develop their own short videos. For example, Willox et al. (2012) provided weeklong digital storytelling workshops in Rigolet; their participants worked with trained community members and digital storytelling facilitators. The researchers did not take part in the digital storytelling facilitation process in order to reduce their influence on the stories created by participants. Digital stories can undoubtedly be shared widely and provide rich, deep insights into individual lived experiences, perceptions, views and beliefs on a particular subject. They can also capture their successes, failures, fears, pain and hopes for their lives and the factors that them. This research method has proven to be an effective means of giving voice to marginalised and disfavoured people in society; it can also be utilised to conduct sensitive social work research. In order to use this method, researchers must design their projects carefully and consider the availability of both monetary and non-monetary resources. The parameters of this book make it impossible to explore this research method comprehensively, or research methods related to online use. Readers may learn about this type of research in the ‘Suggested reading’ section.

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Ethnography The word ethnography derives from the Greek words ethnos (‘nation’ or ‘people’) and graphein (‘to write’). It involves writing about people, and has its roots in anthropology. Ethnographic research seeks to describe and interpret a group of people’s socio-cultural activities and patterns (Burns, 2000; Ellis, 2013), and thus to study people, cultures and values (Savin-­ Baden & Major, 2013). Intensive fieldwork is the hallmark of ethnographic research, and it is need in order to gain comprehensive and holistic understandings of social groups.

Characteristics It is a qualitative research methodology where ethnographic researchers use participant or non-participant observations as a research method. Some researchers maintain a professional distance to preserve their objectivity, while others become fully immersed in the group they are studying to the extent that they behave like a member of the group and become social and emotionally attached to it. As the aim of ethnography is to obtain a detailed and full understanding of a group, researchers can spend a long time in the research setting, sometimes for months or years. Mostly researchers try to grasp group members’ points of view and perspectives.

Data Collection As a qualitative research methodology, observations and interviews are popular research methods to collect data. Activity 2.3  Challenges in Ethnographic Fieldwork Imagine that your research question(s) demand the adoption of an ethnographic research strategy, and that you need to engage with the research settings for nine months in order to carry out ethnographic field work. What challenges will you encounter? (continued)

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Activity 2.3  (continued) Comments Time, duration, resources and access to participants and their surroundings are some of the main challenges you may encounter. You will also need to consider ethical issues. As an ethnographic researcher, your position is that of a researcher-participant, which could make participants behave differently and refuse to share or exhibit authentic behaviours, or to tell what they think and feel.

Advantages • Ethnographic research provides comprehensive and detailed perspectives about human behaviour. • Researchers conduct research in natural environments so that participants’ behaviours will not be compromised. • This research strategy can be adapted to study online communities (explore Box 2.6 for an example of a research study based on positivism). Box 2.6  Netnography Although Kozinets (2002) perceives netnography as a new qualitative research methodology emerging from ethnographic research techniques that can be adapted to study online communities and cultures, some authors use the word ‘netnography’ interchangeably with ‘online ethnography’, ‘virtual ethnography (Hine, 2000), ‘ethnography for the internet’ (Hine, 2015), ‘cyber-ethnography’ (Ward, 1999) and ‘connective ethnography’ (Dirksen et al., 2010). According to De Valck, van Bruggen and Wierenga (2009, 197), netnography is a written account resulting from fieldwork studying the culture and communities that emerge from online, computer-mediated, or internet-­ based communications … where both the fieldwork and the textual account are informed by the qualitative methods utilized in consumer research, cultural anthropology, and cultural studies. Kozinets (2015) also points out that pure netnography should be focused on online materials, and that researchers should conduct ethnographic research online. This means that most data collected by researchers must be (continued)

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Box 2.6  (continued) originated and manifested ‘through the data shared freely on the internet’ (79). According to Costello et al. (2017), netnography is a readily adaptable methodology offering a specific set of steps and analytical approaches, applicable across a wide spectrum of involvement, from lurking to active participation in online conversations and activities. (9) This research method can be used to study single or multiple communities on a short- or long-term basis. Researchers can use videos, images, sounds and textual data in their studies, and the method can be used with others.

Disadvantages • As it focuses on studying single cultures, organisations and groups, researchers can struggle to draw conclusions from the data. • The nature and focus of ethnographic research make it difficult to generalise its findings to other contexts. • Some researchers can find it challenging to engage with the research setting for long periods of time. • Because ethnographic research produces rich and detailed data, researchers could eventually gather a large amount of it, especially if they are engaged with the research setting for a long time. The challenge is then to analyse and interpret the dataset. This could take a considerable amount of time, effort and commitment. • Gaining access could pose challenges to researchers. • Transcribing field notes into data for analysis and interpretation can be complex and time-consuming. • The nature of ethnographic research makes it difficult to replicate or check its findings, in particular when the topic is sensitive and the participants are vulnerable. • The validity and reliability of ethnography research is low. • It can be expensive because of the time it takes to plan the research and spend time in the setting.

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Phenomenology The philosophy of phenomenology developed by Edmund Husserl (P. 1859–1938) originates from a naturalistic paradigm; it is a research methodology that asks the following research questions: What is the experience like? What does this experience mean? How does the lived world present itself to the participant or to me as the researcher? (Rodriguez & Smith, 2018, P. 96) Phenomenological researchers thus seek the essence of a phenomenon as experienced by their research participants and interpreted to make sense of that experience (Polit & Beck, 2006). In a nutshell, phenomenological research seeks to understand, describe and interpret participants’ experiences and behaviours and the meanings they construct from those experiences. There are a number of ways phenomenological research can be conducted, but there are two main types: • Descriptive phenomenology, also known as transcendental phenomenology • Interpretative phenomenology, also known as hermeneutic phenomenology Descriptive Phenomenology Husserl feels that knowledge originates from human experiences, so we should accept the way they appear, which would be unbiased. It aims to carefully capture thick, detailed and rich descriptions of specific experiences of a phenomenon (Carpenter & Suto, 2008). Experiences capture people’s perceptions, thoughts, views, memories, imaginations, feelings and emotions (Rodriguez & Smith, 2018). In order to conduct descriptive phenomenological research, a researcher must follow four steps (Polit & Beck, 2006): • • • •

Bracketing Intuiting Analysing Describing

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Bracketing: This aims to remove the bias in the data by bracketing out the presuppositions of researchers’ preconceived ideas, beliefs, views and opinions of the topic of being studied (Box 2.7). It is an iterative process. Box 2.7  Bracketing Bracketing, or epoching, is a process of ‘parking’ researchers’ preconceptions and ideas regarding the topic they are exploring. In so doing, researchers are able to perceive and understand the experiences of participants in the way they are experienced. The process is crucial if researchers want to capture the lived experiences of participants.

Intuiting: Researchers must keep an open mind throughout the research. Analysing: At this stage, researchers analyse the data. Chapter 8 will illustrate how to do this. Describing: Researchers understand and define the phenomenon they studied. Explore Box 2.8 for an example of a research study based on descriptive phenomenology. Box 2.8  Research Example Evans (2017) conducted a study to understand the experiences of people living with Usher syndrome, a rare genetic condition primarily characterised by deafness caused by an impairment of the auditory nerve which prevents sensory transmission to the brain (sensorineural hearing loss) accompanied by Retinitis Pigmentosa (PR-retinal cell degeneration), which can lead to progressive loss of central and peripheral vision. (Evans, 2017, P. 2329). Evans utilised descriptive phenomenology as a research methodology and interview as a research method. She used the Multiple Sensory Communication and Interview Methods (MSCIM) to promote inclusivity and empower people with Usher syndrome. MCIM is an approach developed to research people who are deaf-blind and have Usher syndrome. Twenty participants aged 18 to 82 took part in this study.

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Interpretive Phenomenology A student of Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) developed interpretive phenomenology by rejecting the idea of ‘bracketing’. He was keen to interpret and understand human experiences and acknowledged the idea that just describing was not good enough to produce knowledge. Like descriptive phenomenology, it is based not on epistemology—that is, ‘what constitutes valid knowledge, and how knowledge is gained with a distinction between justified belief and opinion’ (Rodriguez & Smith, 2018, P. 96), but on ontology—that is, ‘what is being’, or questioning and understanding human experiences. Heidegger (1962) did not agree with the notion that researchers can free themselves from their beliefs, assumptions, ­experiences and preconceptions regarding the phenomenon they are studying.

 ifferences Between Descriptive D and Interpretative Phenomenology • Descriptive phenomenology is based on epistemology, while interpretive phenomenology is based on ontology. • For descriptive phenomenology, historical context is not important but interpretive phenomenology may be required to understand the phenomenon being studied. • Bracketing is required for descriptive phenomenology to ensure objectivity. On the other hand, interpretive phenomenology completely rejects that idea; it takes account of what is already known about the subject area and uses hermeneutic circles to understand the experience (Rodriguez & Smith, 2018). Phenomenology is an evolving methodology; sensitive social work researchers can use other types of phenomenology such as lived experience human science inquiry (Van Manen, 1990) and interpretive phenomenological analysis (Smith et  al., 2012) to understand human experiences. Lived Experience Human Science Inquiry This approach combines hermeneutics and phenomenology. According to Van Manen,

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hermeneutic phenomenology tries to be attentive to both terms of its methodology: it is descriptive (phenomenological) methodology because it wants to be attentive to how things appear, it wants to let things speak for themselves; it is an interpretative (hermeneutic) methodology because it claims that there are no such things as uninterpreted phenomena. (Van Manen, 1990, P. 180).

Interpretive Phenomenology Analysis  IPA was developed to conduct experiential research in psychology. It aims systematically to explore, understand and interpret complex and sensitive topics. In order to do so it draws on phenomenology, hermeneutics and idiography. Phenomenology  This concerns the study ‘of human experience and the way in which things are perceived as they appear to ­consciousness’ (Langdridge, 2007, P. 10). IPA also aims to understand and interpret the meaning individuals attach to their experience. Research participants are viewed as experiential experts, and researchers do not discount individual social, historical, cultural and institutional contexts because they believe those factors influence the life worlds of participants, all of which cannot be separated in research. IPA researchers provide an interpretive account of participants’ experiences within their particular contexts. Hermeneutics  This involves ‘the restoration of meaning’ (Ricoeur, 1970, P. 8), so IPA focuses on interpretation and researchers try to make sense of participants’ words (Peat et al., 2018). Idiography  ‘Idiography is a concern for individuality and a commitment to a rigorous finely textured analysis of contingent, unique and often subjective phenomena’ (Noon, 2018, p. 76). IPA aims to learn from each participant regarding the way they make sense of their experiences. Tip As there are different types of phenomenological research, researchers need to carefully select which type they will utilise, a choice they must justify in their dissertations.

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Data Collection Phenomenology is a qualitative research methodology because it aims to understand people’s lived experiences in order to influence, develop or shape policy or service provision and, most of all, to meet the needs of vulnerable people. It is about obtaining deeper and detailed understandings of human experience, so it is better suited for small sample sizes. One-to-one in-depth interviews, both unstructured and semi-structured, can be used. Focus group discussions can be employed depending on the research questions, aims and objectives. Interpretive phenomenologists could use documents to analyse and interpret human experiences such as policies and legal and practice guidance. Polit and Beck (2006) maintain that researchers could also use novels, poetry or other artistic materials to support their interviews.

Advantages • Phenomenological research seeks to obtain in-depth and detailed pictures of phenomena. That means sample sizes are generally small, which fits well with the expectations of small-scale research. Its sample sizes can make it less expensive than ethnographic or narrative research. • It can unearth complexities associated with social reality. Denscombe (2017) holds that researchers delve beneath the superficial aspects of social reality to provide accounts detailed enough to reflect the complexity and messiness of the social world. • Phenomenological research studies provide stories based on people’s experiences, stories that could attract the general public’s attention.

Disadvantages • As this research strategy seeks to gain deeper insights into human experiences, the sample sizes are generally small, so it would be difficult to generalise its findings to other settings. However, the aim of this methodology is not to generalise its findings.

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• The application of findings is restricted to the research contexts or settings. Its influence on practice outside those settings is limited. • For descriptive phenomenology, it would be challenging for the researcher to bracket their beliefs, assumptions and views because people are conditioned by specific social, cultural, environmental, economic, political and institutional norms which it is difficult to put aside in order to become objective.

Participatory Action Research By joining the principles of participation and action research, an inclusive form of research strategy has been developed. The aim of participatory action research (PAR) is to work collaboratively with people who are vulnerable and oppressed. The underlying principle is that by doing so social transformation can be achieved collectively. As such, it is grounded in ‘emancipation’ philosophy, which advocates equality and fairness. Freire (1997, xi) believes that everyone has the right to participate in research in order to produce knowledge, and so to bring about social change. This means that research participants become involved in recognising the issues affecting their lives, families and communities, as well as identifying solutions. It therefore does not follow the conventional research mode of reviewing literature and specifying hypotheses. A researcher’s starting point is working in partnership with participants to identify the research problems. Unlike other research strategies, information is not transmitted in only one direction between researchers and participants, but is collaboratively created and data is produced in cooperation (Esposito & Murphy, 2000). In this process, researchers must interact and work with participants in a way that is based on needs including cultural and religious ones. Brydon-Miller (2001, P. 80) outlines three fundamental tenets of PAR: • It emphasises individuals, groups and communities who have traditionally been oppressed or exploited. • It attempts to pinpoint both the particular concerns of the local people and the pivotal origins of their oppression and aims to achieve positive social change.

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• It is a form of research, education, and action which require all participants to contribute their special knowledge and skills and through this contribution, all participants gain valuable knowledge and reform. Research, action and participation are the main components of PAR, whose process is similar to that of social work. For this reason, this research strategy is associated with social work. Lawson (2015) argues that PAR is a special kind of social work practice because it aims to solve problems and create knowledge simultaneously and repeatedly. PAR provides the opportunity to explore, implement, and elaborate a revolutionary idea. It has the potential to recast researchers’ roles, empowering researchers as scholar change agents. They are both scholars and change agents because PAR joins social analysis and social action, bringing both to bear on knowledge production in service of practical problem-solving. (Lawson, 2015, P. 6)

The ultimate goal of this strategy is to systematically examine an issue from the perspectives and lived experiences of people affected by that issue (Savin-Baden & Wimpenny, 2007). It is a participatory and collaborative research strategy that generates knowledge to inform action, and that tries to empower people and communities. Social change and transformation are the core of this research strategy, which fits well with sensitive social work research. The strategy is conducted with people rather than on them. The basic procedures of PAR are • • • •

planning changes with communities acting and observing processes and consequences reflecting on those processes and their consequences further cycles of planning, acting and reflecting (Savin-Baden & Wimpenny, 2007, 2007, P. 335). It involves the stages of planning, action, reflection and evaluation.

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The success of this strategy depends on the partnership and collaboration between researchers and participants, and on taking ownership of and responsibility for the project. PAR thus involves • • • •

focusing on the agendas of participants using self-reflection cycles developing shared quality criteria to ensure validity generating knowledge and understanding (Savin-Baden & Wimpenny, 2007, 2007, P. 335).

Data Collection It is an applied research strategy. This type of research is flexible and adaptable. A range of research methods such as observations, interviews and questionnaires can be used. Some researchers have employed innovative research methods. Wong (1999), for example, used photovoice methods, Cornwall (1992) used body mapping and Cancienne and Snowber (2003) used choreography, dance and writing in their study. Researchers also hold community meetings and different types of community event such as theatre, drama, storytelling, songs, drawings, paintings and puppet shows to capture data. For example, Preston-Whyte and Dalrymple (1996) used drama as a research method in their project exploring AIDS educational programmes in black secondary schools in KwaZulu, South Africa.

Advantages • It is flexible, responsive, adaptive and heavily dependent on common sense (Fals-Borda & Rahman, 1991) and critical consciousness (Gianotten and de Wit, 1991). Most of the research methods can be used in the research strategy. • It is sensitive to research participants. It provides opportunities to explore and recreate participants’ social realities. • It can be used to explore matters of concern to people who are exploited and oppressed (Hall, 1981). Examples include immigrants, asylum

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seekers, refugees, indigenous people, disabled people, minority ethnic groups, women and labourers. • It aims to bring change at individual, societal and political levels. • The principle underlying this research strategy is to bring positive and constructive change to people’s lives and communities.

Disadvantages It is subjective in nature and context-specific.

Arts-Based Approaches McNiff (1998) has popularised arts-based approaches which use the arts in a broad sense (Savin-Baden & Major, 2013). Arts-based researchers use a number of media to investigate and examine the views, experiences and stories of participants. According to Austin and Forinash (2005, P. 460–461), ‘a research method in which the arts play a primary role in any or all of the steps of the research method. Art forms such as poetry, music, visual art, drama, and dance are essential to the research process itself and central in formulating the research question, generating data, analyzing data, and presenting the research results’. Savin-Baden and Major (2013) propose three types of arts-based research: • Arts-based inquiry • Arts-informed inquiry • Arts-informing inquiry Arts-Based Inquiry  Artistic processes are used to understand and make sense of a particular subject. For example, McNiff (2008) explored the use of imaginal dialogue by examining 26 paintings.  This approach aims to examine and interpret art to show the artistic process and the impact of the arts on people’s lives.

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Box 2.9  An Example of Arts-Based Research Huss (2009) used arts-based research with Bedouin women in Israel. The use of arts is less threatening than word-based research methods for women crossing cultural borders because of immigration. Using this method, she managed to engage with 15 Bedouin women who rarely revealed their problems verbally outside their own cultural group. It enabled Bedouin women to express and also to explain the reframe through a social-critical lens, but in culturally sanctioned form. The pain, dilemmas, conflicts and solutions inherent in their multi-faceted social realities. (P. 599)

Arts-Based Inquiry  In this form of inquiry both artists and researchers use the arts to represent findings. According to Savin-Baden & Major, 2013, P. 293) ‘arts-based inquiry is the use of the artistic process, the making and doing of art as a means of understanding experiences’. This form of arts-based inquiry enables researchers to make sense of issues, concerns and experiences. For example, researchers use digital storytelling for participants to present their views, perspectives and experiences. It is not only through voices but also through music and photos that they can tell their stories.  Arts-Informing Inquiry  The arts are used ‘to evoke a response of a situation but the response may or may not be captured’ (Savin-Baden & Major, 2013, P. 297).  Sensitive social work researchers can use postmodernism, feminism, social constructionism and pragmatism for their arts-based research. One of the main goals of this type of research is to reduce the traditional hierarchical relationship between researchers and participants and to aim for egalitarianism (Savin-Baden & Major, 2013) among those involved with the research process. This type of research is versatile and flexible, and there is no prescription for how to conduct it. Arts-based approaches can depict complex social, political, economic, cultural and ethical issues simply and confidently in ways that other qualitative approaches struggle to achieve (see Box 2.9).

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Case Study Case study research seeks to obtain in-depth understandings of the subject of study (see Box 2.10). This research strategy is flexible: a number of research methods can be used, including questionnaires, interviews and observations. A case study is seen as a specific approach to research (e.g. Creswell, 2007). Some view it as a final product or narrative of a piece of qualitative research (Savin-Baden & Major, 2013), while others refer to particular situations, incidents or instances, such as a social services department, a local authority or a team, that researchers will investigate. Defining a case is fundamental to conducting case study research, so that researchers can manage the study. A case study could be an individual, an event, an organisation or a programme (Yin, 2018), and it can be restricted in time and space. A case study has a clear boundary, so it is focused and intensive as well as narrow in scope (Savin-Baden & Major, 2013). A case study aims to illustrate the entire case—that is, it is holistic and contextual. • Types of Case Study Research  Yin (2018) proposes four possibilities for case study design:  Single-case embedded consists of one case with several units of analysis. • Single-case holistic consists of studying the whole case. • Multiple-case holistic consists of several cases considered as a whole. • Multiple-case embedded consists of several cases with multiple units of analysis in each case. Savin-Baden and Major (2013) identify six types of case study research: • Exploratory: explaining key issues, events, incidents, relationships and associations in the case study. • Explanatory: in which researchers explore issues affecting the case study. • Descriptive: describes the case by answering the question ‘what is happening?’ • Evaluative: regards judging a case’s merits.

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• Instrumental: instrumental case studies aim to refine a theory in a given instance. • Interpretive: develops conceptual categories. Box 2.10  Case Example McLaughlin and Rubbins (2018) adopted a multi-method case study approach focussing on one city as a case study because they could understand the operation of a single Multi-agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) in greater detail and depth. Interviews and focus groups were both used to understand adult social work’s responses in England to high-­ risk domestic violence cases and the role of adult social workers in MARAC.  The findings suggest that adult social workers are uncertain about their role, and that they need to be involved with domestic violence cases.

Characteristics of Case Study Research • A case study seeks to explore cases more deeply rather than studying the topic in breadth. • It attempts to provide holistic and comprehensive findings. • Rather than deal with ‘isolated factors’; it takes [a] ‘holistic’ view of what is going on. It views the case as a whole, in its entirety, and is thus able to discover how the many parts affect one another. (Denscombe, 2017, P. 58) • Case studies generally aim to unravel the complexities of a given situation (Denscombe, 2017).

Data Collection A wide range of research methods (questionnaires, interviews, observations and documents) can be used across one or more cases to collect data. Any research method can be used in a case study as long as it is practical and ethical (De Vaus, 2001, P. 231).

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Advantages • Case studies enable researchers to explore a topic more deeply. It is particularistic, which means that it focuses on a particular phenomenon. It therefore tends to be thorough and has the capacity to reveal the complexities of a particular case. • It is flexible. For example, it allows different research goals such as explanatory and exploratory ones. Different philosophical positions can be adopted. • It enables a number of research methods to be used to answer research questions. • It can provide rich, in-depth and thick descriptions of a particular case.

Disadvantages • The case study approach is criticised for its context-specific nature, which makes it difficult to generalise its findings outside the research settings. • It can be seen as an invisible intrusion into its subject’s lives (Walker, 1983). • It can produce a simplistic world view (Walker, 1983). Activity 2.4  Identify the Research Paradigm In Activity 1.1 (Chap. 1), you drafted your research. Now read your research question carefully, reflect on the following questions and jot down your reflections in your notebook: . What could your research paradigm be and why? 1 2. What types of data do you need to collect and why? Comments In order to answer these questions, you may need to re-read some of the sections in the chapter to be more precise in your replies.

For sensitive social work research, a plethora of choices are available to researchers. All the research strategies discussed here have both strengths

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and weaknesses. It is therefore ultimately the researcher who makes the decision as to which one is suitable to answer their research questions. In order to select research strategies, the researcher must consider which one is the best fit with their research question. Their decision will most likely be influenced by the time and resources available. One point needs to be kept in mind: there are always alternative research strategies and methods available for researchers to choose from. Whatever the decision, it must always be explicitly justified. The goals of sensitive social work research should not dissuade researchers from being creative when selecting research strategies and methods. Key Points • It is imperative that sensitive social work researchers recognise and be explicit about their ontological and epistemological positions. • Social work researchers generally tend to use qualitative approaches, probably because the social realities of social work are unpredictable, uncertain, volatile and messy. Research on sensitive topics has so far used the same qualitative approach. This is not surprising because the sensitive social work researcher’s goal is to gather rich and detailed data and, in the process, aiming to support research participants. The characteristics of qualitative research are congenial to some sensitive social work research but not all. The strength of quantitative or mixed methods research should not be underestimated when the goal of sensitive social work research is to improve practice and enhance the well-being of the vulnerable people that social workers serve. • Surveys can produce both quantitative and qualitative data. This research strategy typically allows the generation of standardised, quantifiable data, is well suited for both descriptive and explanatory research and can be administered in several ways. • Narrative research enables people to tell their stories where they reveal their experiences. Creative methods can be used to explore individuals’ accounts of their experiences of incidents and events. • Ethnographic research studies provide thick description of cultural groups with the aim of revealing their norms, values, beliefs and systems. In order achieve this, sensitive social work research immerses

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itself in the research settings, which undoubtedly provides detailed and rich information but poses difficulties for researchers to manage their own subjectivities. Ethnographic research enables sensitive social work researchers to explore, describe, explain and interpret cultural groups. Phenomenology is useful to capture the lived experiences of a phenomenon. Action research deals with practical problems, offers solutions and enacts change. Action research, and in particular participatory action research, are suitable to the ethos of sensitive social work research compared with any other research strategy, but it could be difficult to manage the research process and to maintain full control over the direction and pace of the project. Managing conflict with stakeholders can also be a challenge. Arts-based research can effectively engage research participants, in particular children and young people. Case studies, although not necessarily representative, can generate a new theory, develop an existing one further, provide new insights and disprove theories. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods can be used in case studies.

Questions for Critical Reflection Do you think there are differences between subjectivity and objectivity in the context of sensitive social work research? Why? Do you need elements of both deductive and inductive processes in your study? Why? What are the benefits of combining quantitative and qualitative methods in sensitive social work research? List five strengths and five challenges of using phenomenology research strategy. What are the main aims of feminism? What are the strengths and limitations of critical research? What are the key features of ethnographic research?

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What are the main steps in designing a survey? Imagine that you want to use the survey strategy for your sensitive social work study. How would you address some of the main criticisms of this method? Key Terms Autobiography Axiology Biography Bracketing Case study Cause and effect Constructionism Critical social research Determinism Digital storytelling Dualism Empiricism Epistemology Ethnography Feminism Hypothesis Interpretivism Narrative research Objectivity Ontology Participatory action research Phenomenology Positivism Postmodernism Realism Research methodology Research methods Research paradigm Research philosophy

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Research strategies Self-reflexivity Social transformation Subjectivity Survey Visual arts-based research

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Heidegger, M. (1962). Being and time. New York: Harper. Hesse-Biber, S., & Leavy, P. (2011). The practice qualitative research (2nd ed.). Sage. Hine, C. (2000). Virtual ethnography. Sage. Hine, C. (2015). Ethnography for the internet: Embedded, embodied and everyday. Bloomsbury Academic. Huss, E. (2009). A case study of Bedouin women’s art in social work. A model of social arts intervention with ‘tradition’ women negotiating western cultures. Social Work Education, 28(6), 598–619. Johnson, B. R., Onwuegbuzie, A. J., & Turner, L. A. (2007). Toward a definition of mixed methods research. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 1, 112–133. Johnson, R.  B., & Onwuegbuzie, A.  J. (2004). Mixed methods research: A research paradigm whose time has come. Educational Researcher, 33(7), 14–26. Kozinets, R. (2002). The field behind the screen: Using netnography for marketing research in online communities. Journal of Marketing Research, 39, 61–72. Kozinets, R. (2015). Netnography: Doing ethnographic research online. Sage. Kuhn, T. S. (1970). The structure of scientific revolutions (2nd ed.). University of Chicago Press. Kvale, S. (1996). Interviews: An introduction to qualitative research interviewing. Sage. Langdridge, D. (2007). Phenomenological psychology, theory, research and method. Harlow: Pearsons. Lawson, H.  A. (2015). Introducing participatory action research. In H.  A. Lawson, L.  Caingi, L.  Pyles, J.  Jurkowski, & C.  Bozlak (Eds.), Participatory action research. Oxford University Press. Leggo, C. (2008). Narrative inquiry: Attending to the art of discourse. Language & Literacy, 10(1), 21. Lensvelt-Mulders, G. (2008). Surveying sensitive topics. In E.  D. de Leeuw, J. J. Hox, & D. A. Dilman (Eds.), International handbook of survey methodology. Routledge. Liamputtong, P. (2007). Researching the vulnerable: A guide to sensitive research methods. Sage Publications. Liamputtong, P. (2017). The science of words and the science of numbers: Research methods as foundations for evidence-based practice in health. In P. Liamputtong (Ed.), Research methods in health: Foundations for evidence-­ based practice (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.

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May, T. (2011). Social research: Issues, methods and process (4th ed.). Open University Press. Maynard, M. (1994). Methods, practice and epistemology: The debate about feminism and research. In Mary Maynard & Jane Purvis (Eds.), Researching women’s lives from a feminist perspective (pp. 10–27). London: Taylor and Francis. McCarthy, M. (1996). Sexual experiences and sexual abuse of women with learning disabilities. In M.  Hester, L.  Kelly, & J.  Radford (Eds.), Women, violence and male power, feminist activism, research and practice. Open University Press. McLaughlin, H., & Rubbins, R. (2018). Adult social work and high-risk domestic violence case. Journal of Social Work, 18(3), 288–306. McNiff, S. (1998). Art-based research. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. McNiff, S (2008). Arts-based research. In J. G. Knowles, & A. L. Cole (Eds.), Handbook of arts in qualitative research (pp. 29–40). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Mertens, D.  M. (2014). Research and evaluation in education and psychology: Integrating diversity with quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods. Sage. Noon, E. J. (2018). Interpretive phenomenology analysis: An appropriate methodology for educational research? Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice, 6(1), 75–83. O’Leary, Z. (2004). The essential guide to doing research. Sage Publications. O’Neill, M. (1996). Researching prostitution and violence: Towards a feminist praxis. In M. Hester, L. Kelly, & J. Radford (Eds.), Women, violence and male power, feminist activism, research and practice. Open University Press. Peat, G., Rodriguez, A., & Smith, J. (2018). Interpretive phenomenology analysis applied to healthcare research. Evidenced Based Nursing, 22(1), 7–9. Polit, D.  F., & Beck, C.  T. (2006). Essentials of nursing research: Methods, appraisal, and utilization (6th ed.). Lippincott Williams and Wilkins. Preston-Whyte, E., & Dalrymple, L. (1996). Participation and action: Reflection on community-based AIDS intervention in South Africa. In K. de Koning, & M. Martin (Eds.), Participatory research in health: Issues and experiences (pp. 108–118). London: Zed Books. Renzetti, C. M. (1997). Confessions of reformed positivist: Feminist participatory research as good social science. In M.  D. Schwartz (Ed.), Researching sexual violence against women: Methodological and personal perspectives. Sage Publications. Ricoeur, P. (1970). Freud and philosophy: An essay on interpretation. Translated Denis Savage. Yale University Press.

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Rodriguez, A., & Smith, J. (2018). Phenomenology as a healthcare research method. Evidence-Based Nursing, 21(4), 96–98. Savin-Baden, M., & Major, C.  H. (2013). Qualitative research: The essential guide to theory and Practic. Routledge. Savin-Baden, M., & Wimpenny, K. (2007). Exploring and implementing participatory action research. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 31(2), 331–343. Smith, J. A., Flowers, P., & Larkin, M. (2012). Interpretative phenomenological analysis theory, method and research. London: Sage Publications. Stanley, L. (1990). Feminist praxis and the academic mode of production. In L. Stanley (Ed.), Feminist praxis. Routledge. Thomas, G. (2009). How to do your research project. Sage. Van Manen, M. (1990). Researching lived experience: Human science for an action-­ sensitive pedagogy. State University of New York. Walker, R. (1983). Three good reasons for not doing case studies in curriculum research. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 15(2), 155–165. Ward, K. (1999). Cyber-ethnography and the emergence of the virtually new community. Journal of Information Technology, 14, 95–105. Willox, A. C., Harper, S. L., Edge, V. L., ‘My Word’: Storytelling and Digital Media Lab and Rigolet Inuit Community Government. (2012). Storytelling in a digital storytelling as an emerging narrative method for preserving and promoting indigenous oral wisdom. Qualitative Research, 13(2), 127–147. Yin, R. K. (2018). Case study research and applications: Design and methods. Thousand Oaks, CA.: Sage Publishing.

Suggested Reading Denscombe, M. (2017). The good research guide (6th ed.). Open University Press/McGraw Hill Education. Fielding, N. G., Lee, R. M., & Blank, G. (2016). The Sage handbook of online research methods (2nd ed.). Sage. Hammersley, M. (1995). The politics of social research. Sage. Salmons, J. E. (2015). Doing qualitative research online. Sage. Savin-Baden, M., & Major, C.  H. (2013). Qualitative research: The essential guide to theory and practice. Routledge.

3 The Ethical Aspects of Sensitive Social Work Research

Ethics in sensitive social work research not only provides a framework to resolve complex ethical matters in a systematic way, but also safeguards research participants and prioritises their interests over those of researchers and society. So research ethics plays a pivotal role in sensitive social work research. This chapter therefore explores the following aspects: • theories of ethics and ethical principles that enable researchers to make ethical decisions about their research • the main areas of ethical concerns associated with research into sensitive social work • ethical issues such as informed consent, voluntary participation, privacy, confidentiality and data protection • potential benefits and harm to research participants • how to balance research benefits with risk and harm • assessing the mental capacity of children and adults to participate in the research • ethical issues related to online research

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 S. Haider, Sensitive Research in Social Work, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85009-8_3

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Although ethics originated from philosophy, it is not relevant only to philosophers. Arguably ethics is part of life because it systematically helps identify right conduct in particular situations, that is, what is right and what is wrong, or what is good and what is bad. It is the branch of moral philosophy dealing with human conduct and decision making. It enables us to ‘examine our values, beliefs, moral principles, and the justification of these’ (Csiernik & Birnbaum, 2017, p. 35). Ethics is thus ‘primarily concerned with the evaluation and justification of norms and standards of personal and interpersonal behaviour’ (Karhausen, 1987, p. 25). Ethics and values go hand in hand: values are individual beliefs which shape our thoughts regarding what is right or wrong. Our personal ethics and values affect the way in which we behave and decide the choices we make. As social work deals with people who are disadvantaged, marginalised and deprived, it is vital that the highest ethical standards are maintained in order to meet their needs and provide them with service. Like social work practice, ethics are related to sensitive social work research. This chapter will focus on this issue. Initially, ethical issues related to sensitive social work will be discussed, which leads to a discussion of ethical theories, principles and rules. Activity 3.1  Ethical Frameworks for Research with Human Participants Read the two research studies below. 1. Josef Mengele, a chief camp physician of Auschwitz II (Birkenau), had a wide variety of research interests and was actively conducting research while he was in the concentration camp. He firmly endorsed Nazi racial theory and was keen to prove that Jews and Roma (gypsies) lacked resistance to various diseases. Basically, he intended to prove the inferiority of Jewish and Roma people through medical research. In order to achieve this he murdered many twins, mostly children. Because of his experiments, many children also died unnecessarily. 2. The US Public Health Service and the Pan American Sanitary Bureau collaborated with the Guatemalan government to undertake a research study regarding sexually transmitted diseases, which took place between 1946 and 1948 and was funded by the US government. As part of this research, 5500 uninformed and unconsenting Guatemalans were (continued)

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Activity 3.1  (continued) i­ntentionally were injected bacteria that causes sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis, gonorrhoea and chancroid, in order to understand the disease. Apparently, the experiment was investigating whether penicillin could prevent infections (Guardian, 2011) Question Why do you think researchers were criticised for conducting these research studies?

The two studies in the activity above are examples of unethical research. The reason why these studies were unethical will be explored in this chapter, but sadly several research studies such as these are carried out under the umbrella of scientific research. However, the important point is that both studies were authorised by governments. Researchers involved in the Guatemalan experiment knew that they were acting unethically, but they prioritised their own concerns and the cause of medical advancement before research ethics (Guardian, 2011). Research by Josef Mengele was only one example of what Nazi researchers did in the name of research. Undoubtedly those research studies were unacceptable because of serious ethical concerns. Hence, ‘principles of medical research’ were established in 1948 at Nuremberg in order to protect and safeguard research participants. These principles, called the Helsinki Declaration, were extended and formalised by the World Medical Association, and all contemporary ethical regulations are based on this seminal work. The Helsinki Declaration focuses on medical research, but social science research has started to comply with some of the ethical principles and rules.

 thical Issue and Sensitive Social E Work Research Social workers take pride in their ethical approach to decision making, and their professional conduct—that is, the way they behave towards people in the role of assistive professionals. As a result, an array of

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behaviours considered as acceptable has been prescribed. That implies that certain forms of conduct can be considered unacceptable, some of which are: • • • • • •

malpractice neglect of the role of social worker imposition of a social worker’s own values on other people abuse of power breach of confidentiality and privacy acting and behaving in a discriminatory manner

This list is not exhaustive, but the underlying theme is clear: the core of a social worker’s identity revolves around ethical behaviour and decision making. So the question is one of what is deemed unethical behaviour in social work, and whether this consideration can apply in sensitive social work research. The simple answer to the second question is ‘yes’. It is therefore not surprising that social work research is underpinned by ethical guidelines. According to Butler (2002) Social work research is about social workers, what they think, what they believe, what knowledge they claim and what they do with it, and its primary audience will be social workers, service users and those who determine who falls into which category for the purposes of public policy. If this is so, then the ethics of social work research must logically be at least compatible if not conterminous with the ethics of social work generally. (p. 241)

Butler proposes a code of ethics for social work and social care research that is underpinned by broader social work ethics. Ethics and research are inextricably linked. It is crucial to consider ethics in every aspect of sensitive social work research because a sensitive social work researcher must safeguard and promote their research participants’ health and well-being. However, exactly what constitutes an ethical issue and what does not is not clear-cut, because everything depends on the subject participants and on the research approach taken by the researchers. It thus requires every aspect of sensitive social work research to be carefully considered.

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Box 3.1  Harms Vs Benefits Sensitive researchers must ask the following questions early in their research: • • • •

what might the potential harms of my research be? what might the potential benefits be? who might obtain those benefits? weighing up the potential harms and benefits, can I justify conducting the research?

Asking these questions enables sensitive social work researchers to weigh up the risks and benefits of conducting their research, as well as the measures they must take to reduce and eliminate some of those risks, harms and threats.

A critical point sensitive researchers must keep in mind is that sensitive social work research should not only improve understanding of a subject matter but should aim to influence policy making and shape service provision. Taking part in such research should be a therapeutic and empowering experience. Research participants can also directly or indirectly reap the benefit from well-managed good sensitive social work research. While research would cause some participants distress and could negatively affect them, one point is certain: that researchers would gain much from their research in terms of publication, professional development, career advancement and qualifications. It is paramount to sensitive social work researchers to safeguard their participants (see Box 3.1) and treat them with respect and dignity, because they are ultimately helping to produce and generate knowledge. It is therefore a moral obligation for researchers to adhere to and maintain high ethical standards. In order to achieve this they must fully understand the potential ethical issues, risks, harms, threats and benefits of their research and take action to prevent or reduce these risks and harms (Draucker et al., 2009; Jorm et al., 2007; McCosker, 1995). Sensitive social work research is generally dynamic and can become complex, so researchers must respond to any issues related to their research that include an ethical component.

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Activity 3.2  Collect Data Ethically Recall the research question(s) you developed in Chap. 1. Imagine that you will conduct the study. As part of the activity, you will also need to consider the types of data you will collect. Now consider what ethical issues you will counter and write all of them down. Also, note how you can collect data ethically, and include your reasoning for this. You will revisit this activity later in this chapter, so, keep your written records.

Ethical Theories It is crucial to understand ethical theories in order to help researchers make ethical decisions in sensitive social work research, in particular when they encounter ethical dilemmas. An ethical dilemma occurs ‘when there is a choice between two courses of action that are both morally right but only one choice be made’ (Eby & Gallagher, 2008). There are a number of ethical theories, but they can be categorised into four main areas: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Teleological Deontological Feminist Postmodernist

Teleological Theories  As long as the outcome or the end result is ethically correct, it does not matter how the outcome was achieved. A number of theories focus on outcomes, so they are called ‘end-based’ or ‘consequential’. Deontological Theories  This group of theories is the opposite of teleological ones (see Table 3.1). They are more centred on the way an act is performed—that is, whether it is ethically right. If it is, they are not concerned with the end result. They are underpinned by normative ethics— that is, how we ought to act in a moral way (Beckett & Maynard, 2012). Biestek (1957) sets seven key principles for social workers to follow, based on deontological principles:

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Table 3.1  Teleological vs deontological (developed based on Newham & Hawley, 2007; and Csiernik & Birnbaum, 2017) Teleological

Deontological

Originated from the Greek word telos, Deontology also originated from the which means ‘end’, and logos ‘reason’ Greek word deon; it means ‘duty’ Theories of Egoism and Utilitarianism Theories of prima facie duties and Natural Law Actions need to be ethically correct Does not concern about the way and right, meaning that it is a duty outcome is achieved as long as the to do what is right irrespective of end result is ethically correct or right; the outcome it is goal oriented The outcome is right or correct The way activities are performed or undertaken defines what the right or correct thing to do is The outcome or consequences are The way something is performed or important undertaken is important

1. individualism 2. purposeful expression of feelings 3. controlled emotional involvement 4. acceptance 5. non-judgemental attitude 6. right to self-determination 7. confidentiality It is undeniable that some of these were not intended as social work principles, having been developed long ago, but they have influenced social work since its inception. Banks (2006) compares 15 national social work ethical codes and concludes that they are similar to some of Biestek’s principles, teleological and deontological theories. She identifies the following similarities: • • • •

Respect Self determination Social justice Working for the interests of users

Feminist Moral Theory  Both teleological and deontological theories are criticised for their bias towards gender and aim for rationality and objec-

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tivity while ignoring emotions. Hence, feminist writers propose a different model in which they focus on three interrelated features (Porter, 1999):  • Personal experience • Context • Nurturant relationships In a nutshell, feminist theories of ethics are informed by feminist social values, the emphasis being on care and responsibility. Proponents of this theory perceive that the issues, concerns and dilemmas of daily life are shaped by people’s backgrounds, that is, their race, colour, gender and ethnicity. The contextual nature of these factors (the ethical issues and dilemmas arising from the above categories) requires an ethical perspective and conduct based on emotion, nurture and care-love, compassion, kindness, self-esteem and fair justice (Newham & Hawley, 2007). Postmodernist Philosophy  The failure of modernism gave rise to postmodernism, which is difficult to define because it is a misnomer (Edwards et al., 1998), at least in some respects. In order to comprehend postmodernism, it is crucial to understand modernism. The modernist ideology assumes that the world is rational, logical and ordered. Postmodernism rejects the notion of an orderly, single perspective of the world. Instead, it embraces a diversity of perspectives as a way to understand the world. According to postmodernists, it is people that matter. They reject the objective approaches fundamental to traditional or rationalistic philosophy (Newham and Hawley (2007). Their focus is thus more on human emotions such as sympathy, compassion, human concern, friendship and relationships (Blum, 1980). Hara (1981) thinks that our moral thinking will not be complete if we do not put ourselves in the place of the person who is suffering. Newham and Hawley (2007) criticise both feminist and postmodernist philosophies on the grounds that they are not capable of directing human activity, meaning that they do not provide answers to a number of questions such as ‘what do we do from here?’ All these theories were established in the Western world and have been widely discussed in research ethics, but a number of philosophical theories different from the Western tradition have been developed in the

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Eastern world, all of which originated in China, India, Japan and the Middle East. Due to the focus of this work, Eastern philosophy will not be covered. Sensitive social work researchers must consider and utilise ethics, in particular the making of ethical decisions at each stage of their research process, from contextualisation and research design through data gathering ad analysis to the writing, presentation and dissemination of the reports. It is unlikely that sensitive social work researchers will follow only one of the above theories; in practice it is likely that they will pick and choose which one they want to accept depending on their research circumstances. For sensitive social work researchers likely to encounter ethical dilemmas, ethical theories could help them determine the right course of action for a particular situation. Newham and Hawley (2007) have suggested the necessity of at least considering two different theories to gain a more balanced perspective and then deciding the approach that would be ethically sound. So, for example, when researchers are utilising a teleological theory they can consider either feminist or deontological principles. If they are focussing on deontology, they can balance this with feminist or teleological principles.

Activity 3.3  Tuskegee Syphilis Study The US Public Health Service conducted a clinical study about the natural progression of untreated syphilis. This study took place in Alabama and started in 1932. Three hundred and ninety-nine poor African-American males participated in the experiment. They had syphilis but they were neither informed nor treated, even when penicillin was available as an effective treatment. Instead, they were told that they were being treated for ‘bad blood’. As a result some of their wives contracted syphilis from them and their children were born with congenital syphilis. As researchers wanted to observe the full progression of the disease, they were not allowed to seek treatment from the community. The men were promised health care. None of the health officers connected with the study expressed any ethical concerns until critics started asking questions (Jones, 1981: 190). Thirteen journal articles were published without anyone raising any concerns. In 1965 a medical professional first objected to the study and wrote to the Centers for Disease Control, but the letter was filed away and the research team did not answer or take action. (continued)

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Activity 3.3  (continued) Peter Buxtun, who was trained as a social worker, was hired by the Public Health Service as a Venereal Disease Interviewer while he was in the US Army and learned about this case from his co-workers. He read published articles on this matter and then made a number of official attempts to review the experiment. His relentless efforts paid off when he exposed the study with the help of the press. The US Senate became involved and subsequently the men together with their wives and children were treated with antibiotics. Question Do you think researchers of this study did the right thing? Comments Ethically it was not a valid study because the research participants were not treated with respect. They were not protected from risk and harm.

Alongside ethical theories, four ethical principles can be used to deal with ethical matters in sensitive social work research, in health and, to a lesser extent, in social care. Four principles are used to inform ethical practice in research: 1. autonomy 2. beneficence 3. justice 4. non-maleficence Autonomy  In social work, autonomy concerns a person’s right to make their own decisions as long as that does not violate another person’s rights. An autonomous action might not be a legal or morally acceptable one. In order to make an autonomous decision, a person should not be influenced or controlled by other people. Beneficence  This concerns benefits, meaning do what is good to improve the well-being of people under all circumstances. The idea of beneficence was originally developed for professionals to do intentional good—that is, actively doing good. It asserts that the duty of researchers is to seek the good of participants. Respect for autonomy and beneficence jointly empower research participants because a sensitive researcher should not only respect participants’ autonomy but also enhance it.

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Justice This concerns what is right and fair. Sensitive social work researchers should thus treat research participants equally and fairly irrespective of their gender, race, sexual orientation, culture, religion and class. Non-maleficence This concerns not doing harm to other people. Mitchell et al. (1996) indicate that the aim of non-maleficence should focus on the duty of care to avoid not only actual harm but also the risk of harm. So the aim of non-maleficence is the active prevention of actual and potential harm. Activity 3.4  Ethical Principles in Sensitive Social Work Research How could you apply four ethical principles in sensitive social work research? Comments Beneficence: Based on this principle, a sensitive social work researcher should strive to conduct research which would benefit the research participants and society in general. For example, some research participants may find empowerment by talking and sharing their stories, which could also be therapeutic for some of them. It could, however, also reopen old wounds and cause further psychological harm. A sensitive social work researcher must consider acting if they encounter this. Some interventions that a researcher could make will be discussed later in this chapter. Non-maleficence: Research should not cause participants any physical and psychological harm. Justice: Researchers should not give preferential treatment. They need to treat participants equally and fairly. Sensitive research should prioritise the needs of participants and the overall impact of their research on society over the objectives of their research. Researchers should also proactively minimise the power imbalances between them and research participants in every aspect of their research (Becker-Blease & Freyd, 2006). Autonomy: Researchers should not actively persuade participants to become involved in their research if they do wish to, or want to withdraw at any point during the research. So participants have the right to decide to engage with the research process and can withdraw at any time. This principle expects that researchers obtain informed consent from participants, preserve their confidentiality and refrain from wilfully deceiving them (Butler, 2002).

These four principles have been criticised as having emerged from Western ideas about rightness. They originated from medical science and offer a general framework that can be applied to sensitive social work research,

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but they only provide guidance. Researchers must use their judgement to apply them in specific situations. With these four ethical principles, four ethical rules and ethical theories can be useful for sensitive social work researchers in providing a comprehensive ethical approach. Four ethical rules include: Veracity  This expects researchers to tell the truth, even it means making participants unwilling to take part in the study or to withdraw. A sensitive social work researcher should be honest and transparent, and must not deceive or tell lies to research participants.  Fidelity  This principle encourages the building of trust with participants. Participants will normally trust researchers if they know that they will provide comprehensive information about their research, and will safeguard their interests and welfare if they participate.  Privacy  Information provided by participant must be kept private.  Confidentiality All identifiable information must be anonymised to preserve the confidentiality of research participants.  Both privacy and confidentiality will be explored further in the latter part of this chapter. Sensitive social work researchers can apply these principles and rules in their research, but doing so must be their own decision based on their own moral conscience. An ethically sound sensitive researcher should able to judge which principles they prioritise in a given circumstance in order to make their research morally acceptable. By combining biomedical and feminist approaches to research, Peled and Leichtentritt (2002) propose five interrelated guiding assumptions in relation to qualitative social work research rooted in social work values. These guiding assumptions can easily be transferred to sensitive social work research. Research Ethics Are an Integral Aspect of the Research Act and of Each of the Phases in the Research Process  Ethics should be integrated into every aspect of the sensitive research process; it is not restricted only

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to data collection. From start to finish a researcher must meticulously consider ethical issues and dilemmas. The rigor, robustness and merit of the sensitive research study depend on a number of criteria, of which ethical standards are one. A study cannot be deemed of good quality if it does not utilise appropriate ethical standards, even if its methodological approach is robust and of a high standard (Kavle, 1996; Peled & Leichtentritt, 2002). 

Activity 3.5  Ethical Research As part of his PhD, Laud Humphreys (1970) wanted to study homosexual acts between strangers meeting in public rest rooms in parks. The people who used rest rooms for this purpose called them ‘tea rooms’ (‘cottaging’ in the UK). Generally, three men were involved in activities in the tea room: two men engaged with sexual intercourse and another acted as a lookout (a ‘watch-queen’). Humphreys used the observation research method because it was ethnographic research, so he began to visit public restrooms to conduct his research, offering to act as lookout, which enabled him to use his research method. The men he was observing were married and wanted to keep their homosexuality secret so that they could preserve their standing and status in their communities. He wanted to know more about the research participants. Rather than asking them for more information, he noted the licence plate numbers of 134 cars of the participants, using this information to discover their names and addresses from police records and visited them at their homes under false pretences. Basically, he disguised himself and informed participants that he was undertaking a health survey, part of which covered homosexuality. This way he managed to collect data from 50 participants. Most of the men in his study were married and were not open members of the gay community. He kept their names in a safe deposit box and anonymised the data. The interview cards were destroyed after the interview (Humphreys, 1970). Question Do you think Humphrey acted ethically? If yes, why is that? If not, why not? Comment Some of you probably observed that the researcher’s deception made the research unethical. Also, he did not obtain the participants’ consent; indeed, they were unaware of the research, thus rendering any decision to participate and withdraw at any point moot. Humphrey states that some advised him to avoid the research study, while others accused him of deceit, of putting participants at risk of (continued)

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Activity 3.5  (continued) detection by the police, and of invasion of privacy (May 1997). However, it can be argued that his deceitful behaviour was harmless: he did not disclose ­tearoom activities (Rubin & Babbie, 2017). His research was applauded by the gay community and by some social scientists as shining a light on a little-­known subject and dispelling stereotypes and myths (Kimmel, 1988). If ethical theories are considered, it may be concluded that the means justifies the end. In that case, did Humphrey open up an issue that was repressed by society? On the other hand, it can be concluded that the means do not justify the ends. Studies such as this based on deception can help foster a society characterised by enmity, lying and manipulation, all of which would certainly undermine the fundamental component of a just social order: trust (Warwick, 1982).

Ethical Research Empowers Participants of Vulnerable and Disenfranchised Groups Treating participants equally and fairly is not enough. Researchers must go beyond this by empowering vulnerable and disenfranchised groups (Peled & Leichtentritt, 2002). Sensitive research should proactively promote the social work value of empowering individuals. Empowerment in this context is a process enabling people to master their surroundings and ‘achieve self-determination through the acquisition of skills, knowledge, and emotional as well as material resources, meaning social roles are fulfilled’ (Peled & Leichtentritt, 2002). In order to achieve empowerment a researcher should apply the following techniques:  (a) promoting participants’ welfare and access to economic and social capital by both individuals and groups (b) allowing their voices to be heard during the research process and through the results (c) treating them respectfully throughout the research (d) providing potential participants with complete information on research goals, processes and results so that they can make a truly informed choice regarding participation. (Peled & Leichtentritt, 2002, p. 149) Ethical Research Benefits Participants According to Peled and Leichtentritt (2002, p. 149)  providing participants with some research-­

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related benefits is a minimal requirement when considering their position vis-vis the researcher. They, as well, have to get something out of it. Empowerment is one advantage, but there are other ways participants can benefit by participating in research, including the provision of counselling services, advising and signposting to services, including them to be part of research publications and giving participants the space and time to tell their stories for other people to listen and learn. Ethical Research Prevents Harm to Participants and Others  One of the principal aims is to prevent harm and to safeguard vulnerable people, a principle that hold for sensitive social work research. Peled and Leichtentritt (2002) suggest that researchers should do their best to p ­ revent the infliction of any damage and harm to research participants. By their involvement in sensitive studies, participants can experience trauma, psychological and emotional distress by recounting their experiences, perceptions and views. It must also be noted that they are vulnerable to invasion of privacy, unwanted identification, breach of confidentiality and trust, misrepresentation and exploitation (Peled and Leichtentritt (2002: 159). It is therefore crucial for a sensitive social work researcher to carefully plan their study to support participants. Basically, the aim should be to minimise risk and harm to participants resulting from their involvement.  Ethical Research Requires Researchers’ Technical Competence Butler (2002) advices social work researchers to become technically competent in research methodologies and methods, because if they are not, they will not be able to appropriately design their studies, will not produce positive outcomes and will waste participants’ time and effort. 

Confidentiality An integral element of the research is to ensure the confidentiality and privacy of participants. Research confidentiality usually entails taking considerable care not to pass information to those connected in any way with the respondent and disclosing information only in ways which protect the identity of those who

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provided it. The location where the research took place is generally not identified, individuals are anonymised, or given pseudonyms, and some facts, which might otherwise identify them, are changed or omitted. (Masson, 2004, p. 52)

At every stage in the research process, researchers must observe confidentiality unless the information must be disclosed for public safety, safeguarding issues and malpractice. This is a vital ethical rule in social work, but it has limits. A sensitive social work researcher cannot guarantee confidentiality, because they have legal responsibilities to safeguard children and vulnerable adults and to share information with law enforcement about criminal activities or circumstances. So a sensitive social work researcher must inform participants of the circumstances in which they must break the rules of confidentiality and the explicit reasoning for this. Activity 3.6  Confidentiality in Research Think about a list of confidential data you will come across when you conduct a piece of sensitive research and how can you maintain confidentiality in your research report or thesis. Comment Settings for research are confidential data. So give a pseudonym for the name of your research organisation or region or local area. Individual demographic data such as age and role are confidential data. You should not present them individually in your report or thesis, but you can present demographic data as a range, mode, median and mean of all research participants. Names and contact details of participants must be confidential. You must keep them on encrypted and password-protected devices. When you transfer and share information virtually, great care is required, and secure systems should be used. Insecure data storage and transfer could lead to other people reading or hacking information. Remove any identifiable details from the transcripts and assign codes to transcripts. When you prepare data for analysis, you must remove personal identifiers.

Informed Consent Informed consent means that researchers must provide participants with adequate information so that they can make informed decisions about whether to participate in the research (see Box 3.2). They should be able to provide voluntary consent.

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Researchers generally provide an information sheet about the details of their research and give a consent form for participants to sign or agree with. The information sheet should provide all the details of the research, so that participants can make informed decisions as to whether to participate in the research. Sensitive social work researchers can include the following information in their information sheets: • • • • • • • • • • •

the title of the project an invitation paragraph details and information about the funder (if appropriate) background, aims and objectives of the study why the researcher is approaching the invitee and the contribution they would be expected to make explicit stipulation that taking part in the study is voluntary explicit information regarding the possible benefits and risks or disadvantages of participation mention of confidentiality of data and data protection inclusion of any financial and childcare support for participation detailing the process of the study results information about the complaints process

Some of the above points may not be relevant to or necessary for all researchers, but this list will provide some ideas to draw up an information sheet. Researchers should try their best to provide all the information on a single A4 page. They can use both sides if they have to provide more information, but they must carefully consider the amount of information participants really need and the way they are presenting it. They must also provide the information in a succinct manner, in simple, jargon-­free language so that participants can fully understand and make informed choices and decisions. They must provide information relevant to participants’ needs such as language. Equality and fairness should always be the core of any research endeavour.

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Box 3.2  Guidance for Informed Consent Bosk (2002) has suggested four criteria a sensitive researcher must meet in order to fulfil the requirements for informed consent. Disclosure: a sensitive researcher must disclose the research questions, aims, objectives and outcomes, as well as the potential risks and benefits of participating in the research. Understanding: potential participants need to understand researchers’ roles, responsibilities, research activities, outcomes and outputs, as well as the potential harms and benefits, if they are to take part of the research. They must also understand what is expected from them and how the risk of harm is to be prevented or minimised. Voluntary participation: participants must not be directly or indirectly influenced. Participation must be voluntary, and participants can withdraw at any point in the study. Competence: research participants should generally have the mental capacity to agree to participate in the study. It is possible to conduct sensitive social work research with individuals who do not have the mental capacity to give their consent. Some countries have explicit rules about how to assess mental capacity legally. This will be explored at the end of the chapter.

The information sheet should be separate from the research consent form so that participants can keep the former. Haines (2017) provided a simplified and easy-to-read information sheet for his research participants who had profound intellectual disabilities. In that information sheet he included key messages, supplemented by verbal explanations and role play. He used all these techniques so that participants could understand what he was trying to do, and could therefor give their informed consent. The WMA’s 2013 Declaration of Helsinki formulates guidelines for informed consent linked with medical research. These guidelines are used to develop the principle of informed consent to research. The Health Research Authority (HRA), which is responsible for ensuring that research is ethical and safe, expects consent to be valid and that researchers must obtain voluntary consent from participants. However, in some specific circumstances in which adults and children are not able to give consent, a proxy is allowed by law, the HRA treats ‘informed consent’ in research as both an ethical and a legal matter: it must be an adequately informed decision. Potential research participants should receive the information they need to help them decide

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whether they wish to take part in research or not and should be given reasonable time to reach their decision. The information should be provided in a suitable format. Unless otherwise justified (e.g. by feedback from public involvement), the information should include a concise explanation of relevant research evidence and research in progress that shows why the proposed research is justified. (HRA, 2017, p. 17) Activity 3.7  Case Study Regarding Voluntary Participation Emily is in her final-year social work placement in a community mental health team in her local area. She was keen to conduct a study of sexual violence against women with mental health needs. She asked a number of her service users who had had such experiences whether they wanted to participate in her study. She proposed conducting in-depth interviews with service users. Question Is it ethical for her to ask her service users to participate in her study? What is the reason for your answer? Comment It is convenient for her to ask service users to participate in her study, but she needs to think whether her request actually amounts to coercion. They will probably feel obliged to participate because of their relationship. She should also do everything in her power to rectify the imbalance of power that exists in the relationship between practitioners and service users. In this case, someone else should probably approach the service users, enabling them to decline if they wish. The other option is to approach different service users which whom she is not involved.

Ethical Challenges in Online Research The Internet has opened up a number of avenues for conducting research, but it challenges not only the way research is conducted but also the way ethics must engage with Internet research. Like other forms of research, Internet-based research must comply with ethical theories and principles. However, it is undeniable that this type of research presents different types of challenge in relation to informed consent, voluntary participation, anonymity, confidentiality and privacy. It is highly likely that

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Internet-based research would be not only beneficial but also desirable in engaging people and groups who are difficult to reach or unseen. In order to conduct studies, researchers are obliged to provide all the information to potential research participants necessary for them to agree to participate. The question is how they will achieve this when they are using the Internet to conduct their research. It is advisable that information sheets about the studies can be emailed to potential participants if they can be identified. Another option is to upload information sheets to websites and send the links to potential participants. Information sheets can also be posted in forums and chat rooms before researchers conduct their studies. Kozinets (2002) has developed a framework for netnographic research where he suggested that researchers seek informed consent directly from the people who post their comments. Langer and Beckman (2005) feel that Kozinets’ advice is too restrictive. Their argument is that this advice cannot be applied to public online data because disclosure of researcher details and activities would degrade some major advantages of online research. If potential participants do not give their consent, research projects would be endangered. Some people may not post their comments if they realise that a researcher is involved and reading their posts, which would not give a full picture of the research topic, and this would to some extent result in misrepresentation (Sugiura et al., 2017). However, there are some practical difficulties in obtaining consent on particular online forums. Even if researchers post messages that anyone not happy for the researcher to use their publicly available data should not continue with their research, not everyone may see the posts; some members join forums temporarily, but their contributions would still be visible. Informed consent when using publicly available information is undoubtedly a complex area requiring careful consideration of the appropriate approach and use of judgement.

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Activity 3.8  Case Study Regarding Challenges of Utilising Questionnaires Online Nashwa wants to explore drug and substance misuse by pregnant girls aged 18 who have left institutional care. She wants to carry out an Internet survey and will use questionnaires. Question What ethical challenges she is going to encounter to carry out the study? Comment The focus of the study is girls aged 18 who have left institutional care. It would be difficult to confirm their ages over the internet in particular if they are completing questionnaires. Furthermore, Nashwa needs to carefully design the questionnaires and indicate what support was available if they were to become distressed at answering some of the questions.

Based on the British Society of Criminology’s guideline (2017) there is a need to seek informed consent, but Kitchin (2003) does not think consent is required for online data in the public domain. This simplistic view fails to take account of legal and cultural differences across jurisdictions, online roles of conduct and the blurring of boundaries between public and private domains (Sugiura et al., 2017). Kozinets (2002, 2006) contends that researchers should disclose their intentions and activities to the online communities they are studying, and advises researchers to ensure the confidentiality and anonymity of their informants. Nind et al. (2012) suggest that online researchers adopt a reflexive position and act responsibility. Hammersley and Traianou (2012) also advised minimising the harm in online research.

Informed Consent in Social Media Social media opens up a new way of doing research. It has created a number of opportunities for sensitive social workers to investigate some sensitive topics and access hard-to-reach groups. It has also brought some new challenges, in particular regarding informed consent, privacy and confidentiality. For example, it raises the question of whether it is feasible to gain informed consent in the online environment. Although there are a number of guidelines available (e.g. Taylor & Pagliari, 2018), there is no

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consensus regarding what should be both acceptable and adequate to maintain the quality of research. Bruckman (2004) advises the use of verbatim quotations of online discussions, with changes of names and identifiable details. The problem with this approach is that verbatim quotes can often be traced back to their original sources by using search engines, so researchers can change details, thus making it difficult to trace the origins. It has not yet been established whether researchers need to seek permission before using direct quotations for public sources, but Sugiura et al. (2017) maintain that it is ethically desirable, while suggesting that researchers summarise data while being sure to preserve their meanings. Activity 3.9  Informed Consent and Online Discussion Forums Rob is investigating young Muslims’ views on radicalisation in the UK. For this research he is reading and analysing posts from a number of online discussion forums that are available and viewable publicly. He does not see anything wrong with this procedure because those posts are in the public domain. Question Do you agree with him? Either way, justify your reasons on ethical principles. Comment Some researchers will agree with Rob: if information is available in public domain, researchers can use it without seeking consent. However, a few authors do not fully subscribe to this argument (e.g. Bakardjieva & Feenberg, 2001; Nissenbaum, 2011). According to them the issue is more complex than the way it presented: it is not just about whether information is in the public domain. Although conversations may be in public forums, their contents could be both personal and private, and some parts of the conversation could be identifiable. When people write in forums, they do not always think about what they are writing and are not always careful about their language. Some write in a hurry and do not think before they write. According to Nissenbaum, ‘what people care most about is not simply restricting the flow of information but ensuring that it flows appropriately’ (2011, p. 2). This means that people write freely without thinking carefully. Furthermore, forum discussions, social media, blogs, posts and messages on social network sites are not intended for the conduct of research. Denscombe (2017, p. 353) stresses that (continued)

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Activity 3.9  (continued) the decision to seek consent for the use of the material needs to be made on the basis of how public or private the communication was intended to be. If the material was intended for public consumption and intended to reach a wide audience then there would not normally be a requirement to gain consent before using that material as data for a research project. It is published work in the public domain. Analysis of company websites, online journals, tweets and the like fall into this category. In the case of more private material the situation becomes more murky. Contributions to a discussion forum, for example, might be intended for a particular online community and things said on social network sites might be intended for a restricted group of ‘friends’. Denscombe is suggesting that researchers need to assess the intention of the writers, so that ‘the more personal and private the communication is, the more the researcher should be inclined to seek consent before using the materials as research data’ (Denscombe, 2017, p. 353). Information can also remain online for long periods, increasing the risk of disclosure (Sugiura et al., 2017). In order to safeguard privacy, a researcher must anonymise all identifiable data that includes URLs or links to forums’ websites. A sensitive social work researcher should seriously consider issues related to ethics, both online and offline.

Voluntary Participation Vs Coercion Promoting individual self-determination is one of the social work values playing a vital role in sensitive social work research. For example, social work research should not force people to participate in their research study. They believe in free will that means people can participate in research if they want and can withdraw their involvement at any time. In research this is called voluntary participation (Csiernik & Birnbaum, 2017). Activity 3.10  Payments to Participants Jenny conducted a study of intimate partner abuse and gave £20 shopping vouchers to participants in the focus group discussions as token appreciation for their participation. (continued)

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Activity 3.10  (continued) Question Monetary or non-monetary inducements offered to people for their participation in research could easily be construed as unintended coercion (Csiernik & Birnbaum, 2017) or inducement (Oates, 2006). So, does this mean that Jenny acted unethically? Comment There is no doubt that it would be unethical if someone did not want to take part in a study but did so for an incentive such as money or a free meal. It is now acceptable to many researchers to pay participants travel costs, childcare and other expenses in recognition of their inconvenience of partaking in the research. As Oates (2006, p. 215) convincingly indicates, participating in a study will involve some inconvenience to those taking part, as well as possible travel costs and other expenses. It is generally recognized that reimbursing such expenses and making a small payment in recognition of inconvenience and lost time is appropriate and does not constitute inducement.

Capacity and Competence to Consent Children and Young People The way adults understand research is not the same way that children and young people do. Hence, obtaining consent from children and young people requires careful planning and following both legal and ethical framework. For example, McCarthy (2016) conducted a small-scale qualitative study in western Ireland. The aim of the study was to explore young people’s experience of participation in decision making processes that impact on their lives. She also wanted their interpretation of that experience. She interviewed five young people, aged between 12 and 18 years, living in residential childcare. In order to conduct her study, she had to obtain consent from a number of practitioners. She obtained consent from the regional manager of the residential service, the individual managers of each residential centre, the children’s social workers and the parents actively involved with the children who took part in the study. She also sought the consent of the children themselves for their participation in the study. It is not surprising that a series of permissions and consents on behalf of some children and young people were required to conduct

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the study. Sensitive social work researchers must thus think and plan carefully when they undertake research with children and young people. Some institutions use specific ages as a blanket approach to seeking consent from parents and guardians. McGinn (2015) conducted research with young women regarding their experiences as new mothers, in which she did not think the subjects’ parents or guardians should be contacted for consent on their behalf. According to her, the need to think beyond chronological age in determining when to involve a parent or guardian became particularly evident for me when I was reviewing a research proposal involving young mothers. The proposed study involved interviewing young women about their experiences as new mothers. I was absolutely convinced that it would be inappropriate to ask a parent or guardian to provide consent on behalf of these young women. It seemed particularly unwise, possibly even harmful, to suggest to these young women that they lacked the maturity necessary to decide whether to participate in an interview about their experiences at the very point when they had become responsible for the lives of their newborn children. The ethics review committee recognized the need to treat these underage mothers as adults capable of providing consent without the engagement of a parent or guardian. (McGinn, 2015, p. 10)

Not only legislative frameworks but also developmental assumptions in relation to the capacity and competence of children and young people to provide or withhold consent must be carefully considered. Different countries have different legislative frameworks in relation to the competence and capacity of children and young people to give or withhold consent. Researchers must understand the legislative frameworks of the countries in which they conduct their studies before designing them. In England, the Gillick competence test (see Box 3.3 for more details) is a way of establishing whether a child has the mental capacity to understand information about a proposed treatment that includes the nature of the treatment, its adverse effects, risks and benefits. This competence test was developed to determine a child’s competence to consent to medical treatments. This test is now being used in social science research (O’Reilly et al., 2018) to establish whether a child has the mental capacity to give or withhold consent. According to Griffith (2016, p. 245),

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legal competence to make decisions is conditional on the child gradually acquiring both: • Maturity • That takes of the child’s experience and the child’s ability to manage influences on their decision making such as information, peer pressure, family pressure, fear and misgivings. • Intelligence • That takes account of the child’s understanding, ability to weigh risk and benefits, consideration of longer term factors such as effect on family life and on such things as schooling.

Although researchers do not need to legally ask the permission and obtain the consent of parents of Gillick-competent children, it is good practice to keep parents informed of, and involved in, the process. Box 3.3  Gillick Competence In 1982, Victoria Gillick took the Department of Health and the social services department to court in an attempt to stop doctors from giving contraceptive advice and treatment. Gillick competence developed from this legal case in which the overall argument was whether doctors should be able to give contraceptive advice or treatment to children under the age of 16 without parental consent (O’Reilly et al., 2018). Gillick-competent children are those who, although aged under 16, are deemed to have sufficient understanding to give consent in their own right. In order to identify children aged under 16 who have the legal competence to consent to immunization, providing they can demonstrate sufficient maturity and intelligence to understand and appraise the nature and implications of the proposed treatment, including the risk and alternative courses of action. (Griffith, 2016, p. 244)

In brief, in order for children to provide consent, researchers must be satisfied that they have a sufficient level of cognitive and emotional development to understand the aims, objectives, outcomes and—most of all—the consequences, including the risks and benefits, of participating in the study. If they cannot, then authorised parents or guardians can provide consent on their behalf, but this has to be in the best interests of the children (Evans, 2006). A sensitive social work researcher can utilise Alderson’s (2014) recommendation (see Box 3.4) to develop their information sheet to undertake research with children.

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Box 3.4  Information Sheet for Children In order to explain their rights to children and young people, Alderson (2014) suggests a number of points to be included in the interview information sheet: 1. It is for you to decide if you want to talk to me. You do not have to say ‘yes’. 2. If you do say ‘yes’, you do not have to do the whole interview. 3. We could stop when you want to, or have a break. 4. If you do not want to answer some of the questions, you can just say ‘pass’. 5. Before you decide whether to help me, you might like to talk about this project with your parents or a friend. 6. I will keep recordings and notes of the interviews in a safe, lockable place. 7. When I talk about the research and write reports, I always change people’s names to keep their views anonymous. 8. I will not talk to anyone you know about what you have said, unless you tell me about the risk of someone being harmed. If so, I would talk with you first about what could be done to help.

(Alderson, 2014, p. 95).

Capacity and Competence to Consent of Adults It is crucial to comply with the legislation involving adults who do not have the mental capacity to provide or withhold consent to participate in a study. For example, researchers in England and Wales must adhere to the Mental Capacity Act 2005, for Scotland the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000 and for Northern Ireland the Mental Capacity Act (Northern Ireland) 2016. If research involves subjects in countries outside the UK, researchers must adhere to the legislation of that country. Tip With some sensitive research, consent should not be a one-off activity. It is good practice to affirm consent. It does not need to be written; it can be verbal. Non-verbal cues and body language can also be taken into consideration with regard to continued consent for research (Watchman, 2017). Haines (2017) also practiced rolling consent with his research participants. He regularly checked and re-checked whether his participants wished to remain involved when he was doing interviews and observations.

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In order to assess an individual’s capacity to participate, a researcher must apply the above legislative frameworks in the UK depending on the nation in which their research is based. Haines (2017) conducted a study in England with people with profound intellectual disabilities who were living in their homes, and with support workers. His research aimed to investigate the lives of those who were unlikely to understand the reason why he was in their homes to conduct his research. His argument for his study was the importance of understanding and gaining insight into the experiences of those who lack capacity in order to develop a research evidence base for how we can best support them. (2017, p. 224)

In order to fulfil his aim he had to comply with the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005. According to him there is no ‘blanket incapacity’ under the MCA, and the lack of capacity cannot be assumed on the grounds of diagnosis of profound intellectual disabilities. As the person requiring decisions about research participation, it was my responsibility to ensure assessment of each potential participant’s capacity to make the specific decision at that point of time. (pp. 224–225)

That was exactly what he did, but he had to make a strong argument to the Ethics Committee that any risks involved in participation could be minimised and the potential benefits of conducting the study were proportionally higher. Hines felt that in his research benefits had to outweigh any risks (which needed to be negligible), with no significant interference with freedom of action or privacy, with the research not being unduly invasive or restrictive. (p. 226)

Hines also consulted with others regarding some of the individuals in the study. Without actually providing consent, consultees gave their views as to whether someone without mental capacity under the MCA could take part in the research. According to the Health Research Authority (HRA, 2020)

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the consultee advises the researcher on what the participant’s wishes and feelings would be if they were able to consent for themselves, and on whether they should take part. The consultee does not give consent, only advice. The responsibility to decide whether the participant should be entered into the research lies ultimately with the researcher.

By involving consultees, Haines tried to reduce the risk of coercion and to gain the informed consent of the people in his study. He provided specific information sheets for consultees and asked them to consider the broad aims of his research, and in so doing he attempted to enable consultees to make potential participants aware of the risks, benefits and practicalities of involvement in his study. Not having capacity does not mean that sensitive researchers should preclude them. Instead, they should be involved in decisions concerning participation in the research. Haines aimed to obtain the assent of his participants, and he paid constant attention to understanding their willingness to engage in his research. Similarly, Watchman (2016) conducted a longitudinal study to investigate the lived experiences of dementia in adults with Down’s syndrome. For this study she had to comply with the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000, which provides safeguards to people without mental capacity.

Doing Research with Children Like adults, children and young people should be treated with respect and dignity. Research methods and instruments must therefore be child-­ sensitive and respectful. Some researchers may not see children as competent participants because they may not know and understand their research methods and what they are trying to achieve overall. Negative attitudes and mindsets such as these could lead to the development of negative, and in some instances incorrect, research methods and instruments which could consequently return findings that might not reflect the social reality of children and young people. Basically, researchers may produce incorrect results without benefit or the capacity to transform their lives, and worst of all could adversely affect them if policies and practice are developed based on those faulty results.

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A number of researchers demonstrated that, with the appropriate support, children can contribute to the planning, conduct, reporting and presenting of research findings, and could meet with policymakers to influence changes in policy in the light of research findings (e.g. Cockburn et al., 1997; Mann et al., 2014). Also, a correct approach, research method and instruments could enable children and young people to provide details of their social realities. Alderson (2004) observes that some researchers who gain informed consent to observe, ask questions and talk with children and young people in their real lives treat them as a research object as if they are in the lab environment, hence the prescription for researchers who want to study children and young people to be fair, honest, open-minded, reflective and reflexive, and to treat children and young people with respect. They should not treat them as static incompetent objects, but should see them as dynamic, productive and real research participants. There are a number of practical techniques a researcher can adopt to undertake research productively but considerately: • respect research participants’ views and avoid talking down to them • respect their right to anonymity, privacy and confidentiality • respect that they have a voice and should not ask adults about their views, beliefs and opinions • acknowledge that research methods such as questionnaires and interview questions and the way children and young people are approached to collect data must be child-friendly and sensitive to their individual needs Furthermore, it is paramount that sensitive social work researchers understand the power imbalance between them and children, knowledge that should be reflected in their research design. Participating in research could potentially be a stressful experience for them if they recall memories of traumatic events. Some children may perceive researchers as authority figures and may not open up, or may say only what the researcher wants to hear. They may not provide the full story. They are also vulnerable to persuasion and to assent to statements they actually disagree with. They may agree with something without fully considering the consequences, or they may agree because they feel obliged to and pressured by researchers because of the imbalance of power.

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Involvement of Children McCarry (2012) conducted a study that aimed to explore young people’s experiences of physical, emotional and sexual forms of partner violence, including their coping strategies and views on intervention. She involved young people in her study by establishing a Young People’s Advisory Group (YPAG), for which she adopted user-informed research principles. This group consisted of young people who contributed to the design of the research tools, the field work process, data analysis, recommendations and further work suggested by her study. They made suggestions regarding the design of questionnaires, for example, advising her to remove text, add images and modify some questions. According to her, many of these suggestions were implemented and the survey questionnaire was redrafted accordingly. The research team returned to the YPAG with the edited version and they were astonished that some of their suggestions had been incorporated. This proved to be critical point in our relationship because it demonstrated our commitment to listening and valuing their contributions. (p. 62)

Anti-Oppressive Research Social workers should proactively work to root out the many forms of discrimination from the practice of social work as they acknowledge differences across diverse communities and promote social justice. They should also value each person as an individual, and should respect and promote their human rights. All these standards are embedded in social work practice. That does not mean that discrimination and oppression do not exist in social work practice and the profession, but rather that they do exist and that there is the potential for discrimination and oppressive practice to emerge because of the contemporary nature of social work. In order to eliminate bias, therefore, inequality and anti-oppressive practice (AOP) has been developed. According to Dominelli (1993), AOP is a form of social work practice which addresses social divisions and structural inequalities in the work that is done with ‘clients’ (users) or workers.

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Anti-oppressive practice aims to provide more appropriate and sensitive services by responding to people’s needs regardless of their social status. Anti-oppressive practice embodies a person-centred philosophy, an egalitarian value system concerned with reducing the deleterious effects of structural inequalities upon people’s lives; a methodology focusing on both process and outcomes; and a way of structuring relationships between individuals that aims to empower users by reducing the negative effects of hierarchy in their immediate interaction and the work they do together. (p. 24)

In order to fulfil the aims of AOP, social workers need to challenge and eradicate social and economic injustice. Although the terms ‘anti-­ oppressive’ and ‘anti-discriminatory practice’ (ADP) are used interchangeably in social work, there are some differences between the two concepts. ADP enables social workers to challenge discrimination and support people equally and fairly. AOP goes beyond this to foster equal and fair behaviour, aiming to change the power imbalance between individuals and groups. Box 3.5  Data Protection Principles Sensitive social work researchers must conform to the following principles when processing personal data in the UK, unless there is a relevant exemption. (a) Lawfulness, fairness and transparency: research participants’ personal data must be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner. Researchers’ must be open and honest with participants about the use of their data. Transparency about how and why data is being collected is thus a prerequisite. (b) Limitation of purpose: personal data must be collected only for specified explicit and legitimate purposes. Researchers cannot collect irrelevant data; it must serve the purpose of their research. Researchers must not further process data in a manner that is incompatible with the original purposes. (c) Minimisation of data: the data collected must be adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary for the purposes for which it is processed. (d) Accurate and up-to-date processing: it is vital that personal data is accurate and kept up to date. If the personal data is not current or is misleading, it is paramount to take all reasonable steps to bring it up to date or to delete it as soon as possible. (continued)

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Box 3.5  (continued) (e) Storage limitation: personal data should be kept in a form that permits the identification of data subjects no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed. Thus, even if data is lawfully collected, it should not be kept in identifiable form for longer than necessary. (f) Integrity and confidentiality (security): Personal data must be processed securely. This principle protects the integrity, privacy and confidentiality of data. Researchers must take responsibility for the data processing activity they undertake.

The principles of AOP should be adopted for the conduct of sensitive social work because this theoretical framework enables researchers to deal with oppression and discrimination with a view to creating a sensitive research environment for conducting their research. According to Clifford (1994, p. 104) an anti-oppressive research strategy would be: 1. anti-reductionist and historically specific, placing any explanation within a historically specific context and avoiding explanations based on biology, psychology and economics 2. materialist, relating any explanation to the divisions of material wealth and power in society 3. a combination of the personal and political thoroughly analytical of ‘difference’, placing individual and groups within all social divisions 4. internationalist, raising awareness of the wider contexts that affect everyone, directly and indirectly 5. reflexive—that is, the researcher or observer is accountable for the methods used and the knowledge claimed, which does not exist outside the framework at some value-free point but is part of the social action, and thus part of the research. One of the main characteristics of AOP is not only to avoid using racist, sexist, ageist, disablist, homophobic and other types of discriminatory language in research instruments and reports, but also to urge researchers to

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treat participants as humans. By doing so, a sensitive social work researcher would be able to eliminate or at least reduce the harm that could arise from researchers’ conscious and unconscious bias in relation to the nine protected characteristics as specified by the Equality Act 2010: race, sexual orientation, disability, gender reassignment, religion and belief, just had a baby or pregnant being married or in civil partnership and age. For example, if a researcher conducts a research study without considering equality and fairness, the likelihood of achieving accurate results would be low. This would subsequently affect the analysis and interpretation of the data. The implications for action would not reflect people’s real needs. There are some practical strategies to conduct research in an anti-­ oppressive manner. For example, McLaughlin (2012) suggests developing research questions that seek to empower rather than further discriminate against and oppress a particular group. Researchers could utilise collaborative and participatory research approaches that could help researchers engage with and empower participants. Cultural competence is another mechanism researchers could adopt. Although it is a murky concept, it is relevant not only to ethnic minority groups but also to others such as the disabled and to those of various genders, sexual orientations and ages. Cultural competence enables researchers to leave their own cultural realms to understand different cultural perspectives and see the world through their lenses. In doing this, researchers refrain from making assumptions and reinforcing stereotypes about particular cultures. In short, researchers must be open-minded. Rubin and Babbie (2017) make the following suggestions regarding research with minority ethnic groups: • • • • • • • • •

Obtain the endorsement of community leaders Use culturally sensitive approaches regarding confidentiality Provide adequate compensation Alleviate barriers of transportation and child care Choose sensitive and accessible settings Understand the cultural factors influencing participation Use anonymous enrolment techniques with stigmatised populations Use special sampling techniques Learn where to look

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• Use frequent and individualised contacts and personal touches • Use anchor points Rubin and Babbie also suggest employing local community members as research staff, using bilingual staff and training culturally competent interviewers if a team is conducting the research. Eichler (1988) stipulates the following guidelines to avoid sex bias: • Researchers should not generalise findings if they conduct research on only one sex. They should make this clear in their title and in the narrative. • They should develop the research question(s) carefully, meaning that the question(s) should be bias-free. • They must avoid using sexist language or concepts. • They should not overemphasise male-dominated activities in research instruments. • They must analyse data carefully in order to identify distinctive findings for men and women. • It is important to critically consider the measurement instruments that should be used for women. Instruments that are valid for men are not necessarily so for women. • They must ensure an appropriate balance of men and women in their studies.

Ethical Approval Before data is collected, it is vital that ethical approval for the study is sought. Generally, such approval should be obtained from the educational institution such the university or college of which the researcher is a member. Some will also be required to seek approval from the NHS Research Ethics Committee (REC). The UK’s Health Research Authority took responsibility for adult social care research in 2015 and managed the Social Care Research Ethics Committee which was previously overseen by the Social Care Institute for Excellence. Up-to-date information whether approval must be obtained from the NHS’ REC can be found

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on the HRA’s website. It must be borne in mind that not all research in health and social care requires approval from the NHS REC. For research on health and social care outside the UK, approval must be sought from the country in which the research is being conducted. A formal review of ethical approaches aims to protect research participants and ensure high standards and reputation of research generally. So the purpose of research ethics reviews is to represent the interests of the least powerful group, to try to prevent research participants being treated as subjects without their knowledge or consent and to redress a potential researcher/researched power imbalance. (Alderson, 2014, p. 91)

Also, it protects researchers from possible complaints. Generally, a committee reviews an ethical application and decide whether to approve the project or whether it requires amendment. These committees typically review the way the risk associated with the study avoids and reduces potential harms and threats. Some authors perceive ethics governance as a bureaucratic instrument to protect educational institutes and funding bodies from litigation (Alderson, 2014). Authors such as Wald (2004) and Hammersley (2009) have therefore criticised the power such committees have over researchers, and their purported undermining of researchers’ own ethical standards and personal responsibility. There should be congruence between the standards of review committees and researchers, but this is not always the case. This situation also gives the impression that researchers whose ethical application is approved have implicit licence to work to lower standards (Alderson, 2014). This should not be the case: sensitive social work researchers should aim for high standards of research, and ethics is a vital mechanism of the research process with which to achieve this. Key Areas of the Research Ethics Application  In order for a researcher to obtain either their institute’s or the NHS REC’s approval, they must complete an application form in which they must provide detailed information of their proposed research. They must provide the research aims,

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objectives, design (with any associated ethical issues), risks, benefits, management of ethical matters, recruitment, consent, data protection and information security (look at Box 3.5 for details regarding data ­management), research plan, impact, equality, dissemination, publication and management. As well as the application form supporting documents such as research participant information sheets and consent forms must be provided. Some institutions also expect the submission of proposed interview questions or questionnaires. Key Points • Ethics permeates most of the activities in social work, and the same applies to sensitive social work research. Ethical considerations should be integral to sensitive social work research. • Four ethical principles and rules are only a fraction of what researchers must do. These principles are basic to an understanding of an ethical approach to sensitive research. Some studies are simple, while others require more in-depth understanding of the theory of ethics. • Sensitive social work research is highly involved, and it is likely that researchers will have to address complex ethical issues and dilemmas. It is important that the intricate nature of social work and explore strategies based on the theories and principles discussed in this chapter are embraced in order to minimise negative outcomes for participants, researchers and others involved in the study. • A sensitive social work researcher is a morally active practitioner. • Participation should be voluntary. Participants should be under no obligation to take part in the research, and should be able withdraw at any point of research without giving a reason. • It is crucial that ethical matters are fully and carefully considered in all respects before embarking on Internet-based research. • From formulating a research question to dissemination, including publication for research, ethics must be considered at every stage of the research process.

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• The risks associated with research should be outweighed by the anticipated benefits to research participants. • The rights and welfare of research participants must be the first priority of sensitive social work researchers. • Ethical guidelines are there to ensure high standards. • Although some authors perceive ethical regulations and approval act as bureaucratic surveillance mechanisms that are mostly inefficient and unnecessary, they aim to protect and safeguard research participants. Questions for Critical Reflection How do you ensure that participants are treated with integrity? Is covert sensitive social work research justifiable? When can informed consent become coercion? What steps must you take to safeguard the interests of vulnerable people? How useful are research codes of practice? Key Terms Autonomy Beneficence Competence to consent Deontological Disclosure Feminist moral theory Fidelity Harms vs benefits Individualism Justice Non-judgemental attitude Non-maleficence Postmodernist philosophy Principle of justice Rights of self-determination Teleological Veracity

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References Alderson, P. (2004). Ethics. In J.  Fraser, V.  Lewis, S.  Ding, M.  Kellett, & C. Robinson (Eds.), Doing research with children and young people. Sage. Alderson, P. (2014). Ethics. In A. Clark, R. Flewitt, M. Hammersley, & M. Robb (Eds.), Understanding research with children and young people. The Open University/Sage. Bakardjieva, M., & Feenberg, A. (2001). Respecting the virtual subject, or how to navigate the private/public continuum. In C.  Werry & M.  Mowbray (Eds.), Online communities commerce, community action, and the virtual university. Prentice Hall. Banks, S. (2006). Ethics and values in social work. Palgrave Macmillan. Becker-Blease, K.  A., & Freyd, J.  J. (2006). Research participants telling the truth about their lives: The ethics of asking and not asking about abuse. American Psychologist, 61(3), 218–226. Beckett, C., & Maynard, A. (2012). Values and ethics in social work. Sage. Biestek, F. (1957). Casework relationship. Loyola University Press. Blum, L. (1980). Friendship, Altruism and Morality. Routledge. Bosk, C. L. (2002). Obtaining voluntary consent for research in desperately ill patients. Medical Care, 40(9)., Supplement, V64–V68. British Society of Criminology. (2017). Code of ethics, [online]. Available https:// www.britsoccrim.org/docs/CodeofEthics.pdf. Accessed 15 Sept 2019. Bruckman, A. (2004). Opportunities and challenges in methodology and ethics. In M. D. John, S. L. S. Chen, & G. J. Hall (Eds.), Online social research: Methods, issues and ethics. Peter Lang. Butler, I. (2002). A code of ethics for social work and social care research. British Journal of Social Work, 32, 239–248. Clifford, D.  J. (1994). Critical life histories: Key anti-oppressive research method. In B. Humphries & C. Truman (Eds.), Rethinking Social Research, Social Assessment Theory and Practice. Cockburn, T., Kenny, S., & Webb, M. (1997). Moss side youth audit phase 2. Manchester City Council and Manchester Metropolitan University. Csiernik, R., & Birnbaum, R. (2017). Practising social work research: Case studies for learning (2nd ed.). University of Toronto Press. Denscombe, M. (2017). The good research guide (6th ed.). Open University Press and McGraw-Hill Education. Dominelli, L. (1993). Social work: Mirror of society or its conscience? Department of Sociological Studies.

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Draucker, C. B., Martsolf, D. S., & Poole, C. (2009). Developing distress protocols for research on sensitive topics. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 23(5), 343–350. Eby, M., & Gallagher, A. (2008). Values and ethics in practice. In S. Fraser, & S. Matthews (Eds.), The critical practitioner in social work and health care. Milton Keynes, Open University/London: Sage. Edwards, S., Lilford, R.  J., & Hewison, J. (1998). The ethics of randomised controlled trails form the perspectives of patients, the public and the health care professionals. British Medical Journal, 317, 1209–1212. Eichler, M. (1988). Nonsexist research methods. Allen and Unwin. Evans, K. G. (2006). Consent: A guide for Canadian physicians (4th ed.). [online]. Available at http://www.cmpa-­acpm.ca/en/handbooks. Accessed 15 May 2019. Griffith, R. (2016). What is Gillick competence? Human Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics, 12(1), 244–247. Guardian. (2011). Shocking new details of US STD experiments in Guatemala, [online]. Available at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/aug/30/ guatemala-­experiments. Accessed 26 Dec 2010. Haines, D. (2017). Ethical considerations in qualitative case study research recruiting participants with profound intellectual disabilities. Research Ethics, 13(3–4), 219–232. Hammersley, M. (2009). Against the ethicists: One the evils of ethical regulation. International Journal of Research Methodology, 12(3), 211–226. Hammersley, M., & Traianou, A. (2012). Ethics in qualitative research: Controversies and contexts. London: Sage. Hara, R. M. (1981). Moral thinking: Its levels, methods and point. Clarendon Press. HRA. (2017). UK Policy Framework for Health and Social Care Research, [online]. Available at: https://www.hra.nhs.uk/media/documents/Final_Accessibility_ uk-­policy-­framework-­health-­social-­care-­research_.pdf. Accessed 25 Nov 2020. HRA. (2020). The Mental Capacity Act, [online]. Available at https://www.hra. nhs.uk/planning-­and-­improving-­research/policies-­standards-­legislation/ mental-­capacity-­act/. Accessed 29 Nov 2020. Humphreys, L. (1970). Tearoom trade: Impersonal sex in public places. Aldine. Jones, J. H. (1981). Bad blood: The tuskegee syphilis experiment. New York: Free Press. Jorm, A. F., Kelly, C. M., & Morgan, A. J. (2007). Participants distress in psychiatric research: A systematic review. Psychological Medicine, 37, 917–926. Karhausen, L. (1987). From ethics to medical ethics. In S.  Doxiadis (Ed.), Ethical dilemmas in health promotion. Wiley.

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Kavle, S. (1996). Interviews: An introduction to qualitative research interviewing. Sage. Kimmel, A. J. (1988). Ethics and values in applied social research. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. Kitchin, H. A. (2003). The Tri-Council Policy Statement and research in cyberspace: Research ethics, the internet, and revising and ‘living document’. Journal of Academic Ethics, 1(4), 397–418. Kozinets, R. V. (2002). The field behind the screen: Using netnography for marketing research in online communities. Journal of Marketing Research, 39, 61–72. Kozinets R. V. (2006). Netnography 2.0. In R. W. Belk (Ed.), Handbook of qualitative research methods in marketing (pp. 129–142). Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. Langer, R., & Beckman, S. C. (2005). Sensitive research topics: Netnography revisited. Qualitative Market Research, 8(2), 189–203. Mann, A., Liley, J., & Kellett, M. (2014). Engaging children and young people in research. In A.  Clark, R.  Flewitt, M.  Hammersley, & M.  Robb (Eds.), Understanding research with children and young people. The Open University/Sage. Masson, J. (2004). The legal context. In J. Fraser, V. Lewis, S. Ding, M. Kellett, & C. Robinson (Eds.), Doing Research with Children and Young People. Sage. McCarry, M. (2012). Who benefits? A critical reflection of children and young people’s participation in sensitive research. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 15(1), 55–68. McCarthy, E. (2016). Young people in residential care, their participation and the influencing factors. Child Care in Practice, 22(4), 368–385. McCosker, H. (1995). Women’s conception of domestic violence during the childbearing years. Master of Nursing thesis, Queensland University of Technology: 139. McGinn, M.  K. (2015). Considering ethics for social science research. In R. Dingwall & M. B. McDonnell (Eds.), The Sage handbook of research management. Sage. McLaughlin, H. (2012). Understanding social work research (2nd ed.). Sage. Mitchell, T. R., Daniels, D., Hopper, H., George-Falvy, J., & Ferris, G. R. (1996). Perceived correlates of illegal behavior in organizations. Journal of Business Ethics, 15, 439–455. Newham, R. A., & Hawley, G. (2007). The relationship of ethics to philosophy. In G.  Hawley (Ed.), Ethics in clinical practice: An international approach. Pearson Education.

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Nissenbaum, H. (2011). A contextual approach to privacy online. Daedalus, 140(4), 32–48. O’Reilly, M., Ronzoni, P., & Dogra, N. (2018). Research with children: Theory and practice. Sage. Oates, J. (2006). Ethical frameworks for research with human participants. In S. Potter (Ed.), Doing Postgraduate Research. Sage. Peled, E., & Leichtentritt, R. (2002). The ethics of qualitative social work research. Qualitative Social Work, 1(2), 145–169. Rubin, A., & Babbie, E.  R. (2017). Research methods for social work. Cengage Learning. Sugiura, L., Wiles, R., & Pope, C. (2017). Ethical challenges in online research: Public/private perceptions. Research Ethics, 13(3–4), 184–199. Taylor, J., & Pagliari, C. (2018). Mining social media data: How are research sponsors and researchers addressing the ethical challenges. Research Ethics, 14(2), 1–39. Wald, D. (2004). Bureaucracy of ethics applications. British Medical Journal, 329, 282–285. Warwick, D. (1982). Types of harm in social research. In T. Beauchamp, R. Faden, R. Wallace, & L. Walters (Eds.), Ethical issues in social science research. Baltimore MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. Watchman, K. (2016). Investigating the lived experience of people with down syndrome with dementia: Overcoming methodological and ethical challenges. Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities, 132(2), 190–198. Watchman, K. (2017). Investigating the lived experience of people with down syndrome with dementia overcoming methodological and ethical challenges. Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities, 13(2), 190–198.

Suggested Reading Butler, I. (2002). A code of ethics for social work and social care research. British Journal of Social Work, 32, 239–248. Draucker, C. B., Martsolf, D. S., & Poole, C. (2009). Developing distress protocols for research on sensitive topics. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 23(5), 343–350. Rubin, A., & Babbie, E. R. (2017). Research methods for social work. Cengage Learning.

4 Skills Required for Sensitive Social Work Research

The main aim of the chapter is to equip researchers with the core skills required to conduct sensitive social work research successfully. In order to achieve this aim, the chapter consists of tips and techniques for researchers to manage their studies. This chapter explores: • a number of core skills such as planning, prioritisation, organisation, time management, self-awareness, reflection and critical thinking, all of which are required to successfully complete a sensitive social work study • techniques with which to build rapport and relationships in interviews • a method according to which researchers can critically analyse what they read, a skill required to develop their own arguments, and that would be useful when writing their report and dissertations • models and techniques for, and the significance of, reflection • the method according to which researchers should conduct debriefs The chapter covers the skills required to undertake research and to address and manage emotional needs. Both types of skills are needed to successfully complete sensitive social work research. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 S. Haider, Sensitive Research in Social Work, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85009-8_4

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Building Rapport and Relationships Rapport is crucial to successful and positive interviews (Trevithick, 2006; Liamputtong, 2007). According to Barker (2003, P. 359) rapport is ‘the state of harmony, compatibility and empathy the permits mutual understanding and a working relationship between the client and the social work’. The word ‘rapport’ originated from the French “rapporter”, which focuses on the quality of a particular interaction. It is thus possible swiftly to establish and develop a good rapport with someone unknown. Sometimes the rapport and relationship are used interchangeably, and sometimes the latter is even used instead of the former (Trevithick, 2006) but they are two different concepts. According to Trevithick, a relationship implies on-going contact or connection that continues over time. Sensitive social work research on some topics will demand continued contact with research partners to collect data where a good working relationship can be established, but in other circumstances, contact will last only 45 minutes to an hour, circumstances in which it will be a challenge to develop a relationship but good rapport can definitely be established. For this to happen, researchers must create environments and atmospheres where participants feel at ease and comfortable in opening up. There is an understanding that building a good relationship creates an environment conducive to obtaining rich qualitative data (e.g. Johnson & Clarke, 2003; Lee, 1993; Lee & Renzetti, 1993; Liamputtong, 2007; Dickson-Swift et al., 2008). The question is how to develop and build such relationships quickly? Biestek (1979) suggests seven principles that could be used to establish and build relationships. These include participants’ 1 . acceptance of their participation 2. self-determination 3. individualisation 4. controlled emotional involvement 5. purposeful expressions of feeling 6. non-judgemental attitudes 7. confidentiality

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Although these principles were developed quite a while ago for casework relationships, they still have a place in social work and could easily be adapted to conduct sensitive research. Furthermore, in person-centred counselling, therapists applied the following skills to develop and maintain relationships: • genuine and honest congruence • empathy • respectS (Rogers, 1942) Similarly, Lishman (1994) suggests six skills to develop and maintain-relationships: • • • • • •

genuineness warmth acceptance encouragement and approval empathy responsiveness and sensitivity

Although there are similarities in terms of the qualities that a sensitive social work researcher needs, their vagueness and malleability have been criticised (Timms, 1983; Shardlow, 2002). They are also subjective, which makes them difficult to utilise, forcing researchers to rely on their intuition and judgement to decide the extent to which they need to use specific skills. The power of non-verbal language to swiftly build relationships is undeniable. Birdwhistell (1970) postulated that, when two people interact, words carry one third of the social meaning, but the remaining two thirds is apparently embedded in non-verbal language. This is more important when researchers’ interactions concern sensitive topics or emotionally sensitive matters, because some people find it difficult to identify the appropriate words to convey their sentiments, in particular when they are talking about their stories, experiences, views, perspectives and thoughts that are infused with emotions.

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In order to demonstrate non-verbal skills, Egan (2002) has proposed the SOLER model, use of which will help sensitive social work researchers demonstrate that they are respectful, empathic, responsive, genuine and caring of their research participants. The SOLER model stands for: S—squarely: sit in front of participants. The positioning of the researcher’s body should convey the message that they are interested and keen to listen. O—open: researchers’ gestures should demonstrate that they are listening in a relaxed and open manner. L—lean: researchers should lean forward to show that they are listening to participants. E—eye: eye contact is important for some participants. However, care must be taken in this respect because in some cultures eye contact is not a sign of respect, in particular with older people and women. R—relaxed: the researcher’s behaviour and conduct should be natural, calm and relaxed. Kadushin and Kadushin (1997, P. 287–320) suggest seven techniques for effective execution of non-verbal language: Chronomics is related to timekeeping. For example, a researcher should start the interview or focus group on time and deliver within the deadline what was agreed. Punctuality is important for some participants, and subtle messages regarding professionalism are fundamental to building relationships. Artificial communication involves situations where the researcher is interviewing or observing participants. For example, in some cases participants prefer to be interviewed in their own homes, others in neutral territory. Furthermore, personal presentation including clothing conveys subtle messages. Smell: subtle changes in body odour due to emotional stress. Touch—that is, physical contact. For example, should the researcher shake hands or hug when participants are distressed? This specific aspect varies according to participants’ religions and cultural convictions.

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Paralinguistics involves the tone, voice, pitch, volumes, speed, emphasis and articulation of the researcher’s speech. Proxemics concerns the distance between researcher and participant. The distance must be comfortable for participants. Body language incorporates visual communication such as eye contact, head shaking and the movement of hands, feet and legs. The fact that both verbal and non-verbal language go hand in hand in order to gather rich and detailed data must be acknowledged. Verbal language conveys what researchers want to know, their thinking and their explicit expectations regarding the research. Words can empower as well as oppress people. Sensitivity to the use of language is crucial to develop rapport and relationships. Sensitive social work researchers must avoid using discriminatory language, not only in their reports but also in all the instruments they use to collect data and in their literature reviews. They must also be sensitive to participants’ language (see Box 4.1), religions and cultural needs, aspects that are not explicitly incorporated in the above models. Although these models are basic and simple, they are vital in the initiation and development of positive relationships with research participants. Box 4.1  Communication Needs In order to communicate effectively and to support some research participants, researchers can use interpreters and specialist forms of support to aid communication such as Makaton for those with learning or communication difficulties and braille for people who are visually impaired.

Active Listening Because approximately 45 per cent of our lives is spent listening, most think it is an easy activity (Smith, 1986; Trevithick, 2006), that it is a normal part of life and therefore that it is a natural and innate skill. It is now well established that good listening is not a passive activity; it goes beyond just using a series of ‘nods’ and ‘mms’ when interviewing research participants. Listeners must take an active role in understanding the

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underlying emotions, feelings and thoughts of speakers. This means that listening is not only cerebral but also a psychological, social and cultural act. Active listening is a skill in its own right that needs regular practice (see Box 4.2). Smith (1986, P. 261–262) identifies three non-productive listeners: Pretend listener: giving an impression of listening rather than actually doing so. Limited listeners: consciously deciding only to listen to that part of the speaker’s communication that the listener considers interesting and important. Self-centred listeners: only listening to what concerns their needs and paying little or no attention to others. Box 4.2  Active Listening • Use body language appropriately. • Pay attention to what is being said. • Summarise what has been said and seek confirmation of your understanding. • Always be open-minded and resist jumping to conclusions. • Try not to interrupt. • Tolerate pauses and silences; avoid breaking them by asking lots of questions. • listen to everything that is being said, not just what you want to hear • Remember what is being said. • Pay attention to non-verbal cues.

It is suggested that a sensitive social work researcher should actively listen to participants. According to Egan (1990) active listeners are present in the conversation; they understand key messages and the associated emotions and feelings of the speakers, as well as the context of what is being said and crucially of what is missing. The active listener is alert all the time. Active listening is opposed to credulous listening that believes what is being communicated (Feltham & Dryden, 1994).

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Silence When the research topic is emotionally charged, some interview participants will pause every now and then. The reasons why they might do so, which would differ between participants, are open to speculation unless interviewers ask why. It could be that some participants have paused to gather their thoughts, or they may be preoccupied with their own thoughts and feelings, or are too embarrassed, anxious or confused to open up. They could also be too upset or fearful to talk (Liamputtong, 2007). Researchers must understand what participants are trying to convey via their silences, which would enable them to act. Trevithick (2008) has indicated that words interrupting silences can, in some instances, kill real dialogue; rather than revealing interviewees’ feelings, experiences and views, they can conceal them. It is not an easy process: the researcher’s intuition and judgement will play a crucial role in assessing the silence. However, one point is clear: interviewers should not feel obliged to unnecessarily use words to break silences or feel the need to talk to fill the void. They should not feel uncomfortable with silence. It is a skill to know when to avoid unnecessary words and respect the silence, a skill that requires practice to master. It is undoubtedly difficult for researchers to understand the reason for silences or pauses, but there are a few strategies to manage silence productively without causing distress to participants. For example, when participants are silent, researchers can give them time and bear with the silence. When a participant is silent, the interviewer may feel that time is passing rapidly and the interviewee has been silent for a long time, but this is probably not the case. A judiciously placed clock will enable the researcher to check the time without interrupting the participant. Trevithick (2008) advocates this approach: the researcher can measure the real duration of the silence quite accurately and will know when to break it. Of course, the researcher can ask why the interviewee has paused, but should be prepared not to receive an answer.

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Empathy Empathy describes an understanding of another person’s feelings, thoughts, actions and motives (e.g. Trevithick, 2006). It is more about understanding another person’s unique perspectives and contacts, meaning that researchers ‘enter imaginatively into the inner life of someone else’ (Kadushin & Kadushin, 1997, P. 108). This then enable interviewers to act sensitively to their interviewees. Empathy is an active understanding of someone’s experiences, while sympathy is passive. According to Dominelli (2002, P. 9), ‘an empathy which goes beyond placing oneself in another’s shoes by daring to put these on and wear them for a while’. She raises concerns regarding whether it is possible to experience other people’s reality in this way. There is also the question of whether the researcher should intrude uninvited into another’s world. The following example is an extract from Haider’s (2020) interview with a Rohingya man who had to leave his home to survive torture by the Myanmar Army: Moh: ‘they burnt my house in front of me and then chase me to the forest. Somehow, I managed to cross the border. Now living in a makeshift camp’. Shu:  ‘it is not a good experience as a human being. I can see the pain in your eyes. Tell me how you are managing now’.

Rogers (1957) prescribes that great care be taken when dealing with people’s emotions. Researchers should take their lead from them, not from ‘our own desires’ (Trevithick, 2008, P. 154). The researcher should not respond to participants as if in a routine, but should understand their point of view fully by engaging their hearts and minds to show genuine interest in the participants. Researchers should respond to participants’ feelings by gesture, posture, tone of voice, expression and touch. There are three components to enhance empathy (Decety and Jackson, 2006; Decety and Lamm, 2006): i) Affective sharing between the self and the others: when neural networks in our brains listen to someone expressing their feelings v­ erbally and observe their tone of voice, gestures and facial expressions, they become stimulated and attempt to replicate those feelings. It is an unconscious, involuntary process.

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ii) Self-other awareness: this is a voluntary response. In order to demonstrate it, it is fundamental to have self-awareness. Gerdes and Segal (2011) suggest that mindful observation of reality can support sensitive social work researchers to achieve this. Self-other awareness is aroused by experiencing affective sharing. If I truly see what is happening in a given situation, I not only experience empathy for others. I also remain conscious of the fact that another’s pain, confusion, or sense of disempowerment are not may own. (P. 6)

While researchers can be empathic, they must guard against wilful involvement with participants’ feelings, which could result in emotional and physical burnout. So self-other awareness ‘acts as a brake on the automatic link between perception and emotion that occurs in affective sharing and allows us to take a more determined perspective’ (P. 5). iii) Mental flexibility and self-emotion regulation: this is a sophisticated cognitive ability and allows us to toggle back and forth between observing author’s perspective and shutting it out, between identifying with the other and identify solely with the self. (P. 6)

Prompting Prompting concerns encouraging participants to begin talking or to continue to talk. Prompting can be used in a number of ways such as helping participants to return to unfinished sentences or comments. They can be invited to comment further, but the temptation to finish their sentences should be resisted. Sensitive social work researchers should not put words in participants’ mouths, but should allow them to find their own. Prompting can be simultaneously encouraging and coercive; hence, Trevithick (2008) suggests being sensitive and caring in order to prompt participants, as well as focusing on the tone of voice and the timing of the prompt.

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Probing In order to obtain detailed or specific information, researchers can use probing questions. It is likely that these will put research participants on the defensive, so researchers must ask them carefully and sensitively. Indeed, in some instances, such as when participants are recalling painful experiences, it will be unacceptable to probe. Barnard (2005) states that some researchers will likely probe to gather more information about events or experiences if participants show a willingness to disclose. However, he continues that researchers must ‘balance the interests of the research with those of the respondents in deciding when and when not to push for a fuller or less inconsistent account’ (P. 14). In her research she and her colleagues deliberately avoided asking for in-depth details, although obtaining more information would have been better for their research. For ethical and moral reasons they decided not to delve deeper into the issue.

Containing Anxiety During interviews, participants can become anxious as they reflect and recollect. On some occasions it would be difficult to continue, as anxiety could instigate nervousness, panic, frustration and agitation, but on most occasions participants can proceed. Psychological and emotional distress can also affect participants’ ability to remember matters appropriately. Situations such as this could pose challenges that researchers must manage. In order to support participants and continue with data collection effectively, researchers can become ‘containers’. According to Trevithick (2008, P. 26) containing anxiety involved being open and receptive to the thoughts and feelings of others – becoming a ‘container’ – so that these can be transformed into something more manageable.

Researchers must actively listen to participants, empathising and reassuring when required. After interviews, they may want to give

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information on a range of services participants can access. This should be part of the developing distress protocol that will be discussed in Chap. 6. Researcher must keep in mind that their interviewee’s anxiety could impart itself to them after interviews. It is then vital for them to talk with someone they can trust, including supervisors managers. Debriefing sessions could help manage researchers’ health and well-being, a technique that could be incorporated into research safety plans. It is paramount that sensitive social work researchers pay attention to managing their own health and well-being. They should follow West’s (1997) suggestion to look after their physical, emotional and spiritual welfare. They can, for example, become involved with sports, exercise and yoga, all of which can improve their physical well-being, and reading, sharing and talking to people with positive attitudes. Listening to music could also improve mental well-being, while exploring beliefs, meditation and mindfulness could have the same effect on their spiritual welfare.

Observation Skills In social work the word ‘observation’ has different meanings in different contexts such as children at home or students in their social work placements. In sensitive social work research, observations are seen as a skill where researchers pay attention to participants’ expression, tone, pace of speech, language, emotions and interactions in order to ensure their welfare as they participate in studies. This applies mostly when they are being interviewed. They will be able to notice subtle details such as changes of mood, tone and body language, so that they can tactfully handle situations. This skill helps sensitive social work researchers analyse and think critically, which in turn enables them to make the right decisions. Observations also play a vital role developing rapport and relationships with participants. By observing body language critically, sensitive social work researchers will be able to consider what questions to ask and how and when to ask them. They can also establish whether participants need a time-out or a break from interviews, or indeed whether the interview should be terminated. Researchers able to promptly identify participants’ distress can intervene effectively and positively.

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Organisational and Administrative Skills Conducting sensitive research will most likely be challenging but rewarding. It requires careful attention to all aspects of the research process. Good organisational and administrative skills thus become useful to the successful completion of research projects because they will keep them on track by appropriately managing researchers’ time and resources. When tasks are organised and are conducted on schedule, researchers are in control of their research. By establishing good organizational and administrative systems, we are in a position to ensure that we make the best use of whatever time and resources we have available to us. This involves devising a personalized administrative system for planning, organizing, monitoring and reviewing our work to ensure that we are keeping to agreed programmes, action plans, targets, aims and objectives. (Trevithick, 2006, P. 137)

Thinking systematically can enable effective organisation of tasks and will increase productive. Systematic thinking produces clear objectives and realistic and timely action plans. Researchers can use SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely) goals to manage their projects.

Self-Disclosure Self-disclosure can be useful in some instances to make participants feel at ease and comfortable. The imbalance of power between researchers and research participants is not in doubt. Some sensitive researchers use self-­ disclosure to reveal their feelings. This also helps build rapport and promote empathy. Dickson-Swift et al. (2008) find that, by sharing personal stories, researchers build non-hierarchical relationships with their participants, creating a level playing field (see Activity 4.1). Whether this technique should be used in on any specific occasion is a question for the researcher. If it is deemed appropriate, the researcher must ask themselves whether they feel comfortable disclosing personal

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information, and if so, when and to what extent. There is no indication in the relevant literature or in social work how this should be done. Like social work itself, in social science research it is unclear how and when to disclose personal information. Lee (1993), Lee and Renzetti (1993) and Dickson-Swift et al. (2008) have shown that many qualitative researchers make some level of disclosure, but its nature, degree and frequency vary by study. Studies involving sensitive topics generally create environments in which researchers make disclosures that could make research participants comfortable and relaxed enough to talk about their own experiences, perceptions and views. Feminist researchers encourage self-disclosure in interviews (Dickson-Swift et al., 2008). According to Trevithick (2008, P. 178) the general rule is that self-disclosure should not occur unless it is in the interests of the individual. If this technique is adopted, great care must be taken and sensitivity exercised because of the potential for the situation to miscarry. Disclosing personal information is not mandatory in order to develop rapport; it is just a technique at the researcher’s disposal. Activity 4.1 will allow to reflect this matter further. Activity 4.1  Case Study Regarding Disclosure Please read the following case study: Audrey did not want to disclose, but she found it difficult to build swift rapport with Grace who had experienced sexual abuse when she was thirteen. Grace was saying very little. Audrey did not feel personally distressed or anxious in talking with Grace, and decided very quickly that she would disclose her own sexual abuse by her stepfather. She hoped that doing so would enable Grace to engage more and open up. Audrey’s decision paid off; her minimal disclosure enabled Grace to relate her experiences and how they affected her. Now consider the following question: Do you feel comfortable in undertake self-disclosure? Comment For some of you it is not going to be easy. You may think that interviews should not be sharing sessions, or that self-disclosure is just another tool for you to use when you need to engage and build rapport. Self-disclosure could also put you in a vulnerable position, so, it is important for researchers to be aware of the potential consequences of disclosure and it may be helpful to think through how much self-disclosure they will undertake prior to the interview. (Dickson-­ Swift et al., 2008, P 40)

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Self-Discipline Sensitive social work studies demand researchers’ full attention to every aspect of the research process. Research projects, whether at undergraduate, postgraduate or doctoral level, always come with deadlines. Researchers also have other demands such as family, socialisation and employment, all of which could influence the timely conduct of research. Researchers must therefore be self-disciplined. Self-discipline should be part of a researchers’ overall time management approach. Dryden (2009) asserts that self-discipline involves three aspects of personality. The short-term self focuses on the present moment and on short-term goals, that is, the short-term self that demands immediate fulfilment. An example would be choosing between watching a movie and playing a game as that evening’s activity. The long-term self focuses on longer-term goals such as a decision to eat good food and exercise in order to stay healthy. The executive self attempts to get the best out of both the shorter- and the longer-term selves. In order to do this, Dryden (2009) suggests striking a balance between the short- and long-term selves. Long-term goals can be achieved if researchers could build short-term life goals into them. Achieving one type of goal at the expense of another is difficult to sustain. Self-discipline is inextricably linked to time management. Sensitive researchers should expect competing demands and priorities when they conduct their research goals. Good time management plans should reflect researchers’ short- and long-term goals. Before considering techniques to manage time, it is important to identify what is required and by when. In order to achieve this, researchers can construct a Gantt chart, in which conducting research should be an essential element without dominating researchers’ lives by making them struggle to incorporate short-term goals. Sensitive research should not be so all-encompassing as to rob researchers of their personalities. Doing a piece of sensitive research on a small or big scale should not make researchers a dull person. When using Gantt charts, researchers must include all the tasks they need to complete, allocating deadlines to all of them. The Gantt chart can

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be both monthly and weekly. A number of internet sites offer free Gantt chart templates, and MS Word or Excel can be used to develop a Gantt chart independently (Activity 4.2). A Gantt chart provides monthly, quarterly and yearly goals that can then be targeted into weekly research activity charts that reflect the hours researchers must dedicate to research and other demands. It is advisable to be realistic: researchers must consider all competing demands and their priorities. It is easy to include activities and deadlines in the plan, but the problem is complying with it because life is not always certain; it can be messy and unplanned, so additional tasks could demand a researcher’s attention. Both Gantt and weekly charts must have enough leeway to allow for unplanned urgent tasks. Conducting a piece of research requires thinking, doing and reflecting critically, so researchers must use their time strategically and creatively. For example, no one can be alert, able to pay attention to every detail and concentrate consistently for 24 hours of every day. Researchers can focus on thinking and writing when they are fresh; for some this is first thing in the morning; for others it is at night. It is paramount for researchers to find out what works for them, when they are most productive and can use the time to the best effect. They should identify their productive and non-productive times and allocate tasks accordingly. The former should be allocated to thinking, reading and writing about sensitive social work research projects, the latter to organising access to the research site, to organising notes, editing literature reviews and to any other routine or administrative tasks. Before adhering to weekly plans, it is highly advisable for researchers to discover what work for them, then to develop daily and weekly activity plans and be disciplined in following them. MS Word and Excel can help develop such plans. In order to become self-disciplined and manage time effectively, it is important to be pragmatic, systematic and strategic and to maintain focus on both short- and long-term goals. Activity 4.2  Develop a Gantt Chart Activity Develop a Gantt chart based on the research process you read in Chap. 1.

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Planning and Prioritising Without setting short- and long-term goals for their studies, researchers would find it difficult to plan their research projects. Although planning might sound undemanding it can in fact be challenging, in particular for studies involving sensitive research, because researchers must think carefully how to manage every aspect of the research process, not only in order to successfully complete their projects on time but also to ensure that their participants and others involved in their research—including the researchers themselves—are safeguarded from abuse, harm, threat and exploitation. Sharp et al. (2002) indicate a number of advantages to planning: 1 . It reduces the risk of overlooking important matters. 2. It enables researchers to foresee when they are likely to encounter difficulties. 3. It makes the interrelationship between research activities explicit. 4. By listing activities in order, it prevents them occurring simultaneously. 5. It helps keep track of resources. 6. It tracks available support in order to establish the feasibility of achieving the research objectives with the available resources. If this is not possible, researchers can change their plans. 7. If particular training or additional funding is required, it indicates the overall scale of researchers’ needs. 8. By indicating targets and deadlines, it confers on researchers a sense of achievement that in turn increases their motivation and self-esteem. The headings of the various elements of the research process could provide an initial template to begin developing a plan, but it is possible to go further by identifying tasks under each of these headings. For example, ‘Literature review’ is a main heading, but in order to carry out this review a researcher must first know how to search, set search parameters, developing inclusion and exclusion criteria and read the relevant literature. All of these can be subheadings. Now it is possible to allocate deadlines to each subheading or task. Now concentrate on Activity 4.3 and develop a weekly action list.

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Activity 4.3  Develop a Weekly Activity List Ian is a full-time postgraduate social work student wanting to carry out a literature review for his dissertation. In order to do so, he has completed a weekly action list in which he aims to conduct his small-scale research within three months. Activity Develop a weekly action list. You may find Table 4.1 helpful to develop a weekly action list.

Contingency plans must be built in to the main plan in case of unforeseen circumstances. A table (see Table 4.1) and a Gantt chart (Appendix A) provide a snapshot of tasks and deadlines.

Self-Awareness Sensitive social work research involves more than merely following the research process. Researchers in this field must think carefully when encountering challenges and threats in order to find suitable, and in some cases new, ways to approach these. To find suitable approaches they must rely on their past experience, knowledge, intuition and judgement. Reflection will certainly help them, and improve their self-awareness skills. According to Payne (2002, P. 126) at any time we may need to think again and think differently. Because this kind of flexibility is the essence of dealing with any human being and being effective in working on complex human problems, critical awareness and reflection is [sic] an important practical implementation of the social work value of respecting human individuality and rights.

So maintaining critical awareness is pivotal to supporting research participants and successful conduct of the study. When researchers are self-aware they can see how their language, behaviour and actions affect participants and the outcome of their research. It also helps them reflect effectively. Sensitive researchers must remember that their research is taking them into their participants’ worlds

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Table 4.1  An example of lists of activities of a research project Developing and refining research proposal Number Tasks 1 Select a topic 2 Develop research proposal 3 Refine research proposal Search of the literature Number Tasks 4 Search peer-reviewed journals 5 Search books 6 Search dissertation 7 Search policies 8 Search practice guidance 9 Search reports 19 Other documents Research activities Number Tasks

Duration (weeks) 2 3 2 Duration (weeks) 2 2 1 1 1 1 1

Duration (weeks) 20 Review literature 6 21 Decide research methodology and methods 2 22 Decide sampling strategy and sample size 1 23 Develop instrument for collecting data (questionnaires, 3 interviews, observations and focus groups) 24 Test instruments for collecting data 2 25 Revise test instruments for collecting data 2 26 Collect data 4 27 Organise data 1 28 Analyse data 3 29 Interpret data 2 Administrative activities Number Tasks Duration (weeks) 30 Develop risk and benefits form 1 31 Devise risk assessment 1 32 Devise research information sheet 1 33 Devise consent forms 1 34 Develop distress protocol 1 35 Develop safety protocol 1 36 Complete an ethical application from 2 Writing Number Tasks Duration (weeks) (continued)

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Table 4.1 (continued) 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 Editing Number

Abstract Introduction Literature review Research methodology and methods Results Discussions Implications Further research Conclusion Appendices References

1 1 3 2 3 2 1 1 1 1 1

Tasks

48

Review and edit dissertation

Duration (weeks) 2

for a short period, and that collecting information about their experiences, views, perspectives and thoughts could be distressing for some of them. Realising this at the appropriate moment would help them manage and support their participants. Self-awareness would also enable them to realise the strengths and weaknesses of their approaches and the actions they should take to improve and develop themselves.

Reflection The practice of reflection enables sensitive social work researchers to make a sense of the experience of their work, including the creation of knowledge in-action and on-action. Reflecting on the experiences, challenges, threats and opportunities of sensitive social work research will improve the researcher’s ability to respond effectively to issues as they arise by conducting research sensitively. It is also a skill that helps researchers continuously develop themselves, consequently enabling them again to conduct research sensitively because it gives permission and create space for sensitive social work researchers to scrutinise their practice and learn from their experiences, actions, thoughts and feelings. Researchers mostly engage in interior dialogue and debate to explore their actions and systematically analyse the meanings and agendas hidden in their actions,

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whether consciously or unconsciously. The literature contains several definitions of reflection, some of which are: an active persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed from of knowledge. (Harvey et al., 2016, P. 9) a deliberate and conscientious process that employs a person’s cognitive, emotional and somatic capacities to mindful contemplate on past, present, or future (intended or planned) actions in order to learn, better understand and potentially improve future actions. (Harvey et al., 2016, P. 9) deliberately thinking about action with a view to its improvement. (Hatton & Smith, 1995, P. 34) a purposeful explanation about individuals’ beliefs, values, thoughts, assumptions and actions to improve or learn. (Harvey et al., 2020)

How to Reflect Several frameworks to foster reflection are available, and it is up to the researcher to select the framework they want to use. Some of the main frameworks are: Different Perspectives  Brookfield (2017) suggests exploring researchers’ experiences from a number of perspectives. By seeing experiences through a variety of lenses, the researcher can ask a number of questions to gain different perspectives:  you: as a researcher, what is your view of this (situation/incident)? • your peers: how might the approaches of other researchers, peers or colleagues differ from yours? • your supervisor or mentor: what would your supervisor’s or mentor’s perspective be? • your subject: what does the literature associated with your subject say? (adapted from Harvey et al., 2020)

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Experiential Learning Cycle  Kolb (1984) has proposed an experienced-­ based learning cycle that concerns learning through experience. The cycle of learning starts with a concrete experience that leads to ‘reflective observation’ by the researcher. In light of such observation, researchers start forming abstract concepts and generalising, which can be applied to ­similar experiences. Borton’s Framework  Borton’s (1970) framework can be used for three aspects of reflection: reflect-for-action, reflect-in-action and reflect-foraction. It is very simple, and easy to remember, and it does not suggest particular types or questions; rather, it is open and flexible. The prefixes of the question are: • What? • So what? • Now what? What? questions start with ‘what’ enabling exploration of their practice or particular incidents. For example: • What is happening, what happened, what is my plan? • What am I doing, what did I do, what were my values, assumptions and feelings, what were the consequences of my actions, what did other researchers do? This is the descriptive phase of reflection. It allows a focus on specific issues and incidents. So what? prompts the asking of challenging questions. • So what if I did this? • So what if my decision was this? • So what if I do not achieve what I want to achieve? Now what? prompts the development of action plans. • Now what action do I need to take? • Now what needs to change? • Now what do I need to learn or develop further?

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The framework as a whole can be applied to reflection-in-action, but this section is suitable only for reflection-on-action. (adapted from Haider, 2020, P. 177) Researchers can aid the reflective process (explore Box 4.3 for tips to reflect) by using the following techniques: • writing reflective research journals or diaries • diagrams such as mind mapping, spider diagrams and flow charts could support reflection • analysing critical incidents • using expressive creative media such as music, poetry, story writing, drama, and pictures, photographs and artwork • contemplative practices such as mindfulness • writing reports

Box 4.3  Tips for Reflection Taylor (2006) suggests the following tips for reflection: Be spontaneous: In their thinking and writing, researchers should adopt a spontaneous approach that could potentially produce rich descriptions of their practice—that is, the problems they encounter and their responses to them. Important insights come from how honestly researchers explore their thoughts, feelings and emotions. They need to be as spontaneous as possible in order to represent and record those thoughts, feelings and emotions. Express yourself honestly and freely: Taylor (2006) suggests that researchers write uninhibitedly about their feelings and emotions. This means that they should write what they feel, even if it is something they will not use in public, including swearing. Sometimes ‘profanity says all there is to say or write at that moment.’ (Taylor, 2006: 60) The aim is subsequently to return to this record and unpack what the researcher actually meant when they wrote it. Researchers only share their reflections with those they can trust and feel comfortable sharing with. Remain open to ideas: researchers need to suspend their assumptions and prejudgements and be open-minded; so that they do not jump into early conclusions that may deter to see a new way of tracking the problems or provide a new insight. (continued)

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Box 4.3  (continued) Chose a time and place to suit you: Taylor (2006) has suggested to find a right time when researchers mind is fresh; they are relaxed, and the environment is conducive to reflect. For some researchers this suggestion could be effective because they could then dedicate quality of time thinking and moving on but for some researchers’ reflection does not need to be in a fixed time; they can conduct reflection whenever they feel like reflecting. Be prepared personally: an attentive and imaginative mood is conducive to an effective reflection. So, Taylor (2006) has recommended to ‘prepare personally’ to reflect if that means researchers need to focus and do activities to mentally get ready for reflection, such as walking, swimming meditation and other forms of relaxation techniques. Choose a suitable reflection method: different frameworks are available to researchers to reflect; they need to select the one that could help them to reflect freely, honestly, deeply and spontaneously. Initially researchers should experiment with a few methods before they settle with the one they feel most comfortable with and meet their needs.

Debriefing Conducting sensitive research could trigger researchers’ emotions and challenge their values and beliefs. Debriefing can help researchers manage the emotional impact of conducting research on sensitive topics with vulnerable people. Boud et al. (1985) maintain that debriefing plays a significant role in experience-based learning. Like reflection, Kolb’s (1984) experiential learning could be an effective framework for debriefing. Based on this framework, researchers could ask the following questions in order to manage their emotions and feelings and to learn from their experiences: • • • • • • • •

what exactly happened? what were my reactions? what state was I in just before the incident occurred? what did I observe and notice? what did I feel? why I feel the way I did? what did I do afterwards to change my state? what can I learn from this?

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• how does this relate to the existing literature? • how do I approach this field differently in future? Boud et al. (1985) also propose a framework in which they emphasise researchers’ emotions in terms of learning more than Kolb (1984) does. Their framework further developed by Harvey et al., 2020, P. 22) consists of three steps that can be taken after an experience: 1. Return to the experience, asking questions like • How I would describe my experience? • What did I say that would enable me to start the debriefing process? 2. Paying attention to the feelings connected with the experience could help researchers recognise and understand emotions, thereby helping them learn from the experience: • What were my feelings when this happened? • What was my emotional response to the event or incident and the people involved? • What feelings or emotions am I still experiencing? • How does this affect me? • What do I need to do now to manage these feelings and emotions? 3. Re-evaluating the experience by recognising implications and outcomes, the stage in which researchers need to step back from their experiences, emotions and feelings and explore alternative perspectives and approaches. They will also explore the implications of these perspectives and approaches on their future actions. Questions that might help researchers to learn and thus progress include: • • • • • •

What other perspectives explain this? What other ways could I deal with this? What would I do differently next time? What did I learn from this experience? What were my strengths in this situation? How might I build on these strengths?

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Gibbs (1988) has also offered a self-explanatory framework that can be used for debriefing (see Fig. 4.1).

Critical Thinking Although some authors treat critical thinking and reflection interchangeably, there are differences between the two terms. The principal aim of critical thinking is to maintain an ‘objective’ position (OU, 2008) because the process of examining ideas and concepts and evaluating them requires the weighing up of evidence. All these indicate that researchers should proactively seek out and explore arguments from various sources, then Action Plan (If it arose again what would you do?)

Description (What happened?)

Conclusion (What else could you have done?)

Feelings (What were you thinking and feeling?)

Analysis (What sense can you make of the situation?) Fig. 4.1  Gibbs’ (1988) reflective cycle

Evaluation (What was good and bad about the experience?)

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weigh them up and test the evidence for the claims made. In order to do this, researchers must keep an open mind, put aside their own assumptions and judgements and question the validity and reliability of the evidence and the claims made by other authors. This skill is fundamental when reading, writing and conducting research, and is vital in the management of every aspect of the research process. For example, in order to write literature reviews, researchers must read materials and take a critical stance in positioning their research. This skill thus enables researchers to evaluate the existing evidence in their research area, after which they will be able to propose their arguments and defend them. They will scrutinise other writers’ perceptions, biases, assumptions, agendas and logical reasoning, as well as the robustness of, and possibly gaps in, evidence and claims as well as their own, that is, the researcher’s own. Thinking critically means that researchers will be able to develop strong arguments based on evidence (see Box 4.4). It enables researchers to develop responses to arguments by comparing and contrasting materials including concepts, ideas, theories, methods, models, approaches and evidence. By using this skill, researchers are able to synthesise their own thoughts and ideas and other writers’ arguments. The skill is very important in sensitive research because it could reveal the assumptions, beliefs, values and agenda underlying arguments that could be discriminatory. Box 4.4  What Is an Argument? Four basic components generally make an argument (Toulmin, 1958; Booth et al., 1995): The claim: asking the following questions could enable you to analyse arguments. • • • •

What is being argued for? Is it relevant to my needs? Can I use it in my research? Does it add to the existing body of knowledge?

The evidence: the evidence should support the writer’s claims. The warrant: the connection between the claim and the evidence—that is, whether logical reasoning connects the claim and the evidence for it. Qualifications: the limitations to the main claim. These are concessions that may have to be made within an argument that limit what someone might be able to claim. (OU, 2008, P. 12)

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How to Think Critically There are a number of ways a researcher can think critically. The following steps proposed by the Open University (2008) can help researchers to begin the process: 1. Identify the thrust of the information: The aim of this first step is to identify and understand the arguments in a particular area. Researchers must first identify the general thrust of the argument within the area on they are concentrating. This step enables researchers to understand the subject area and the arguments. The following questions could help researchers start analysing materials critically: • • • •

What are the main arguments? What claims do the authors make? In order to justify their claims, what evidence do they provide? What conclusions have they reached based on the evidence?

2. Analyse the materials: Researchers initially scrutinise the relevance of some of the arguments. The following questions can be used to decide the relevance of the information they have gathered: • • • • • • • •

Does the information fit with other theories? How does it fit the broader picture? Are the materials coherent? If the information is old, is it the primary source of the subject matter? Does the researcher need additional information to make sense of it? What is the implication of adding information? Does the argument provide a balanced view? Has any argument or evidence been discarded?

3. Compare and apply information: By applying learning, researchers will understand the subject. The following question will help to think critically:

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• What are the implications of one piece of information vis-à-­ vis another? • What drawbacks are there in applying this specific information or idea to practice or real-life situations? • Is the argument comprehensive enough to enable understanding of the subject matter, or are additional ideas or theories required? Evaluating an argument is also part of critical thinking. In order to do this, researchers must establish the validity and reliability of the argument presented. The following questions can be used as a checklist to evaluate arguments: • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Is it coherent? Is it rational and logical? Are there any gaps in its construction? Are the claims or conclusions based on concrete evidence? Does it make sense? What are the assumptions and beliefs underlying it? Are they rational? Has the author justified it? Has the author considered alternative arguments? Is there any bias in the claim and the argument? Does the claim fit the evidence? Does the evidence support the claim? Is the evidence relevant to the topic? Does the author provide research evidence? Does the evidence conflict with other evidence? Are there any concerns regarding the way the evidence on which the claim is based was collected?

One can conclude from this discussion that nothing should be taken for granted, but rather that everything, including the questions themselves, should be questioned in order to think critically.

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Undertaking a Literature Review A literature review is a comprehensive, objective, systematic and organised critical analysis of the relevant available literature on a specific topic (Hart, 1998). Undertaking a literature review (see Box 4.5) is essential and serves a number of functions in research. It aims • to identify the gaps and inconsistencies in the body of knowledge on the subject of study • to indicate research problems • to outline the existing knowledge and research regarding subject and what contribution the proposed research intends to make • to devise a conceptual and theoretical framework for a research problem that can be used as a basis on which to collect and analyse data • to evaluate the research findings on the subject • to enable researchers to identify a suitable research design (i.e. the methodology and methods) Avoid Bias Sensitive social work researchers must conduct literature reviews in a systematic way—that is, identifying, evaluating and interpreting the existing body of knowledge and evidence. In doing so, they must refrain from making assumptions and allowing their biases to influence their reviews. They can, however, explore their own biases and make them explicit in their reviews. Sensitive social work researchers must be open-minded when they read literature and write their reviews. They should not allow conscious and unconscious bias to influence their thoughts, analyses and the conclusions they draw from the existing literature. Box 4.5  The Literature Review Process Step 1: Identify and search relevant and appropriate literature for review by using a systematic search procedure. Step 2: Gather, analyse and critically review an article or book chapter and report on it individually. (continued)

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Box 4.5  (continued) Step 3: Synthesise these individual reviews to make the review as a whole coherent. Step 4: Continue to revisit and review the literature throughout the research project. Step 5: Write clearly, logically and coherently to make the review a seamless and integrated piece.

Good Literature Reviews Literature reviews are important items in research reports, dissertations and thesis. Writing a good one can be challenging, especially for novice researchers, because expectations of a good literature review are somewhat different than for writing general reports. Some of the criteria for good literature reviews are that they • are structured, logical and coherent and provide comprehensive coverage of the topic of study; • provide an accurate picture of the subject; • should go beyond mere descriptions of the literature, but should critically analyse and evaluate existing research and related materials. In doing so, researchers can demonstrate connections between their study and previous ones, as well as outlining the contribution they will make; • should take a critical stance on various perspectives, but provide a balanced picture and rationally position researchers’ own arguments on the subject.

Critical Appraisal of Literature Reviews Critical appraisal of literature including research articles is the main criterion for producing good literature reviews. For some novice researchers, this could feel like a somewhat daunting exercise, but with the right technique and practice the process can be a smooth and manageable one. Several tools to critically evaluate information are available. The PROMPT

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mnemonic developed by the Open University (2020) is one of the tools researchers may find useful when critically appraising or analysing the literature they review. PROMPT stands for P—presentation R—relevance O—objectivity M—methods P—provenance T—timeliness Presentation regards the way in which information is presented. Poorly presented, inappropriate or confusing language, illogical structure, confusing layout and ineffectual writing hinders the message the writer aims to convey. Choice of colour, font type and size could also affect the quality of the content. The following questions can help evaluate presentation of articles, reports and book chapters: • Is the information comprehensible? • Are there any errors of grammar and spelling? Relevance of the materials under review to the writer’s purpose. Rather than the information or materials themselves, this point concerns rather the writer’s need. The materials under review may be of a high standard but are not relevant to that need; that is, they are outside the scope of the research. The following question can help evaluate the relevance of information: • Is the source suitable for your purpose? Objectivity regards assessing whether the source material is presented in a neutral, balanced manner. Author bias can be identified by assessing the source materials. In other words, a critical stance is required regarding the writer’s need. In this respect, it is important that researchers’ own conscious and unconscious biases are not lost to sight. When evaluating the objectivity of materials, the following questions might be considered:

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Does it provide one point of view? Are there any hidden agendas, biases and errors of omission? Does the writer mention their own position on the matter? Is the writer selective in the material they present?

The following checklist can be used to critically analyse a research article: Methods: identify those used to produce the information, including research methods. The following questions might help to evaluate them: • Are the methods of the source materials stipulated? • Are they appropriate? • For research articles and reports, is it clear how and why specific research methods are used? Provenance: establish the origin of the materials—that is, who produced them and where they come from. Answers to these questions should indicate the reliability of information and materials. Questions that can help evaluate provenance are: • Who produced the materials? • Have they revealed their affiliation? • Are they trustworthy? Timeliness: assess whether materials are up-to-date or fit with the writer’s needs. The following questions can help assess timeliness: • Is the information obsolete or superseded? • Is it up-to-date enough to meet your needs? You can also use a checklist illustrated in Appendix B to critically appraise research articles.

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Writing a Literature Review As established earlier, good literature reviews should go beyond description. They are argumentative pieces of writing that imply a careful consideration of a number of matters including: • Analytical and critical writing: Analytical and critical writing demands analytical and critical reading of the literature. It is commonly assumed that ‘critical’ means focusing on negative points. This is not the case. Both strengths and weaknesses should be included equally. • Structure: From a single paragraph to the literature review as a whole, a structure that supports rational and coherent arguments is necessary. Headings and subheadings can provide such structures, as can the use of signposting and linkage of words and phrases. Researchers’ arguments should be engaging and constructive, and they should have a clear aim regarding what they want to achieve from their literature review. Without a clear aim, a literature review would be fragmented and incoherent. • Style: In critical and analytical writing, researchers must also in some instances explain and reflect. In order to engage readers, techniques such as summarising ideas and research findings and signposting can be used. It is necessary to show how researchers’ arguments help indicate gaps in the literature. • Selective: Literature reviews must be focused and relevant. In order to achieve this, researchers must be selective what they include in their reviews. • Editing: Researchers must allocate significant amounts of time to editing their literature reviews. Drafting, redrafting, and, in some instances, rewriting some sections should be seen as part of the process of writing a literature review. Chap. 9 will discuss writing a research report or dissertation. • Plagiarism: it is paramount that researchers reference materials appropriately.

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Key Points The research process for sensitive social work research is not easy or straightforward. Sensitive researchers must therefore proactively and strategically manage their projects. Conducting sensitive social work research studies requires a number of skills such as meticulous preparation, planning, organisation and, most of all, productive time management in order to successfully complete the study. Gantt charts and daily activity and ‘to do’ lists can help researchers manage all the activities required to successfully complete their research projects. Literature reviews should outline the salient debates within the area of study. They help researchers design and conduct their research. Research questions should emerge during the course of literature reviews. It is likely that conducting sensitive research can be physically, psychologically and emotionally challenging and demanding, so researchers must pay attention to their personal well-being. Questions for Critical Reflection What must researchers do to write a literature review? What roles do values play in sensitive social work research? How can technology be used to manage time? Which social work skills should be used in conjunction with the survey strategy? What challenges do researchers encounter in following their research plans? Key Terms Acceptance Acceptance of participation Artificial communication Avoid bias Borton’s framework Building rapport and relationships Chronomics

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Controlled emotional involvement Critical thinking Debriefing sessions Empathy Encouragement and approval Engagement Environment and atmosphere Experiential learning cycle Gantt chart Genuineness Individualisation Limited listeners Observation skills Organisational and administrative skills Paralinguistics Planning Planning and prioritising Pretend listeners Probing Prompting Proxemics Reflection Respect Responsiveness Self-awareness Self-discipline Self-disclosure Silence SMART SOLER model Verbal and non—verbal language Warmth

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References Barker, R. (2003). The social work dictionary. Washington: NASW Press. Barnard, M. (2005). Discomforting research: Colliding moralities and looking for ‘truth’ in a study of parental drug problem. Sociology Health and Illness, 27(1), 1–19. Biestek, F. P. (1979). The casework relationship. London: George Allen & Unwin. Birdwhistell, R. (1970). Kinesics and context. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania. Booth, W., Colomb, G. G., & Williams, J. M. (1995). Making good arguments: An overview, in the craft of research. The University of Chicago Press. Borton, T. (1970). Reach, teach and touch. McGraw-Hill. Boud, D., Keogh, R., & Walker, D. (1985). Reflection: Turning experience into learning. Kogan Page. Brookfield, S. D. (2017). Becoming a critically reflective teacher (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass. Decety, J., & Jackson, P. L. (2006). A social-neuroscience perspective on empathy. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15(2), 54–58. Decety, J., & Lamm, C (2006). Human through the lens of social neuroscience. The Scientific World Journal, 6. https://doi.org/10.1100/tsw.2006.221 Dickson-Swift, V., James, E. L., & Liamputtong, P. (2008). Undertaking sensitive research in the health and social sciences: Managing boundaries, emotions and risks. Cambridge University Press. Dominelli, L. (2002). Anti-oppressive Practice in context. In R.  Adams, L.  Dominelli, & M.  Payne (Eds.), Social work: Themes, issues and critical debates (2nd ed.). Palgrave. Dryden, W. (2009). How to think and intervene like an REBT therapist. London: Routledge. Egan, G. (1990). The skilled helper: A systematic approach to effective helping (4th ed.). Thomson Brooks/Cole Publishing Co. Egan, G. (2002). The skilled helper: A problem management and opportunity development approach to helping (7th edition). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks Cole. Feltham, C., & Dryden, W. (1994). Developing counsellor supervision. Los Angeles: Sage. Gerdes, K. E., & Segal, E. (2011). Importance of empathy for social work practice: Integrating new science. Social Work, 56(2), 141–148. https://doi. org/10.1093/sw/56.2.141 Gibbs, G. (1988). Learning by doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods. Oxford: Oxford Further Education Unit.

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Haider, S. (2020). The Mental health and well-being of the Rohingya in Bangladesh beyond COVID – 19. Refugee Research Online. https://refugeeresearchonline.org/the-mental-health-and-well-being-of-the-rohingyainbangladesh-beyond-covid-19/ Hart, C. (1998). Doing a literature review. London: Sage Publications. Harvey, M., Coulson, D., & McMaugh, A. (2016). Towards a theory of the ecology of reflection: Reflective practice for experiential learning in higher education. Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, 13(2), 1–20. Harvey, M., Lloyd, K., McLachlan, K., Semple, A.-L., & Walkerden, G. (2020). Reflection for learning: A scholarly practice guide for education, [online]. Available at https://s3.eu-­west-­2.amazonaws.com/assets.creode.advancehe-­ document-­m anager/documents/advance-­h e/Adv_HE_Reflection_for_ Learning_Guide_1580298564.pdf. Accessed 17 Dec 2020. Hatton, N., & Smith, D. (1995). Reflection in teacher education towards definition and implementation. Teaching and Teacher Education, 11(1), 33–49. Johnson, B., & Clarke, J. M. (2003). Collection sensitive data: The impact on researchers. Qualitative Health Research, 13(3), 421–434. Kadushin, A., & Kadushin, G. (1997). The social work interview (4th Eds.). New York: Columbia University Press. Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Prentice Hall. Lee, R. M. (1993). Doing research on sensitive topics. Sage Publications. Lee, R. M., & Renzetti, C. M. (1993). The problems of researching sensitive topics. In C. M. Renzetti, & R. M. Lee (Eds.), Researching sensitive topics. Sage Publications Inc., Thousand Oaks. Lishman, J. (1994). Communication in social work. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Open University. (2020). Advanced evaluation of using PROMPT. Open University. Open University (OU). (2008). Thinking critically. The Open University. Payne, M. (2002). Social work theories and reflective practice. In R.  Adams, L.  Dominelli, & M.  Payne (Eds.), Social work: Themes, issues and critical debates (2nd ed.). Palgrave. Rogers, C. R. (1942). Counselling and psychotherapy; newer concepts in practice. Houghton Mifflin. Rogers, C. R. (1957). The necessary and sufficient conditions of therapeutic personality change. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 21(2), 95–103. https:// doi.org/10.1037/h0045357

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Shardlow, S. M. (2002). Editorial. Journal of Social Work, 2(2), 131–132. Sharp, J. A., Peters, J., & Howeard, K. (2002). The management of a student research project. London: Routledge with The Open University. Smith, V. (1986). Listening. In O. Hargie (Ed.), A handbook of communication skills. London: Routledge. Taylor, B. J. (2006). Reflective practice: A guide for nurses and midwives (2nd ed.). Open University Press. Timms, N. (1983). Social work values: An enquiry. London: Routledge. Toulmin, S. (1958). The uses of argument. Cambridge University Press. Trevithick, P. (2006). Social work skills: A practical handbook. Open University Press. Trevithick, P. (2008). Revisiting the knowledge base of social work: A framework for practice. British Journal of Social Work, 38(6), 1212–1237. https:// doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcm026 West, J. (1997). Caring for ourselves: The impact of working with abused children. Child Abuse Review, 6, 291–297.

Suggested Reading Dickson-Swift, V., James, E. L., & Liamputtong, P. (2008). Undertaking sensitive research in the health and social sciences: Managing boundaries, emotions and risks. Cambridge University Press. Liamputtong, P. (2007). Researching the vulnerable: A guide to sensitive research methods. Sage Publications. Trevithick, P. (2006). Social work skills: A practical handbook. Open University Press.

5 Risk Assessment and Management for Sensitive Social Work Research

Ensuring the safety and well-being of everyone involved in the research should be the main priority when conducting sensitive social work research. In order to achieve this aim, the first step is to undertake an effective risk assessment and management plan. This is the sensitive social work researcher’s moral, ethical and, in some instances, legal responsibility. Hence, this chapter explores: • the definition of risk assessment and management • the way in which risk assessments should be conducted and measures devised to manage risks • the fundamental importance of ensuring the safety and well-being of participants, researchers and others involved in the study • the ways in which safety protocols can be developed • the ways in which sensitive social work researchers conduct qualitative face-to-face research safely Risk is an inevitable part of life. According to Muir-Cochrane and Wand (2005), risk is ‘the likelihood of an adverse event happening’ (P. 5). Morgan (2007) extends this definition: ‘risk is the likelihood of an event happening © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 S. Haider, Sensitive Research in Social Work, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85009-8_5

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with potentially harmful or beneficial outcomes for self and others’ (P. 3). In pre-modern or traditional societies people believed that famine, pandemic, flood, cyclone and earthquake were the acts of God. Some still believe that the risks associated with such catastrophes are therefore God’s responsibility (Beck, 1992) and that people are unable to prevent and protect against future catastrophes. Industrialisation has disrupted this understanding of risk and showed how to manage it proactively. But a new understanding of risk assessment and management has failed to eliminate risk; rather, more has been generated. For example, with economic prosperity modern industrial society has created damaging risks such as environmental pollution. The social world is pervaded by uncertainty, unpredictability, complexity and volatility where risk plays a dynamic role that makes it difficult to predict, let alone manage, some risks, both great and small, however necessary to life these are. In social work, however, risk has negative connotations because the researcher’s role is to safeguard vulnerable people and try to eliminate risk where possible, and otherwise to minimise it. It is not just service users; in some instances social workers are also at risk of delivering services. It would be difficult to find social workers who have never experienced abuse, whether physical or verbal. Indeed, a few have been injured and even killed in the line of duty. So identifying, assessing and managing risk are pivotal in social work practice. Like social work practice, studies of sensitive topics and people in certain vulnerable categories, in particular those related to secretive, taboo, emotionally charged or politically or religiously sensitive subjects may present dangers to participants, researchers and others involved (Renzetti & Lee, 1993; Liamputtong, 2007). As Jamieson (2000, P. 61) points out, ‘research can be threatening to the researcher as well as the participants and…researchers may be placed in situations in which their personal safety is jeopardised’. It is thus vital to understand, identify, assess and manage the risks associated with sensitive social work research. In sensitive research, researchers are both at risk themselves and pose risks to study participants (see Liamputtong, 2007). Without proper risk assessments and management, some funders and educational institutions might not allow researchers to conduct their studies because they may be constrained by their university or institution’s insurance policies (Bloor et al., 2007).

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Risk Assessment Sensitive social work researchers must forecast risk before embarking on their studies. The aim of risk assessments is to minimise risks, not to protect researchers against all eventualities. In some instances, researchers may not encounter risks at all. This does not, however, mean that they should not carry out risk assessments and management. Such assessments should focus not only on researchers but also on participants. They should enable researchers to plan and take all necessary precautions in the knowledge that it is not possible to cover every eventuality, and that some risks cannot be eliminated. In order to carry out effective risk assessments, it is vital to gather information from a range of sources. So the question of what a risk assessment actually is arises. The risk assessment is the gathering of information through processes of communication, investigation, observation and persistence; and analysis of the potential outcomes of identified behaviours, identifying specific risk factors of relevance to an individual, and the circumstances in which they may occur. (Morgan, 2007, P. 3)

Sieber (1993, P. 19) convincingly argues that ‘the potential risks, sensitivities and benefits in sensitive research are the same as those in any social research, but greater in magnitude’. Before collecting data, it is vital to carry out a risk assessment to safeguard participants and researchers. Two types of risk must be taken into account in a careful assessment: • risks to participants • risks to researchers Risks to participants. While participating in studies, participants could experience physical, emotional and psychological harm. In sensitive social work research it is more likely that participants will experience the latter two. However, it is possible that their involvement leads to them being

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subjected to physical and verbal abuse by their partners and family members. Risks to researchers. In order to conduct sensitive social work studies, researchers might put themselves at risk of physical, verbal and psychological harm. As sensitive social work studies are mostly conducted in the real world rather than in laboratory environments, it is likely that researchers will encounter risks that require effective management. Although assessing and managing risk is a core social work activity, research evidence indicates that some social workers fail to comprehend the nature and extent of risk if they are under pressure or make decisions in emergency or crisis situations (Haider, 2019). Before understanding risk management, it is imperative to understand the components of risks and the way sensitive social work researchers must assess them. This will be discussed next.

Components of Risk Assessment A car insurance premium could easily be determined by using the law of probability, meaning that the insurance company could calculate the probability of (for example) individuals under the age of 25 becoming involved in accidents by examining the number of accidents in the last five to ten years. The results could indicate future occurrences of accident in this age group. It is, however, not possible to assess risk this way in either social work practice or in sensitive social work research because both deal mostly with the complexities, unpredictabilities, uncertainties and ambiguities of social realities as outlined in Chap. 1. Sensitive social work research is thus not as clear-cut as insurance; it requires researchers to use ‘soft’ skills such as curiosity, intuition and judgements to identify risks. Risk assessment concerns identifying and dealing with risk. There are three aspects to conducting risk assessments (explore Box 5.1 for principles of risk assessment). • How likely it is that the event will occur?

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• How soon it is expected to occur? • How severe will the outcome be if it does occur? (DoH, 2007, P. 13) Five steps must mostly be followed in order to carry out a sensitive social work research risk assessment: 1. Hazards specific to the study must be identified. ‘Hazard’ refers to ‘factors which introduce the possibility of an undesirable outcome’ (Bowl, 2015; Sheppard, 1990). Hazards could cause harms and injuries. 2. Dangers—that is, outcomes regarded as undesirable or with apprehension. For example, a banana skin on the floor constitutes a hazard, but the danger is that someone will slip on it and hurt themselves as a result (Bowl, 2015). 3. The likelihood of the dangers identified in the previous step being realised consequently to the hazards identified in step 1 must be determined, and then the likelihood of positive and negative outcomes occurring due to those hazards. Table 5.1 illustrates a risk assessment of a research participant who will be involved in a semi-structured interview. Table 5.1  Risk assessment of a specific matter related to a research participant Hazard

Danger

Likelihood

Research participant Donna (pseudonym) taking an illicit substance

Make impulsive decisions Could potentially impact negatively on her physical health Deterioration of her mental health

Although she tries not to take illicit substances, she cannot help it when her friends offer them to her. She sees her friend every Friday.

Box 5.1  Principles of Risks Assessment • Risk is not static but dynamic, so the assessment of risk must change according to the circumstances • Risk assessment supports risk management, so reasonable steps must be taken when conducting them. • Appropriate risk assessment methods must be used. • Risk assessments must be recorded, including how they were drawn up.

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Risk Factors Risk assessments encourage researchers to meticulously identify factors that could pose harms and threats to themselves, participants and others involved in the study, including interpreters and transcribers. In order to carry out good risk assessments, sensitive social work researchers must consider all specific and general factors in their studies that could pose risks. This is the first step in developing plans to manage risks. Lee (1995) identifies two types of risk in sensitive research: Ambient: the type of risk associated with and present in the actual research setting Situational: the type of risk arising through the researcher’s presence. Researchers could thus instigate or provoke frustration, annoyance, violence and hostility. Alongside these two types of risk are several factors that could pose dangers to research participants and researchers, including: Study topics: these, together with the associated interview questions, could distress and traumatise research participants, although they do not usually threaten to harm researchers. Exceptions to the latter include studies of family violence and aggression (Patterson et al., 1999). Characteristics of participants and their needs, for example a participant’s state of mental health or their level of substance and drug abuse. Monahan et  al. (1993) suggest that, prior to research interviews, researchers should immediately telephone participants with histories of drugs, alcohol dependence and mental illness. If participants are intoxicated or symptomatic, researchers should cancel or postpone their interviews. Other participant characteristics that must be taken into account when conducting risk assessments include histories of aggression, noncompliance with antipsychotic medication, trauma caused by war or persecution, affiliation with aggressive groups such as gang membership and

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paranoiac behaviour and behaviour indicating extreme stress (Patterson et al., 1999). According to Parker and O’Reilly (2013) the researcher may not have access to much information about the participant’s health, forensic, or psychiatrist profile, but some attempt should be made to investigate this prior to meeting. (P. 352)

Parker and O’Reilly suggest that factors such as a participant’s race, gender, age and ethnicity must be carefully considered. This will also be the case for researchers in terms of how their own race, gender, age and ethnicity could affect participants. For example, male interviewers are probably not a good fit for female survivors of domestic violence and abuse by male partners. Similarly, precautions must be observed when female researchers interview males who have abused their female partners. Klein et  al.’s (2010) research suggests that similar backgrounds could help obtain rich information and build relationships, leading to positive outcomes, rather than causing participants harm. If possible, knowing in advance whether family members and friends will be present would be useful, because they could either pose a threat to researchers or could help minimise risks. Environment: It is important to be aware of a study’s settings, that is, the neighbourhood, the location in which data will be collected, the presence of animals, the venue’s cleanliness and overall hygiene of the venue, because they could all pose risks to researchers and participants. Time: The time of data collection could also pose risks to both participants and researchers. For example, participants who are experiencing domestic violence may want to speak with the researcher at certain times when their abusers are not around. Researchers are generally flexible in accommodating the time to participants’ needs and preferences, which means that they sometimes work alone outside their working hours, so they must observe lone working policies if their organisations have them. If not, they must develop lone working protocols. In the ‘Risk Management’ section, staying safe while lone working will be discussed.

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Activity 5.1  Identify Risks Steve is going to conduct interviews with young Syrian refugees living in Greece. The aim of his research is to understand young Syrian refugees’ perspectives and experiences of ‘social security’ in Greece and the support that would enhance that security. List the risks he will encounter as a researcher. Comments Your list may contain some of the following points: • He may have to deal with refuges who are unhappy with their circumstances and become abusive, both physically and verbally. • He may come across mentally distressed people, some of whom may show self-harming behaviour, some anxiety, depression and post-­ traumatic disorders and some suicidal ideation. • The place and time of the interview could pose him risk. • The psychological and emotional risks for him as a researcher cannot be overstated. This will be discussed in Chap. 6.

Types of Risk Assessment Two ways risk assessments in sensitive social work research can be carried out are: • The actuarial approach • The professional judgement approach

Actuarial This is based on a statistical technique, the calculation of probability. This technique is widely used to calculate insurance premiums. For example, when potential customers wish to insure their cars, insurance companies ask a number of questions to determine the likelihood of the applicants becoming involved in road accidents. Probability concerns predicting behaviour based on the known behaviour of others in similar circumstances. A number of tools based on this type of risk assessment have

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been developed, including assessing the level of risk in the field of criminal justice, suicide and violence. This method is criticised because of its focus on risk variables, which means depersonalising the subject. However, some of these tools have proven track records and provide consistency, accuracy and reliability.

Professional Judgement Approach This method is mostly used by social workers because it focuses on the interaction between them and service users. In order to assess the level of risk, this method focuses on the interaction between personality and situational factors (Prins, 1999). Communication and observational skills are fundamental when gathering information about the personal, social, environmental, political and economic factors associated with risky behaviour (Cree & Wallace, 2009). It is criticised for its subjectivity, because it depends on the researcher’s values, beliefs, education and upbringing (Kemshall, 1997). It is suggested that the use of both assessment models provide better chances predicting risk levels (Cree & Wallace, 2009; Kemshall, 1997). After conducting risk assessments, those risks must be managed. The next section will therefore focus on risk management. Box 5.2  Checklist for Good Practice • Carefully identify hazards, dangers and the likelihood of risk. • Explore the nature of each assessment method and determine which is the most appropriate and why. • Consider all the options available to minimise specific risks. • Consider who is accountable for risk management. • Do not forget to regularly monitor and review your risk assessment and management. • Gather information from all perspectives into a wide range of sources and analyse these carefully. Comply with existing policies and procedures in situ. • Share the risk assessment with supervisors or university or funding bodies.

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Risk Management Risk assessment is fundamental to devise effective risk management plans. Systematic, explicit and well-documented risk assessments can lead to the development of good management plans consisting of a range of measures proportionate to the risk. There is much literature on risk assessment compared to risk management. Generally, risk management concerns the reduction and minimising of risks. Risk management is the statement of plans and the allocation of responsibilities for translating collective decisions into real actions. (Morgan, 2007, P. 3)

So in order to address the risks identified in risk assessment, sensitive social work researchers must enact measures to minimise harms and threats that arise from the risks to both participants and researchers that have been identified. Like risk assessment, all the actions and measures entailed in risk management must be recorded clearly against the identified risks. Risk management measures must be reviewed regularly in order to ensure they are up to date, appropriate and relevant (DoH, 2007; Muir-Cochrane et al. 2011). This is a continuous and dynamic process, as illustrated in Fig. 5.1. The following section illustrates an abridged version of the risk assessment and management involved in a hypothetical study of mental health and Rohingya adolescents. * * * Title of the project: A decolonial approach to developing and improving support for mentally distressed Rohingya adolescents in Bangladesh.

Security Issues Risk: Security issues in the camps.

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Reveiew measures and make adjustment as required

171

Identify hazards and dangers

Put all the measures in place to manage the risks

Identify who will be at risk and the activites taht put them at risk

Plan of action to manage all identified risks

Assess the likelihood of risk

Fig. 5.1  The risk management cycle

Cause: Because of unrest in the camps, some Rohingya adolescents may become angry with the researchers. Impact: Interaction with the researchers could cause physical and psychological harm. Action: There are armed forces present at the entrance of the camp and a signing book to enter and exit. Whenever researchers visit the camp, they will carry out a risk assessment and will seek support from the law enforcement officer if they are unsure about entering. During their visit, for which they will be accompanied by the field workers of Modern Social, Health and Development Foundation (MSHDF), they can if necessary call upon a law enforcement officer. All research activities will be organised at the MSHDF’s premises in the camps.

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Accessing Participants Risk: Unable to access to participants. Cause: The start of a new pandemic or second spike of Covid-19. Impact: Inability to carry out the research. Action: Communication with co-researchers and the partnering NGO will be conducted by phone over the Internet. In the event of a lockdown, however, the research team will consider collecting data afterwards if it is safe to do so. If the lockdown is prolonged and time is limited, a different research method such as telephone interview must be adopted. Each camp has a Chief-in-Charge with the power to authorise and facilitate telephone interviews from their mobile offices in the camps with the support of NGO workers. However, strict procedures to prevent the spread of the virus must be observed when they are in the office of the Chief-in-Charge.

Accessing Camps Risk: Inability to visit Rohingya camps. Cause: Government’s restrictions. Impact: Inability to carry out face-to-face research. Action: It is currently possible to enter the camps for research purposes as long as researchers have permission from the Refugees Relief and Repatriation Commissioner (RRRC) in Bangladesh. The PI and MSHDF have already approached the director of the RRRC, who have agreed to support this research project.

Research Design, Data Collection and Development of Interventions Risk: Inability of the NGO (MSHDF) to work with this project. Cause: A change in their leadership—that is, a new director. Impact: Disruption of both data collection and dissemination of research outputs.

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Action: The PI has a good relationship with the NGO association in Bangladesh, so it will not be difficult to identity a new partner to work with this project.

Not Meeting Deadlines Risk: Not meeting the project deadline. Cause: Unforeseen circumstances such as illness and bereavement. Impact: Inability to meet the deadlines of specific phases of the project. Action: Review progress in relation to the project and prioritise activities in conjunction with the partners. * * *

Principles of Risk Management • Risk management should be fair and proportionate to the risks. • Risks and research participants’ rights should be balanced (Kemshall, 2007). • It needs to be specific, realistic, relevant and achievable so that it can be defended. Explore Box 5.2 for a checklist of undertaking a good risk assessment and management in sensitive social work research.

Activity 5.2  Conduct a Risk Assessment Carry out a risk assessment and management plan based on the research question(s) you developed in Activity 1.1 in Chap. 1. Comment You may want to return to this activity when you complete Activity 7.6 in Chap. 7.

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Risk Log A risk log is helpful in close monitoring of all the risks entailed in a research project. If all such risks are not recorded, it is likely that researchers will forget some. This is not good, because it could adversely affect the project’s success. Such a document also provides a snapshot of how risks are identified and what measures have been taken. A risk log containing the following information is a helpful document for a piece of large-scale research. • • • • • • •

risk identification number risk type description probability of risk impact of risk plan of action current state of the risk

Safety Protocol In order to ensure researchers’ physical and psychological safety, they should develop safety protocols before commencing the study. McCosker et al. (2001) advise that prior to ethical approval researchers wishing to focus on sensitive topics should consider developing protocols or guidelines to address physical, emotional and psychological effects on them as well as their participants. The procedure for conducting a safety protocol is the first step to managing risk and harm in sensitive social work research. Safety protocols consist of risk assessments and management of research studies in which researchers identify hazards, dangers and risks in relation to their research. In order to develop safety protocols, McCosker et al. (2001) suggest the following questions for researchers to consider. These questions have been developed for qualitative researchers, in particular those using interview as a research method.

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• Do the interviewees pose a threat to the researcher? • Do other people associated with the interviewees pose a threat to the researcher? • What is the nature of the phenomenon and does the researcher have a background to appropriately undertake the research? • What is the nature of the environment in which the data will be collected? The focus of this section is the physical safety of researchers and participants. The psychological and emotional aspects of sensitive research on both researchers and participants are discussed in Chap. 6.

Managing Physical Safety in Research McCosker et  al. (2001) propose six techniques for managing physical safety in sensitive research (explore Box 5.3 to understand how Helena conducted a safety protocol for her research). Establishing Contact with the Participants Research participants should be recruited through ‘safe’ mechanisms. For example, when recruiting women who experienced domestic violence, researchers could contact shelters or agencies that provide its victims with support and counselling. Recruitment of participants through public advertisement could increase the likelihood of recruiting participants, but researchers must carefully consider the risks associated with this type of recruitment. Deciding When to Interview  The place and time of interviews should be acceptable to both participants and researchers; both should feel comfortable and safe. However, if researchers have to conduct interviews in locations where they do not feel comfortable, they must manage safety differently. In their research on farmers, Chiswell and Wheeler (2016, P. 231) provide some practical advice in this regard. For ensuring physical safety in the field include reconnoitring the research location ahead of the interview; asking someone to accompany you to the interview if in the doubt over safety; arranging for someone to call your

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mobile at a pre-arranged time; scheduling the interview for within office hours and in daylight; and maintain visibility/opting to conduct the interview in the public space.

Researchers can use phone calls to say code words indicating that they are in trouble and need support to specific individuals such as their supervisors, mentors, line managers or administrative workers. They can by this means disguise the fact that they are phoning for support if they are in danger. Chiswell and Wheeler (2016, P. 231) also state that throughout our fieldwork we have been careful to ensure that someone always had the details of when, where and who we were interviewing and that we checked in with that person once we safely returned home. We found a shared (but restricted) Outlook calendar helpful in facilitating this.

Sharing interview details undoubtedly raises an ethical question regarding keeping participants’ details confidential. They have acknowledged this, but argue that in our experience, ethics committees have recognised and accommodated this is as a crucial part of our safety. We would encourage researchers to build this strategy into their research design and ethics application from an early stage and to talk openly with their research supervisor and /or colleagues. (P. 231)

Deciding What to Interview  McCosker et al. (2001) advises conducting interviews in public spaces because someone will be on hand to support the researcher if required. However, research into some sensitive topics such as domestic violence and abuse, radicalisation, gangs, and substance and alcohol misuse requires privacy and confidentiality. Some participants may prefer to talk to researchers or interviewers at their (i.e. the participants’) homes. In such cases, Chiswell and Wheeler (2016) have made suggestions based on their research with farmers that used the interview method. Most of their interviews were in farmers’ firms, often located in remote areas where the mobile phone signal was frequently

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weak or non-existent. Both researchers indicate that such geographical isolation together with young females conducting the interviews on their own risked their physical safety and sexual assault. They still conducted their research, but took a number of precautions and relied on their instincts: they proceeded with the recruitment phase only when they ‘felt right’. According to them, in one instance, following comments about a particular individual from another interviewee, our instinct did lead us to arrange an interview in a public place, rather than in the farmer’s home. Although we firmly believe this to have been the right decision in this instance, we recognise that such strategies need to be sensitively managed so as not to reinforce unfounded preconceptions of individuals and to avoid participants feeling singled out. (P. 231–232).

Although instincts can play a significant role in risk assessment and management, are probably unavoidable and are in some instances actually desirable, risk assessments and management plans for sensitive research are required; so that researchers can plan ahead and prevent harm and danger. Box 5.3  Helena’s Safety Protocol Helena is conducting research on domestic violence and abuse (DVA) against old women by their partners. As part of this research, she will conduct in-depth interviews with 12 women who have experienced DVA. Participants have agreed to interviews, but they want Helena to visit them in their homes at specific times when their partners are not present. Although she wanted to interview them in a public place, she respects their wish to talk with her in the comfort of their own homes. Her supervisor is satisfied with the risk assessment and management plan Helena has put in place. Her management plan includes a safety plan specifically for the interviews. An extract of her safety plan is: • Helena will share the time and date of the interview with her supervisor. • She will take a mobile phone, in which important contact details including supervisors will be saved prior to attending the interview. • Helena will ring or text her supervisor before she enters the property, and has agreed a time after the interview to ring her supervisor. • A code word agreed between supervisor and Helena will be used to communicate with the supervisor if she is at risk. (continued)

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Box 5.3  (continued) • She will identify the presence of any animals before she organises her visit. • She will ring each participant immediately before the interview to ensure that they are satisfied for her to visit. • She will also try to assess the situation at home. She will focus specifically on the presence of people in the home. • In the home, she will try to sit where she can exit the property if required. • She will comply with cultural and religious expectations when she visits participants. • She will comply with the distress protocol during the interview. • Although it is difficult for her to propose times for interviews, she will negotiate with research participants to visit during the day. • She will travel by bus, so she will find out how far each participant’s home is from the bus stop. She will also examine the bus timetable and put taxi numbers into her mobile phone.

McCosker et al. (2001) suggest that locations should be known to the researcher and that exits from the venues must be accessible. When researchers interview participants in the their homes, they should sit near the exits if possible so that they can leave if the situation becomes difficult to manage. Box 5.4  Lone Working Checklist • • • •

Does the data collection venue present a specific risk to you? Are you collecting data in a rural or isolated area? Are you going to research participants’ homes? Do you have reliable means of communication and a way of calling for help? Do you have a safe means of travelling to and from the data collection point?

Check the Environment Prior to the Interview  A phone call or a visit to the venue before the interview could increase safety (McCosker et al., 2001).

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Developing an Awareness of Personal Safety  McCosker et al. (2001) advise always keeping a list of interviewees and interview locations. This list should be shared with at least one other person. They also advocate carrying mobile phones in which all essential telephone numbers are saved. Encoding of the phone also required so that if it is stolen or taken by violence the contact numbers cannot be accessed. Evaluating and Changing the Protocol  The protocol should be regularly monitored, and amended as required when new risks and threats emerge. Box 5.4 illustrates a checklist for lone working which can be useful to develop a safety protocol. Activity 5.3  Develop a Safety Protocol Recall the research question(s) you developed in Activity 1.1 and the research paradigm in Activity 2.4 regarding those question(s). Now develop a safety protocol for your research. Comment You may want to return to this activity when you complete Activity 7.6 in Chap. 7.

De-Escalation Technique The aim of de-escalation techniques is to reduce violent and/or disruptive behaviour (NICE, 2005). Sensitive social worker researchers might find themselves in situations where they need to de-escalate an incident, in particular when they are collecting data. During interviews or focus groups, participants’ emotions might change or they may become aggressive. De-escalation is probably the only option available to safely address such situations, and doing so would enable researchers to ensure their own safety. Parker and O’Reilly (2013) recommend developing strategies to prevent risks from occurring, and concurrent strategies and systems to manage such risks when researchers are faced with them. This arose when one of the authors became worried about safety because of the participant’s behaviour during the interview. According to the researcher,

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in the absence of the opportunity to leave the house, the safest thing to do seemed to be to calm the participant and distract him from his anger by attempting to refocus him on the topic of the interview. (Parker & O’Reilly, 2013:, P. 348) Tips ‘Individuals who are equipped with strategies to diffuse threats to their safety are more confident and more able to respond to dangerous situations in the field’ (Patterson et al., 1999, P. 261).

This is an example of a de-escalation technique, because the interviewer calmed and distracted the interviewee by enabling the latter to refocus on the interview questions. In order to use an effective de-escalation strategy, an interviewer should be open-minded, confident, self-aware, calm, emotionally intelligent, non-judgemental and non-discriminatory (Price & Baker, 2012). A number of strategies are available to de-escalate incidents, including: • Early intervention, best way to successfully de-escalate a situation. However, researchers must use judgement regarding when to intervene, because unnecessary interventions could make situations worse. • Rapport, the establishment of which will help gain trust. • Decisions to intervene, which depend on a number of factors such as the nature and degree of a participant’s behaviour—that is, the danger it poses. • Listening to participants and showing empathy. • Focusing on non-verbal cues to assess the situation and participants’ emotional states, as the basis for judgements on when to intervene. • Enabling participants to express their anger without harming themselves and others. • Encouraging them to talk openly and freely, thus allowing them to vent their feelings, frustrations, annoyance and anger. • Being creative and flexible in the way researchers approach participants.

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• Keeping a calm demeanour and remaining self-aware in the face of aggressive behaviour. Key Points ‘Risk’ means the likelihood of an event occurring. Conducting a comprehensive risk assessment and management plan may seem like a daunting and challenging task, but it is fundamental to sensitive social work research in order to minimise the harms and threats associated with undertaking sensitive social work research. In some research, risks could be significant and could result in injury, violence and infection. Research should therefore include comprehensive risk assessments and management plans. It should not take things for granted. Although the research literature heavily focuses on minimising and eliminating threats, harms and the suffering of research participants, the discussion focuses on how researchers and others involved in studies can be protected from physical, emotional and psychological harm. The physical, emotional and psychological effect of conducting ­sensitive research on participants, the research and everyone involved in the study cannot be denied. By conducting risk assessments and formulating management plans, sensitive social work researchers take a proactive step towards reducing and eliminating harm and suffering. It is crucial to consider the consequences of researchers’ actions. Sensitive social worker researchers should take any necessary actions to protect participants, themselves and any other persons involved in studies. Risk assessment should not be treated as a bureaucratic exercise in mere paperwork. The safety of all involved in the research should be the focus of sensitive social work research. The complexity involved in conducting risk assessments and then planning actions should not be underestimated.

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Questions for Critical Reflection What are the main characteristics of a sound risk assessment framework? Are actuarial statistics useful for risk assessment? What are the essential components of developing a risk management plan? Key Terms Actuarial Danger De-escalation technique Effective risk assessment Eliminate or reduce harms Hazard Impact of risk Law of probability Lone working protocol Physical safety in research Plan of action Principles of risk assessment Principles of risk management Professional judgement approach Religious and cultural expectations Risk assessment Risk factors Risk factors Risk log Risk management Risk of participants Risk to researchers Risks Risky behaviour Safety protocol

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References Beck, U. (1992). Risk Society. London: Sage Publishing. Bloor, M., Fincham, B., & Sampson, H. (2007). QUALITI (NCRM) commissioned inquiry into the risk and well-being of researchers in qualitative research. ESRC. Bowl, R. (2015). Risk assessment in ASW practice. University of Birmingham. Chiswell, H., & Wheeler, R. (2016). ‘As long as you’re easy on the eye’: Reflecting on issues of positionality and researcher safety during farmer interviews. Area, 48(2), 229–235. Cree, V. E., & Wallace, S. (2009). Risk and protection. In R. Adams, L. Dominelli and M. Payne (Eds.), Practising Social Work in a Complex World, (2nd Edn), London: Red Globe Press. Department of Health (DoH). (2007). Best practice in management risk. DoH. Haider, S. (2019). Health and Well-being of Children Social Care Workers at Middlesbrough Council, Middlesbrough and The Open University. Jamieson, L. (2000). Migration, place and class: youth in a rural area. The Sociological Review, 48(2), pp. 203–223. Kemshall, H. (2007). Risk assessment and management: An overview. In J. Lishman (Ed.), Handbook for practice learning in social work and social care: Knowledge and theory. Jessica Kingsley. Klein, H., Lambing, T.  P., Moskowitz, D.  A., Washington, T.  A., & Gilbert, L. K. (2010). Recommendations for performing internet-based research on sensitive subject matter with hidden or difficult-to-reach populations. Journal of Gay and Lesbian Social Services, 22, 371–398. Lee, R. (1995). Dangerous fieldwork. Sage. McCosker, H., Barnard, A., & Gerber, R. (2001). Undertaking sensitive research: Issues and strategies for meeting the safety needs of all participants. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 2(1). Monahan, J., Applebaum, P.  S., Mulvey, E.  P., Robbins, P.  C., & Lidz, C. W. (1993). Ethical and legal duties in conducting research on violence: Lessons from the MacArthur Risk Assessment Study. Violence and Victims, 8(4), 387–396. Morgan, S. (2007). Working with risk. Pavilion. Muir-Cochrane, E., & Wand, T. (2005). Contemporary issues in risk assessment and management in mental health. Australian and New Zealand College of Mental Health Nurses.

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Muir-Cochrane, E., Gerace, A., Mosel, K., O’Kane, D., Barkway, P., Curren, D., & Oster, C. (2011). Managing risk: Clinical decision-making in mental health services. Mental Health Nursing, 32, 726–734. NICE. (2005). Clinical practice guidelines for violence. The short-term management of disturbed/violent behaviour in psychiatric in-patient and emergency departments guideline. NICE. Parker, N., & O’Reilly, M. (2013). “We are alone in the house”: A case study addressing researcher safety and risk. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 10, 341–354. Patterson, B. L., Gregory, D., & Thorne, S. (1999). A protocol for researcher safety. Qualitative Research, 9, 259–269. Price, O., & Baker, J. (2012). Key components of de-escalation techniques: A thematic synthesis. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 21, 310–319. Renzetti, C. M., & Lee, R. M. (1993). Researching Sensitive Topics. New Bury Park, CA: Sage Publications. Sheppard, M. (1990). Mental health: The role of the approved social worker. University of Sheffield, Joint Unit for Social Services Research, Community Care. Sieber, J. E. (1993). The ethics and politics of sensitive research. In C. Renzetti & R. Lee (Eds.), Researching sensitive topics. Sage Publications.

Suggested Reading Liamputtong, P. (2007). Researching the vulnerable: A guide to sensitive research methods. Sage Publications. McCosker, H, Barnard, A., & Gerber, R. (2001). Undertaking sensitive research: Issues and strategies for meeting the safety needs of all participants. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 2(1).

6 Managing Emotion for Sensitive Social Work Research

Sensitive social work researchers undertake research related to the social world of which they are part. Hence, it is inevitable that they will be involved with emotional aspects of their research; this plays a significant role for them and their research participants and others involved in the study, including interpreters and transcribers. So it is important to understand the significance of emotion and its impact throughout the research process, and to manage it effectively in order to harness the positive aspects of emotion. An example is the management of emotions in research, which could present opportunities to enrich understanding of the research topic, provide insights into complex social realities and help analyse and interpret findings holistically. This chapter therefore explores: • • • • • •

the impact of emotion on sensitive social work research techniques to support research participants techniques to manage researchers’ own emotions techniques to harness emotion positively in sensitive social work research emotional labour and vicarious trauma strategies to address vicarious trauma

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 S. Haider, Sensitive Research in Social Work, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85009-8_6

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As social creatures, we feel, show and suppress our emotions. Emotions are an integral part of life, and are intractably linked with thoughts, behaviours and actions. It is inextricably bound up with social work and social work research. Sensitive social work researchers often investigate real-world problems, so it is difficult to remain detached from emotions and feelings. Emotional neutrality is therefore not possible, but a few researchers only discuss this in their research reports or dissertations, specifically its effects on them. This is why some authors (e.g. Rau, 2020; Watts, 2008) suggest being honest about the emotional impact on them and their research participants by making it visible in the research process and in the final reports. Watts (2008) advises researchers to draw upon their emotional experiences to tell research stories.

Definition of Emotion It is not easy to define emotion, because people perceive and describe emotion in a range of ways. For example, Stanley and Wise (1983) separate ‘emotions’ from ‘feelings’. According to them, ‘cold’ and ‘hot’ are feelings but ‘love’ and ‘envy’ are emotions. They subscribe to Cartesian dualism, which holds that ‘mind’ and ‘body’ are separate entities (Turner, 1992). However, seeing ‘mind’ and ‘body’ in this way fails to provide a holistic understanding of emotion because as human beings we do not just feel, but we think and act, so both body and mind (i.e. physiological sensation) are linked to psychological sensation. Emotions are thus about ‘emergent properties, located at the intersection of physiology, dispositions, material circumstances and socio-cultural elaboration’ (Williams, 1998, P. 750). According to Hochschild (1983), in order to understand emotions we must be aware of four elements: • • • •

situation cues physiological changes expressive gestures an emotional label that identifies those above three components

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These elements are interlinked and operate simultaneously. Although we do not have a consensual definition of emotions, one point is clear: feelings and emotions require recognition by the subject that they have been felt. There are three components of emotion: • physiological arousal • expressive behaviour • conscious experience (Myers, 2004, P. 515). Izard (1977) identifies ten basic emotions: joy, interest, excitement, surprise, sadness, anger, disgust, contempt, fear, shame and guilt. Others include pride and love. Izard maintains that these latter are combinations of basic emotions—for example, joy and excitement together create love.

Emotion and Research As emotion is part of life, it follows that it must be part of the conduct of research. According to Williams (1998, P. 750), emotions are ‘emergent properties, located at the intersection of physiological dispositions, materials circumstances and social-cultural elaboration’ (his emphasis). In research, emotions manifest themselves in both respondents and researchers. In the research literature, discussion is focused more on the former and the role researchers should play to support them, rather than the latter. It is noted that qualitative researchers in particular must deal with emotions, which is not the case to the same extent for quantitative researchers. The reason why emotions are associated mostly with qualitative research is that researchers try to see specific social realities through the eyes of respondents, so the research endeavour becomes both intellectual and emotional (Gilbert, 2001). This does not mean, however, that quantitative research does not deal with emotions and is immune to emotional impacts. It does, but the philosophical positions it adopts discourage it from doing so. Positivism is generally linked with quantitative research, in which objectivity is given pride of place. This means that social reality is based on a single truth and can be investigated by

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measurements and mathematical and statistical analysis. Emotion has no place here because it is perceived to render the research subjective. However, other philosophical positions such as interpretivism and constructivism reject the idea that social reality is objective, so research instruments should be non-objective. A researcher’s stance is therefore subjective, and conducting research is a subjective experience because researchers interact with respondents to collect data. For a sensitive social work researcher it is crucial to develop some form of relationship with respondents to collect data, specifically when they employ qualitative research methods. So the role of emotion in the production of knowledge must be not only acknowledged but also harnessed and managed to empower and change research participants’ lives.

The Significance of Emotion in Research Throughout the research process, emotions play a vital role in shaping research. It is feminist researchers who advocate not being reticent about incorporating emotions into research. However, most social work research findings are presented without mentioning the emotions the researchers went through. It is perceived that the inclusion of an emotional aspect in research reports or articles could undermine the value of the research and the contribution it makes. Wilkins (1993) feels that not discussing emotions in the name of academic knowledge is an intellectual subterfuge. Dickson-Swift et al. (2008) suggest providing details of researchers’ emotional states as they conduct their research. This would clarify how their emotions have affected their research, thereby contextualising it. Sensitive research is mostly emotionally charged. It is thus important for researchers to understand how emotions affect them and their research, as well as how it affects respondents. For example, listening and talking to and observing research participants may make researchers angry, annoyed and frustrated at their situation; conversely, they may become angry and annoyed with respondents, or feel that they should act to help them. Early awareness of these and other possibilities makes management of the researcher and the research process more effective. For example, Hubbard et al. (2001) relates how one of the authors deliberately refrained from

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developing rapport with the participants during the interviews and ensured that they did not reveal too much of their own experiences. The researcher acted in this manner to protect herself from psychological distress. When respondents provided details, she therefore deliberately did not probe further. As a result, she collected data that provided a different picture than if she had probed the participant more and built rapport. This does not mean that the research or the data was invalid, but rather that it provided a different dataset. Conversely Hubbard et al. (2001) details how one of the authors took note both of the respondents and of their own emotional cues, probing respondents deeply. This consequently enabled her to understand the complexities of the relationships between men and women in the context of domestic violence. Researchers could thus experience both satisfactory and distressing emotions while conducting their research, but it is important to be aware of them and manage them appropriately to obtain good quality data. Hochschild (1983) holds that what really people think and understand can be determined by exploring the way they display their emotions. Williams (1998, P. 761) feels that ‘without emotions, social life, including our decision-making capacities and our ability to make informed choices amongst a plurality of options, would be impossible’. Humans can thus be rational as well as emotional. In her autobiographical account she demonstrates how emotions can act as cognitive and analytical resources to reveal significant sociological insights. By using emotions, she maintains that researchers can explore their subjects’ meaning and behaviours. She also states that researchers can gain intuitive insights by observing emotions because the results have an interpretive function. Qualitative social work researchers generally aim to understand research participants’ experiences, perceptions and views, so they do not strive to discover an objective and rational social reality. This means that they refuse to adopt the traditions of the natural sciences, where neutrality is the desideratum in the research process, and where emotions and feelings are perceived to be irrational, with the potential to skew the research results. As such, several authors (e.g. Tillmann-Healey & Kiesinger, 2001; Gould & Nelson, 2005) find it is difficult to isolation or eliminate researchers’ emotions and feelings. Rather, emotional engagement is vital in investigating the research subject more deeply. Watts

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(2008) reflects on her research with cancer suffers and survivors using a community cancer drop-in-facility: The emotion that has dominated participants’ narratives in this study is fear, and their dread of what is to come has been almost tangible and, for some, brings an attendant need for reassurance that, as one participant put it, ‘it’s all going to be all right’. The seeking of reassurance is emotionally distressing because whatever response I give, it will not be the one they covet which is the promise of cure and the certainty of longer life. Whilst they continue to hope I am sometimes laid low in spirit and my enthusiasm for this research work is temporarily diminished. This leaves me questioning whether, despite now regular attendance at these sessions, I can even begin to enter their world of cancer that feels like a very distant land. (P. 7) Activity 6.1  Case Study Regarding Personal and Professional Boundary Annabel wanted to explore the disabled women’s experiences of domestic violence and abuse (DVA). One of her research participants, Jo, was initially anxious about recounting her experiences of DVA. After reassuring her about the anonymity and confidentiality of her identity, she opened up. Annabel also felt that her friendly and approachable demeanour enabled Jo to talk. Jo’s body language helped her immensely because during the course of the interview she detailed a dramatic sequence of events and her views and perceptions of them. Unlike other research participants, Annabel had to probe and prompt her on only a few occasions. Annabel was satisfied that she managed to collect rich data within an hour. Five days after the interview, Jo emailed and provided a detailed account of her current partner’s violent behaviour. Annabel realised that Jo obtained her email address from the research information sheet she gave all participants before they agreed to become involved in the research. After reading the email she became worried about her, so she replied, offering reassurance and signposting formal support. After a few exchanges, Annabel realised that Jo was reluctant to seek support from the police, her GP or the Social Services department. Annabel felt that Jo might be able to overcome her fear and seek formal help if she provided her with informal support, so she started supporting her by phone and email. After three months, Annabel realised that she could not continue on this course, as Jo was ringing her three to four time a week and it had become clear that she did not want to take action. Reflective questions 1. What do you think Annabel should do now? 2. Would you act the way Annabel did? Either way, give your reasoning.

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Risk and Harm in Sensitive Research Sensitive social work researchers must consider the safety of all involved, including themselves. Five main issues concerning safety can emerge during the course of sensitive research: • • • • •

Physical Psychological and emotional Social Economic Legal

Physical Risk Sensitive research is mostly emotionally charged, and issues are usually related to uncomfortable issues in people’s lives. For example, sensitive social work researchers might undertake research related to domestic violence, child abuse or drug misuse—all of which could put them and their participants in danger of physical, verbal, psychological and emotional harm (see Box 6.1). This is because when they interact with respondents, and in particular if they enter into their participants’ spaces, although those participants might have agreed to this, others may not like it and could abuse the researcher. For example, perpetrators of domestic violence may not like someone collecting data from the individuals they have abused or are abusing. Similarly, by attending interviews, those victims could put themselves at risk of physical, verbal and psychological abuse by their perpetrators. As Langford (2000) warns, abusive men can be suspicious, paranoid, jealous and controlling; they can go through their partner’s handbags and other belongings. Their discovery that their partners are participating in research projects could put the research participants at risk of abuse because of the men’s retaliatory violence.

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Box 6.1  Experiences of Physical Harm due to Research Participation No systematic studies (HHRI, 2020) have been carried out to determine what and how often research participants experience negative consequences as a result of their participation. However, some studies as well as researchers’ own reflections suggest that participants may suffer physical harm from their involvement. For example, a study of reproductive health was conducted in Mexico in which the researchers were not aware of the responsibility to ensure the personal safety of their participants. Part of their reproductive health survey included a short set of questions on domestic violence. They later discovered that three of the participants were beaten by their partners because they participated in the survey (Health and Development Policy, 1995). It is thus crucial to consider the safety of participants and to and devote care and resources to ensuring that safety. Sensitive social work researchers are obliged to weigh up the risks and benefits of their studies. They must take all measures possible to reduce, or if possible eliminate, any harm and to maximise the benefits to participants (HHRI, 2020).

Managing Participants’ Physical Safety  It is crucial that safety protocols based on the risk assessment be developed, for both researchers and participants. In order to develop these protocols, the risks must be assessed. The checklist in Box 6.2 will facilitate this process.  Box 6.2  Checklist to Ensure Researchers’ Personal Safety • Do the participants pose a risk to you or other researchers? • Do other people associated with the participants pose a risk to you or other researchers? • Do other people associated with the participants pose a risk to those participants? • What kind of risks do you anticipate? • Why do you anticipate these risks? • What is the context of data collection?

Contact  Careful thought must be given to how and when to contact research participants.

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Time and Venue of Interviews  The time and place in which interviews or observations are conducted are vital to safeguard researchers and participants alike. For example, participants who are in abusive relationships may want to talk with the researcher when the perpetrators are not present, or they may wish to conduct the interviews in safe places. Interview location is vital because the researcher’s own safety must be considered. They should not put themselves at risk by undertaking interviews where their safety is in jeopardy. There are a number of techniques to adopt. For example, they can tell their friends, colleagues or other researchers when they are conducting the interview, and they can carry mobile phone. If possible, they should visit the interview location before conducting the interview.

Psychological and Emotional Distress to Participants Jorm et al. (2007) reviewed 46 studies related to distress after participation in psychiatric research, finding only a few participants (10 per cent) reporting distress after their participation. Participants with psychiatric symptoms who had mental disorders before their participation reported being distressed. Jorm et  al. also reviewed long-term follow-up studies after participation, studies that suggest a low risk of lasting emotional harm from participation in psychiatric research. They also find a positive reaction to participation, highlighting a number of perceived benefits: • increased self-awareness • a feeling of empowerment • a sense of purpose Similarly, in Newmann and Kaloupeks’ (2004) review of 12 studies related to trauma, most participants report positive benefits from participation in the research, only a small number say that they become distressed. It is reported that participations in sensitive research may experience anxiety, depression, embarrassment and acute stress when they relate their experiences and voice their views and perceptions (Draucker et  al., 2009; Jorm et  al., 2007). Comprehensive interviews

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regarding abuse could unleash painful memories and emotions. On the other hand, Becker-Blease and Freyd (2006) find that questions deemed distressing might not in fact upset or overwhelm research participants. They do not think that participants’ negative emotions and feelings resulting from them sharing their stories harm those requiring protection. They suggest that even when the negative feelings evoked by research are more closely associated with the experience of trauma or abuse (e.g. feelings of betrayal or grief ), this is not necessarily an indication of psychological harm. Feelings like grief, anger, and fear in response to remembering a trauma may be a transitory negative state that is understandable and not harmful. (P. 222)

As the picture of emotional and psychological harm resulting from participation is not clear cut (e.g. McCosker et al. 2001), Draucker et al. (2009) suggest developing a distress protocol (see Table  6.1) in which researchers consider both the benefits and the risks of participating in the study against the backdrop of the ethical principles of autonomy, justice and non-maleficence.

Activity 6.2  Benefits Versus Risks The research questions you developed in Chap. 1 Activity 1.1 could benefit your research participants and you as a researcher. List all the risks and harms that might be associated with your study. Comment You probably identified some of the following benefits of conducting the study: Contribution to knowledge Career development Personal development Contribution to practice Improvement in people’s lives Increase reputation (continued)

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Activity 6.2  (continued) Consolation to be had from discussing incidents Financial gain Some of the harms of doing research are: Emotional distress Psychological distress Physical trauma Loss of privacy Loss of time Financial costs

Table 6.1  A distress protocol for researchers Research Stage

Researchers’ action

Participants’ behaviour

Action

Terminate the interview. Before starting If participants Before Continue only if participants answer ‘no’ the interview data to all the four answer ‘yes’ to all four collection ask the questions. questions. following questions: Do you feel comfortable? Do you feel safe? Do you feel relax? Do you want me to start? If an interpreter Not applicable Brief the interpreters about the Before research. uses to collect data collection data. (continued)

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Table 6.1 (continued) Research Stage

Researchers’ action

Participants’ behaviour

Data Collecting data collection

Showing distress or anxiety If the research Ask following participant is questions: Are distressed and you feeling do not want ok? to continue. What is If the research bothering participant you? wants a short Is there break. anything I can If the research do now to participant’s support you? wanting to Do you want to continue. a have short If the break? participants Do you want indicate that me to she/he is continue? having suicidal and self-harming thoughts?

Offer After the interview debriefing session to the or focus research group. participant

If the research participant agrees.

Action Stop the interview and go to the next step. Terminate the interview. Try your best to support the research participants. If necessary, provide them details to contact counselling or social services department. Refer to them if the research participant wants to you to do so. Give space and time for short break. Ask them whether they want to have a short break before you resume. Then continue with the interview but keep monitoring both verbal and non-verbal languages for signs of distress. Encourage research participants to ring their psychiatrist or community psychiatric nurse, if they are allocated to them. If the research participant does not have a psychiatrist or CPN then encourage them to ring their GP or local social services department. If they are so distressed that they cannot ring, then offer to ring them on their behalf but seek consent from the research participant. Terminate the interview. Offer support Conduct debriefing session only if the research participant agrees to it.

(continued)

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Table 6.1 (continued) Research Stage

Researchers’ action

Participants’ behaviour

If an interpreter Not applicable. After the interview is involved, then conduct or focus a debriefing group. session. Data Alert analysis transcriber. Follow-up Follow-up The research phone call. participant agrees for the researcher to ring. The research participant does not agree for the researcher to ring.

Action Conduct debriefing session with the interpreter.

Organise debriefing sessions with the transcriber. With the consent from the research participant give a courtesy call after the interview or focus group. Encourage the research participant to call the researcher if they feel distress following the interview or focus group.

Management of Psychological and Emotional Distress In order to minimise the psychological and emotional harm (see Box 6.3 for principles of managing emotional distress) researchers could use the following techniques: Researcher Skills  Having basic knowledge of and skills in supporting people who are under stress will help sensitive social work researchers in advance and manage participants’ psychological and emotional wellbeing because the researcher can support them both initially and subsequently if they become distressed. If they need further support, researchers can signpost and advise them. Most social workers have skills such as listening, empathy and competence in initially managing participants’ distress; these skills are transferable to sensitive social work research. Assess, Monitor and Review  From the outset of the interaction to its end, researchers must firstly assess participants’ emotional states before commencing interviews. Assessment can be done by asking some basic health and well-being questions such as: How are you feeling now (both physical and mental health)? Do you feel safe?

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During the interviews or observations, participants’ emotional states must constantly be monitored; if they cry or become tearful, they must be given time and space to do so. Empathy must be shown. The aim must not be the g­ athering of data at the expense of participants’ health and well-being. The aim of sensitive social work researchers is to reduce the harms and threats to participants and others involved in the research. Build Relationship and Rapport  It might be thought difficult to build relationships and rapport with participants when researchers engage with them for only very short periods. Only a handful of researchers spend a long time with their research participants. However, it is possible to build swift rapport. For example, in order to develop good working relationships and rapport, the focus can be on the manner of greeting and talking—that is, approach, tone of voice, eye contact and body language. Participants must be made to feel comfortable and relaxed from the outset of the interview or observation. A safe and secure environment for participants to trust researchers should be provided where possible, upon which they most likely will become more communicative and reveal the true nature of the phenomenon under investigation. This is covered in Chap. 4.  Provide Frequent Breaks  Additional time for interviews must be allocated so that participants can take their own time and have frequent breaks when engaging with interviewers, who must proceed at the participant’s pace.  Terminate Interviews If participants become very distressed and researchers are unable to manage the situation, they should terminate the interaction.  Provide Information about Psychological and Social Services Researchers may want to give participants details of and contacts for psychological and social services when they interview them, which also applies to questionnaires. The present author used this technique in 2019 when he administered online questionnaires to ascertain the health and well-being of social workers. Some researchers also provide details of counsellors, or access to counsellors themselves at the data collection stage.

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Debrief  Alty and Rodhom (1998) suggest holding d ­ ebriefing sessions with participants so as to allow discussion of their feelings and emotions triggered by the interviews. The aim of these sessions is to restore research participants’ self-esteem and enable them to manage their distress. Decker et al. (2011, P. 61) suggest the following questions for debrief:  • Did you find that participation in this session was helpful? If so, in what way(s)? • Did you find that you learned something about yourself through participating in this session today? If so, what did you learn? Box 6.3  Principles of Managing Emotional Distress • Universally applicable strategies should not be used. Strategies should be based participants’ needs, and should match the researcher’s knowledge, skills, values and capabilities. • Flexibility and adaptability are vital for researchers to change their strategies as required. Remember that not all participants will react alike, so be flexible and adaptable in your approach. • Developing a safety plan and distress protocol helps researchers conduct their research systematically and minimise risks and harms. They need to review these protocols regularly. • It is assumed that your social work training has equipped you to deal with trauma and emotion. For some social workers this is probably true, but more is involved: your life experiences, personality, environment and social factors also influence the way you handle and manage emotions. Be mindful that emotions and vicarious trauma could affect you, so try to adopt preventative techniques. • Devise both safety and distress protocols.

Social Risk Researchers could compromise relationships between research participants and their partners, children and relatives because the participants could make certain statements that could embarrass their family members, relatives and friends, which in turn could affect their relationships. By participating in studies, some participants could also acquire labels and lose the respect of their community members. For example, social stigmatisation of mental health conditions may deter some potential participants from becoming involved with research related to mental health. However, by

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advertising mood swings experience of new mothers rather than post-partum depression Timraz et al. (2016) managed to recruit 50 Arab-American women. They had to change the wording to engage participation in their research. It is reported that the stigma of having a family member with a mental health concern is common amongst Arab-American families, but it needs to be noted that like Arab-American families there are other families from different ethnic and cultural background who perceive the same. Hence, researchers need to approach this matter carefully and sensitively when assurance of anonymity, confidentiality and privacy is fundamental to engage research participants. Also, to an extent engaging family members by providing them with information about the research aims, outcomes, and risks and benefits of involving with the research project could help recruit potential research participants.

Economic Risk By attending research some participants give their time and they could lose their income. Some could damage their employability.

Legal Risk Disclosure or revealing information which could indicate research participants or others have or will engage with activities may be considered liable to criminal or civil prosecution.

 motional Work and Sensitive Social E Work Research Hochschild (1983) developed two terms: 1. Emotional labour 2. Emotional work According to her ‘emotional labour is sold for a wage’ and ‘emotional work is management of feelings privately’ (Hochschild, 1983, P. 7).

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The above definition was further developed by James (1989); he defined emotional labour as a type of work where someone needs to manage or deal with other people’s emotions as well as their own emotions. That means it is not tied up with wages as Hochschild (1983) defined. James also stated that emotional work is to deal with other people’s emotions (James, 1989). Steinberg and Figart (1999) found two characteristics of emotional labour: 1. a worker who ‘contact with other people external to or within the organization, usually involving face-to-face or voice-to-voice interaction’ 2. a worker ‘to produce an emotional state in another person while at the same time managing one’s own emotions’. So, it can be argued that sensitive social work researchers carry out emotional work. Although it is not recognised a sensitive social work researchers in particular qualitative researchers interact with research participants closely and manage their own emotions and to an extent deal with participants’ emotions.

Consequences of Emotional Work It is now well established that emotional work and emotional labour impact people’s health and well-being. For example, Hochschild (1983) found emotional labour could cause burn-out from work, make people feel guilty and could lead to develop mental health distress such as anxiety and depression. She reports that emotional labour could be linked with misuse of alcohol and drugs. On the other hand, some researchers (such as Wharton, 1993) found emotional labour is not always impact on workers’ health and well-being. Rather, it could lead to a job satisfaction (e.g. Wharton, 1993). Hubbard et al. (2001) recognise that research fieldwork could make researchers feel jubilant and satisfied, it can also evoke feelings of guilty, anger, making researchers feel upset and frustrated.

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A sensitive social work researcher may face emotional and psychological distress during their data collection stage. It is because they listen to participants’ experiences and stories; they observe participants’ emotional and psychological distress when they ask question. Also, reading participants’ experiences could cause emotional distress to some researchers. Alexander et al. (1989), Goodrum and Keys (2007), McCosker et al. (2001), Liamputtong (2007) and Dickson-Swift et al. (2008) found that researchers become both physically and emotionally exhausted by conducting a sensitive research. It is because researchers became overwhelmed by the nature of the data. Some researchers felt ‘burdened by the weight of participants’ sadness’ (Goodrum and Keys, 2007, P. 256) which consequently impacts their health and well-being. Research evidence so far indicates that researchers are prone to risk of developing vicarious trauma by engaging and conducting research on sensitive topics such as, violence, abuse, death, murder and suicide (Taylor et al., 2016).

Management of Researchers’ Emotion It is now acknowledged that emotions play a significant role in sensitive research but a lack of guidance to manage ‘researchers’ emotions’ (see Box 6.4) and harnessing ‘emotions’ to understand and explore social reality makes it difficult to for researchers to become satisfied with their research. Acknowledgement and management of researchers’ emotions should get priority not only during data collection stage, but it should be prioritised in every stage of the research process. Potential impact of emotions on researchers needs to be identified and a plan needs to be put in place to support researchers. Recognition  Hubbard et al. (2001) feel one way to manage researchers’ emotional distress is to recognise that it is a natural part of undertaking a sensitive research. It does not resolve the matter but provide a space to explore what you need to put in place to proactively manage this. Keep in mind that prevention is better in sensitive research than reactive action. 

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Box 6.4  Managing Emotional Distress McCosker (1995) conducted a research study on women and abuse and applied a number of strategies to cope with emotional and psychological distress: • • • • •

Limited the interviews to one per week. Conducted interviews in the morning. A different person transcribed the data. Listened to interview tapes not more than an hour. Do not undertake literature review about abuse during the data collection stage. • Engaged with debriefing with a trusted colleague and the transcriber.

Support from Other Researchers  Keeping in touch with other researchers with whom you can share and discuss your experiences (Hubbard et  al., 2001) could help. Doing so you will be able to gain support. Sharing emotional experiences with other researchers including colleagues will also create a learning culture where researchers learn from each other about how to deal with emotions in specific contexts. In order to achieve this, trust and commitment as well as resources are fundamental (e.g. Hubbard et al., 2001).  Mentoring  Mentoring is a mechanism to support individual to develop and grow. It is a one-to-one relationship generally that lasts between two individuals over a long period of time. Such relationship can be shorter as well, but the main principle is it provides both professional and emotional support to both individuals, that is, a mentor and mentee. Mentors are influential individuals who are knowledgeable, inspirational, good listener, empathetic, approachable, confident, supportive, interested in the mentees and committed to the mentoring process. A mentor could support a sensitive social work researcher regular in a number of ways, including the following:  • a mentor should be an experienced researcher whose role is to guide and support novice or less experienced researchers. • a mentor could act as a sounding board to manage stress and clarify specific matter;

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• a mentor could demonstrate best practice and support to improve performance and productivity; • a mentor can support to develop mentors, career opportunities and career advancement; • a mentor can motivate and support to improve researchers’ health and well-being; • a mentor can support to reflect and provide ideas to manage the research process; • a mentor creates a safe space for a mentee, in this context a researcher can discuss their concerns related with their research or at least experienced researchers to the less experienced researcher they are mentoring. Also, there is research evidence to suggest that a friendly mentor could reduce mentee’s stress levels significantly (e.g. Spouse, 2001). This technique could support some researchers to manage their distress. Supervision  Supervision with your research supervisor or line manager will enable you to reflect matters critically. Supervision sessions will enable to become emotionally resilient. Emotional resilience defined as ‘the potential to exhibit resourcefulness by using available internal and external resources in response to different contextual and developmental challenges’ (Pooley & Cohen, 2010, P. 34). It is not an innate personality trait, so, you can enhance and develop it to manage complexity, unpredictability, uncertainty, change and competing demands. It is an important quality you need to have to deal with emotion, anxiety and stress in your research.  Peer Coaching  The aim of this technique is to develop skills and improve productivity and performance through constructive feedback from peers, reflection and self-directed learning (Green et al., 2007). It could foster resilient and enhance competencies. This technique allows a research to identify strengths and weaknesses of their skills and competence with a view that a realistic and clear action plan will be developed for researchers to follow. 

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Critical Reflection  Regular critical reflection could support researchers to delve deeper with their experiences and they can move forward with an action plan to manage their stress. Fahie (2014) suggested regular and structured critical reflection could foster good practice and encourage them to consider their own position within the research process. By going through the reflective process critically they will be able to avoid ‘emotional enmeshment’ which is important to relational boundary management, and research could smoothly exit from the research relationship (Dickson-Swift et al., 2006).  Reflexivity  In order to develop self-awareness reflexivity plays a significant role specifically understanding and exploring the impact of research participants’ stories. It encourages self-care and personal responsibility. It could heighten awareness about managing their own emotion and stress (Possick, 2009). Fahie (2014) suggested that reflexivity be structured, systematic, critical and acknowledged the asymmetrical power relations, both positive and negative, which are inherent in the relationship between researchers and participants.  Research Diary  Keeping a research diary or research journal helps to reduce some of the stress of doing sensitive social work research. It is because writing a diary or journal enables researchers to detach as well as be part of the research process simultaneously. Consequently, this will support the researcher to develop a deeper understanding of what they experienced, the reason why, how these experiences impacted on their health and well-being (Bloor et al., 2008).  Deploying a Second Researcher  Brannen (1988) suggested the presence of a second researcher in the interview sessions who remains silent and not in a visual proximity could support the researcher to manage their emotion. This technique may ease the emotional intensity in oneto-one interactions and could probably protect the researcher from being drawn into ­interviewees’ matters (Hubbard et al., 2001). 

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Box 6.5  Self-Care Techniques It is important for a sensitive social work researcher to look after themselves to manage their sensitive social work research. There are a number of techniques available, some of which are as follows: exercise regularly; sleep at least 6 to 8 hours; have regular breaks from your daily tasks; create time and space to do something you enjoy; it does not need to be daily, could be weekly; develop your network of support; don’t focus on your mistake constantly; try to move on with a clear action plan to change your practice; focus on little wins. celebrate your success; learn from mistake; write research journals; do not hesitate to ask for help; find someone supportive to talk; reflect on impermanence.

Pacing Interviews  Rather than conducting interviews one after other researchers could give time in between interviews to reflect matters critically. Also, this time will provide researcher a breathing space.  Debriefing Session  Debriefing sessions will support researchers to see things rationally and enable to manage emotions. Critical friends or skilled helpers (Egan, 2002) could facilitate a systematic debriefing session to support researchers.  Counselling Options of counselling and therapeutic supervision are there to support you.  Informal Discussions  As a sensitive social work researcher you do not have to deal with the emotional impact of your work on your own. You can rely on your fellow colleagues. It is just having a chat with them. Hubbard et al. (2001) assert that chatting in corridors or kitchen or at the coffee machine where you can discuss and share your feelings with other students or researchers is what you need some time to manage your emotion. 

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Mindfulness  Mindfulness is ‘the nonjudgmental observation of the ongoing stream of internal and external stimuli as they arise’ (Baer, 2003, P. 25), so it is a way to train minds to develop awareness that arise ‘paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally’ (Kabat-Zinn, 1994, P. 4). It enables sensitive social work researchers to connect and engage with the present moment, raise their awareness of what is going on in their life and people around them; enable them to manger their own thoughts and emotions which subsequently help them to manage their stress and anxiety. In so doing they become resilient and improve their cognitive functioning (Greenberg et al., 2012; Grant & Kinman, 2015). Also, self-care techniques (Grenber et al., 2012) illustrated in Box 6.5 could support to manage researchers’ emotional distress. The next section focuses on vicarious trauma.

Vicarious Trauma A sensitive social work research project could instigate emotional response as a result some researchers might find it challenging to successfully complete it. It is not only because the subject area and the people researchers are researching but also listening, processing and analysing participants’ experiences and stories and, in some cases, prolonged engagement with the data could impact researchers’ health and well-being and they could experience vicarious trauma, in other words secondary traumatic stress. Vicarious traumatisation, although initially applied to therapists and counsellors (Schauben & Frazier, 1995; McCann & Pearlman, 1990), could impact sensitive researchers who undertake qualitative research. It is not well understood and considered in social work research specifically on sensitive areas. Yet social work researchers investigate sensitive topics and conduct research on vulnerable people. According to Pearlman and Mac Ian, vicarious traumatisation is the transformation that occurs within the therapist (of other trauma worker) as a result of empathic engagement with clients trauma experiences and their sequelae … some characteristics of the work that might contribute to vicarious traumatisation include the nature of the clientele an the material they present in therapy. Stressful client behaviours, work set-

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ting, and social  – cultural context. Two psychological manifestations of vicarious traumatisation might be disruptive cognitive schemas and intrusive imagery. (Pearlman & Mac Ian, 1995, P. 558)

So, in the process of listening, witnessing, observing and researching distressing and traumatic events and stories that impacted on people they are researching could impact on their emotional equilibrium, meaning researchers themselves may experience trauma or distress at second hand (Fahie, 2014). Taylor (2016) distinguished between the concepts of vicarious trauma and emotional labour. According to them vicarious trauma occurs when researchers exposed to participants’ emotions and emotional labour are dealing with research’s own emotion. Regulating researchers’ own emotions that is when they feel upset and angry is important because it is expected that they show care and empathy to people they work with. They proclaim that both vicarious trauma and emotional labour could lead to stress and burnout (Smith, 2012). Pearlman and Saakvitne (2013) also pointed out that vicarious trauma could disrupt professionals’ frame of reference, sense of identity, worldview and spirituality. Dickson-Swift (2008) found that a few researchers they interviewed showed clear symptoms of experiencing vicarious trauma. They found that by conducting sensitive research. They found some researchers withdrawn from their family, friends and colleagues while they were involved in collecting data; some become exhausted, felt guilt, become anxious—all of these are symptoms of experiencing secondary trauma. However, one needs to bear in mind that engagement and conducting sensitive research should not lead to the development of vicarious trauma but there is a risk to develop it. Due to the negative impact of vicarious trauma on researchers you should not disengage emotionally with the research process and participants. It is because such engagement could create opportunity for your personal growth and academic innovation (Taylor et al., 2016). Avoiding researchers’ emotional experiences is not an option to a good qualitative research project. This action also does not support to manage their health and well-being. Acknowledging, recognising and managing emotion should be part and parcel of conducting an effective sensitive social work research. There are a number of techniques available to deal with

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vicarious trauma (see Box 6.6); your decisions will be shaped by your needs and the contexts you are in. Box 6.6  Strategies to Manage Vicarious Trauma • A positive and constructive supervision with the research supervisor or line manager. • Seek support from a mentor. • Accessing formal counselling services. • Training about vicarious trauma.

Recognition  Recognise yourself that emotions could affect your health and well-being. Take preventative measures. If your coping mechanism is wearing out, ask for support from your supervisor or your research team. Relaxation Technique  Relaxation techniques and exercises could also help to manage emotion. Some researchers use meditation to manage their emotional and psychological distress. The impact of conducting sensitive research on not only researchers but also on transcribers (see Box 6.7) and interpreters should not be downplayed and undermined. You need to identify potential risk before you initiate your data collection. You need to keep in mind that you as well as other people who involve with research could be exposed to stress and trauma. It is therefore crucial to plan ahead and put precautionary measures. Box 6.7  Support Transcribers Gregory et  al. (1997) proposed the following strategies to support transcribers from psychological and emotional harm: • Include them in the ethnical application from. • Brief them about the nature of the research and the type of data. • Inform them earlier about the contents of the interviews with participants and what they will hear from recordings. • Plan to have regular de-briefing sessions. • Put a termination plan from the transcription process. • Have a plan to support or signpost to deal with personal issues arising from transcribing. • Encourage them to write their own journal of their thoughts and feelings which you can see in your research.

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Above strategies would enable researchers to deal with secondary trauma positively and at the right time.

Counselling Versus Interview There are number of similarities between therapeutic interviews and in-­ depth qualitative research interview. It is thus raising a question of researchers’ role when undertaking interview in a sensitive topic. It is now established that an in-depth interview in a sensitive topic ought to be a therapeutic gain—satisfaction and a sense of achievement by telling their stories and experiences (Dickson-Swift et  al., 2008). Building rapport, listening activity and empathetically providing a space for respondents to open could be an empowering experience for some respondents. Liamputtong (2007) found that respondents enjoyed participating in the interviews and felt rewarding. Similarly, Brannen (1988) indicates participants felt a sense of catharsis and were felt relieved by sharing their stories. One can see the reason why some participants felt attending the interview is beneficial because it provides a platform and time to share their views, perspectives, thoughts and experiences. Dickson-Swift et al. (2008) warn us not to undermine the therapeutic value of participating in sensitive research but there are a number of authors who raised concerns about the ‘therapeutic role of research interview’ (e.g. Coyle, 1998; Etherington, 1996; King, 1996) in particular the burden this puts on researchers to manage boundaries between research and therapy. Not only using the similar skill sets in the interviews as counselling but also some researchers spend a significant amount of time with respondents; for example, some researchers spend months, even a year, in their research sites. These made it difficult to keep professional boundaries. Specifically this is a concern for social workers or even social work students who are trained to listen actively and empathise, treat people with respect and dignity and aim to empower them; they are also trained to support and solve problems of vulnerable people in our society. It could cause conflict of conducting the research which is collecting data to produce a good sensitive research and desire to help people or switching off/moving away to use their professional skills and their professional responsibilities.

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In order to find a way to deal with role conflicts some researcher suggested (e.g. Dickson-Swift et  al., 2008: 64) to make it explicit that the researcher is there to conduct a piece of research, that is, collecting information to answer their research questions; they are not there to provide therapy. Other researchers suggested adopting a position of a proxy counsellor and supporting respondents who are distressed in the interview (Bloor et al., 2008). Allan (2006) and Dickson-swift et al. (2006) argued that it is difficult not to intervene when respondents are in distress. Although skills related with counselling could support respondents and gain insights of their social world, it could make things difficult for the researcher. However, counselling and qualitative interviews differ in terms of the process and outcome; for example, a counsellor listening actively to support individuals to manage their problems and concerns whereby a sensitive social work researcher is trying to collect information to answer their question. According to Hutchinson et al. (1994: 30) the researchers’ major role in this context should be a collecting data that of a scientist. However, feminist writers (e.g. Dickson-Swift et  al., 2008, P. 65) see things differently than Hutchinson et al. (1994); they think participants should have some therapeutic gain by participating in the research. It is because researchers in particular in the interview session listen and try to understand participants’ experiences, concerns, issues, problems and unresolved matters; all of which are personal and private. According to Dickson-Swift et al. (2008), ‘it is possible that participation in a research interview has some therapeutics pay-offs for the participant’ (P. 65). Also, not only for the participants but also for researchers it could be therapeutic and support their professional development (Ellis et  al., 1997; Rosenblatt, 2001). Key Points The significance of emotion in everyday life is indisputable but its role in the social work research process in particular on researchers is not fully recognised. A sensitive social researcher can experience a kaleidoscope of emotions, both positive and negative; some researchers experience satisfaction, happiness and jubilance over conducting research but some experience frustration, annoyance, anger and guilt of conducting research.

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Managing emotions is fundamental to conduct a sensitive social work research successfully. Distress plans are essential protocol and safety tool to manage emotion and risks. Techniques of self-care could help manage stress. Questions for Critical Reflection What steps must you take to ensure that participants feel empowered by their involvement in your study? Why is it important to develop distress and safety protocols? What are the weaknesses of a distress and safety protocol? Key Terms Constructive supervision Counselling Distress protocol Economic risk Emotional distress Emotional labour Emotional neutrality Emotional state Emotional work Expressive behaviour Increased self-awareness Legal risk Management of emotion Managing participants’ physical safety Mentoring Mentors Mindfulness Pacing interviews Peer coaching Physiological arousal Psychological and emotional distress Psychological and emotional well-being

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Reflexivity Relaxation techniques Research diary Self-care Social risk Spirituality Supervision Vicarious trauma Vicarious trauma Vicarious traumatisation

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Grenber, J., Reiner, K., & Meiran, N. (2012). “Mind the trap”: Mindfulness practice reduces cognitive rigidity. PLoS One, 7(5). Health and Development Policy Project. (1995). Measuring violence against women cross-culturally: Notes from a meeting. Health and Development Policy Project. Health and Human Rights Info (HHRI). (2020). Ethical consideration for researching violence against women [online]. Available at https://www.hhri. org/publication/ethical-­considerations-­for-­researching-­violence-­against-­ women/. Accessed 01 Dec 2020. Hochschild, A. (1983). The managed heart: The commercialization of human feeling. University of California Press. Hubbard, G., Backett-Milburn, K., & Kemmer, D. (2001). Working with emotion: Issues for the researcher in fieldwork and teamwork. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 4(2), 119–137. Hutchinson, S. A., Wilson, M. E., & Wilson, H. S. (1994). Benefits of participating in research interviews. IMAGE: Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 26(2), 161–164. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1547-5069.1994.tb00937.x Izard, C. E. (1977). Human Emotions. New York: Plenum Press. James, N. (1989). Emotional labour: Skill and work in the social regulation of feelings. The Sociological Review, 37, 15–42. Jorm, A. F., Kelly, C. M., & Morgan, A. J. (2007). Participants distress in psychiatric research: A systematic review. Psychological Medicine, 37, 917–926. Kabat-Zinn, J. (1994). Wherever you go there you are: Mindfulness meditation in everyday life. Hyperion. King, I.  M. (1996). The theory of goal attainment in research and practice. Nursing Science Quarterly, 9(2), 61–66. Langford, D.  R. (2000). Developing a safety protocol in qualitative research involving battered women. Qualitative Health Research, 10(1), 133–142. Liamputtong, P. (2007). Researching the vulnerable: A guide to sensitive research methods. Sage Publications. McCann, I. L., & Pearlman, L. A. (1990). Vicarious traumatization: A framework for understanding he psychological effects of working with victims. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 3(1), 131–149. McCosker, H. (1995). Women’s conceptions of domestic violence during the childbearing years. Masters of Nursing thesis, Brisbane, Queensland University of Technology: 139.

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McCosker, H., Barnard, A., & Gerber, R. (2001). Undertaking sensitive research: Issues and strategies for meeting the safety needs of all participants. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 2(1). Myers, D. G. (2004). Psychology (7th ed. in modules). New York, NY: Worth Publishers. Newman, E., & Kaloupek, D. G. (2004). The risks and benefits of participating in trauma-focused research studies. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 17(5), 383–394. Pearlman, L. A., & Mac Ian, P. S. (1995). Vicarious traumatization: An empirical study of the effects of trauma work on trauma therapists. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 26(6), 558–565. Pearlman, L., & Saakvitne, K.  W. (2013). Treating therapists with vicarious traumatization and secondary traumatic stress disorders. In Figley, C. R. (Ed.) Compassion Fatigue: Coping with Traumatic Stress Disorders in Those Who Treat the Traumatized. London: Routledge. Pooley, J., & Cohen, L. (2010). Resilience: A definition in context. Australian Community Psychologist, 22(1), 30–37. Possick, C. (2009). Reflexive positioning in a politically sensitive situation dealing with the threats of researching the West Bank settler experience. Qualitative Inquiry, 15(5), 859–875. Rau, A. (2020). Dealing with feeling: Emotion, affect and the qualitative research encounter. Qualitative Sociological Review, 16(1), 94–108. Rosenblatt, P. C. (2001). A social constructionist perspective on cultural differences in grief. In M. S. Stroebe, R. O. Hansson, W. Stroebe, & H. Schut (Eds.), Handbook of bereavement research: Consequences, coping, and care (pp.  285–300). American Psychological Association. https://doi. org/10.1037/10436-012 Schauben, L. J., & Frazier, P. A. (1995). Vicarious trauma: The effects on female counsellors of working with sexual violence survivors. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 19(1), 49–64. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.1995. tb00278.x Smith, P. (2012). The Emotional Labour of Nursing Revisited: Can Nurses Still Care? (2nd Edn.). Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. Spouse, J. (2001). Bridging theory and practice in the supervisory relationship: A sociocultural perspective. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 33, 512–522. Stanley, L., & Wise, S. (1983). Breaking out: Feminist Consciousness and Feminist Research. London: Routledge and K. Paul. Steinberg, R. L., & Figart, D. M. (1999). Emotional labor since ‘the managed heart’. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 561, 8–26.

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Taylor, S.  J. (2016). Introduction to Qualitative Research: a Guide Book and Resource (4th Ed). New Jersey: Wiley. Taylor, J., Bradbury-Jones, C., Breckenridge, J., Jones, C ., & Herber, O. (2016). Risk of vicarious trauma in nursing research: A focused mapping review and synthesis. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 25(19–20), 2768–2777. https://doi. org/10.1111/jocn.13235 Tillmann-Healey, L., & Kiesinger, C. (2001). Mirrors: Seeing each other and ourselves through fieldwork. In Kathleen Gilbert (ed.), The emotional nature of qualitative research. Florida: CRC Press LLC. Timraz, S. M., Alhasanat, D. I., Albdour, M. M., Lewin, L., Giurgescu, C., & Kavanaugh, K. (2016). Challenges and strategies for conducting sensitive research with Arab American population. Applied Nursing Research, 33, 1–4. Turner, B. (1992). Regulating Bodies: Essays in Medical Sociology. New  York: Routledge. Watts, J. H. (2008). Emotion, empathy and exit: Reflections on doing ethnographic qualitative research on sensitive topics. Medical Sociology Online, 3(2), 3–14. Wharton, A. S. (1993). The affective consequences of service work. Work and Occupations, 20, 205–232. Wilkins, R. (1993). Taking it personally: A note on emotion and autobiography. Sociology, 27(1), 93–100. Williams, S. (1998). Modernity and the emotions: Corporeal reflections on the (ir)rational. Sociology, 32, 121–139.

Suggested Reading Dickson-Swift, V., James, E. L., Kippen, S., & Liamputtong, P. (2008). Risk to researchers in qualitative research on sensitive topics: Issues and strategies. Qualitative Health Research, 18(1), 133–144. Draucker, C. B., Martsolf, D. S., & Poole, C. (2009). Developing distress protocols for research on sensitive topics. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 23(5), 343–350. Hubbard, G., Backett-Milburn, K., & Kemmer, D. (2001). Working with emotion: Issues for the researcher in fieldwork and teamwork. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 4(2), 119–137.

7 Collecting Data for Sensitive Social Work Research

This chapter is concerned with seven research methods that could be used to successfully carry out sensitive social work research. These methods are: interview, observation, focus group, walking interviews, participatory drawing, photovoice and questionnaire. These methods are widely used in social science and can be adapted to sensitive social work research. The way a sensitive social work researcher could employ these methods will be comprehensively explored in this chapter. In order to achieve this overall aim, the chapter explores: • the theory behind interviews, observations, focus groups and questionnaires • whether and how interviews, observations, focus groups, movement-­ based, participatory drawing, photovoice and questionnaires as research methods can contribute to the study • the strengths and weaknesses of the four research methods of interview, observation, focus group and questionnaire • practical issues that may arise in the course of conducting interviews, observations, focus groups and questionnaires • the way research can use interviews, observations, focus groups and questionnaires sensitively in social work research © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 S. Haider, Sensitive Research in Social Work, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85009-8_7

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Interviews Introduction One of the core social work skills is to ask questions and listen actively in order to understand participants’ situations and circumstances. Without these skills, social workers will not be able to support vulnerable people in society. Social work cannot be imagined without some kind of interaction with people, which could take the form of formal or informal interviews. Researchers also use interviews to collect information so as to understand the particular subject matter that interests them. It is a widely used method in the humanities and social sciences, starting its rise to popularity from the second half of the twentieth century because it encourages researchers to move away from focussing solely on quantitative research. It enables them to explore participants’ beliefs, views, perceptions, understandings and experiences. Active listening is fundamental to conducting interviews in sensitive social work research. The word ‘interview’ has the Latin prefix inter, meaning between or among. An interview is thus more than merely asking questions to obtain answers; it is rather a specific form of social interaction in which asking appropriate questions and listening actively are the core skills that allow researchers to obtain information about a particular subject. Some authors (e.g. Seidman, 2006) see the interview as a process by which to collect people’s stories.

Conducting Interviews Sensitively Conducting interviews is not easy, particularly if social work researchers are doing sensitive research, because their role is not only to ask questions but also simultaneously to listen and think actively in order to prompt or probe their participants. They must also record or capture what their interviewees are saying, covering the ground they need to within the time they have. They must consider participants’ emotions and psychological stress during the interviews, and on the basis of all this they must decide whether should they continue, pause, or provide or seek support. It is

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therefore crucial to organise, prepare and plan interviews carefully and sensitively. Researchers must pay attention to every aspect of their interviews and the way they conduct them (see Box 7.1 for nine criteria of a successful interviewer). Now the question becomes how to conduct interviews sensitively in sensitive research. There are a number of ways researchers can do this, some of which are outlined below but before focussing on this matter it is important for researches to learn about sampling methods: * * *

Sampling Methods It is not always possible to involve in a study all the participants necessary to answer the research questions. For example, a researcher might wish to know how children aged 12 with autism are involved in decision making regarding their care in England. They will not be able to involve all children aged 12 in their research because of their availability, their willingness to engage with the research, time and budget. Actually, they do not need to because the population can be sampled, meaning that only some of the children need be involved in order to draw conclusions about the whole population. The researcher must therefore go through the process of selecting participants from the population on the assumption that this group will represent the whole population (Polit & Beck, 2006). It has been argued that the guideline for sampling is more precise for quantitative than qualitative research, although effective sampling enables researchers to draw conclusions about the entire population (Kara, 2012). No method ensures that the sample is representative (Polit & Beck, 2006). There are two types of sampling: probability and non-probability.

Probability Sampling These sampling methods ‘are those in which the probability of an element being selected is known in advance’ (Schutt, 2008, P. 143). That means that every person in the population has the chance of being

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selected to participate in the study (Kara, 2012; Teater et  al., 2017). Probability sampling methods are important in quantitative research, where the aim is to generalise the findings. Simple random, systematic random and stratified random are popular and widely used sampling methods. Simple random sampling This sampling method aims to select research participants randomly, ensuring that everyone in the defined population has an equal chance of inclusion. ‘It is considered fair, and findings from research based on this method can be generalised. It is, however, rarely used in practice because the process demands the identification of all elements of a population, lists of all those elements, and a way of randomly selecting from this list – a tall order’ (O’Leary, 2004, P. 107). It is possible inadvertently to exclude research participants from the sample. For example, if the telephone directory is used to randomly sample people who had been experienced domestic violence, disabled people without landlines will be omitted, along with homeless people. Systematic random sampling ‘With this kind of sample, you select units directly from the sampling frame – that is, without resorting to a table of random numbers’ (Bryman, 2016, P. 178). Potential participants are selected from the electoral role or a telephone directory. For example, it might be decided to select every nth (e.g. third) individual within a defined population. Stratified random sampling This time-consuming and complex sampling technique makes it possible to construct a truly representative sample of a given population, as long as the demographic characteristics of the population to which the findings are to be generalised are known (UoL, 2011). The population must be divided into several subgroups, on each of which the simple random sampling technique is used. In this way, each sample represents a key subgroup of the population; each group can be proportionate or

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disproportionate to each other. This sampling technique can be used in conjunction with the two previous ones (O’Leary, 2004).

Non-Probability Sampling These methods are not concerned with representing samples because they do not aim to generalise findings outside the sample population. the essence of non-probability sampling is that a judgement is made about the specific units that are included in the sample. The process is not objective, all units do not have a known chance of inclusion and strictly speaking, estimates of precision usually should not be calculated. (Ashworth, 2012, P. 232)

Qualitative research typically applies the following sampling methods. Purposive sampling This leaves it up to the researcher to use their own judgement as to which research participants will help answer their research question. Convenience sampling This method is based on the principle of availability for participation in the study. It is needed when researchers struggle to find participants who meet the research criteria. Snowballing sampling This method can be used when it is difficult to contact or identify individuals. After identifying someone from the population who is willing to participate, they are asked to nominate another potential participant who meets the research criteria and may be interested in taking part. This method is based on research participants’ recommendations. * * *

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Pre-Interview Background Information A knowledge of the subject matter’s background helps ask appropriate questions, as does the use of probes and prompts at the right moments and in the right manner, which could shed light on the subject. In order to understand it before embarking on the research, some researchers suggest conducting pilot interviews to gather information with a view to helping them define the research problem and focus on it (UoL, 2011). Phrasing Questions and/or Themes Researchers must take great care regarding the way they ask questions—that is, their tone of voice, eye contact and approach, as well as the phrasing of the questions. Interview questions must be clear, straightforward and unambiguous. A researcher should not ask leading, offensive or derogatory questions. Box 7.13 gives guidance as to how to ask questions sensitively.  Tip It is always a good idea to conduct a pilot study before the final one, because you can amend or change interview questions and see how participants might react to them.

Interpreter  Determine if an interpreter is required. If one is, one must be chosen who can translate accurately, meaning that they can speak the participants’ languages including local dialects. An interpreter can help translate questions on the spot, or translation services can translate from interview recordings. Consideration must also be given to whether the translation should be literal or whether the interpreter can use their discretion to convey meaning. Interpreters must be briefed and de-briefed, and the issues of privacy and confidentiality related to using interpretation and translation services must be addressed.  Recording of Interviews Sensitive researchers must decide how they want to record their interviews. They have a number of choices: notetaking, audio- and video-recording, or any mixture of the three

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depending on the aim of the research, the outcomes they want to achieve and the participants’ circumstances and environments.  Notetaking: Sensitive social work researchers can use mind mapping tools to capture main ideas and themes, as well as analogies and metaphors to represent participants’ responses. If it is difficult to capture a full, line-by-line account of what participants are saying, visual aids such as spider diagrams and mind maps can be used. These could also help researchers decide when and what to prompt. Audio recording: Sensitive social work researchers can capture and preserve raw data for transcription. The main advantage of audio recording is that they can focus solely on asking questions without the added distraction of simultaneously trying to capture the data. They must ensure before the interviews that the devices they are using are in working order, have enough memory and charge and most of all are in working condition. They may need to carry spare batteries, chargers and memory cards. It must be remembered that although audio recording captures what participants are saying, they do not capture non-­ verbal cues. Researchers must also consider the cost of transcription services and make agreements with transcription services that the latter will adhere to ethical guidance.

Box 7.1  Nine Criteria to Become a Successful Interviewer Kvale (1996) has asserted that in order to conduct a successful interview an interviewer must comply with nine criteria: Subject knowledge: Interviewers must fully understand the focus of the interview and should be familiar with the research topic. Structure: Interviewers can structure their interviews by introducing the topic and the study’s purpose, and by asking participants towards the end of the interview whether they have any questions. Asking questions: Interviewers should ask simple, clear and jargon-free questions. Pace: Interviewers should allow participants to finish what they are saying, matching the participant’s pace. They should not feel obliged to fill silences when participants pause or fall silent for short periods. (continued)

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Box 7.1  (continued) Empathy: Interviewers should listen actively and show genuine empathy towards research participants. This is fundamental to sensitive social work research. Flexibility: This should be the heart of the interview when the topic is a sensitive one. Steering: This means knowing what participants need and want. Critical: This involves interviewers diplomatically and gently challenging interviewees for inconsistencies in their responses. Remembering: Keeping track of and remembering what interviewees have said is vital as an indicator that interviewers are actively listening to and respecting and valuing their participants. Interpreting: Interviewers can summarise what is said for clarification purposes, but should not impose their views on participants, and should prioritise their interpretations. A few criteria must also be added for sensitive social work research. Non-judgemental behaviour: The language of the questions must be non-­judgemental, as must interviewers’ attitudes. They should treat participants in a non-discriminatory manner. Interviews should be an empowering experience for participants. Sensitivity: The interviewer’s approach must be sensitive in every respect. Debrief: All participants must be offered debriefing sessions.

Video recording: This allows researcher to capture both verbal and non-­ verbal cues. Some participants might, however, find this intrusive. They must also consider the technical issues associated with their devices. Some participants may prefer not to be recorded, in which case the researcher can use notetakers. Notes can be taken during interviews, but confidentiality and privacy issues must be addressed. If two researchers are working on the same project, one could ask the questions and the other could take notes. In such cases, researchers must consider whether their participants feel comfortable. For example, notetakers could create a formal atmosphere, and valuable pieces of information could consequently be lost. Research participants must agree with this arrangement, their consent must be informed and their participation voluntary.

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Make Appointments  Whether interviews are face-to-face, online or on the telephone, interviewers must make appointments with participants. If the interview is a group one such as a focus group, the sensitive social work researcher must liaise with all potential participants to arrange a suitable date and time and inform them of the venue. Full attention must be paid to privacy and confidentiality issues where conducting interviews.  Arrive on Time  Sensitive social work researchers should arrive at interview venues on time and arrange the room appropriately. It is important to set up and check audio and visual equipment. When conducting telephone or online interviews, they must set up and check their equipment and start interviews on time.  Distress Protocol  Sensitive social work researchers must develop distress protocols for their interviews. An example of a distress protocol is given in Chap. 6. 

During the Interview Set the Tone  Before start their interview, a sensitive social work researcher must explain the aims, objectives, research questions and the benefits and risks of involvement in the study honestly in simple, jargon-free language. They must outline their role, the ethical issues and their commitment to managing those issues and any dilemmas arising from the interview. They can, for example, focus on confidentiality, privacy, anonymity and voluntary participation in the study, and can explain their plan to minimise psychological and emotional harm.  Create a Conducive Environment and Atmosphere  It is pivotal for sensitive social work researchers to create a conducive environment for research participant to feel relaxed and comfortable. Practical matters such as providing drinking water in face-to-face interviews and focus groups are good practice.  Asking Questions  Sensitive social work researchers should try to use a friendly and approachable tone of voice when conducting interviews. Unless they are conducting structured interviews, they should not use

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closed questions because these might elicit closed answers. They must ask question that open the conversation up, then gradually delve deeper into the subject. Furthermore, Kvale (1996) has proposed nine types of question researchers can ask their participants. In sensitive research it is likely that researchers would use all of them, but the manner in which they are ask will differ, and their approach will be flexible and sensitive to the needs of their participants. These nine types of question help develop an interview guide, and are as follows. Introductory: This allows participants to talk and to delve deeper into the topic. Answers to this type provide detailed and rich data. Examples are: ‘please tell me about your experiences of Islamophobia in your school’, and ‘can you tell me the reason why you did not seek support from the law enforcement team?’ Follow-up: This type of question encourages participants to elaborate on or add to their initial responses. Examples are: ‘what do you mean by discrimination “within Muslims”? and ‘you said earlier that your social worker is not interested in your sexual needs because you are old; could you tell me more about this?’ Probing: Interviewers can encourage further discussion about the subject through direct questioning in order to obtain a clear understanding of participants’ perspectives. Examples are: ‘tell me more about what happened’, and ‘please give me an example of your doctor’s Islamophobic attitude’. Specifying: This is similar to the follow-up type, but interviewers should ask for specific details. Examples are: ‘what happened when you said this to the police officer’, and ‘what effects did your partner’s behaviour have on your mental health?’ Direct: Direct questions are effective in clarifying ambiguous responses. Bryman (2016) suggests that this type of question be asked towards the end of interviews. Examples are: ‘are you happy with the way you decided to bring charges against your son who abused you financially?’, and ‘have you experienced discrimination from other colleagues in your work?’

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Indirect: Serry and Liamputtong (2010) suggest that interviewers can ask ‘projective’ and ‘contextualising’ questions, as in direct questions. Participants can answer such questions by separating themselves from the issue, but answers can be valuable in understanding their attitudes toward that issue. Basically, interviewers ask research participants for their true opinions about an issue. For example, ‘how do you think other Muslims react to the “Prevent’ policy”?’ Structuring: This type allows interviewers to move on to the next line of questioning. An example is: ‘let’s move to service users’ perspectives now’. Silence: Silences and pauses allow participants to think and reflect so as to elaborate on their responses. Interpreting: This could simply amount to rephrasing a participant’s response. For example, ‘is it fair to say that what you have suggested is that all managers behave in a similar manner and cover each other’s back, so it is difficult to evidence bullying in this local authority?’ This type therefore concerns clarifying participants’ responses. Alongside asking questions a sensitive social work researcher should accept silence during the interview and think carefully about how to handle silence (see more details in Box 7.2). Focus on Non-Verbal Cues  Sensitive social work researchers must pay attention to non-verbal cues even when conducting telephone or online interviews where they cannot see participants.  Proceed at the Participant’s Pace  Researchers should not rush research participants; they need to give them plenty of time to present their perspectives and tell their stories. A researcher should go at their participant’s pace, prompting and probing with care. This could be problematic if they are conducting structured interviews, because their questions should be focused and their time would probably be limited. 

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Reduce Background Noise  Interviews should ideally be conducted in quiet locations, or somewhere with few interruptions and little noise and disturbance, because these can disrupt the interview and prevent both researchers and participants from concentrating. However, in some cases it will be difficult to achieve this. The suggestion is therefore that sensitive social work researchers should try to minimise noise and disturbance as much as possible. 

Box 7.2  Accept Silence Participants may become emotional and upset during interviews, and as a result they may pause, resulting in periods of silence. This might present you with a challenge: you may feel uncomfortable, and obliged to say something to fill the silence. As a sensitive interviewer, you should resist the urge to do so. You should acknowledge the silence and appreciate that it enables participants to think, reflect and pull themselves together to carry on with the study. Participants could perceive handling silence well as supportive and as building trust and rapport (Thompson et al., 2008).

Probing Questions These generally enable respondents to elaborate, clarify and explain their answers, as well as allowing interviewers to focus on the interview topic (Nachmias & Nachmias, 1981). When conducting unstructured interviews, researchers must probably be prepared to probe more deeply compared to semi-structured interviews (UoL, 2011). However, the need to probe from a neutral point of view must be kept in mind, together with the need to avoid influencing respondents in the direction of particular responses.  Prompting Questions A prompt question encourages respondents to provide the answer. Some researchers (e.g. UoL, 2011) caution against putting words into respondents’ mouths. For structured interviews, it is suggested that sensitive social work researchers should repeat questions or exercise discretion and slightly rephrase them. Structured interviews do not allow such flexibility, because all-important consistency must be maintained in order to ensure objectivity (UoL, 2011). 

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Ending the Interview Wrap Up  Sensitive social work researchers mostly conclude interviews by asking whether participants want to add or amend anything to what they have already said, or some similar approach. Before thanking the participants, some researchers might ask whether they would be comfortable being contacted in future for clarification or to ask further questions. 

After the Interview Debrief  After interviews, sensitive social work researchers must debrief participants. This is crucial for researchers to ensure that their participants leave with positive feelings (Serry & Liamputtong, 2010). In some cases, researchers must provide participants with details of appropriate support and services. It is also paramount that their contribution, commitment and the effort they have made to take part in the interview be recognised and appreciated.  Sharing Findings  It is good practice to inform participants whether the research report or recommendations will be shared with them. Next complete the activity 7.1. Activity 7.1  Relevance of Interviews as a Research Method Reflect on whether interviews might be relevant to your own research question(s) that you developed in Activity 1.1. Note your reasons. Comment This activity will enable you to carefully determine the research method(s) you need to use to answer your research question(s), and to justify your decision.

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Three Different Types of Interview Sensitive social work researchers can use three types of interview to answer their research question(s). Although the research questions, aims and objectives should lead the researcher to select specific types of interview, they must also take account of the available time and resources both financial and non-financial. Most crucially, they must put research participants’ needs first. The type of interview selected will shape the data, which subsequently influences the analysis, interpretation, conclusions and recommendations. The three types of interview are structured, semi-­ structured and unstructured. Structured: The format of this interview is similar to the questionnaire research method. Interviewers generally ask standard questions with the aim of quantifying the answers. This type of interview can be conducted face-to-face, by telephone and virtually. Mostly closed questions are used to gather comparatively consistent data from a large group of respondents. Although open questions can also be employed, opportunities are limited by the amount of information researchers can obtain, because the format leaves little room for flexibility outside the set questions. It is the researcher’s agenda that dictates and shapes the interview. Semi-structured: This type offers a structure that allows researchers to venture somewhat outside their scripts, meaning that they can ask questions in response to participants’ answers. Researchers ask predetermined questions, but are free to also ask others. This flexibility shapes the interview environment, which is somewhat relaxed and allows free exchanges between researcher and participant. Unstructured interviews: As the name implies, this type is unstructured and the interview parameters and boundaries are mostly loose. Unstructured interviews can lead to original understandings of the subject matter and provide rich insights. There are four interview modes: Face-to-face: This is very popular and widely used in social work research. Telephone: This is also a popular mode.

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Synchronous online: The researcher conducts the interview with the participant in an online room where they can interact privately. Asynchronous: Researchers can also conduct interviews by email. This is time-consuming, but provides privacy. It can be effective for some participants, as they can more freely provide their responses regarding sensitive topics.

Interview Schedules An interview schedule is a useful document to provide guidance as to how sensitive social work researchers or interviewers should conduct interviews. It is helpful for both unstructured and semi-structured interviews. A schedule reminds interviewers of what they need to cover and what areas or topics they need to focus on. It also helps interviewers ask unnecessary question. An example of a semi-structured interview guide for a small-scale study is: * * * Project title: South Asian men’s experiences of domestic violence and abuse in England Date: Time of interview: Venue: Interviewee: Interviewer: Introduction Explain the aim of the research. Explain the benefits of participation in the research. Explain the risks of participation in the research. Explain what support is available to manage risks and harm. Explain ethical issues such as anonymity, confidentiality, privacy, voluntary participation and informed consent.

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Explain the circumstances in which confidentiality will be breached and why. Explain how this will be done. Ask the research participant to sign the consent form if they agree to participate in the study. If it is not possible to obtain a signed consent form, seek and record verbal consent. Regularly check whether the participants understand what has been explained to them and whether they have any questions. Demographic details How would you describe your relationship status? Do you have any children? If so, how many? What is your highest educational qualification? If you are in employment, what is your current occupation? Question 1: Tell me your experiences of domestic violence and abuse. Prompt 1. Tell me when it started. 2. Tell me where it started. 3. Tell me how it started. 4. What do you think were the reasons it began? 5. Tell me the nature of the abuse. 6. Give me one incident. 7. What was worst about the event? 8. Did it impact on your health and well-being? 9. Tell me how you are managing. Question 2: Tell me your experiences of seeking help. Prompt 1. Did you inform your family and friends about this? (a) If so, how did they perceive this? (b) If not, tell me your reasons. 2. Have you sought support from anyone? (a) If so, tell me your experiences of seeking support. (b) What stopped you seeking support? 3. Have you sought support from any agencies? (a) If so, how did they perceive this? (b) What stopped you seeking support from agencies? 4. What support do you feel would help you? Question 3a: Tell me how you see yourself as a South Asian man.

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Question 3b: Tell me whether this had an impact on your seeking help. Question 4: Tell me what support you feel you need. Prompt 1. What do you think about counselling? 2. What do you think about psychotherapy? 3. What about social support? Conclusion Question 5: Is there anything else you would like to comment on that I have not already asked you about? Thank you very much for your time and the information you shared today. * * *

Number of Participants The non-probability sampling technique is generally used in semi-­ structured and unstructured interviews. The snowball technique, where participants identify other participants, is also used, especially if recruiting research participants is difficult. In relation to sample sizes, there is no agreement among social science researchers how many interviews are adequate for a qualitative research study. The National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM) review paper points out that sample sizes for qualitative interviews depend on a number of factors, including epistemological and methodological questions about the nature and purpose of the research: whether the focus of the objectives and of analysis is on commonality or difference or uniqueness or complexity or comparison or instances. Practical issues to take into account include the level of degree, the time available, institutional committee requirements. And both philosophically and pragmatically, the judgment of the epistemic community in which a student or researcher wishes to be or is located, is another key consideration. (Baker & Edwards, 2020, P. 42)

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Activity 7.2  Develop an Interview Guide Prepare a semi-structured interview guide on a social work topic. It does not matter what you choose as a topic, as long as you can ask your family members, friends, colleagues or fellow students, and they understand and can answer your questions. For example, you may want to focus on ascertaining perceptions of social, political or economic issues or about service provision in your local area. Comment As you probably guessed, the aim of this activity is to enable you to develop an interview guide so that you will think carefully about what questions to ask, how and why, and then consider all the practical matters associated with conducting qualitative interviews.

Advantages • This method allows researchers to gain insight into participants’ lives. • Interviews reveal participants’ views, feelings, attitudes, opinions, perspectives and understandings, together with their knowledge and experiences of a given subject. They also specify the reasons for those perceptions and views. • In face-to-face interviews, researchers not only listen to what participants say but also observe their non-verbal cues. • Interviews can be conducted face-to-face, by telephone and online.

Disadvantages • It is a time-consuming research method compared to questionnaires because it takes time to organise, set up, conduct, analyse and interpret. • Interviewers might influence interviewees’ responses, potentially influencing the discussion. It must also be noted that a successful sensitive research interview depends on the researcher’s competence. Tips It is good, ethical practice to make interview questions available to research participants, thereby helping them in particular to reduce their anxiety and uncertainty, as well as to consider and to prepare their answers.

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Checklist for Interviews • Carefully examine the suitability of this method for your study. • Consider alternative research method(s). • Explore the justifications for rejecting alternative methods in favour of interviews. • Decide the type and mode of interviews. • Determine the duration of each interview. • Determine the recording method(s). • Decide on your sampling technique and sample size. • Consider ease of access to potential research participants. • Decide whether an interpreter is required. If so, organise a suitable one. • Explore cultural and religious issues regarding research participants. • Aim to be culturally and religiously competent. • Decide how your interviews can be culturally and religiously sensitive and act accordingly. • Interviews people with disabilities sensitively (see Box 7.3). • Reduce bias. • Develop an interview guide. • Apply for ethical approval. You should not begin your study without this. • Pilot your interview with a few research participants. • Revise your interview guide in light of the pilot study. • Fix dates, times and places for the interviews. • Check audio and visual equipment to ensure it is in working order. • Arrive on time for face-to-face interviews. • Start your interviews on time. • Introduce yourself, explain the purpose of your study, explain the risks and benefits of participating in your study and explain any ethical issues. • Ask participants to sign the consent form if this was not done before the interview. Seek verbal consent if written consent is not possible to obtain. • Establish rapport. • Create an environment in which participants feel comfortable and relaxed.

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• Adhere to your interview guide, but explore interesting tangents if necessary. • Comply with your distress protocol. • Show genuine empathy. • Wrap up the interview. • Offer debrief sessions. • Offer details of support services if required. Box 7.3  Some Tips to Interview People with Disabilities • Do not use negative and discriminatory terms that define a person as disabled, for example, ‘the disabled man’ or ‘the handicapped woman’. Instead use ‘person with a disability’. You should focus on the person rather than the disability, being mindful that when you indicate people without disabilities as normal you are actually indicating that person with a disability is not normal. • Do not move people’s enabling devices such as wheelchairs, walking frames and stick out of your way, unless you have the user’s permission to do so. • Avoid leaning on participants’ wheelchairs, because that is perceived as leaning on the person. • Shake hands with the person with a disability. Do not avoid shaking hands because the individual’s hand is disfigured. • A physical disability does not mean the person is intellectually sub-normal. • If the person is in a wheelchair, maintain eye-level contact. (adapted from DeVito, 2007)

Observations Social workers must have observational skills. They need to observe the social interactions, personal behaviours, attitudes, environmental hazards and environments of service users in order to carry out effective assessments. Without precise and accurate observational skills, social workers cannot safeguard and support children and adults. The same skills can be used to understand and investigate research topics. Observation does not rely on sight alone, but also on other senses such as hearing, smell, touch and taste. However, social work practitioners mostly use seeing and hearing in their practice. Sensitive social work research is very similar. O’Leary (2004) gives three reasons to use this research method:

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‘See it for yourself ’: explanation is probably not enough; researchers want to see things in the real world. Discrepancies between words and actions: People do not always do what they say. Entering into the real research world: Observations take place in the real world where everything is unfolding in front of the researchers’ eyes. They are at the heart of activities related to the research problem. By observing participants, researchers aim to enter into a real world where they hear, see, smell, feel and taste the research environment (O’Leary, 2004). By entering into the real world and using their senses, they can understand the complexities of human behaviours and interactions. There are, however, some differences between observations in social work practice and in sensitive social work research. The former are carried out to support assessments in order to meet the needs of their service users. Their observations are mostly casual and random, sometimes accidental and haphazard. There is no structure by which to observe phenomena systematically. On the other hand, in research they are explicitly for the purpose of observing, detailing what is observed and why. There is therefore a structure according to which researchers collect data. This research method can be combined with others such as interviews and questionnaires. However, a sensitive social work researcher must bear in mind that this research method is suitable for some sensitive research but not all. It can add value to studies when other research methods are used, but researchers must in such cases justify this course of action. This method can be used in inductive or deductive as well as qualitative and quantitative research. Conscious and unconscious observation is a basic life function, so the danger is to treat it as simple and easy, but it is not. From accessing participants to analysing data, observation requires careful preparation, planning and execution. The next section will give sensitive social work researchers several ideas and suggestions to effectively apply this research method.

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Types of Observation 1. Format of data 2. Involvement of researchers 3. Mechanisms of observations 1. Format of data a) Structured observations: These are similar to structured interviews, in that they aim to achieve measurable outputs by using standardised tools. b) Unstructured observations: These can be used for little-known subjects. Findings from unstructured observations can then be used to construct themes or categories for structured interviews (Parahoo, 1997). Unstructured observations are flexible and less standardised; basically, they are the opposite of structured observations. 2. Involvement of researchers a) Participant observations: Observers become part of the activity or role they want to observe. This means that researchers do not become detached from the subject in such structural respects as the system, people, community or team; rather, they become integral parts of the structure, acting as insiders. It is a resource-intensive method as regards researchers, time commitments, effort, finance and environment, but it allows researchers to experience participants’ realities as much as possible. b) Non-participant observations: Unlike the preceding type, researchers do not become involved with what they need to observe in order to answer their research question. Non-­ participant observations are generally structured (O’Leary, 2004). 3. Mechanisms of observation a) Overt: Researchers fully disclose their roles to participants and seek their consent to observe them.

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b) Covert: Researchers do not disclose their roles and what they are observing: in some instances, they do not even reveal that they are conducting research. For example, a researcher might go undercover to understand the reality of their research topic. It is difficult to gain ethical approval for this type of observation, but some studies have used this method to understand and learn about gang culture and activities, prostitution, homosexuality and mental health (e.g. Caudill, 1952; Humphreys, 1970, Lauder, 2003; Rosenhan, 1973).

Field Notes For structured observation (see Box 7.4) researchers generally use a validated tool. In some instances, researchers could adapt the exiting measurement scale. * * * Box 7.4  An Example of Structured Observation Field Notes Research title Aim Observer Name Age Gender Introduction Explain roles Explain purpose Asking open questions Giving attention to service user Showing attention to service user Giving time to answer questions Not interrupting Managing silence Recognising feelings Expressing empathy

HS

PT

MP

NL

AZ

AC

TK

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For unstructured observations (see Box 7.5), researchers must decide what to observe and how to observe it, and must record their observations. For example, Ferguson (2016) conducted participant observations and interviews so as to understand encounters between social workers, children and families. He wrote open field notes that captured a wide range of data such as environments and interactions. His field notes included maps and audio recordings of social worker’s interviews with the families. Loop et al. (2017), on the other hand, used structured observations to generate quantitative data in their research into child behaviours during parent-child interactions. Patton (2002) compiled a chronological log of what happened in the research setting. So, there are a number of ways researchers can capture observation data depending on their research questions and methodologies. Angrosino and Mays de Perez (2000) suggest three ways to conduct observations: • descriptive (inclusive of everything) • focused (topics nominated by participants) • selected (only specific activities) Box 7.5  An Example of Field Notes for a Non-participant, Unstructured Observation Venue: MV Health Centre. Observation: interaction between a mental health worker, Ash, and service user Waheed, a refugee whose ethnic origin is Syrian. Aim: to understand how a mental health worker helps a teenager manage his mental health needs. Ash is asking questions mostly related to the symptoms of post-traumatic disorder. The young person was confused. I did not feel he understood Ash’s questions. I can see that Waheed can understand English but did not fully understand some of the jargonistic language Ash is using, but he is not saying anything other than shaking his head but his eyes telling that he is not with it. Ash is not focussing on Waheed’s non-verbal language; it seems to me he is keen to ask a number of standard questions. He is asking questions routinely. Lack of empathy is visible.

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Spradley (1980) provides a framework (see Box 7.6) within which to capture information in a systematic way. There is no hard-and-fast rule about how to write field notes and what to include. Every approach has its own advantages and disadvantages, and a sensitive social work researcher must decide what suits their participants and their own needs. Similarly, when to write field notes depends on researchers’ needs and preferences. For example, in structured observations, some researchers take notes as they observe, some afterwards and others at the end of the observation; some write comprehensive field notes after leaving the research setting. Although researchers have a variety of preferences as to when to write field notes, it is highly recommended that sensitive social work researchers aim to do so immediately (Gilham, 2000; Naden, 2010). This ensures that the details of the observations are recorded before they are lost to memory. They need not be detailed; comprehensive field notes and reflections can be written later. In some studies, details might indeed not be required if the focus is on exploring a pattern. Working field notes and writing research journals enable sensitive social work researchers to not only capture information from the field, but also to step back and reflect. This will promote the reduction of the researcher’s influence. Box 7.6  A Framework for Recording Field Notes Spradley (1980) suggests the following framework for recording field notes in a systematic manner. It consists of nine points, information for each of which an observer can record while observing: • Space: details of the physical settings such as rooms, offices and outdoor settings • Actors: details of people involved in the research study. • Activities: the activities of all actors. • Objects: physical items present in space such as furniture. • Acts: specific individual actions. • Events: related activities carried out by people, e.g. meetings. • Time: the sequence of activities. • Goal: what people strive to accomplish. • Feelings: felt and experienced emotions in specific contexts.

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Sample Size For experimental studies where researchers use structured observations to collect data, they generally determine their samples randomly. However, other studies use purposive sampling techniques. Sample sizes depend on what researchers want to observe, which might be a single person or a whole group. Box 7.7  Six Tips for Observation Savin-Baden and Major (2013) propose six tips to conduct observational research. 1. Plan: a plan is fundamental to conducting observations. It should include both theoretical and practical matters. This means that the following questions should be included in the observation schedule:

• • • • • • • • •

what to observe what to leave out how to observe when to observe what to record when to record where to record how to record how long the observation will last

2. Positionality: A sensitive social work researcher’s positionality matters when they conduct qualitative research. Positionality means what they hold dear, includes their values and beliefs, all of which influence the way they approach and conduct research, which in turn influences the results. 3. Place: Where researchers place themselves is vital because this could influence the results. This will depend on whether they are undertaking participant or nonparticipant and overt or covert observations. This will affect the observation, which will in turn influence the results. 4. View: Observations can be conducted on two levels, moving from a broad perspective to a narrow one (Merriam, 1998) with a focus on a single person, activity or interaction, then returning to the overall situation (Savin-Baden & Major, 2013). 5. Presence: The researcher’s presence in the research setting influences the situation they are observing. 6. Ethics: Approaching research ethically should be the priority.

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Advantages Observation has a great potential for sensitive research if conducted with consideration for the needs of participants (see Box 7.7 for tips of conducting observations successfully). There are a number of advantages this research method: • It could provide both qualitative and standardised quantitative data. • Data will be generated from the real research world. • It allows researchers to collect both verbal and non-verbal data. It is not always possible to fully understand people’s behaviour by simply asking them about their feelings and views. • It enables discrepancies between what people say and do to be noted. • It is flexible and enables the exploration of various tangents of the subject of study. • It has the potential to describe topics in great detail.

Disadvantages • Participants may not behave and act naturally when they know they are being observed. The researcher’s role is pivotal to revealing genuine behaviours by making participants feel comfortable enough for them to act and behave naturally. • It is an intrusive research method. Ethical issues must be carefully considered. • It is difficult to design a protocol to capture information if the researchers require credible data. • It has been criticised because of its subjectivity and bias. However, it is widely used to collect data by anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists and of course social workers to study a range of issues including sensitive ones.

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* * * Activity 7.3  Ethical Issues for Observations Jolly would like to understand how people with intellectual disabilities are involved in decisions regarding their care. As part of this study she wants to undertake non-participant observations of the interaction between research participants and their health on the one hand and social care workers in the UK on the other. She is struggling to identify the ethical issues inherent in non-participant observations. Can you offer suggestions to Jolly by identifying ethical issues that might arise from undertaking non-participant observations? Also, indicate how she should manage ethical issues. Comments You probably identified a number of ethical aspects Jolly needs to think about. She can initially consider five specific ethical areas: informed consent and voluntary participation, anonymity and confidentiality, privacy, potential harm and data management. She could take the following techniques to manage five specific ethical areas: Informed consent and voluntary participation • She must provide research participants with an information sheet that is simple, explicit and jargon-free. Participants must have the information sheet before they participate in the research. Jolly needs to allocate a reasonable amount of time for them to understand the risks and benefits involved in participation. Communication techniques and styles including written documents must be appropriate to participants’ communication needs. • Participants must sign the consent from before Jolly starts to observe them. However, in some cases participants might not able to sign because of literacy issues, in which case verbal consent should be sought. • She must inform participants that they can withdraw at any point during the study. • It is a good practice to seek regular consent from participants. • Jolly must conform with legal expectations if she wants to research on children and people who do not have the mental capacity to participate in the study. Chapter 3 covers this aspect comprehensively. Anonymity and confidentiality • Jolly could assign pseudonyms to participants at the outset of observations. • She must anonymise all identifiable information in her field notes when she analyses and presents her findings. (continued)

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Activity 7.3  (continued) • After each observation it is important to inform participants of how Jolly will ensure their anonymity. • Before each observation she must be explicit regarding the circumstances in which she will breach confidentiality, including maladministration, neglect, poor practice, safeguarding and illegalities. She should be open and honest about the way in which she will manage this issue. Potential harm Jolly needs to go through the distress protocol to ensure how she intends to manage any potential harm caused by participation. Chapter 6 explores how to develop a distress protocol. Privacy • She must respect research participants’ privacy. • She must use her own judgement as to when not to observe and when to allow participants their privacy. A rationale of doing so must be recorded. • She must plan what to observe. It needs to be relevant and appropriate to the research aims. Data management • She must keep her field notes in a safe and secure place. • Consent forms must be kept in secure place such as a locked drawer. She can scan and save them in a computer or memory device, but these must be password-protected. • All files in the computer must be password-protected. • Jolly must encrypt files in password-protected computers. • She needs to conform with data protection principles.

* * *

Checklist for Observations • Carefully examine the suitability of the observation method for your study. • Consider alternative research method(s). • Explore the justifications for rejecting alternative research methods in favour of observation.

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Decide the type and medium of observations. Decide the duration of the observations. Decide on recording methods. Decide your sampling technique and sample size. Consider access to research participants. Explore cultural and religious issues regarding research participants. Aim to be culturally and religiously competent. Decide how your observations can be culturally and religiously sensitive and act on this. Take action to reduce biases. Develop an observation schedule for structured observations. Apply for ethical approval. You should not start your study without it. Prepare carefully before the observation. Devise a suitable checklist, grid and chart if needed. Build rapport with participants for the observations. Use all your senses to collect data. Be prepared to invest the necessary time to observe properly. Write your observations on schedule. For structured observations, complete the observation schedule as you observe. Attempt to record your data systematically, which will help you analyse it. Leave each observation by thanking the participants for allowing you to observe them. Discuss where you will sit before starting non-participant observations. Leave the research setting carefully, on a positive note.

Activity 7.4  Children and Participant Observations Imagine that you are doing a study of children and that you will use the participant observation method. Consider how you are going to conduct participant observations. Comment. Like all adults, researchers must understand their lives and experiences. However, there are a number of obstacles to the use of participant observation (continued)

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Activity 7.4  (continued) with children. Not only ethical issues, but some practical matters must be considered. Examples are language competence, concentration span, social norms of politeness and the etiquette of deference to adults (Montgomery, 2014). Researchers use several techniques to engage children, such as puppets, dolls, drawings, pictures and photographs. In order to fully engage with children, Laerke (1998) played in a sandpit, dressed like children, sat on a small chair like them, made alliance with some children against others and, in some cases, sided with one child against another. According to her, the children stopped asking for my adult help or intervention; they began, in my presence, to tell secrets about whom they were in love with or whom thy didn’t want to play with; they began bullying me, and I sometimes found myself giggling along with those who bullied others. (P. 3) It is clear that the children saw her as a friend. However, it is difficult for some children to differentiate between friend and researcher. They might not fully understand the research and its impact; some may be confused or embarrassed by adults sitting next to them. Sensitive researchers must carefully address the ethical issues associated with participant observation, such as those relating to consent and to understanding the implications, benefits and risks of participating in the study. Although researchers are explicit about their role and the reason why they are there, some children can become upset if researchers leave. This requires careful consideration. Furthermore, the blurred boundaries between friend and researcher make it difficult for researchers and children to end their relationships. Hence, it is paramount that researchers meticulously plan exit strategies from the field. Researchers must conform with moral objectives, duties and responsibilities towards children, meaning that they must safeguard children from harm, abuse and exploitation.

Focus Groups A focus group is a qualitative research method originated in sociology (Merton & Kendall, 1946). It is one of the popular research methods in particular market research to gather people’s perceptions, opinions, views and the experiences. Focus groups are like interviews but with a group of people rather than one person. As Kitzinger (1995) asserts, ‘a form of

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group interview that capitalises on communication between research participants in order to generate data’ (P. 299). So, the interactions within the group and use of group dynamic by the facilitator of the group discussion (Bowling, 2002) to collect qualitative data are the main characteristics of a focus group. Generally, the facilitator or moderator facilitates the focus group. Interactions within the group stimulate discussions, people discuss about their thoughts, state their feelings, understanding, agreement and disagreement regarding the research topic (see Box 7.8). Researchers can gather multiple understanding, views, opinions about the research topic within a very short period of time but its utilisation in sensitive social work research is rather limited. It is probably because some participants may not feel comfortable to discuss their experiences, understanding, views and opinions in a group setting about on specific topic. Some may feel comfortable to open up in group settings.

Activity 7.5  Different Ways to Conduct Focus Groups Can you think about different ways to conduct a focus group other than face-to-face? Comment Technological innovations make it possible to facilitate focus groups via telephone conferencing and the Internet. Telephone conferencing: Participants can attend focus groups in different geographical locations. Online: There are two types of focus groups. • Synchronous: This group is organised and conducted virtually. Research participants present live from different geographical locations via the internet. This is similar to face-to-face interviews, but participants comment via the Internet. It is live, and everyone can see each other. Participants can talk and write at the same time. • Asynchronous: An asynchronous focus group is not a live event, but still uses the Internet. Participants, however, only communicate by emailing from different geographical locations.

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Box 7.8  Extract of a Focus Group Discussion

SUBJECT 1:

And I listened to something on Learning Guide 7 about Sasha and her grandmother. What I took from it was it felt really artificial. It didn’t feel like Sasha speaking at all. SUBJECT 6: I find that with the OU materials as well. SUBJECT 1: And I think that if you are going to do the VR, whoever is going to be in that VR, it needs to be authentic. SUBJECT 2: Yeah. SUBJECT 1: Because yes, I think we benefit from reflecting on some of those scenarios, but if it’s not authentic enough, I don’t think we always connect. SUBJECT 6: I agree. SUBJECT 1: And some of the films that we’ve had, I’ve really connected with and I’ve had an emotional reaction from that. But some of the others, you don’t, and I don’t think you reflect and learn as much as you can doing it. INTERVIEWER: No. What would actually make it authentic then? SUBJECT 3: Realism. SUBJECT 2: Yeah. SUBJECT 1: Or that it’s an example of a visit. SUBJECT 3: Yeah. SUBJECT 2: Brings it to life, doesn’t it? SUBJECT 3: Yeah, there you go. Yeah.

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Role of Facilitators Facilitators lead and manage group discussions (see Box 7.9 to explore the details of competence a facilitator is required). Typically, a researcher in a small-scale study becomes a facilitator, but it could be anyone as long as they have the right skills and knowledge. The role of facilitator is pivotal in expediting and navigating through social processes (Franz, 2011) and generating detailed data. Facilitators must therefore be approachable, friendly and flexible, and most importantly be able to make participants feel relaxed and comfortable enough to open up and to share their knowledge and experiences relative to the research topic. In some instances it can be preferable to select facilitators with whom research participants can associate. These could be community leaders, practitioners, service users or carers. For example, Im (2018) used community leaders to conduct the focus groups. Whoever facilitates the group must undeniably understand their roles and responsibilities and feel comfortable in conducting focus groups.

Box 7.9  Competence of a Facilitator Facilitators must: • be active listeners and show empathy to participants. • be open minded, flexible, adaptable, non-judgemental and able to minimise power imbalances in their groups. • be good communicators have the interpersonal qualities required to promote trust. • respect participants and try to empower them by involving everyone in the discussion. • create a safe and secure environment where participants feel relaxed and comfortable in expressing their views freely. • be able to manage the group. This includes managing conflicts and disagreements productively. • be prepared for the unexpected (Krueger & Casey, 2009). • be confident and competent in managing their groups. • Be knowledgeable about the topic of discussion in order to direct it when necessary as a way of refocusing participants on it when they digress.

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Guidelines for Facilitators The manner in which focus groups should be managed depends on the participants, the settings and the purpose of the study. For example, it would be inappropriate for a male to facilitate a focus group in which the aim of the research is to understand the help-seeking behaviour of females who have experienced sexual violence at the hands of males. Cultural contexts, customs and social norms should also be adhered to when selecting facilitators. The following guidelines can give some idea of how to structure and conduct focus groups. • Facilitators must introduce their roles and convey their appreciation to participants for committing their time. • Facilitator must then explain the research aims and objectives, and explain the purpose of a focus group. See more details of planning a focus group in Box 7.10. • They must also stress the ethical issues of anonymity, confidentiality, privacy and voluntary participation. • Ground rules must be set, such as respecting each other’s views and challenging them diplomatically and sensitively. • The structure of the focus group must be explained, including its duration and the facilitator’s role. • If a notetaker is used, they must be introduced. If the proceedings are recorded on audio or video, consent must be sought and the reasons for recordings, the way the data will be anonymised and what will happen to the recordings after they have been transcribed must all be explained. • At the end of each group, facilitators should thank the participants and reiterate how confidentiality and privacy will be observed at the data analysis, interpretation and publication stages. • Participants should be informed that the expectation is not to give right or wrong answers, but rather that the facilitator’s aim is to obtain a diversity of views and opinions and areas of agreement and dissent. Participants should feel free to disagree with each other’s views.

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• Facilitators can let participants digress from the subject of the discussion, because interesting data might be generated from the discussion. This is a delicate judgement for facilitators, who must strike a balance between keeping interactions focused and allowing participants to move away from the topic. It is a judgement call based on the duration of the focus group and the research questions. Box 7.10  Planning Focus Groups for Sensitive Research During the focus group a facilitator must • make research participants feel relaxed and comfortable. • ensure discussions stay focussed. • encourage discussion and debate. In order to achieve this, facilitators’ questions and attitudes must demonstrate their curiosity. • probe to explore more. • ensure inclusivity in the group. • encourage participants to move on if they are drifting away from the subject, or if the researcher has reached saturation point with no new information or data being generated.

* * * An example of a focus group is provided below: 1. Introduction to the project and the focus group arrangements. NB: include ground rules and ask group members if they have anything to add: • Issues of confidentiality and anonymity. • Voluntary participation. • The right of participants not to disclose anything they do not want to. • How to deal with distress or conflict should it arise. • Commitment to respecting and valuing others. 2. A brief round of introductions 3. Briefly explaining the project’s rationale 4. Areas of questioning (remain focussed on virtual simulation [VS] agenda):

7  Collecting Data for Sensitive Social Work Research  Subject area

Prompts

Defining the field of study

Defining virtual simulation

Evaluation

Opening out

Reflective question

Organisational and work culture issues

Gain buy in

Closing question

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What do you understand by the term ‘virtual simulation’? Show the VS video. What are the key strengths What are the strengths or as you see them of using barriers that VS would offer VS as a learning tool? students What are the main barriers to using VS as a learning tool? In using VS, do you think there would be advantages or disadvantages to other stakeholders, for example sponsors/service users/ universities? Would it be useful to be able If a VS system were used, to use it on a phone/tablet? what would be important Would it be useful for to include in the design? multiple users to use it on a network? Do various work In your opinion, how will environments already use work environments such technologies? facilitate VS learning for Are policies in place for this the professional use (GDPR, data protection, programme? safeguarding) How do you think your Could your organisation/ organisation/placement placement support the use could support the use of VS of VS as a learning tool? as a learning tool? Checking nothing has been Offer participants to share left unsaid any final thoughts that they feel the researcher needs to know or hasn’t asked about before the meeting ends

5. Talk about the next step of this research. Thank you so much for your participation. * * *

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Planning Focus Groups for Sensitive Research Before tackling the main question, facilitators may begin by gathering demographic and background information. An information sheet can be drawn up to capture demographic details such as participants’ ages, genders, roles and ethnicities. In order to determine the discussion questions, they must be linked to the research questions(s). Some facilitators develop focus group guides consisting of all the questions they will ask and the way they will facilitate the focus group. In these guides some facilitators include a number of points they want to cover; some include the main and subsidiary questions (see above example for both main and subsidiary questions). Some facilitators use a critical incident, vignette or case study to start the discussion. It is advisable that novice researchers facilitating focus groups for the first time in sensitive topics or with vulnerable people develop comprehensive focus group guides to keep the discussion on track and to manage it. These guides must include introductory, key, summarising and concluding questions. To understand these four types of question, the example of workplace bullying will be used. • Introductory question: Tell me about your experiences of support you received for bullying at work. • Key question: What do you think are effective ways that social workers respond to workplace bullying? • Summarising question: It seems to me from this discussion that a number of ways are required to root out workplace bullying in social work, but what can individual social workers do about this? • Concluding question: Is there anything else any of you would like to add? As part of the planning for focus groups, researchers must consider the number of research participants who should be involved and how many focus groups are required for their studies. The purposive sampling

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technique is the one mostly used to recruit participants. More than one sampling technique can be used. Haider (2020), for example, used both purposive and snowballing sampling to recruit Rohingya adults to discover the way they manage adversity in Rohingya camps in Bangladesh. The composition of his focus group was homogenous. The choice of sampling technique depends on the research question, the level of access to potential research participants and research settings, and the resources and time available. For example, either homogenous or heterogenous focus groups might be needed to answer particular research question(s). Homogenous groups create an environment where participants are familiar enough with each other as a group to feel relaxed and comfortable in discussions (Sagoe, 2012). Conflict is less prevalent in homogenous groups. On the other hand, heterogenous groups bring a diversity and plurality of opinions and views. According to Davidson et al. (2017), focus groups ideally consist of 5 to 15 people because this size allows all participants to contribute and to achieve group cohesion. The authors also recognise that the size of group depends on the research topic and the social context of participation in the research. For example, Abbott and Palatnik (2018) had 21 research participants in one focus group and Haider (2019) had 12. Krueger and Casey recommend 5 to 8; Stewart and Shamdasani (2015) eight to 12. The number of focus groups required depends on the research question and objectives and the researcher’s aim. For example, some researchers strive for saturation of data, meaning that focus groups produce findings that do not add anything new, so some researchers continue conducting focus groups until they satisfied that they have achieved saturation point. The availability of participants, resources and time also vitally influences how many focus groups researchers should include in their designs.

Advantages • In real life people interact with each other, and discussion influences their views, beliefs and opinions and shapes their way of thinking. This

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interaction is mirrored in focus groups, which is why Krueger (1994) asserts that focus groups are more realistic and representative of real life. Researchers can obtain the views of many participants in a very short period of time. In some cases, focus groups are probably the only method of gathering qualitative data, for cultural and religious reasons. Focus groups can generate detailed and rich qualitative data. If facilitators—mostly researchers—and participants act in partnership and the group dynamics work well, new and unexpected findings could be generated from focus groups. Some people feel relaxed and comfortable in discussing and participating in a group. New insights and ideas could be developed in focus groups. Focus group discussions reveal similarities and differences of opinions, views, beliefs, perceptions and experiences. The same participants may feel empowered by participating, engaging in and contributing to focus groups. However, this depends on the topic. This method facilities cultural brokering and cultural appropriate strategies (Davidson et al., 2017).

Disadvantages • It can be time-consuming to organise. • In order to get the best out of focus groups, two people are required: one to facilitate the session and another to take notes. However, it is possible to use a voice recording mechanism to capture interactions. • Some participants may not feel comfortable talking in group settings. • The way facilitators manage groups could influence responses from participants. • Transcribing focus group discussions is both time-consuming and difficult, particularly in identifying who said what. This could be overcome if an agreement could be made that participants should say their name before speaking. There is an ethical implication of this in that their names must be anonymised along with other identifiable information. Furthermore, because people are engrossed in the discussion

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it is very likely that more than one person will be talking at the same time, and that they might not mention their names before speaking. Power in group settings is diffused across several participants, which could make it difficult for facilitators to engage other participants. Facilitators must be competent to manage the discussion and keep the focus on the research topic or the question being asked. Unstructured focus groups could omit important matters. Participants can influence each other’s perceptions and views about research topics, and dominant speakers could make it difficult for other participants to engage in discussions. It is difficult to manage confidentiality. Groups can pose significant barriers to managing participants’ distress. However, some participants could find participation therapeutic. Because they are group settings, participants may not behave the way they do normally.

Walking Interviews Walking interviews are increasing in popularity as a qualitative research method within the mobilities paradigm (Sheller & Urry, 2006). They are generally used to conduct ethnographic research (Ingold & Vergunst, 2008). ‘A walking interview is when the researcher walks alongside the participant during an interview in a given location’ (Kinney, 2017, P. 1). It is a participatory research method in which the researcher’s head, heart and legs interact. This method is based on the perception that people’s behaviours, understandings and experiences are embedded in the places they inhabit (Roy et al., 2016). Place and space significantly affect people’s lives (Anderson, 2004; Ingold, 2011). As Casey (2001) points out, The relationship between people and place is not just one of reciprocal influence…but also, more radically, of constitutive coingredience; each is essential to the being of the other. In effect, there is no place without self and no self without place. (P. 684)

Anderson (2004) extends this argument by asserting that place is integral to identity, so that when researchers visit participants and engage

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with them through movement (i.e. walking), they can reveal new meanings and understandings relating to participants’ experiences. For example, Roy et al. (2016) carried out seven walking tours to understand the challenges of young men surviving in the city of Manchester in England, conducting their research on a social care agency. This agency used creativity to engage with and support young men, some of whom had been sexually exploited or who had been involved in sex work, while others had experienced homelessness. By visiting a series of city centre sites such as car parks, public gardens, statues, canals, service locations and casinos with some of the young people who were clients of this social care agency, researchers were able to uncover the ways in which participants’ social, psychic and embodied worlds were intertwined (Roy et al., 2016). Their individual stories of survival highlighted the interventions required to support them. They walked and talked with participants when they travelled to a number of sites associated with their survival stories. When they visited these sites, participants were invited to take photographs and relate their stories if they felt comfortable doing so. Seven tours were audio-recorded and transcribed. The justification for the walking tour research method is to enable participants to relate their experiences and express their views in neutral settings. Some participants dislike interviews because of their previous experience of involvement with the police and others in authority. Some can become defensive in interviews, but if the discussion occurs in natural and familiar settings, they can associate themselves with those surroundings. For example, Roy et al. (2016) used this research method and found that participants’ survival strategies were associated with the places they visited. According to the authors, Jeff describes how the concrete and metal facades of the city provide moments of relief and respite from the pressures of day-to-day survival. In a different tour we are told by Jimmy that he has developed his own’ way of seeing’ and his own practice of looking, acting and attending – ‘I’ve got my own eyes, I can do what I want’ – which is intrinsic to his sense of self, his sense of agency, his own strategies around survival and the style to service provision that he might engage with. (P. 167)

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Activity 7.6  Identify Practical Issues Associated with Walking Interviews List the practical issues you should consider in order to conduct walking interviews, and develop an action plan to manage them. Comment The walking interview method involves you being mostly out and about. Along with practical issues such as weather, physical safety and recording conversations, you need to carefully consider ethical ones, confidentiality in particular, and plan accordingly so as to minimise some of the risks to which you may be subject. Basically, you must consider all likely eventualities and plan to manage them before you conduct this research method. Weather: Rain, strong winds, snow, ice and extreme heat could all disrupt your walking interviews. It is important that you check the weather forecast pertinent to your route and the places you will visit, and change the interview time or date accordingly if necessary. You may want to use public transport or a car. If the latter, you should consider appropriate insurance and other documentation necessary for driving, and driving conditions including ice, snow and rain. Using public transport brings its own safety concerns regarding your safety and that of your participants. Ethical issues must also be addressed, because your public interactions might be overheard. Physical capabilities: You must ensure that both you and your participants are able to walk, including any necessary enabling technologies. You must make reasonable adjustments for participants to be involved with this method. Environment: Both your and your participants’ safety is paramount to the successful conduct of your research. Risk assessments of the places and routes you will use should be conducted. Risk assessments and management are covered in Chap. 5. Ensure that you are walking and visiting well-­ lit areas. Places you visit must be accessible for both you and your participants. If you need prior authorisation to visit some places, make sure you obtain it before your visit. Recording: You can use a digital recorder with a lapel microphone, or larger recording systems. Whatever you use, you should ensure that it is in working order. Ethical issues: it is difficult to ensure full confidentiality when walking along the road, visiting public places or travelling in public transport. You need to inform participants beforehand of the route; indeed, this should be part of the process of seeking informed consent. Distress protocol: Last but not least, a distress protocol must be arranged— see Chap. 6.

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Advantages • This research method provides rich and detailed understandings of people’s experiences. • It also provides rich contextualised information. • It reduces power imbalances between researchers and research participants. • Walking and talking can be therapeutic, as well as helping some participants to feel more positively, but the opposite could also be true because certain places can be associated in their minds with happiness and others with negative memories and feelings. • Walking and talking create environments in which researchers and participants interact freely, a condition that would be difficult to achieve in formal face-to-face interviews. Roy et al. (2016) indicates that walking and talking together allows a form of intimate exchange. • The sheer rhythm of walking can relax both mind and body, which could allow participants to reflect and use their imaginations. • While walking and talking together, researchers could understand how research participants’ identities and environments are intricately intertwined. In their study, Roy et al. (2016) found that young men’s sense of themselves was strongly rooted in the spaces and places that were personally significant to them.

Disadvantages • Findings are context-specific and subjective. • Researchers must carefully plan and organise the walking tour interview method. • Researchers must also carry out thorough risk assessments and distress and safety protocols to safeguard both research participants and themselves.

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Visual Research Method The use of language-based research methods such as interviews, documentaries and observations has predominated in sensitive social work research. For some participants, these methods might not help them express their lived experiences, emotions and feelings. An array of non-­textual research methods is now available to sensitive social work researchers, including drawing, photography and video. These can be jointly referred to as the participatory visual communications research method (Literat, 2013). Use of these research methods enables participants to visually depict their lived realities. Through the process of reflection, they are then able to express their emotions and feelings. The use of participatory drawing is one of these visual communication research methods; it is part of the broader field of visual research methods in the social sciences. It is a nonmechanical visual art form not dependent on linguistic proficiency, and it is simple, easy and playful. All of these factors make this research method suitable for children and young people across a variety of socio-economic and cultural backgrounds (Literat, 2013). For example, to understand the experiences of homeless children aged 9–17 living on the streets of Kampala in Uganda, Young and Barrett (2001) conducted a study using participatory drawing as a way of engaging them. The method allows research participants to creatively depict both physical and abstract realities (Banks, 2001, 2008). It is not, however, as widely used as photovoice or digital storytelling (Streng et al., 2004; Wang, 2006). Both physical and cognitive efforts are required to create expressive drawings. Rattine-Flaherty and Singhal (2007) argue that this research method values subjectivity, emotions, feelings and—most of all—the collaborative construction of knowledge, meaning that it is an inherently feminist research approach. Rose (2001) suggests that researchers apply ‘critical visual methodology’ to analyse images. This technique allows researchers to concentrate not only on the drawings but also on the circumstances of its production, circulation and consumption (Literat, 2013). Literat (2013) suggests building summative and reflective discussions into this method so that researchers can reveal more subtle and ambiguous aspects of the images. One way to achieve this would be to interview informally and allow participants to reflect on the rationale behind their

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drawings, which sheds light on the internal and external narratives that shaped them (Lorenzo, 2010). According to Literat (2013) adopting this strategy and encouraging the participants to talk about their own drawings necessarily puts the researcher in the position of the listener, and enables the participants to be in charge of the interpretation process – which is vital given that the visual evidence is a subjective product of the participants’ own perceptions and lived realities. (P. 11)

Advantages • This method has the potential to explore conscious, subconscious and unconscious feelings and perspectives (Rattine-Flaharty & Singhal, 2007). • A participatory art-based research method does not expect participants to come up with an instant answer, as in interviews and focus groups. It allows them time to reflect on their responses. • Time for reflection allows participants to think carefully about their responses, and it is assumed that by doing so they will be able to present a complete picture (Gauntlett, 2007). • Drawings are metaphorical representations of complex social realities in which perceptions, identities, emotions and feelings are intertwined. In image-based research, participants actively portray their inner realities as metaphors, which is difficult to achieve using questionnaires, interviews and focus groups. • This research method can be beneficial for sensitive topics, in particular in engaging people who have experienced trauma, or have mental disorders. This method can be useful where others fail (Literat, 2013). • It is not a technology-dependent research method like photovoice and digital storytelling. • Participants take the responsibility for framing their own research, which can be expressive and tailored to them. This method can empower participants. • It is an engaging and enjoyable activity that can make participants feel relaxed and comfortable. • It is easy to implement and is cost-effective compared to other visual research methods.

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• It can be used in variety of contexts. • It has potential to promote empowerment and efficiency among research participants and community members.

Disadvantages • Small-size samples are generally used in this research method because of logistical issues. The personal nature of this type of research also discourages researchers from using large groups of participants. This makes it difficult to generalise its findings. • Literat (2013) warns that visual data is more open to interpretation than textual data. Similarly, Silverman (2001) raises concerns regarding the validity of interpretation. • Researchers must be careful when interpreting results, especially in cross-cultural contexts, because participants’ drawings are the product of their specific socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. Culturally neutral interpretations will not depict the true nature of the drawings (Literat, 2013).

Photovoice The photovoice is a research method developed by Wang and Burris (1994), who assert that it enables researchers to gain the possibility of perceiving the world from the viewpoint of people who are leading lives that are different from those traditionally in control of the means for imaging the world. (P. 172)

Photovoice combines photography with groupwork, thereby enabling participants to take pictures by using cameras and reflecting on the photographs they take. Photography has long been used in research for a variety of purposes and in many ways (Lal et al., 2012). Examples are photoelicitation (Harper, 2002), Miller and Happell’s (2006) participant photography, participatory photographic research (Aldridge, 2007) and

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Hagedorn’s (1994) hermeneutic photography. Lal et al. (2012) point out that of all these visual-based approaches, photovoice provides a framework based on the principles of participatory research, so it is rooted in democratic and empowering principles by providing research participants with cameras so that they can take pictures of their everyday lives. It has three main goals: • It enables people to record and represent their social realities including community strategy. • By taking photographs, it encourages people to engage in critical dialogue, including discussions of important issues that affect them (see Box 7.11) and their communities. • It then allows researchers to proactively reach out to policy meeting (Wang & Burris, 1994). Box 7.11  Research Example of a Photovoice Research Method Thompson et al. (2008) conducted research on the experience of living with chronic mental illness, using the photovoice method. The aim of their study was to explore if photovoice methodology can be used to enhance the level of empathy professional feel when meeting a patient who carries psychiatric diagnosis in any setting. (P. 14) Thirteen research participants agreed to participate but only seven—two men and five women, with ages ranging from 38 to 51 years—became fully involved with the research. Disposable cameras were given to the participants along with pre-paid padded envelopes to return the cameras. They were advised not to take pictures of people. They needed to take pictures in order to represent what it was like for them to live with chronic mental illnesses. They were then interviewed for an hour each, which enabled the principle investigator to understand the meanings of their pictures. Thompson et  al. (2008) recorded the positive impacts on participants of using this method. According to them one of the unexpected benefits we discovered was the way that the participants viewed their assignment. They seemed to see it as a value-­ rich assignment, which actually enhanced their sense of being valued by others. (P. 23)

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Researchers firstly work in partnership with the key stakeholders to identify the issues affecting specific communities or groups of participants. This process enables researchers to negotiate with the key stakeholders to develop the research question. Stakeholders could be service users, carers, family members, decision makers, community groups, policymakers and service providers. After developing the research questions, researchers concentrate on recruiting participants, who then participate in two to six group meetings. The initial group meetings focus on the research questions, after which the participants are trained to use the cameras and introduced to the ethical aspects of the research, including taking pictures. The participants then receive guidance and directions on taking pictures. They receive the cameras and start taking photographs. What pictures they take depends on the research questions. After taking their pictures, the participants come together in a group to select the picture they want to describe and discuss. The discussion focuses on the following questions: • • • • •

What do you see here? What is really happening here? How does this relate to our lives? Why does this problem or strength exist? What can we do about it? (Lal et al., 2012, P. 82)

Their photos are then presented to policymakers accompanied by short narratives with the aim of facilitating change processes (see Box 7.12). Knowledge gained from the research project helps inform this session.

Box 7.12  Photovoice Research Methods Wang (2006) demonstrates how the photovoice method has contributed to youth mobilisation for community change, illustrating this using a nine-­ step strategy to mobilise community action through the use of photovoice. The nine steps are: 1. Select and recruit a target audience of policymakers among community leaders. 2. Recruit a group of photovoice participants. (continued)

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Box 7.12  (continued) 3. Introduce the photovoice methodology to participants, and facilitate a group discussion about cameras, power and ethics. 4. Obtain informed consent. 5. Propose initial theme(s) for taking pictures. 6. Distribute cameras to participants and instruct them in their use. 7. Allow time for participants to take pictures. 8. Meet to discuss the photographs and identify themes. 9. Arrange a forum with participants to share photographs and stories with policymakers or community leaders.

Consent In order to use the photovoice method, three types of written consent are required: • Participants must provide consent to participate in the study. • They must also give their permission to use their photographs for publication and in presentations. • The permission of people intended to be photographed should also be obtained.

Advantages • This research method enables the acquisition of information about the participants at two distinct points: first, when they take the pictures, and then when they discuss them. • It is an engaging and empowering method of enabling marginalised people to reflect about their social realities and to advocate for their concerns. • It develops skills such as photography, analytical thinking and reflection. • It enables participants to be creative while recording their lives. • It instigates collaborative learning processes in which participants, policymakers and researchers learn from each other.

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Disadvantages • It is difficult for participants to recall the reasons why they took specific pictures if there is a long delay before the group work or interviews. • It is time-consuming compared to interviews and focus groups.

Questionnaires Questionnaires are a widely used and popular research method. Newspapers might conduct polls to explore particular issues, and market research organisations might carry out large-scale investigations. On its face, questionnaires may seem easy and simple to use in sensitive social work research compared to interviews, but they are not. A number of aspects must be meticulously considered, from initial development to analysis and interpretation of the data. In sensitive research clear explanations of intentions and of the risks and benefits of completing the questions must be provided, along with the support mechanisms available if respondents become distressed while completing the questionnaires (for distress protocols, see Chap. 6). Although this research method appears in a variety of disciplines in social work and sensitive research, it is not widely used. This is probably because of its association with positivism, which assumes that social reality is objective and external. Some argue that these assumptions do not fit with the premise of sensitive social work research because it simplifies the complexity of social work reality and aims for objectivity. However, it is possible to use questionnaires as a research method to collect quantitative data without accepting some of the main tenets of positivism such as universal truth. Sensitive social work researchers can therefore use them as tools ‘while accepting that scientific inquiry can never truly be objective and impartial (and indeed perhaps should not be)’ (Stauffer & O’Brien, 2018, P. 5). The nature of sensitive social work research should leave the researcher open to the idea of using questionnaires as well as other research methods including qualitative research ones. Shaw (2007) suggests that the conception of quantitative research methods as inherently positivist and incompatible with social work research, including sensitive research, should not be

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entertained. Different sensitive social work research requires the adoption of different research methods, abandoning particular research methods in favour of others, or creating hierarchies of research methods in order to conduct a diverse range of sensitive social work research. Stifling ‘methodological imagination’ needs to be avoided because it is unlikely to serve the interests of both sensitive social work researchers and service users and carers. Like any other research method, questionnaires have both advantages and disadvantages. They can help achieve some research outcomes such as policy reform, the formulation of legislation and social change. According to Teater et al. (2017, P. 27). numbers can illuminate the scale, scope and impact of social issues and inform how we respond in ways which are ethical, empowering and effective. Statistics and quantitative research complement the knowledge to be gained from the experiences of service users.

This method can also be used creatively to engage groups that are difficult to research. Some participants feel more comfortable completing questionnaires than talking with strangers such as researchers. By completing questionnaires, they are also not influenced by researchers’ non-­ verbal cues and do not feel pressured to say what researchers want to hear. Self-Completion Questions  Self-administered or self-completion questionnaires are designed for respondents to complete on their own. They can be sent by post or email or posted online. This method of distribution is cheap and easy, but response rates may be low. This approach enables respondents to express themselves and provide sensitive information anonymously, which some respondents may not able to do in face-­ to-­face interviews or on the phone. It also allows respondents time to think and consider their answers. This approach enables researchers to reduce the interviewer’s effect on respondents. However, respondents with poor literacy or of low educational levels may not complete them. As researchers are not present when the questions are being completed, it is difficult to ascertain the context of the answers. Neither will researchers exactly who completed questionnaires, even they have been addressed to specific individuals.

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Telephone  Data can be collected telephonically from large geographical areas. Response rates are higher because it is more difficult to refuse p ­ eople verbally than by letter or email. Some people actually prefer to talk over the phone. However, this approach is expensive. Furthermore, some people may not feel comfortable in saying feely what they want to over the phone because of their environments (UoL, 2011).  Internet  Questionnaires can be distributed via email as attachments, or by URLs linking to questions to which respondents can upload their answers. Completed questionnaires are returned to webservers for researchers to carry out data analysis. The advantage of this approach is that it can be interactive and customised according to respondents’ needs and preferences (de Vaus, 1993).  Online questionnaires can be flexible in allowing respondents to skip questions other than mandatory ones, to check their answers before submitting them, and complete them in more than one sitting. Researchers can also ensure that instructions are followed. Questionnaires are relatively cheap and quick. Data can be collected from a large number of respondents, but it may be impossible to reach some individuals such as those who do not have access to the Internet or who do not have the digital literacy required to complete the questionnaires. Low response rates are also a disadvantage of web-based questionnaires. Particular groups can be engaged in online surveys, which could either help or hinder the research depending on the focus sample. For example, questionnaires are probably not a good approach to capturing data regarding violence against older people living in residential homes. However, they could help engage a group consisting of young adults who were abused in their childhoods for the purpose of ascertaining the prevalence of personality disorders among them. Structured Interviews  Both telephone (landline and mobile) and face-­to-­ face formats are appropriate for structured interviews. However, face-toface interviews are costly compared to telephone ones. In some instances face-to-face structured interviews are probably the only option, as when respondents have poor literacy and educational levels or no telephone access. Visual aids are sometimes required to obtain answers and more time is needed to collect data for complex questionnaires. However, response rates are higher in structured ­interviews.

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Question Formats  Researchers can use different types of question to collect data. The formats of questions depend on the types of data intended for collection. Two formats are widely used for questionnaires. Closed questions: Henerson et al. (1987) identify four common kinds of closed question: • • • •

Two-way questions Checklists Multiple-choice questions Ranking scales Two-way questions: This type offers a choice between two responses. For example: Are you conducting a small-scale research project? Yes

No

The options include yes/no, true/false and agree/disagree can be used as responses to this type of question. Checklists: These offer lists of responses from which respondents can choose. For example, Haider (2019) explored social workers’ experiences of training at a local authority with this type of question. What are the main barriers to accessing continuing professional development? High Caseloads Lack of funding Inadequate staffing level and high turn over Lack of confidence in learning Lack of time Lack of flexible local learning provision Irrelevant training Management support A few opportunities for promotion Other, tell us what are they Click here to enter text.

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Multiple choice questions: This type of question offers a number of choices, generally in the form of statistics. Ranking scales: These enable researchers to ascertain how respondents prioritise their needs. Haider (2019) used this type to identify what social workers expect from supervision. Please prioritise the main purpose(s) of social work supervision. Please rank all those relevant in order from 1 downwards. a) b) c) d) e)

Case Discussion Workload Management Professional Development Reflection Emotional Support/Health & Wellbeing

Closed questions assume that respondents know the possible answers. Advantages of closed questions • A quick and cheap way to collect data. • Structured questions make it easy for researchers to analyse data. Disadvantages of closed questions • Researchers omit important questions. • Inflexibility. • Some types of question cannot be asked in this format and require a different research method. Open-ended questions This question format acquires data that is not possible obtain using where standard responses. Respondents’ views, perceptions, comments and issues not in another question can be used. An example of open-­ ended question: What are the issues in terms of maintaining quality of service provision? According to Bell (1999, P. 119). The expected response is a word, a phrase or an extended comment. Responses to verbal questions can produce useful information but analysis can present problems.

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Using open-ended questions does not mean your questionnaires become qualitative. Advantages of open-ended questions: • They can provide rich qualitative data. • They are more suitable for interviews. • They allow respondents the freedom to express themselves. Disadvantages of open-ended questions: The space allowed respondents to answer open-ended questions is generally not enough for them to provide all the details they would like to, in particular about sensitive topics. This could make it difficult for researchers to understand the full context of respondents’ views, and thus to appreciate the real meaning of their answers. For example, in face-to-­ face interviews interviewers can seek clarification, prompt, probe and sometimes go back to respondents to collect meaningful data. All these techniques are not possible with questionnaires. Researchers may then face problems in the analysis and interpretation of quantitative data. Scale Researchers can also use scale to capture respondents’ answers. For example: How effective is your appraisal as part of supporting your well-being and continuous professional development? Please scale with 1 as poor and 5 as excellent. 1

2

3

4

5

Category Respondents can select from answers within a category. Semi-Closed Questions  In some instances researchers must use closed, semiclosed and open-ended questions. Lydeard (1991) maintains that semiclosed questions allow researchers to offer the space necessary to provide details of responses. For example:  If you indicate ‘never,’ give your reasons.

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Sensitive questionnaires can use both open and closed questions appropriately. Their strengths offset the limitations of both types. Sensitive Questions  Tourangeau and Yan (2007) find that the responses to questions relating to sensitive topics such as drug use, voting behaviour, violence and sexual behaviour tend to have higher non-response rates or larger measurement errors compared to others. Before exploring the reasons for non-response and reporting errors, it is crucial to understand why questions relating to sensitive topics are sensitive. Tourangeau, Rips and Rasinski (2000) have indicated that there distinct meaning of ‘sensitive’ associated with questions.  It is the content of the question rather than situation factors that is where researchers ask the question and to whom (Tourangeau & Yan, 2007). Intrusive Questions  These questions relate to topics that are inappropriate for everyday conversation, ones that government should not ask or that touch on social taboos (Tourangeau & Yan, 2007). Box 7.13 illustrates how to ask sensitive questions sensitively.  Box 7.13  Asking Sensitive Questions Sensitively Age: Ask for year of birth Or the year when they left school Or how old their first child is Or when they are due to retire Ethnic group Ask them to select from a range of options Or to write it down for you Or ask them how they would like you to describe their ethnic group Or make an assessment yourself Income: Ask them if they could afford to buy a new car or house Or whether they would regard their income as above average, average or below average Or which of a number of income bands they fall into (Blaxter et al., 2010, P. 198)

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Threat of Disclosure  Although researchers assure participants of anonymity, confidentiality and privacy before administering questionnaires, some respondents do not believe them. For some, disclosing socially related matters is untestable, unacceptable, illegal, immoral and unethical, and they become anxious and worry about giving truthful answers for fear of the consequences if their accounts for some reason become known to third parties. For example, a question about taking drugs in school would be sensitive to students afraid that their teachers and parents might overhear their answers.  Social Desirability If the question might elicit socially undesirable answers, it can be regarded as sensitive (Tourangeau et al., 2000) because by answering the question respondents indicate that they will violate social norms. Some respondents’ potential answers make the question sensitive. Examples are questions about whether someone smokes and how many are insensitive to those who do not.  A number of techniques enable sensitive researchers to design and administer questionnaires in a sensitive manner that could improve response rates and reduce reporting errors. Some of these are shown below: Self-administered questions: These improve response rates and accuracy. Tourangeau and Yan (2007) find that respondents are less likely to overreport socially desirable behaviours and underreport socially undesirable ones using this technique. Wording: Using familiar wording can increase response rates to specific questions. Bradbum et al. (1979) find a significant increase in responses to questions such as ‘having sex’ compared to ‘sexual intercourse’. Privacy and confidentiality: Some respondents accept researchers’ commitment to confidentiality and respond accurately. Assurance of confidentiality could also increase response rates (Singer et al., 1995). Ambiguous questions: Imprecise and ambiguous questions must be avoided. Also, respondents’ needs are crucial in sensitive research. It is therefore necessary to avoid using double questions. Double questions are of two kinds. • Leading questions: Extra care must be taken regarding both the language in which questions are couched and their positioning.

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• Hypothetical questions: These should be avoided. An example is:

If you do not have a post-traumatic disorder and you are allowed to work and have permission to stay and travel freely, what would you do to manage your mental health? General and vague questions could confuse respondents. Worst of all, they make it impossible to obtain appropriate data. Vague questions can lead to vague answers. Prejudicial and insensitive language should also not be used.

Advantages • Questionnaires are relatively less expensive to administer compared to interviews, but it can be time-consuming to engage hard-to-­ reach groups. • Data is gathered via structured and set questions, which means that researchers will obtain standardised answers that are easy to analyse. • It is relatively simple to maintain the anonymity of participants. • Participants can complete questionnaire in their own time and at their own pace. There is no restriction in terms of location. • Both open and closed questions can be used. • There is no latitude for researchers to influence participants in self-­ administered questionnaires. • A self-administered questionnaire can be helpful when asking questions that are difficult to pose face-to-face through embarrassment or fear.

Disadvantages • It is sometimes difficult to obtain adequate responses. Response rates are generally lower when questionnaires are used compared to interviews. However, follow-up emails and careful design can increase response rates.

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• It is not a flexible method. Although it is possible to obtain qualitative data by using open-ended questions, the scope for this is limited, and it is difficult to then merge qualitative data systematically with the quantitative analysis. • Sampling problems cannot be underestimated in this research method. • The way questionnaires are worded and structured can affect the answers of research participants. • It is difficult to check the honesty of participants. • This method is not suitable when probing is required. Before moving to the next chapter complete Activity 7.7.

Activity 7.7  Identify a Suitable Research Method(S) Recall the research question(s) you developed in Activity 1.1 and the research paradigm in Activity 2.4 regarding those question(s). Now identify a suitable research method(s) for your research study and consider your justifications carefully.

Key Points Each research method has its strengths and weaknesses, so sensitive social work researchers must carefully select the method best fit their needs and research contexts. After choosing the research method, researchers must design and execute it systematically and rigorously. It is important to pilot or pre-test questionnaires and interviews in order to generate relevant data to answer the research question. A good grasp of the various ways of designing and executing research methods is crucial to the conduct of sensitive social work research. The resources, both financial and otherwise, and the time available to the researcher will influence the extent of data collection. Interviews can be structured, semi-structured and unstructured and be conducted face-to-face and via the telephone and the Internet.

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Interviews should not be rigid: flexibility must be built into the interview guide so that interviewers can ask questions not included in the guide if they judge that further exploration will add value to the study. Interviews and observations are time-consuming and costly compared to questionnaires. It can be challenging to strike a balance between objectivity and making research participants comfortable and relaxed during interviews. Observations enable researchers to watch and listen to what participants say and how they act. The wording, phrasing and sequence of questions are as important in questionnaire design as layout, presentation, introduction and the provision of information regarding ethical issues. Questions for Critical Reflection What are the benefits of conducting pilot studies for sensitive social work studies? What sampling techniques are not appropriate for your research study? Why? Do you think quantitative sampling techniques are more rigorous compared to qualitative ones? What skills and attributes must you have in order to conduct unstructured interviews? How do they differ from structured and semi-­ structured interviews? You want to undertake Internet interviews. What do you need to take into account in order to support a successful interview? What strategies should you use to ensure the engagement of all participants in focus group discussions? What statements can you make in a focus group discussion that will maximise participation? Think about how you want to undertake the process of data management for interviews and focus groups. What are the pros and cons you should consider when deciding whether or not to use the participatory observation research method? Should you use covert observation? Why?

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When should you consider conducting focus groups as opposed to interviews? What are the pros and cons you should consider when deciding whether or not to accept participants’ observations as opposed to interviews? What are the differences between self-administered and interviewer-­ administered questionnaires? List the steps that should be considered in designing an online questionnaire. Key Terms Accept silence Accurate observation skills Asking questions Asynchronous focus groups Closed questions Concluding questions Convenience sampling Counselling Covert observation Culturally neutral interpretation Data saturation Deductive research Direct questions Double questions Effective assessment Face-to-face interviewing Focus group Good communicator Group interview Group work Hypothetical questions Indirect questions Inductive research Interpreting questions Interview guide

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Interview schedule Interviews Introductory questions Key questions Language-based research method Leading questions Mechanism of observation Multiple questions Non-participant observation Non-probability sampling Non-verbal cues Notetaking Observations Open-ended questions Overt observation Participant observation Photovoice Pre-interview Probability sampling Probing questions Prompting questions Psychotherapy Purposive sampling Qualitative interviews Questionnaires Ranking scales Recording of interviews Reduce background noises Role of a facilitator Sample size Sampling Sampling methods Self-administrative questions Self-completion questions Semi-closed questions Semi-structured interviews

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Sensitive questions Sharing findings Simple random sampling Snowballing sampling Social desirability Specifying questions Stratified sampling Structured interviews Structured observation Structuring questions Summarising questions Synchronous focus groups Systematic sampling Telephone conferencing Threat of disclosure Two-way questions Unstructured interviews Video recording Visual research method Walking tour interview Wording of questions

References Abbott, J.  I., & Palatnik, B.  R. (2018). Students’ perceptions of their first accounting class: Implications for instructors. Accounting Education, 27(1), 72–93. Aldridge. (2007). Picture this: The use of participatory photographic research methods with people with learning disabilities. Disability & Society, 22, 1–17. Anderson, J. (2004). Walking whilst walking: A geographical archaeology of knowledge. Area, 36(3), 254–261. Angrosino, M.  V., & Mays de Perez, K.  A. (2000). Rethinking observation: From method to context. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed.). Sage.

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Ashworth, K. (2012). Sampling. In S.  Becker, A.  Bryman, & H.  Ferguson (Eds.), Understanding research for social policy and social work. Policy Press. Baker, S. E., & Edwards, R. (2020). How many interview is enough? [online]. Available at http://eprints.ncrm.ac.uk/2273/4/how_many_interviews.pdf. Accessed 25 Jan 2020. Banks, M. (2001). Visual methods in social research. London, United Kingdom: Sage. Banks, M. (2008). Using visual data in qualitative Research. London: Sage. Bell, J. (1999). Doing your research project. Open University Press. Blaxter, L., Hughes, C., & Tight, M. (2010). How to research (4th ed.). The Open University and McGraw-Hill Education. Bowling, A. (2002). Research methods in health: Investigating health and health services (2nd ed.). Open University Press. Bradbum, N. M., Sudman, S., Blair, E., Locander, W., Miles, C., Singer, E., & Stocking, C. (1979). Improving interview method and questionnaire design: Response effects to threatening questions in survey research. Jossey-Brass. Bryman, A. (2016). Social research methods (5th ed.). Oxford University Press. Casey, E. (2001). Between geography and philosophy: What does it mean to be in the place world? Annals of the Association of American Geography, 91, 683–693. Caudill, W. (1952). Social structure and interaction processes on a psychiatric ward. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 22, 314–334. Davidson, P., Halcomb, E., & Gholizadeh, L. (2017). Focus groups in health research. In P. Liamputtong (Ed.), Research methods in health: Foundations for evidence-based practice (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. De Vaus, D. A. (1993). Survey in social research (3rd ed.). University College of London Press. DeVito, J. A. (2007). The interpersonal communication book (11th ed.). Pearson Education. Ferguson, H. (2016). Researching social work practice close up: Using ethnographic and mobile methods to understand encounters between social workers, children and families. British Journal of Social Work, 46, 153–168. Franz, N. K. (2011). The unfocused focus group: Benefit or bane? The Qualitative Report, 16(5), 1380–1388. Gauntlett, D. (2007). Creative explorations: New approaches to identities and audiences. London, Routledge. Gilham, B. (2000). Case study research methods. Continuum.

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Hagedorn, M. (1994). Hermeneutic photography: An innovative esthetic technique foe generating data in nursing research. Advances in Nursing Science, 17, 44–50. Haider, S. (2019). Health and well-being of children social care workers at Middlesbrough council. Middlesbrough and The Open University. Haider, S. (2020) ‘The Mental health and well-being of the Rohingya in Bangladesh beyond COVID – 19’. Refugee Research Online, https://refugeeresearchonline.org/the-mental-health-and-well-being-of-the-rohingyain-bangladesh-­beyond-covid-19/ Harper, D. (2002). Talking about pictures: A case for photo elicitation. Visual Studies, 17(1), 13–26. Henerson, M. E., Morris, L. L. and Fitz-Gibbon, C. T. (1987). How to measure Attitudes. California: Sage. Humphreys, L. (1970). Tearoom trade: Impersonal sex in public places. Adeline Atherton. Im, E. (2018). Constructing health capital in ecological systems: Qualitative method: Practice issues. Nursing Research, 55(4), 267–273. Ingold, T. (2011). Being alive: Essays on movement, knowledge and Description. London: Routledge. Ingold, T., & Vergunst, J. L. (2008). Ways of walking: Ethnography and practice on foot. Ashgate. Kara, H. (2012). Research and evaluation for busy practitioners: A time solving guide. Bristol: Policy Press. Kinney, P. (2017). Walking interviews, September, 67, [online]. Available at: https://sru.soc.surrey.ac.uk/SRU67.pdf. Accesses 28 Dec 2020. Kitzinger, J. (1995). Qualitative research: Introducing focus groups. British Medical Journal, 311, 299–302. Krueger, R. A. (1994). Focus groups: A practical guide for applied research (2nd ed.). Sage. Krueger, R. A., & Casey, M. A. (2009). Focus groups: A practical guide for applied research (4th ed.). Sage. Kvale, S. (1996). InterViews: An introduction to qualitative research interviewing. Sage. Laerke, A. (1998). By means of re-membering: Notes on a fieldwork with English children. Anthropology Today, 14(1), 3–7. Lal, S., Jarus, T., & Suto, M.  J. (2012). A scoping review of the photovoice method: Implications for occupational therapy research. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 79(3), 181–190.

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Lauder, M. (2003). Covert participant observation of a deviant community: Justifying the use of deception. Journal of Contemporary Religion, 2003(18), 185–196. Literat, I. (2013). “A pencil for your thoughts”: Participatory drawing as a visual research methods with children and youth. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 12(1), 84–98. Loop, L., Mouton, B., Brassart, E., & Roskam, I. (2017). The observation of child behaviour during parent-child interaction: The psychometric properties of the Crowell procedure. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 26, 1040–1050. Lorenzo, T. (2010). Listening spaces: Connecting diverse voices for social action and change. In M.  Savin-Baden and C.  Major (Eds.), New Approaches to Qualitative Research: Wisdom and Uncertainty. London: Routledge. Lydeard, S. (1991). The questionnaire as a research tool. Fam Pract, 8(1), 84–91. Merriam, S. B. (1998). Qualitative research and case study applications in education. Jossey-Bass. Merton, R. K., & Kendall, P. L. (1946). The focused interview. American Journal of Sociology, 51, 541–557. Miller, G., & Happell, B. (2006). Talking about hope: The use of participant photography. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 27, 1051–1106. Montgomery, H. (2014). Participant observation. In A.  Clark, R.  Flewitt, M. Hammersley, & M. Robb (Eds.), Understanding research with children and young people. Sage. Naden, D. (2010). Hermeneutics and observation  – A discussion. Nursing Inquiry, 17, 74–80. Nachmias, D., & Frankfort-Nachmias, C. (1981). Research methods in the social sciences. New York: St. Martin’s Press. O’Leary, Z. (2004). The essential guide to doing research. Sage Publications. Parahoo, K. (1997). Nursing research. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Patton, M. Q. (2002). Qualitative research and evaluative methods (3rd ed.). Sage. Polit, D., & Beck, C. (2006). Essentials of nursing care: Methods, appraisal and utilization (6th Edn.). Philadelphia, PA.: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins. Rattine-Flaherty, E., & Singhal, A. (2007). Method and marginalization: Revealing the feminist orientation of participatory communication research. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the NCA 93rd Annual Convention. Chicago, IL. Rose, G. (2001). Visual methodologies: An introduction to the interpretation of visual materials. London, United Kingdom: Sage. Rosenhan, D. L. (1973). On being sane in insane places. Science, 179, 250–258.

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Roy, A., Hughes, J., Froggett, L., & Christensen, J. (2016). Using mobile methods to explore the lives of marginalised young men in Manchester. In L.  Hardwich, R.  Smith, & A.  Worsley (Eds.), Innovations in social work research: Using methods creatively. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Sagoe, D. (2012). Precincts and prospects in the use of focus groups in social and behavioural science research. The Qualitative Report, 17(15), 1–16. Savin-Baden, M., & Major, C.  H. (2013). Qualitative research: The essential guide to theory and practice. Routledge. Schutt, R. K. (2008). Sampling. In R. M. Grinnell & Y. A. Unrau (Eds.), Social work research and evaluation: Foundation of evidence-based practice (8th ed., pp. 136–156). Oxford University Press. Seidman, I. (2006). Interviewing as qualitative research: A guide for researchers in education and the social sciences. New York: Teachers College Press. Serry, T., & Liamputtong, P. (2010). The in-depth interviewing method in health. In P. Liamputtong (Ed.), Research methods in health: Foundations for evidence-based practice. Oxford University Press. Shaw, I.  F. (2007). Is social work research distinctive? Social Work Education, 26(7), 659–669. Sheller, M., & Urry, J. (2006). The new mobilities paradigm. Environment and Planning A, 38(2), 207–226. Silverman, D. (2001). Interpreting qualitative data: Methods for analyzing talk, text and interaction. London, United Kingdom: Sage. Singer, M. I., Anglin, T. M., Song, L. Y., & Lunghofer, L. (1995). Adolescents’ exposure to violence and associated symptoms of psychological trauma. JAMA, 273(6), 477–482. Spradley, J. P. (1980). Participant observation. Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Stauffer, K. E., & O’Brien, D. Z. (2018). Quantitative methods and feminist science, [online]. Available https://oxfordre.com/politics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.001.0001/acrefore-­9780190228637-­e-­210. Accessed 21 Dec 2020. Stewart, D.  W., & Shamdasani, P.  N. (2015). Focus groups: Theory and practice. Sage. Streng, J. M., Rhodes, S., Ayala, G. X., Eng, E., Arceo, R., & Phipps, S. (2004). Realidad Latina: Latino adolescents, their school and a university use photovoice to examine and address the influence of immigration. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 18(4), 403–415.

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Thompson, N.  C., Hunter, E.  E., Murray, L., Ninci, L., Rolfs, E.  M., & Pallikkathayil, L. (2008). The experience of living with chronic mental illness: A photovoice study. Perspectives in Psychiatric Care, 44(1), 14–24. Tourangeau, R., & Yan, T. (2007). Sensitive questions in surveys. Psychological Bulletin, 133(5), 859–883. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.133.5.859 Tourangeau, R., Rips, L., & Rasinski, K. (2000). The psychology of survey response. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. University of Leicester. (2011). Research methods in risk, crisis and disaster management. UoL. Wang, C., & Burris, M.  A. (1994). Empowerment through photo-novella: Portraits of participation. Health Education Quarterly, 21(2), 171–186. Wang, C. C. (2006). Youth participation in photovoice as a strategy for community change. Journal of Community Practice, 14(1–2), 147–161. Young, L., & Barrett, H. (2001). Adapting visual methods: Action research with Kampala street children. Area, 33(2), 141–152.

Suggested Reading Denscombe, M. (2017). The good research guide (6th ed.). Open University Press and McGraw Hill Education. Liamputtong, P. (2020). Qualitative research methods (5th ed.). Oxford University Press. Savin-Baden, M., & Major, C.  H. (2013). Qualitative research: The essential guide to theory and practice. Routledge. Teater, B., Devaney, J., Forrester, D., Scourfield, J., & Carpenter, J. (2017). Quantitative research methods for social work. Palgrave Macmillan.

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Without analysis, data has little value. Generally, after collecting, saving and carefully storing the data, the next step is to analyse it in a systematic and structured manner. It is a process that not only makes sense of the data but also indicates how it might help answer the research question(s). Data analysis should enable the interpretation of data in such a way that it tells a coherent story to readers about your research findings. This will be discussed in the next chapter. This chapter explores: • the preparation of data for analysis that is organised and cleaning data for analysis • a number of qualitative data analyses such as thematic, discourse, narrative and conversation analysis • (briefly) descriptive and inferential statistics. The principal aim of data analysis is to organise and synthesise, to provide data with order. It is not an easy task: it requires organisation, planning, patience, intuition, researcher judgement and analytical frameworks. This chapter is designed to equip researchers to analyse both qualitative and quantitative data. Some of the basic but widely used data analysis © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 S. Haider, Sensitive Research in Social Work, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85009-8_8

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strategies for sensitive social work research will be discussed here. This chapter is divided into two parts. The first describes a number of qualitative data analysis techniques. The second briefly examines quantitative data analysis. However, before applying data analysis strategies, it is important to process data that is organised, stored and prepared for analysis.

Processing Data Sensitively Qualitative data generated from interviews and focus groups requires transcription before it can be analysed. Quantitative data from questionnaires, structured interviews and observations is most likely already coded, and must be converted into machine-readable format if software programmes are to be used to aid analysis. However, online survey software such as Survey Monkey executes this function the questionnaire design stage. Results can be downloaded in MS Excel and PDF formats. Transcription  Researchers must decide whether they themselves want to type up the qualitative data they have collected, or whether they want to ask someone else to transcribe it on their behalf. They must also decide whether they want detailed transcriptions that capture all details such as every word, pause and non-verbal cue. Answers to these questions in some cases depend on the expectations of their educational institutions or organisations and on the money and time available. If the research methods, such as conversational analysis, do indeed require detailed transcription, the Jefferson system (2004) can be considered (see below). This form of transcription notation captures pauses, emphases and cues from audio recordings. * * * The Jefferson System of Transcription Notation This captures not only what research participants say but also the way they say it. This notation therefore reflects a detailed version of the interaction. The following example gives a flavour of it: 

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= end of one sentence and start of another, with no pause between. (.) a micro or short pause. (0.7) a number inside brackets indicate pause long enough to indicate a length of time. > < quickening of the pace of speech. < > slowing of the pace of speech. ↑ a rise in intonation. ↓ a fall in intonation. Capital letters indicate a loud intonation. : : an elongated or stretched sound. (University Transcriptions, 2020) Interviewer: > Can you please tell me what made you to assault her physically >. Ian: Difficult one, long history, ok I will tell you but (.) you won’t believe it is her not me (0.7) I am not denying = I did not slapped her I did but she said nasty things about my childhood abuse and my personality disorder you know difficult to control (0.2) She knew my weakside and punched:: it when she had mood swings. Some days she is nice talk nicely other days she is FB . * * * The choice of convention depends on the researcher, who must take into account information needed to answer the research questions. It also concerns understanding the data. Straightforward transcriptions which enable the easy use of thematic analysis may be desirable for semi-structured interviews if researchers are transcribing their own. In this case, the computer on which the data is stored must be password-protected. If an organisation is carrying out the transcription, an agreement must be made with them to safeguard the privacy and confidentiality of the data. Data Storage  In order to maintain the privacy and confidentiality of the participants and their data, it is vital that passwords be used for transcripts, or that those transcripts be encrypted in order to ensure that if the researcher loses their computer or memory stick, no one who is not a

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member of the research team can access the data. The passwords must of course be remembered, and probably written down and kept in a secure location.  The transcripts must also be anonymised and participants’ personal information kept in a separate password-protected file. For example, a code to the transcripts could be circulated, and then any identifiable information removed from the transcripts and kept in a separate file with the code. Duplicates of all transcripts must be kept and saved on other devices to ensure that if the files become lost or corrupted, copies are still available, and to preserve master copies once coding and extraction of data for analysis commences. The master copy can serve as a contextual reference point for the data. This is important in sensitive social work research because analysis and interpretation should not be conducted in such a way that they do not represent participants’ views. In some instances, the data’s context is important not only for analysis but also for presentation of the data.

Preparation of the Data for Analysis Constant Listening and Watching  It is important that sensitive social work researchers listen to interviews and focus group discussions and observe video interviews carefully and repeatedly to familiarise themselves with the data and its context, because when they transcribe the data, they will most likely lose non-verbal cues such as pauses, unless the Jefferson system is used.  If researchers use computer programmes such as NVivo to analyse qualitative data, they can import audio and video files and then extract ­recordings in the same manner as with text data. They can then listen to and watch these extracts repeatedly. Accuracy of Data  The process of inputting quantitative data into MS Excel spreadsheets, SPSS or other forms of quantitative data analysis software contains the potential to make mistakes. It is thus crucial to doublecheck quantitative data.  Cleaning Data Missing information and misspellings will affect the data’s quality (see unedited version of an interview transcript in Box 8.1),

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which will make it difficult for researchers to analyse the data. It is therefore essential to clean the dataset. This means the need to isolate and eliminate errors from the data, thereby improving its quality. This makes it vital to check data thoroughly and carefully.  For qualitative data, researchers must carefully check spelling and the accurate recording and transcription of expressions. When dealing with focus group discussion data it is important to understand who is saying what. In order to recognise respondents, some researchers ask them to state their names before sharing their views and comments. This technique reduces the problem of recognising respondents from their responses, but they do sometimes forget to state their name before their responses. It could also disrupt the flow of the discussion. If researchers receive incomplete questionnaires, or if respondents have not fully answered a question, they must decide whether to give the response as ‘no answer’ or to ‘ignore’ the response. There is no right or wrong solution to this problem, but it is important to record the decision to maintain transparency. Box 8.1  An Example of an Interview Transcript (Unedited Version) ##SM##. Normally, so as a student or as a newly qualified, well, definitely as a student, so I would put my students, all of the visits that they do, even if I’ve done it with them and they’ve written them up, they task to me. So we’ve got like a thing on our system, so it comes to me for, for me to read, to ask any questions and to review. And I think, I’ve only worked within =Chire=, but I’d hope that was the general practice. And then as a newly qualified you might do that in the early stages of your newly qual-qualified year and I think you’d probably still do it with your child protection visits towards the latter stage, but you’d always have that function within there to actually be sending it to your supervisor to say this is what I’ve seen, this is the sense that I’ve made of it. So it depends on the local authority, because I only know what we do here, but that, that’s, that’s what happens here. ##JS##. OK. OK. OK. That’s helpful. I think we’ve touched on this, but I’ll ask it again anyway, what other areas do you feel simulation could be used to support social workers to learn? (continued)

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Box 8.1  (continued) ##SM##. Even though we’ve talked about kind of emotional neglect and emotional abuse today, probably around the characteristics of physical abuse and physical, neglect and basic care needs, and I think that would be quite a helpful scenario to go into. Because I think you come into social work with your own perception of what a good home looks like and what good enough looks like, so to have an opportunity to even prompt thought and discussion around what good enough looks like I think would be really helpful. I think… [Mobile vibrating]. ##JS## What does good enough look like? ##SM##. Well, that’s a good question, isn’t it! I, I, I think it varies, I wouldn’t be able to just, well, well, no, actually it doesn’t vary. It’s an environment in which a child can consistently get their needs met. So I think that every house at some point in time has mess, but what does it mean for that child living in that house, where is the mess, what is the mess. So I would never use the word mess in a write-up, I’d describe actually physically what it was. I think it’s not good enough when it crosses the line when it kind of causes harm in the sense of like your stereotypical things around like leaving sharp objects or medication within hand and that level of disorganisation. And if, if it’s a level of uncleanliness that you’re always seeing that a child is unwell or you, you can see if a child hasn’t had their nappy changed. But I also think, I think good enough isn’t perfect all of the time, and we talk about consistent, but there’s also times where people have dips in their mental health and it, and it curves just below good enough, but on the main they can do it. And I think it’s that human element in the sense of you might go in on a really bad day, what does it look like 98% of the rest of the time. So it’s being able to kind of not just deal with that one-off visit, OK, this is what I’ve seen, this is how I’d think if I were this child I might access that environment. But when you’re assessing neglect it always has to be ongoing and in the bigger picture. Because I think most people would say they’ve got times where if you came into their house it’s not how you’d want them to see it and I think most people tidy up a little before you come round! So I think, I think physical neglect would be a really helpful one to, and not necessarily to teach people this is exactly what good enough looks like, but to make them think about where their level is and why that might be, because I know that having worked with students and co-worked, I’ve sometimes gone into the same house and maybe because I’ve worked as a social worker for seven years, I’ve come out, I’ve been like oh it’s not that bad. And I’ve been there with someone who might not have ever been into (continued)

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Box 8.1  (continued) a low, in-into a house and I’m going to say it as it is of, of a family who might be claiming benefits and from a low income and dealing with mental health and all of these other bits in place, they’ve come from quite a middle class house and, and so that kind of like early entry in the sense of kind of like just other people’s homes really. I also when I first heard about this thought it would be quite interesting in terms of the example of cross examination. So whether there could be a scenario in which you’ve got your case and you’re presenting evidence in court, but I think that might be a bit too much for the choose an answer one. But I know that giving evidence for the first time is just, nothing, well, nothing prepares you for it, so if there could be something simulated to even give you an idea of the kind of question a solicitor might ask, kind of the, the, the tricks that they do in terms of trying to kind of, you know, get you to just say yes and agree to a few of their answers, even having a chance to practice that, because I don’t, it is a social work skill, but it’s not an ethical social work skill to know how to navigate, so I think something around court skills could be really helpful. ##JS##. Right. Anything else? ##SM##. Oh. I think you could do it with everything, chairing a difficult meeting. So actually the quite common scenarios of a professional that shares information outside of a formal meeting but doesn’t share it in a meeting, how do you manage that? So if you know that this, health visitor’s got really big concerns and is saying all this stuff about mum being a terrible parent, but in the meeting not saying anything, how do you respond to that ethically? And also kind of like conflict within a meeting, when two people start arguing, how do you make sure you’ve got that balance between people’s right to stay in here and it’s a really emotive thing to talk about, but also create a space where it feels safe for everybody else. So I think chairing meetings, quite often I hear it kind of talked about as something that can be shared out. I think it’s a massive social work skill, because chairing a child-in-need meeting is not the same as chairing a team meeting. You can have some transferable skills, but chairing a child-in-need meeting is, is social work. And actually kind of like how do you do that effectively and meaningfully? Because I also know that I think when I first started I used to have people say to me, just run through the plan. And that’s not what it is. So actually an opportunity to kind of think about what skills do you use within that and actually how do you set your agenda for this meeting, so you could even have like options then, so the first being choosing your age-agenda and that sets the framework for what happens within the meeting. That would be great. ##JS##. OK.

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Qualitative Data Analysis There are a number of ways to analyse qualitative data, all of which have both strengths and weaknesses. Which one to use depends on the research questions, types of data collected and specific theoretical perspective. It should also be remembered that time constraints, the researcher’s experiences and the resources available would also influence any decision to select a specific data analysis technique. The starting point is therefore to consider what the data analysis is intended to produce given the available time, resources and experiences. It may be thought desirable to describe, summarise, interpret, explore, test, discern patterns, identify themes, understand similarities and differences, prove a proposition and understand someone’s experiences and idiographic features. There may be more than one goal to achieve, and it is likely that several data analysis techniques will be employed. Transparency and trustworthiness are essential in sensitive social work research. In order to achieve these, the manner in which the data has been analysed and the conclusion arrived at must be explicitly demonstrated. Saldaña (2011) has identified 20 qualitative genres, but this work’s limited scope makes it impossible to discuss the data analysis techniques for all of them in this chapter. Only widely used qualitative data analysis techniques in sensitive social work research will thus be explored in this section. Box 8.2  Coding Strategy A code is ‘a word or short phrase that symbolically assigns a summative, salient-capturing and evocative attribute for a portion of language-based or visual data’ (Saldaña, 2009: 3). In order to develop codes, a number of authors have suggested using a coding strategy, part of which is to ask a set of basic questions. Flick (2006), Liamputtong and Serry (2017) and Liamputtong (2020) have suggested such a set that researchers may want to use as part of the coding strategies:

what—What is it? What is the problem? What is mentioned? Which aspects of the phenomena or issues are mentioned and not mentioned? (continued)

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Box 8.2  (continued)

who—Who is mentioned in the interview script? What roles do they play? How do they interact? how—How were the outcomes achieved and what strategies were deployed to achieve them? Which of the events are mentioned or omitted? when and how long—When did the situation occur? How long did it last? where—Where did it happen? Which places are mentioned? why—Why did events happen? What reasons are provided? how much—How often did this incident occur, and how much was it emphasised? what for—What is the purpose of the activity? These questions are just suggestions to interrogate texts. The exercise must be conducted regularly and repeatedly (Flick, 2006; Liamputtong & Serry, 2017; Liamputtong, 2020). Coding is undoubtedly labour-intensive and consumes a large proportion of the researcher’s time. Sensitive social work researchers should develop codes carefully and creatively. It is possible to use computer programme to code transcripts (see Box 8.3).

Thematic Analysis This technique is popular and widely used. It aims to identify, analyse and report patterns through themes within the data (Braun & Clarke, 2006). It is flexible and systematic and strives to provide rich and comprehensive analysis. The strength of thematic analysis is that it is compatible with different epistemological approaches. For example, Kovach (2010) applies the conversational research method, which is based on indigenous research philosophy but uses a qualitative coding process, analysing the findings thematically. Qualitative data analysis sometimes seems to go forward and sometimes backward: it does not follow a linear path. Thematic analysis is no

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different. Braun and Clarke (2006) propose six steps by which to conduct thematic analysis. By following these steps, researchers can demonstrate the clarity of their approach and the process they used to analyse their data. 1. Familiarisation with the data: By reading transcripts or listening to or watching interviews and focus groups, researchers will become immersed in their data. It is tempting to skip this step because it is time-consuming and tedious to spend significant amounts of time repeatedly going through the data (Savin-Baden & Major, 2013) when the data has been collected. It is important not to fall into this trap, and to spend more time at this stage reading actively, listening, watching carefully, making notes on initial ideas and exploring patterns. Data coding should not, however, be commenced yet. 2. Generating initial codes: After becoming familiar with the data, concentration can be shifted to generating initial codes. Codes identify features of the data that are of interest (Braun & Clarke, 2006) (see Box 8.2 for a coding strategy). Data can be coded according to the words used by respondents. This type of coding is called ‘emic’ or ‘invivo’ coding (Box 8.3). You can also adopt ‘etic’ or analytical codes, which relate to the research’s theoretical perspectives. The aim of coding is to break the data into its smallest elements and then to explore the patterns in the data to create themes. NVivo can be used to code transcripts, or sticky notes, coloured pens and highlighters can serve this function. At this stage the aim should be to generate as many potential codes as possible and to try to retain some of the surrounding data. In the later stages of data analysis, they will help the researcher perceive the context of the coded data.

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Box 8.3  An Example of Using NVivo Software to Code a Transcript

3. Searching for themes: After coding all the data, the codes will then be grouped into potential themes. Some codes can themselves become themes. ‘A theme captures something important about the data in relation to the research question, and represents some level of patterned response or meaning within the data set’ (Braun & Clarke, 2006, p. 82). Themes are thus made up of subsets of codes; codes can become themes as well as sub-themes. When related codes are grouped together and developed into broader themes, the interrelationships between these themes should be considered. One point to bear in mind is that thematic analysis is flexible: it is not necessary to follow religiously what is suggested here. The researcher’s own judgement can be used to generate themes. It must be remembered that the researcher must explain in their report how they generated the codes and themes; they must therefore be consistent in their approach. In this stage some themes may be found to be important and may be prioritised at the expense of others, but themes should not be abandoned yet. They will enable researchers to answer the research questions. By the end of this stage there will be a list of themes and

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subthemes. A thematic map (see Fig. 8.1) can be developed by including initial themes and subthemes. For example, the present author (2019) develops the following themes and subthemes from focus group discussions in relation to widening participation in social work education: 4 . Reviewing themes: In this stage themes are reviewed and refined at two levels: i) Level 1: firstly, all the extracts within a theme are read to ensure that sufficient homogenous data is stored in that theme. By going through this process, it may be found that there is not sufficient data, that the data is not homogenous or that it will not sustain a theme. One theme may be divided into two or a number of themes can be conflated to generate a larger theme. Basically, when extracts are reviewed, the researcher must be satisfied that the data fits coherently within each theme, but differently from other themes. According to Braun and Clarke (2006, p. 91) data within themes should cohere together meaningfully, whilst there should be clear and identifiable distinctions between themes.

ii) Level 2: Now each theme is reviewed in relation to the whole dataset. It must be decided whether themes accurately reflect what respondents said. Themes should reflect the meaning of the total dataset to answer the research question. If not, Stage 3 must be recommenced. 5. Defining and naming themes: Permanent names can now be given to themes, which have until now been temporary. Themes are now clearly defined, and will help create the overall narrative. 6. Write the report: Analysis tells a story that coherently reflects the meaning of the data. The next chapter will focus on interpretation and writing the research report.

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Narrative Analysis It is assumed that people reveal their experiences, perceptions, views, interpretations and constructions of event by telling stories. Stories bind us together; they are a natural form of communication. Narrative analyses enable sensitive social work researchers to explore both contents and contexts of participants’ stories, the way they make sense of the events and how they themselves relate to the events, and also how the researcher makes sense of the story (Grbich, 2007). The process of constructing narrative analyses also enables researchers to compare and contrast participants’ stories to provide strong and robust narratives regarding a subject matter.

Recruit underrepresented groups

Growing own

Lack of information Initiatives Lack of information Lack of opportunity Funding

Recruitment campaign

Needs Online resources

Qualifications

Accessibility

Fig. 8.1  A basic thematic map

Success

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Types of Narrative Analysis There are three types of narrative analysis that researchers can use: • socio-linguistic • social-cultural • mixed Socio-Linguistic Narrative Analysis Labov and Waletzky (1967) applied this analytical method to understanding the speech narratives of Afro-American people. They were interested in understanding the structure of these narratives, in particular the match between participants’ chronological verbal sequence of events and the actual orders of the occurrences. They were also keen to understand how readers made sense of these. Labov and Waletzky (1967) and Labov (1972) concluded from their research on Afro-­Americans that a well-developed narrative display should have a six-part macrostructure of ordered recurring patterns. Grbich (2007) developed this model further. • Abstract: this concerns the inclusion of an initial clause that summarises the entire sequence of events in the narrative. • Orientation clauses: where the events of the narrative took place, the times of the events and the events of the narrative. • Complicating action clauses: the main parts of the story, which answer the question ‘and what happened then?’ (Grbich, 2007, p. 127). • Evaluation: interpretation of the significance of the events and meanings. Exploration and interpretation of research participants’ experiences, views and perceptions, as well as the way they make sense of these. • Result or resolution: The final outcome of the narrative. • Coda: conclude by informing the audience of the current situation of the study participants. As part of the present author’s (2020) research into the social security of Rohingya adults, he spoke with Mostafa (a pseudonym) who fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh in 2017. He told his story of surviving in one of the world’s largest and most densely populated refugee camps in Cox’s

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Bazar. The above six elements can be used to understand his story of survival in the camp. For example, 1. Mostafa had to wait a long time to establish a micro enterprise to become self-reliant. 2. He fled to Bangladesh in November 2017 after Myanmar’s army burnt his house and murdered his parents. 3. When he arrived, he was not allowed to work or study in Bangladesh. He was confined to his allocated camp. 4. He felt that the local authority should allow him and other Rohingya adults to work or start businesses. They only provided him a weekly ration of rice, oil and lentils. Eating rick and lentils every day made him dispirited; he wanted to eat fish and vegetables, but those items were not supplied by the authority. He had to find money to buy them from a local market. 5. He borrowed money from his cousin who had fled to Malaysia from Myanmar and managed to find work there. 6. He has a small shop that sells snacks which he cooks by himself. So it is possible to break all narratives down into small units of meaning and then map them to identify their common properties (Grbich, 2007). In order to develop detailed analyses, researchers can identify the classes of narrative clauses and examine them in terms of their ranges and effects (Labov, 1997). Weaknesses of the socio-linguistic approach • The texts and sequences of events can make it difficult to understand the power relationships. • The focus is on language, and the assumption is that language alone represents reality. This assumption ignores the fact that language is powerful and value-laden and embedded in a specific culture. • This approach fails to contextualise the events of the narrative, which is unhelpful when trying to fully understand the story. The Socio-cultural Approach  not only examines language structures, but also utilises interpretive frameworks to investigate how respondents

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make sense of their stories, which incorporate their perspectives, views, experiences and the way they link their stories with other experiences. As the aim of this form of analysis is to keep the stories as a coherent entity, developing themes or coding with a view to fragmenting the data should be avoided. Stories are not mere narratives of events; they also embody storytellers’ perspectives on how their cultures, socialisation, education and upbringing influence them and hence their stories, as well as how institutions and politics shape them. Their stories should come to the fore by conducting this type of analysis. Process  • Analyse the entire transcript by finding the answers to the following questions:  –– How did the respondents make sense of events? –– What emotions and feelings did they display? How did their feelings and emotions affect them and their stories? –– Explore the context of their stories, including how the social, political, economic and environmental factors influence their stories. The focus must also be on culture and religion. –– Researchers’ own stories and their effects must also be taken into consideration when writing the analysis. –– Compare and contrast similar events. Mixed: It is possible to jointly use both socio-linguistic and socio-­cultural approaches to provide a robust and comprehensive analysis. Strengths of narrative analysis: It shows how participants structure their narratives, and by doing so how they then construct meaning from those narratives. Weaknesses of narrative analysis: The socio-linguistic approach focuses on specific aspects of stories. Keyword analysis: A keyword analysis provides a snapshot of the entire dataset. It focuses on searching keywords with a view to providing overall perspectives on the research. There are several ways keywords can be analysed

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Frequency of words: this determines how frequently particular words are used by respondents. This could enable researchers to consider the reasons for this frequency. This analysis provides snapshot from the dataset about the words frequently used by participants to answer specific questions. Words in context: by reasoning keywords, the context in which specific words are used can be determined. Unusual words: these can also be identified from the dataset. This could indicate local usages of specific words and their contexts, allowing researchers to compare them with their conceptual models or frameworks (Savin-Baden and Major, 2013). Activity 8.1  Keyword analysis Read the following extract from an interview: I think that’s the point. You’ve got somebody  – if it’s a planned scenario, where you’ve got actors or somebody – you know, it might be previous service users, but if they’re in that acting role, that’s very different to something that’s going on every day with families where you’ve gained their consent for that purpose. But it’s there, it’s alive, it’s what they’re experiencing. Not a scenario that has been mapped out and planned for that purpose. Now use the keyword analysis to determine the frequency, unusual terms and words in context in the above extract. Comments. This is just an example to illustrate how you can discover keywords from a simple paragraph.

Frequency of words: it’s, you, that’s. Words in context: planned scenario. Unusual words: alive. The present author (2019) has developed a Wordle (Fig. 8.2) based on the frequency of words used by the respondents in a focus group discussion, using the ‘frequency of words’ technique to develop it.

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Fig. 8.2  Frequency of words used by the research participants to indicate the benefits of widening participation in social work education

Constant Comparison Glaser and Strauss (1967) have developed a technique called constant comparison data analysis. Although it was linked with grounded theory when it developed, it has now been widely used in qualitative research. The constant comparison technique of data analysis is applied in grounded theory research to compare people, data from the same or/and from different individuals’ views, perspectives, experiences and opinions; it also compares incidents (Charmaz, 2005). According to Savin-Baden and Major (2013, p. 437) the following basic steps can be used to carry out comparison:

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• Identify categories in events and behaviour • Name indicators in passage and code them (open coding) • Continually compare codes and passages to those already coded to identify consistencies and differences • Examine consistencies or patterns between codes to reveal categories • Continue the process until the category ‘saturates’ and no new codes related to it are identified • Determine which categories are the central focus (axial categories), and thus form the core category

Ethnographic Analysis Ethnographic analysis is linked to ethnography to analyse data. There is no set, consensual process and strategies with which to utilise ethnography data analysis. However, Merriam’s (2009) classification scheme to analyse data is widely used. It consists of emic and etic perspectives. The emic perspective enables researchers to draw from existing cultural classification schemes. An example is (i) economy, (ii) demography, (iii) environment and (iv) basic human life experiences (Lofland & Lofland, 1995). The etic perspective allows researchers to use their data to develop classifications, frameworks and models so that they can code their data and develop themes from the codes. Thematic analysis can fit easily with this approach. The aim is to examine a given culture by exploring the patterns in the data. Altheide (1987) suggests using ethnographic content analysis, which is a mixture of constant comparison and content analysis. This approach enables researchers to identify themes during the process of coding.

Conversation Analysis The aim of conversation analysis is to explore ‘the way people converse in a particular context and to examine the words they use. This analysis arose from ethnomethodology, which is a study of the ways in which

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people make sense of what other people do in the processes of social interaction’ (Grbich, 2007, p. 137). Conversation analysis thus allows researchers to analyse the conversations themselves as well as their contexts, meaning that they can explore social, political, cultural, economic and environmental issues. They can thus investigate their subjects at both low and high levels. According to Grbich (2007, p. 137), as much of our interaction is carried out through conversations with others, the study of ordinary conversations as they occur has become an important area of research. In particular, ordinary conversations shed light on the rules of social behaviour and indicate what is acceptable and what happened when these rules are broken or bent.

‘The conversation’ involves not only spoken words (i.e. verbal language) but non-verbal language and social, cultural and environmental factors that impact on conversations. This form of analysis is flexible and enables researchers to examine specific conversations at both low and high levels. Process • Select the conversation you want to analyse. It could be recording the conversation. • Transcribe the recordings if required. • Select an episode or a part of the conversation you want to analyse. An episode consists of one or more sequences where an interaction has begun, or where issues or causes interact. • As a researcher you must then make sense of the episode. Your analytic interests will tend to ‘predispose’ you to certain hearings and these may need to be checked with the participants and their sense making must be taken into account. Interpretation is directed at a typification of what the utterances that make up the sequence can be held to be ‘doing’ and how these ‘doings’ interconnect with other instances. (Grbich, 2007, p. 139)

• Now interpret the episode. You can use theoretical concepts, ideas and models to do so.

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The following questions will help you analyse conversations: What kind of conversation are you analysing? • • • • • • • • • • •

an amicable comment? a heated conversation? a debate? who is leading? how did the conversation start? who is dominant? are there misunderstandings? what are the points of tension? how was conflict initiated? what were the agendas of the antagonists? What or who plays specific roles in the conversation, and what are those roles? • what are the outcomes? • what are your own reflections about the conversations? • what patterns are evident? It is difficult to analyse non-verbal language if the format of the conversation is textual, and if non-verbal cues are missing.

Semiotic Analysis In order to study signs and symbols, semiotic analysis is used. It enables researchers to understand the meaning of signs and symbols and how these meanings are constructed within a culture. This form of analysis can be used with narrative approaches, arts-based approaches and ethnography. Although semiotics is based on language, language is but one of the many sign systems of varying degrees of unity, applicability, and complexity. Morse code, etiquette, mathematics, music, and even highway signs are examples of semiotic systems. (Manning and Cullum-Swan, 1994, p. 466)

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Process Savin-Baden and Major (2013, p. 445) have suggested the following steps when conducting a semiotic analysis: • • • • • • • • •

Identify the text and objects of analysis. Examine the purpose of selecting specific texts and objects. Clarify the sign vehicles—that is, the forms of the signs. Describe the modalities—that is, the reality claims. Analyse the paradigm—that is, the genre. Consider the narrative arguments. Examine the rhetorical tropes. Examine intertextuality. Analyse semiotic codes.

Content Analysis In order to investigate the trends and patterns of words used and their frequencies, relationships, structures and forms (Savin-Baden & Major, 2013) content analysis can be used. This allows systematic coding and categorisation of data; it can be used to investigate a large number of textual documents such as policy and practice guides, case records, medical records, speeches, transcripts, reports and images. To conduct a context analysis, the following must be decided upon: 1. The focus of the analysis, include which areas of the dataset will be concentrated on, and the size. In order to achieve this, documents may need to be sampled. 2. Protocols must be developed, which will involve decisions on whether to generate codes from the data or imposing codes on it. The analytic technique to be used (enumerative, thematic or a combination of the two) can then be determined. Word frequency, ranking and keywords in context are the main analytical tools used to carry out enumerative content analysis.

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Process Grbich (2007, p. 112) specifies six aspects of the way content analysis is conducted: 1. The need for sufficient documents to analyse. The aspects of the documents to be analysed must be decided upon, as must whether to conduct content analysis on all or only some of them. 2. The sampling approach must be considered if there are a large number of documents. For example, documents may be selected at random, by using a stratified sampling technique or even a non-probability sampling technique. It must be remembered that the use of sampling techniques mean that all documents might not be included in the analysis. 3. A predefined protocol such as a matrix that can be imposed on the documents for analysis must be drawn up in order to acquire enumerative data. 4. A coding frame—that is, how codes will be generated—must be developed. Existing literature and the researcher’s experience can be used for this purpose, or thematic analysis can first be employed on a document to generate codes, which will then be imposed on subsequent documents to acquire enumerative data. 5. The relationships between concepts, codes, themes and their contexts must also be taken into account: how this process will be managed, and whether the researcher will focus on context or on a broad numerical overview. 6. Protocol reliability and validity in terms of cross-referencing to other documents must be ensured. In order to achieve this, numerical data can be included with questionnaire data. To ensure the reliability of findings, another person can calculate inter-coder reliability, meaning that Cohen’s Kappa can be calculated from the data (Cohen, 1960):



   Ps  a   Pr  e   / 1  Pr  e  



Here, Pr(a) is the relative observed agreement among two raters, and Pr(e) is the probability that agreement is due to chance. If the α or Kappa value is 1, it means both raters are in complete agreement on the codes.

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Strengths • Both qualitative and quantitative approaches can be used to explore the relationships between concepts, structures and interactions. • Underlying themes in relations to injustice and power relationships can be explored from large amounts of data. • A sense of objectivity is provided if documents written and calculated by different people are analysed. • It is a simple process to analyse a large number of documents. Weaknesses • It can be seen as focusing more on numerical data, which does not help to explore that data’s context. • If the data is only enumerative, it provides a merely superficial view of the subject. Box 8.4  Tips for data analysis in sensitive social work research A sensitive social work researcher must be systematic, creative, curious, open-minded and willing to accept unusual ideas. It is crucial that a theoretical framework be used (Chap. 2) during data analysis, but researchers should not ignore their instincts. Researchers must follow their instincts in all respects. A record of all thoughts and ideas must be kept, and they must be thoroughly explored. Data analysis does not immediately follow data collection but is rather an ongoing process. Analysis of data starts even before collection—indeed, when the research question(s) is/are formulated. In order to get the best out of the data, more than one form of data analysis must be used. This will make the analysis comprehensive and robust.

 hoosing the Appropriate Analysis C for Sensitive Social Work Research Research questions should direct the researcher to choose the research methods that will then enable them to select the data analysis technique. For example, if the ethnography research approach is being used, a data

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analysis technique linked to ethnography can be employed. There should be a direct match between the research approach and the method of data analysis. It must also be borne in mind that different analysis techniques produce different results, which then enables the researcher to answer the research question(s). Careful consideration must therefore be paid to the question of which data analysis technique answers the research questions effectively. For example, it may be thought desirable to show the frequency of keywords used by respondents in their interviews, from which the reason for these frequencies might be inferred. Comparison between similar and divergent responses on a particular matter might thus be thought necessary to justify the researcher’s arguments, or they may want to include quantitative data from qualitative data. In that case, they conduct content analysis. Furthermore, the type of data indicates the analytical technique best suited to it. For example, visual data matches well with semiotic and content analysis. A number of analytical methods are available for qualitative data. The question is which one is best suited for a particular type of data in sensitive social work research. Table 8.1 gives an indication in this regard. Also, explore Box 8.4 which provides a few tips to support qualitative data analysis.

Table 8.1 A table of suitable matches between analytical techniques and types of data Field Analytical technique Transcripts notes Keyword analysis Content analysis Narrative analysis Constant comparison Ethnographic analysis Semiotic analysis

Visual Memos Journals artefacts

✓ 𝞦 ✓ ✓

✓ 𝞦 𝞦 ✓

✓ 𝞦 𝞦 ✓

✓ 𝞦 𝞦 ✓

𝞦 ✓ 𝞦 𝞦

𝞦

✓

✓

✓

𝞦

✓

𝞦

𝞦

𝞦

✓

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Quantitative Data Analysis As part of a piece of sensitive research, questionnaires, structured interviews or structured observations may be used. All of these research methods will usually generate quantitative data. Although most sensitive research tends to be qualitative, a few research studies using quantitative or mixed research methods have been carried out. When questionnaires, structured interviews or structured observations are developed, the aim is to obtain quantitative data because those research methods provide the information you want from respondents. In order to analyse quantitative data, it is typically inputted into either a spreadsheet or SPSS, and the data entry and coding checked for accuracy. Data may have been missed because respondents forgot or deliberately chose not to answer some questions. How to treat such data must also be determined. There are several ways of doing this. They include: Delete Variables  If a specific question suffers from a large amount of missing data, the variable can be deleted. If the question is important, this option will probably not be helpful.  Delete Cases  If a small number of cases have missing variables, they can be deleted (usually under 15 per cent) (de Vaus, 1993).  Sample Mean Approach  The mean of the other responses can be used to replace the missing value. Now quantitative data, the last step of qualitative data analysis, can be analysed and presented. Various types of quantitative data can be collected by using different levels of measurement, which results in different types of data. Understanding these is important for statistical analysis. 

Types of Quantitative Data Nominal  Numbers are assigned to code nominal data, but these numbers do not have arithmetical qualities (de Vaus, 1993). For example, you can code 1 for ‘female’ and 2 for ‘male’. They do not have a particular order. 

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Ordinal  The use of the Likert scale is an example of ordinal data, in which data is categorised in a particular order. In one iteration of the Likert scale, respondents are asked to choose from ‘strongly agree’, ‘agree’, ‘neither agree nor disagree’, ‘disagree’ and ‘strongly disagree’.  Interval  Data is ranked on a scale where intervals are equal between categories. The scale has no zero.  Ratio  Similarly to intervals, data are ranked on a qualitative scale but it has a true zero. Examples include age and income.  Frequency and percentage tables or graphs can be used to present findings for nominal and ordinal data.

Descriptive Statistics Descriptive statistics allow researchers to present, summarise and perceive patterns in data. These statistics are used simply to describe the results by presenting results in table, chart and graph format. Mean, median and mode can also be calculated in order to reveal the data’s main trends. Mean  An arithmetic average (Table 8.2). The total sum of values is divided by the number of cases. For example, if ten cases have a total satisfaction value regarding the support they receive of 380, the average is 38. Only interval and ratio data can be used to calculate the mean.  Median  The value of middle case—that is, the middle point when data are structured in order. Ordinal, interval and ratio data can be used to calculate median.  Mode  It is the value of most frequent number or common number.  Nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio data can be used to calculate mode. Mean, median and model provide measures of the central tendency of your data set.

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Table 8.2  A comparison of effective procedures for social workers’ continuing professional development Effective procedures Mean Questioning Critical discussion of cases Reflective learning Supervision Appraisal Attending workshops Attending conferences Observing Meetings Role modelling Involvement with projects Induction Analysing mistakes Team study days Critical incident analysis

3.87 3.74 3.67 3.64 3.42 3.41 3.38 3.38 3.36 3.31 3.26 3.2 3.19 3.12 3.09

Percentage Table Table 8.3 shows a frequency table of workers preferences regarding the types of professional development. Based on these frequencies, it is possible to calculate percentages. For example, Table 8.4 shows the percentages of age groups participating in a study, how long they had been working for the organisation Sshire and their working patterns.  The Power of Graphs to Present Findings  Graphs and charts are used to visualise data. The aim of graphs and charts is to communicate data simply so that viewers can make sense of it and easily interpret the results. For example, the pie chart in Fig. 8.3 illustrates how many hours social workers spend on average working directly with children, young people and families in a local authority (Haider, 2019). This graph suggests that 35 per cent of social workers spent 0–3 hours and 4–7 hours work directly with children, young people and families every week, while 3 per cent spent more than 13 hours. 

Inferential Statistics After describing quantitative data, researchers can extract inferential statistics. These statistical tests allow researchers to draw conclusions and to make generalised statements about their results. Inferential statistics can

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Table 8.3  Social workers’ wish lists for their professional development Wish list Frequency of respondents Team away days Supervision Attending workshop Critical reflection Work shadowing Peer supervision Mentoring Attending conferences Appraisals Secondment Critical discussion of cases Learning for qualifications Coaching Observing Involvement in policy development

35 31 29 29 26 25 24 24 23 21 21 20 19 19 19

demonstrate statistical significance, which refers to a measure, or ‘p-value’ ‘that assesses the actual probability that your findings are more than coincidental’ (O’Leary, 2004, p. 192). The p-values of 0.05, 0.01 and 0.001 mean that the probability of something occurring by chance is 0.05 (5/100), 0.01 (1/100) and 0.001 (1/1000). Therefore, the lower the p-value the greater the confidence that the results are significant, but a p-value of more than 0.05 indicates that the probability that the findings are rendered coincidental through sampling errors is too great (O’Leary, 2004). Two types of inferential statistical tests are available to researchers: Parametric tests: These assume that data has a normal distribution and a homogeneity of variance (Tarling & Crofts, 1998; Teater et al., 2017). They use raw scores for calculation. T-tests, ANOVA and Pearson are some parametric tests. Non-parametric tests: These can be performed when assumptions of parametric tests do not hold. They are calculated on the rank of the score, and are useful for ordinal measurements (Tarling & Crofts, 1998). Wilcoxin, Mann-Whitney, Friedman, Krusky-Wallis, Spearman and Chi-square are some examples of nonparametric tests.

33

27

5

25

Working pattern

12

12

6

47

64

36

1–2 years 3–4 years 5–6 years 6 + years Full time Part time

10

60–69

Less than a year 23

50–59

30–39

20–29

40–49

Working with Sshire

Age

Demographic Details

Table 8.4  Demographic details of respondents

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WORKING DIRCTLY WITH CHILDREN, YOUNG PEOPLE AND FAMILIES 9% 3% 35% 18%

35% 0-3 hours

4-7 hours

8-12 hours

More than 13 hours

Prefer not to say

Fig. 8.3  A pie chart of average hour social workers work directly with children, young people and families

Questionnaires allow researchers to collect both quantitative and qualitative data, but are most widely used for the former. The format and structure of the questionnaire research method are suitable to collect discrete items of information in words and numbers (Blaxter et al., 2010). The aim of this method, in particular for large-scale studies, is to generalise findings. It then becomes imperative to describe and summarise the results in a standard format, which means using statistical and mathematical methods. Small-scale social work research studies also use questionnaires, but mostly concentrate only on descriptive statistics. Probably due to their scope and nature, they might not need to explore relationships and differences between variables; so they do not employ inferential statistics. However, it is possible to go beyond descriptive statistics and use inferential statistics, even in small-scale research. Box 8.5 lists some common inferential statistical tests used in social work research. In order to undertake inferential statistical tests, extensive knowledge of statistics is unnecessary; a number of computer programmes such as SPSS can conduct these tests. However, researchers must have an overall understanding of the purpose, principles and underlying assumptions of some of these tests, especially the ones they will use.

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Box 8.5  Statistical Tests The following statistical tests are a few examples of inferential statistics:

t-test—establishes whether there is a statistically significant difference between the means of two groups. ANOVA—tests the mean differences between three or more groups. Chi-square—compares two sets of values. Mann-Whitney U-test—tests the difference in rankings of two independent groups. Key Points • Data analysis can seem daunting and confusing to the novice researcher, but a systematic and structured approach with a clear data analysis framework could reduce their anxiety and the distress caused by data analysis to make the experience more enjoyable and rewarding. • It is highly recommended that researchers should consider data analysis before they design their research instruments. • Most qualitative data analysis relies on the process of coding. • Coding, extracting and developing themes and subthemes decontextualize and fragment text. • Thematic analysis is widely used to analyse qualitative data by providing a systematic structure. • Conversation is fundamental to social life, and recording and analysing it in detail reveal hidden meanings and the way we understand and manage our social reality. • Descriptive statistics allow researchers to summarise quantitative data. In order to provide a simple description and summary of quantitative results, descriptive statistics can be useful, especially in visualising the results. • Data obtained from interval and ratio scales are used to conduct parametric tests, while data obtained from nominal and ordinal scales are used for non-parametric tests. • A computer programs such as Nvivo could assist you to analyse qualitative data and SPSS for quantitative data.

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Questions for Critical Reflection What strategies would you use to develop deeper and abstract coding? What are the generic principles of qualitative data analysis? Would under what circumstances you interpret qualitative data? What are the principles of quantitative data analysis? Why is being well organised crucial to data analysis? ‘It is right to say that qualitative data analysis is a craft – one that carries its own disciplines. There are many ways of getting analysis “right” – precise, trustworthy, compelling, credible and they cannot be wholly predicted in advance’ (Milles and Huberman, 1994, p. 309). What is your opinion of this statement? Can you rely on statistical significance alone? How should you interpret findings that are not statistically significant? Key Terms Accuracy of data ANOVA Chi-square Coding strategy Constant comparison Content analysis Conversation analysis Defining and naming themes Delete cases Delete variables Descriptive statistics Emic perspective Ethnographic analysis Etic perspective Explore unusual words Frequency of words Generating initial codes Indigenous research Inferential statistics

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Intervals Jefferson system Keyword analysis Listening and watching repeatedly Mann-Whitney U-test Mean Median Mixed narrative analysis Mode Narrative analysis Nominal Non-parametric tests Ordinal Parametric tests Percentage table Preparation data for analysis Qualitative data analysis Quantitative data analysis Ratio Reviewing themes Sample mean approach Semiotic analysis Socio-cultural narrative analysis Socio-linguistic narrative analysis SPSS Thematic analysis t-tests Words in context

References Altheide, D. L. (1987). Ethnography content analysis. Qualitative Sociology, 10(1), 65–77.

Blaxter, L., Hughes, C., & Tight, M. (2010). How to Research. 4th edition. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

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Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi. org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa Charmaz, K. (2005). Grounded theory: Methods for the 21st century. Sage.

Cohen, J. (1960). A coefficient of agreement for nominal scales. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 20, 37–46. https://doi. org/10.1177/001316446002000104

De Vaus, D. A. (1993). Survey in social research (3rd ed.). University College of London Press. Flick, U. (2006). An introduction to qualitative research (3rd ed.). Sage Publications.

Glaser, B., & Strauss, A. (1967). The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research. Mill Valley, CA: Sociology Press.

Grbich, C. (2007). Qualitative data analysis: An introduction. Sage Publications.

Haider, S. (2019). Health and Well-being of Children Social Care Workers at Middlesbrough Council, Middlesbrough and The Open University. Haider, S. (2020). ‘The Mental health and well-being of the Rohingya in Bangladesh beyond COVID – 19’, Refugee Research Online, URL: https://refugeeresearchonline.org/the-mental-health-and-well-beingof-the-rohingya-in-bangladesh-beyond-covid-19/

Jefferson, G. (2004). Glossary of transcript symbols with an introduction. In G. H. Lerner (Ed.), Conversation analysis: Studies form the first generation (pp. 13–31). John Benjamins. Kovach, M. (2010). Conversational method in indigenous research. First People’s Child and Family Review, 5(1), 40–48.

Labov, W. (1972). Sociolinguistic Patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Labov, W. (1997). Some further steps in narrative analysis. The Journal of Narrative and Life History, 7(1–4), 395–415. Labov, W., & Waletzky, J. (1967). Narrative analysis: Oral versions of personal experience. In J. Helm (Ed.), Essays on the verbal and visual arts (pp. 12–44). University of Washington Press. Liamputtong, P. (2020). Qualitative research methods (5th ed.). Oxford University Press. Liamputtong, P., & Serry, T. (2017). Making sense of qualitative data. In P. Liamputtong (Ed.), Research methods in health: Foundations for evidence-­ based practice (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.

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Lofland, J., & Lofland, L. (1995). Analysing social settings. Wadsworth. Manning, P. K., & Cullum-Swan, B. (1994). Narrative, content, and semiotic analysis. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research. Sage. Merriam, S. B. (2009). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation. Jossey-Bass. Miles, M. B., & Huberman, A. M. (1994). Qualitative Data Analysis (2nd ed.). Sage Publications. O’Leary, Z. (2004). The essential guide to doing research. Sage. Saldana, J. (2009). Coding in qualitative data analysis. Sage Publications.

Saldaña, J. (2011). Fundamentals of qualitative research. Oxford University Press. Savin-Baden, M., & Major, C. H. (2013). Qualitative research: The essential guide to theory and practice. Routledge. Teater, B., Devaney, J., Forrester, D., Scourfield, J., & Carpenter, J. (2017). Quantitative research methods for social work. Palgrave Macmillan.

Suggested Reading De Vaus, D. A. (1993). Survey in social research (3rd ed.). University College of London Press. Flick, U. (2006). An introduction to qualitative research (3rd ed.). Sage Publications. Grbich, C. (2007). Qualitative data analysis: An introduction. Sage Publications. Tarling, M., & Crofts, L. (1998). Reporting results. In M. Tarling & L. Crofts (Eds.), the essential Researcher’s handbook: For nurses and health care professionals (2nd ed.) Bailliere Tindall. Teater, B., Devaney, J., Forrester, D., Scourfield, J., & Carpenter, J. (2017). Quantitative research methods for social work. Palgrave Macmillan. University Transcriptions. (2020). Jefferson Transcription system: A guide to the symbols, [online]. Available at: https://www.universitytranscriptions.co.uk/ jefferson-­transcription-­system-­a-­guide-­to-­the-­symbols/. Accessed 12 Oct 2020.

9 Interpreting and Presenting Findings for Sensitive Social Work Research

Interpreting findings and then completing the research report enable researchers to communicate their findings to the world. It is the moral responsibility of researchers, including those investigating aspects of sensitive social work, to publish research findings so that others can read and use them to improve practice, influence change, reform policies and develop further research. They are further obliged to recognise the contribution made by participants in their research. All these factors constitute a moral responsibility not only to write reports but also to disseminate the findings widely. The manner of doing so is beyond the scope of this chapter, but it is possible for it to deal with interpreting and presenting findings. This chapter will therefore explore: • the way in which both quantitative and qualitative sensitive research can be developed into research reports and dissertations • an array of structures that can be used to write research reports, dissertations and theses • the writing process • ideas for effective writing • a number of techniques to interpret and present research findings © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 S. Haider, Sensitive Research in Social Work, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85009-8_9

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Merely analysing data is not enough, because it does not tell the story of the findings—in other words, what they mean. It only provides a partial story of the research. So, the next step after data analysis is to interpret findings and present an accurate picture of the findings. When researchers start to answer questions such as, ‘what the results suggest regarding my research question(s)’ and ‘what they suggest in terms of the literature I reviewed and overall social work practice’ they have started to interpret their results. In sensitive social work research, data interpretation is not an easy task: the approach to data interpretation must be carefully thought through because of the ethical matters that could pose challenges when interpreting findings.

Data Interpretation Savin-Baden and Major (2013) detect a fine line between analysis and interpretation. Probably for this reason, some researchers present explanations but do not concentrate on interpretation. According to Wolcott (1994, p. 36), the term interpretation is well suited to mark a threshold in thinking and writing at which the researcher transcends factual data and cautious analysis and begins to probe into what is to be made of them.

Data interpretation is thus a process and product that aims to explicate, elucidate and explain findings (Savin-Baden and Major, 2013). It is a process because researchers must be systematic and logical in the way they interpret their findings, while they must simultaneously use their intuition and creativity to demonstrate how their findings contribute to the body of knowledge and practice. It is also a product, because by adopting a systematic and logical approach, researchers can explain, elaborate and provide insights into existing ideas and concepts, and might also be able to develop new concept and theories, refine knowledge and indicate problems and their solutions. Peshhkin (1993) thus sees interpretation as developing several subcategories of outcomes or products.

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By using several data analysis techniques, researchers will be able to structure their analyses in an ordered manner. However, interpretation can produce a number of meanings and explanations, some of which may be contradictory and conflicting. It is therefore necessary to take time and think carefully. For example, before interpreting qualitative data, it must be scrutinised and deconstructed to reveal themes and patterns that must then be translated against the background of existing literature about the subject area. This is the act of interpretation. This is why some researchers see the interpretation of qualitative data as a somewhat messy process, although data analysis is structured (Savin-Baden and Major, 2013). On the other hand, statistical tests and modelling provide researchers with structures to both analyse and interpret quantitative data. This is why data collection, analysis and interpretation should not be seen as a linear process, in particular as regards qualitative data; rather, they go hand-in-hand. Some authors assert that the collection of qualitative data is coterminous with analysis and interpretation. The next section will focus on the techniques of interpreting qualitative data.

Techniques of Qualitative Data Interpretation Data interpretation can prove a difficult and complex task both because the researcher tries to make sense of data that has emerged from a context, and because respondents’ values and perspectives are embedded in it. There are a few strategies (see Box 9.1) by which to gain insights and understanding of data and provide meanings. Convergence  It is important that findings are seen against the background of other researchers’ findings. The extent to which particular findings are consistent with others and the reasons should be explored. Blaxter et  al. (2010) perceive confirmatory or supportive results as useful to advancing a general understanding of the subject matter.  Divergence  Different accounts may be perceived within the same dataset. In some instances one researcher’s interpretation of their data might contradict those of others. Rather than ignoring or becoming confused

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by such contradictions, researchers should see them in a positive light and find explanations for the divergence in the data. They should justify their positions convincingly, logically and rationally, defending them against others’ views or interpretations. It must be remembered that interpretation should not explore only convergences with other researchers’ views, because this will not help develop and generate knowledge.  By scrutinising divergence data, how and why research participants view things in a variety of ways will be understood, and it can be seen how they make sense of their social realities and how they see other people’s views in the context of their own.

Box 9.1  Four Components of Data Interpretation Drew et al. (2008) views interpretation as not only answering the research question but exploring how and to what extent the findings fit specific literature. According to them. the interpretation process moves from answering the research questions, to the literature reviewed (how do the results agree with the literature reviewed – how are the results different from those of earlier researchers). Finally, the interpretative process will draw implications for practice. In this latter part of interpretation, the research will ask the question about what the results suggest for practical applications. (p. 17) So, in order to interpret your results, you need to focus on four components: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Implications for theory Implications for practice Implications related to the literature review Implications for the future

You need to explore what the results suggest regarding the research question(s), then examine the impact of your research findings on the literature you reviewed and social work theory and practice in general. By exploring these implications, you will be able to indicate your suggestions future directions in research.

Use Existing Literature  Existing literature must be used to interpret findings. For example, consideration should be given to what the results

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suggest with regard to what is known about the particular research area. This is where researchers make their contributions to the topic they are investigating. Comparison with previous research findings will also enable researchers to outline their unique contributions. They can also develop their interpretations with the help of their conceptual frameworks.  Use Theory  Theory can also be used to guide interpretation. A theory will provide a lens by which to focus on and explore what is needed for the interpretation of results.  Research Approach  Specific research approaches and strategies lead to the use of frameworks and guidelines to interpret results. For example: • Ethnography focuses on the interpretation of culture, whether tribal, team or departmental. Extensive exploration of culture enables researchers either to generate or to test theories. • Grounded theory attempts to understand social structures, systems, processes, partners and behaviours by comparing and contrasting data analyses. In grounded theory, each data segment is compared not only across the dataset with other segment but also with the existing literature. • Use of metaphor can support the interpretation of findings. Metaphors are used to indicate something strongly and symbolically. ‘Metaphors, seen as one major of trope or literary device, involve comparing two things via their similarities and ignoring their differences’ (Miles et al., 2014, p. 281). They enrich interpretation as well as encompass a significant amount of data, help connect with concepts and act as pattern-­ making and decentring devices (Miles et al., 2014). For example, in social work, the concept of the scapegoat is used as a metaphor. Some people use metaphors to illustrate their views and experiences. Researchers also use them to simplify complex issues. Milles et al. (2014) state that researchers should be aware of the power of metaphor, and prescribe their use when appropriate. Participants’ metaphors can be deciphered by determining how they theorise their social realities.

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Metaphors enable researchers to go beyond simple description to higher levels of analysis and abstraction. Savin-Baden and Major (2013) suggest that use of different writing styles could also help researchers interpret their qualitative data. They purpose writing stories and biographies, adopting the grammatical first person, and using and writing poetry and reading to interpret data. Write stories and biographies  Writing a story or a biography could enable researchers to interpret findings. Doing so they will be able to see things through the respondents’ lens and able to see their contexts, circumstances and interactions. Adopting this style of writing demands reflexive interpretation (Savin-Baden & Major, 2013) that means they need to unpack participants’ perspectives and the way participants made sense of their world. Also, researchers will be able to explore and critique their own biases and able to see how stories link, overlap and contradict.  Speak for Yourself  Using the first person in writing enables researchers to speak for themselves. According to Savin-Baden and Major (2013, p. 461),  through writing in the first person it becomes possible to see one’s own interpretations. It is important to acknowledge and recognize that we also use multiple voices and hold multiple perspectives and that these change and move over time.

Researchers could write in the first person in qualitative research not only to interpret their findings, but also to offer their reflections on those interpretations. Use and Write Poetry  Harvey (2004) uses this approach to understand the organisation and researchers’ own reflections on their research. According to Savin-Baden and Major (2013), poetry can be used as a vehicle for reflexive interpretation. Harvey has written a poem about his experiences within an organisation; then he wrote poems on behalf of participants. This allowed him to explore organisational behaviour and life-long learning. 

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Read and Write  Drafting interpretations helps refine them. When data is analysed, an intricate internal dialogue should be begun to see how the researcher aims to present their findings to make sense to readers.  Tips for Data Interpretation • It is crucial that you recognise and acknowledge your subjectivity when you analyse qualitative data. • After analysing and interpreting your research findings, you should write about them, not only because your university expects you to do so to fulfil the degree requirements and gain a good qualification, but so that others can read what, how and why have you done specific research and examine your findings. The findings could allow other researchers to develop further research, inform practice and improve the understanding of social work in sensitive areas and as regards vulnerable people. It is a basic obligation as a sensitive social work researcher to write up and disseminate your findings.

Ethical Issues in Interpretation One of the core principles of sensitive social work research is researchers’ moral, ethical and legal obligations regarding every aspect of the research process, beyond collection and analysis. They must act morally, ethically and legally when interpreting and writing reports, dissertation and thesis as well as disseminating their findings. The question then arises of what must be done or considered in terms of ethics interpreting and writing up findings. A number of issues related to ethics must be considered and acted on carefully so as to conform with moral and ethical standards, including: Accurate Reporting  It is well known that honesty is the best policy in research. When it comes to writing reports, dissertations and theses, a true and accurate account of the work must be presented (O’Leary, 2005; Piers et al., 2011; Wasserman, 2013). This applies to both quantitative and qualitative research. It is sensitive social work researchers’ moral and ethical obligation and responsibility to accurately report how their research was conducted, the way sampling was carried out, who participated, how data was collected, how the results were obtained, what

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­ roblems were experienced in collecting the data and what data analysis, p including statistical tests, was undertaken. Results should not be presented merely because they fit their conceptual frameworks or are of statistical significance. For example, in quantitative research, researchers can modify raw quantitative data for certain reasons, and they are indeed allowed to do so. They can, for example, change raw data to manage outliers, impute missing data and adjust skewed data (Wasserman, 2013). The use of any of these techniques increases the likelihood of obtaining a desired outcome, which is why some researchers are more likely to drop outliers and by doing so obtaining desired results (Sterba, 2006). Wasserman (2013) provides a hypothetical scenario to illustrate this point. A researcher has executed a statistical analysis with outliers in the data and then without them to see which set of analysis produce a significant finding. Now, if the researcher publishes and reports only the analysis that produced a significant finding without giving the details of the technique they used, this could be perceived as the researcher’s lack of transparency, because it is likely that modified data produced this result and the researcher did not report the preliminary analysis and modifications. So it is paramount that researchers should report any changes they make to the raw data, and be clear why these changes have been made (Wasserman, 2013).  Although it is uncomfortable to report negative or unpopular findings, a sensitive social work researcher should report all substantive ones. However, this might not be possible in some circumstances, such as certain questions that cannot be explored with sufficient objectivity, or if there is a high probability that the research findings will be used as a tool of exploitation or oppression (Cournoyer and Klein, 2000). These authors advise that when the damage produced by a study will more than offset any value that is likely to be derived from the actual research findings, it may be wise and ethical to terminate the effort. (p. 38)

Objective Interpretation  The interpretation of research findings is not entirely an objective activity: even the interpretation of quantitative data involves some degree of subjectivity. Researchers must guard against the

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tendency to focus only on the findings they are looking for. The inherent nature of confirmation bias means that it must be consciously checked and monitored when researchers are drawing conclusions from results. It is understandable that researchers envisage specific results from their research, especially when they spend significant amounts of time reading previous research findings and designing research instruments to collect data. So if they are not conscious of their own biases and vigilant regarding them when analysing and interpreting data, they will not be able to interpret results accurately. Furthermore, no matter what, they should not impose their own meanings or understandings influenced by preconceived ideas on data and interpretation. As O’Leary (2005) suggests, researchers must acknowledge their personal biases and worldviews and examine how they might affect participants and the research process, which includes the interpretation of data. Researchers must also ‘balance subjectivities in a manner that ensures the integrity, validity and authenticity of any potential knowledge produced’ (O’Leary, 2005, p. 62).  O’Leary (2005) warns us of ‘self-centric’ analysis which can influence the interpretation of findings. A researcher’s views on any issue are not universal; they should accept that not everyone thinks and feels as they do. They should not impose these preconceptions on research participants, because the research study is not about researchers’ perspectives. This implies that researchers must avoid the temptation of assigning their own values to their participants’ worlds. Dissemination  Sensitive social work researchers’ ethical responsibilities do not cease once their reports are written; they must rather continue to act ethically at the dissemination stage—that is, how they present the data and acknowledge the contributions of their participants and others involved in their research. Cournoyer and Klein (2000) state that  the general ethical principle is that it is improper to take credit for another’s work or fail to acknowledge substantial contributions of others. People who contribute in important ways to a particular study are acknowledged as coauthors or in footnotes. Persons on whose work a study is based are generally referenced within the report. The most basic of these failures concerns the full citation of others’ work. (p. 37)

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Disclosing Results to Research Participants  It is highly recommended that sensitive social work researchers share their results with study participants, but in some instances researchers might not wish to do this, in order to protect them from psychological and emotional harm (Reamer, 2010). Tips Do not leave your writing until the eleventh hour.

The next section of this chapter focuses on the writing process, the forms of writing in different traditions, the development of writing skills and the structure of a research report, dissertation and thesis. When conducting a piece of research to fulfil degree requirements, writing a dissertation or thesis is probably the ultimate goal, but it will not be a discrete writing activity, beginning only once the results have been interpreted. Instead, writing must commence at the outset of the research project in order to produce a good quality report or dissertation. As a matter of fact, most researchers will have done this. For example, the research question(s), and probably a research proposal, must be formulated at the beginning of the project. However, most authors recommend writing in parallel with the project’s progress in order not only to manage time productively but also to produce a good quality report or dissertation. While conducting research, the researcher can begin to write a research diary or journal, which could help them manage the stress involved in undertaking sensitive social work research and will give them insight into their intuition, judgements, decision making and issues related to their emotions, all of which could contribute to writing their reports and dissertations.

Research Journal Keeping research journals or diaries can help record researchers’ feelings, thoughts, perceptions, views, ideas and experiences, all of which can help subsequently refresh researchers’ memories because not all details can be

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remembered. Things are bound to be forgotten with the passing of time, so keeping informal records such as journals allows thoughts, decisions, experiences, feelings and perceptions to be revisited. Furthermore, sensitive researchers may be exposed to secondary trauma; indeed, participants’ feelings, views and experiences may even affect researchers emotionally and psychologically. Keeping journals and diaries can help manage researchers’ health and well-being. How such a journal is written depends completely on the researcher—they are personal and private documents. There are no restrictions on what should or should not be written. According to Lillis and North (2006, p. 116) ‘this is the place for all’. The main point is that whatever researchers write must be legible to them in future. Writing research journals and diaries on the one hand and research reports and theses on the other are two different matters, and the former might or might not feed directly into the writing of the latter. Box 9.2  Extract from Research Diary and Report Extract from a research diary At the beginning practitioners said little about workload management. It is the stress management questions that open a can of worms – the whole room is imbued with their emotions. Managed well to support research participants. I was finding it difficult to comprehend some of the comments they were making about senior managers – very negative … probably inappropriate. Some comments were not rational. Debriefing questions really helped me. Research report about the findings To some extent issues were related not only to workload, but also to practitioners regularly working beyond their contractual hours. Another factor that respondents referred to was the decision-making mechanism that, at certain times, required practitioners to undertake a re-assessment of a case, particularly where the intervention carried with it an extensive amount of resource. It should be noted that whilst direct work with families was raised, respondents expressed on a number of occasions the issue of workload. From the findings presented thus far, it would seem that it is a combination of factors that have led practitioners to draw the conclusion that the volume of work they are experiencing is high, even though statistical information in relation to actual caseloads points to a reduction overall. It could be deemed that the characteristics highlighted earlier are leaving practitioners with the impression that their workload is higher than it actually is.

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As can be seen from the extract (see Box 9.2), the researcher writes in colloquial speech format, using the first person, emotional words and short, incomplete sentences, and some comments are subjective. Before beginning to write the research report or thesis, the researcher must decide who their audience is. This will be explored next.

Audience If the intended audience can be identified before writing and the presentation of findings commences, writing can be crafted according to that audience’s need. The intended audience is actually the target group to be engaged, who will understand and learn as well as evaluate the quality of the research. Possible audiences could include thesis examiners, colleagues, policymakers, community leaders, practitioners and professionals from fields other than yours. Different audiences will have different needs. For example, thesis examiners will consider the learning outcomes and marking criteria of the awarding institution. Research funders will probably focus on the implications of the researcher’s findings for practice, and the overall impact of their research. Researchers in the same field would like to see how the research fits with its predecessors. Furthermore, the level of knowledge of the research topic varies by audience, with different preconceptions and misconceptions regarding the topic (Savin-Baden and Major, 2013). It is thus not always possible to meet everyone’s needs, but the minimum aim is to meet that of the main audience. Nevertheless, knowing their audience will allow the researcher to format their report, article or thesis according to expectations. There are a few established formats of sensitive research report available, but before exploring this, the next section will focus on the structure of reports. Burns (2000) proposes nine structures, mostly for qualitative research: Linear-analytic  This is a well-established and well-utilised structure. It begins with the research problem, continues through the review of the literature, the research methodology and method, results, discussion, implications, further study and conclusion. Most social work research

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journals follow this standard structure for empirical research articles. For a new researcher, this structure provides some certainty, reducing anxiety about writing rationally and coherently. It can be used or adapted for quantitative, qualitative and mixed research.  Comparative  According to Burns (2000, p. 494)  a study that compares alternative descriptions or explanations of several cases/problems/issues, or is iterative of the same case/issue from different points of view, or involves more complex comparisons between various subprograms of one action research study, would employ this approach. Each case/problem/ subprogram or section will probably be presented initially as a separate chapter with later cross-­ case analysis and results. For example, this approach could be used to compare different conceptions of how the appointment of a school principal was made from the perspectives of the candidates, the appointment committee, the staff, etc. This structure could help the researcher report cross-case analyses, with each chapter of the report focussing on a theme of a different case. Information on different cases could thus be scattered throughout each chapter. Chronological  Captures an event over time. The sequence of chapters focuses on the early, middle and late stages of an event. Burns (2000) cautions against spending too much of the report on background, history and context, because a surfeit of information on this might mitigate against a sufficient development of the later stages.  Theory-building  The sequence follows a researcher approach, using logic and action to build a theory. Burns (2000) argues that each chapter should include compelling, rational arguments and evidence to build a theory.  Suspense The report begins with the conclusions or outcomes. Supporting those and presenting alternative conclusions is the report’s focus. Unsequenced  This is suitable for descriptive case studies where sequence is of no account.

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Case Analysis  According to Burns (200, p. 495) another type of report may involve either single or multiple cases/programs/topics, etc., but be written up based on a series of questions and answers, the former originally set up as specific directions leading out of the theoretical propositions underlying the research.

Multiple answers to the same question can be compared, with a focus on different questions for different audiences. Micro-ethnological  This is based on continually breaking down events which will form the sections of the report (Burns, 2000).  Macro-­ethnological  The opposite: each chapter or section may cover different aspects, but the sections will demonstrate a clear relationship with each other.  Tip Some students become focussed on a particular, sensitive area of social work practice, and in their keenness to solve the research problem they commence the research, forgetting to consider or consult the wider literature in their subject area. This could lead to a number of problems, when designing the research instruments and analysing and interpreting the results. So prepare, plan and organise carefully before you embark on collecting data.

Qualitative and Quantitative Writing Styles There are some differences between the structures and writing styles of qualitative and quantitative social work research reports, dissertations and theses in terms of. Qualitative Writing Style Qualitative research reports, dissertations and theses are generally longer compared to their quantitative counterparts. This is also the case for qualitative sensitive social work research. There a number of reasons for this. 

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(i) It is difficult to condense textual data, which is flexible because some researchers use a variety of literary styles (Rubin and Babbie, 2014) to invite readers to delve deeper into the subject matter. Some include rich and detailed emotional aspects. (ii) Even when researchers use categories and themes in their reports, they must explain them to readers. They must also demonstrate how they arrived at those themes and categories. (iii) In order to understand the research, the contexts, settings and views expressed, researchers rely heavily on descriptions and extracts from the interviews, all of which increase the length of their reports. (iv) It is expected that qualitative reports provide detailed and rich data, an expectation that leads researchers to include as must textual data as possible to justify their arguments. For example, they must demonstrate the way they develop theories and new concepts. (v) The use of non-standard research methods makes it difficult for qualitative researchers to succinctly explain the methods they use for data analysis and interpretation. They must justify their sampling techniques, data collection methods, analyses and interpretation techniques, which results in long descriptions and justifications. (vi) Sensitive social work researchers are encouraged to explain their ethical approaches fully, as well as the way they manage emotion, psychological and emotional distress, threats and harm to research participants and to themselves. The inclusion of all these factors demands more space than quantitative research. (vii) Qualitative social work researchers’ moral and ethical obligations are to participants, whose perspectives they should not misrepresent. There is therefore no brief way of presenting findings; they must explain, describe and provide evidence. (viii) Unlike quantitative data, qualitative data can be presented by using an array of creative techniques such as word art, drawing, photographs and images with which to engage readers. All these techniques demand explanation and interpretation by researchers. Box 9.3 illustrates four forms of writing based on research strategies.

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Furthermore, Liamputtong (2020, p. 297) argues that the three ways in which qualitative reports are generally written differ from quantitative ones. first the findings are given without comments or interpretations. Interpretations can be discussed later on in the discussion section. Second, interpretations can be added up to a point in order to make some connections between lines of evidence. Further detail is again provided in the discussion section. Last, the results and discussion of each point may need to go together if an in-depth discussion is required to give meaning to the findings. Because of the nature of qualitative research, which needs some interpretations to make the findings more meaningful, qualitative writing tends to include discussion throughout.

It is crucial that sensitive social work researchers write their reports clearly and coherently. Report structures should support their arguments and justifications should flow logically and rationally. The language of qualitative reports is not objective; researchers may write in the first person. Textual data can be presented by using graphs, diagrams, tables, images, drawing and illustrations. These all are valuable techniques to use when presenting findings. Box 9.3  Forms of Writing

Phenomenological: Captures the experiences of participants. Can include text, figures and tables. Ethnographic: Rich description is the hallmark of this type of report, which presents, comments on and analyses direct quotes. Narrative: Is structured as a story that sometimes follows a chronological structure. Art-based: Traditional structures can be adapted depending on the question. Findings can be presented in an artistic manner within a traditional structure. Different writing styles such as poetry, drama and theatre can be used to present findings and interpretations. Visual, graphic forms and artwork can be used.

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Quantitative Writing Style Unlike qualitative reports, this follows a standard and structured framework to present data. For example, descriptive statistics are used to present numerical data, researchers’ tables and graphs. The writing style is objective, meaning that researchers write in the third person; this does not preclude the use of first person altogether. In particular, the first person could engage readers better.  Research methods and results are generally not fully described in all quantitative reports (Liamputtong et al., 2017). It is important to describe the method in as much detail as possible so that readers understand the researcher’s position, including their biases. The theoretical and practical implications of the quantitative findings and statistical analyses must both be included in reports. For both qualitative and quantitative reports, it is the researchers’ responsibility to provide as much detail as possible and to write clearly and coherently so that readers can engage with the contents. Researchers must also be transparent and honest about the way they conduct their research.

Draft to a Final Version Researchers should not expect their first drafts to be the final versions of their theses or reports. They must edit their drafts through several versions before finalising them. The whole process of writing and editing is undeniably an onerous and laborious one, which is why many students procrastinate in this respect. Before commencing writing, researchers should therefore have rough plans for what they write and when. Tip Try not to think how to structure or write in an orderly manner. You can focus on this in the second, third or fourth drafts, or even later versions. Just before you submit or publish your work, the final draft must be thoroughly checked for accuracy, grammar, references, appendices and page numbers.

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Final Draft Typos

Second / third / fourth … Draft Develop rational and coherent arguments Structure the contents

First Draft Focus on contents

Fig. 9.1  The process of drafting a dissertation

Figure 9.1 shows the steps of drafting, and how focus can be kept and writing developed. First drafts should not be edited as they are written. The focus should be on putting ideas (see Fig. 9.2) and thoughts on paper.

Activity 9.1  Techniques for a Writing Plan Pause and think what technique you can use to plan your writing. Comments Some of you will probably use mind maps to generate ideas (Fig. 9.2). You can use this tool to write a section, a chapter or even a paragraph, and you can write key points, some of which you can link or relate as a group to develop your arguments. You can also use spider diagrams to elaborate your thoughts and develop your arguments. Using headings and subheadings could also be useful for you to focus and write.

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Post-traumatic stress disorders

Over worked

Depression

Earn little

Sleepless nights

Mental Health Anxiety

Constant nagging Stress Landlord

Bi-polar disorders

Children

Cheap alcohol Perpetrators perspectives

Customers

Sleeping tablets Substance Misuse Cough syrups

Disrespect Unhappy

Cannabis

Do not listen Conflict

Family members

Fight

Angry Behaviour

Fight

Annoyed Frustrated

Fig. 9.2  A simple mind map depicting perpetrators’ perspectives of intimate partner abuse

Discriminatory Language It is undeniable that language is a powerful tool with the potential to discriminate against certain people. We use language to describe our realities. If care is not taken, researchers could reinforce and maintain a discourse that could contribute to inequality and discrimination. Sensitive language is therefore required to challenge the existing power imbalances in society. Sensitive social work researchers must avoid all forms of discriminatory and pejorative language and assumptions in their writing and presentations. There are ways to avoid sexist, racist, homophobic, heterosexist and other pejorative language and assumptions. Sexist Language  Words such as ‘mankind’, ‘chairman’ and ‘man-made’ are not gender-neutral terms. Rather, they depict men as the norm, meaning that women are invisible (Braun and Clarke, 2013). Nouns such as ‘humankind’, ‘chairperson’ and ‘people’ can be used as gender-­ neutral words. Sensitive social work researchers should also use stereo-

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typical terms. For example, they can use the term ‘male social worker’ if the person’s gender is relevant.  Racist Language Sensitive social work researchers must be specific about a person’s race and ethnicity. For example, the word ‘Asian’ covers the whole continent. It is better to indicate someone’s specific ethnic origin—e.g. Bangladeshi, Pakistani or Indian.  Labelling  Labels such as ‘schizophrenic’ and ‘autistic’ are not acceptable because it puts the condition before the person (Braun and Clarke, 2013).  Implicit Moral Judgements  Many terms such as ‘fatherless families’ are associated with implicit assumptions. ‘Single parent’ would be an acceptable term in this case.  It is therefore paramount that sensitive social work researchers select phrases and words carefully, not only to conform to ethical principles but also to empower people through language.

Stricture of a Thesis Title  This should capture the essence of the study. An interesting title can capture the audience’s attention.  Abstract This should capture the essential information in the study. Whoever reads it will be able to immediately understand what the researcher did and why, what they found and implications of those findings. The following structure can be used to write an abstract: background, research design, results, implications and conclusions. An example of a title and abstract is: * * * Promote Diversity in Social Work Education in England Through Work-Based Route The social work profession is encountering difficulty to both recruiting and retaining sufficient social workers from diverse background to meet

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the social care needs of the population in England. Introduction of tuition fees and austerity measures is not helping the situation. This research study investigated what employers and education providers need to do to increase access to social work training from groups of people currently underrepresented in social work professions in England. This research is focused on social work training via the work-based route. This research employed mixed methods approach; that is, questionnaires and focus groups interviews were utilised to collect both qualitative and quantitative data from potential applicants, employers, social workers and lecturers. Undoubtedly a more representative workforce enables local authorities in England to work towards greater social mobility and diversity and to provide fair and equal services to meet the needs of the communities. However, the data suggested that overall, the government’s current policies and local authority systems failed to attract minority ethnic groups, male and disabled people in the work-based social work training. Potential trainees perceived that the support required for them to access social work training via work-based route was inadequate. However, there were a handful of innovative schemes operated by a few employers, such as targeted recruitment, funding for social work training, coaching, mentoring and a range of non-monetary support. Furthermore, in order to improve the current situation employers not only need to recruit but also to provide ongoing support to retain these groups of people. Employers need to take a range of initiatives to attract and retain people from diverse background; for example, they need to externally advertise social work assistant, use innovative advertising methods to engage people, provide continuing professional development to their existing workforce and provide support in relation to funding social work as well as support to successfully complete the training. The social work education providers need to advocate, maintain and extend the diversity in the social work education. Keywords: diversity, social work training, minority ethnic groups, disabilities, recruitment, retention. * * * Introduction  This section aims to answer why the research was conducted and what it concerns. This means that the rationale of the study—that is,

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the reasoning behind—must be provided, along with relevant information from the literature and the research questions, aims and objectives.  Literature Review  This locates the study within its research field. The literature review—that is, prior research in the area—must be provided, along with the theoretical framework and the cultural, institutional, historical and social context.  Research Methodology and Method  This section must detail how the study was conducted—that is, the methodological approach and method. An overview of the methodology should be given, the choice of methodology and methods justified and their limitations outlined. All practical matters and research procedures should be included in this section.  Results  The findings appear here. Quantitative research will most likely include tables and graphs, while qualitative studies will provide themes, quotes, tables and other visual materials.  Discussion  What the results mean is discussed in this section, which analyses and interprets the results. In simple terms, the meaning of the findings is revealed here. The findings are located, analysed and interpreted within the field described in the literature review.  Conclusion  Before drawing a conclusion, the theoretical and practical implications of the findings can be presented. This section summarises the main findings and selected points of the research, along with its significance, which is assessed in the context of the literature review. Recommendations, action plans, guidelines, models based on the findings and limitations are also provided at this point.  Tip: Write or Do Nothing Raymond Chandler has suggested a strategy called ‘The Nothing Alternative’ (Baumeister & Tierney, 2011, p. 254) where you set a time to write or do nothing. ‘Nothing’ means literally that: you cannot use your computer, mobile or tablet, so you may not, for example, surf the Net or check your text messages and emails—you can either just do nothing, or write. This tip can help some of you, because rather than stave off boredom, people tend to write.

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Some Writing Techniques Conducting even a small-scale sensitive social work study requires discipline, motivation, planning, organisation and time management to complete the project on time. An awareness of some of the researcher’s strengths and weaknesses is needed if they are to work systematically to achieve their goals. What works for one individual might not work for another. As sensitive social work research requires researchers to consider a number of factors, they may find the following guidelines helpful even as they write research reports or theses: Manage Time  A deadline for the writing plan should be decided on and adhered to.  Stop Procrastinating  The researcher never knows whether their writing will produce anything substantial. Murray therefore advises ‘snacking rather than bingeing’—that is, writing small amounts on a r­ egular basis rather than waiting for inspiration. One plan might be to aim to write two or three paragraphs a day and to set a deadline to write within an hour after dinner. Whatever the timings, the deadline is the point. The importance of setting your goal must be kept in mind.  Keep It Going  When writing, the flow must be kept going, so there must be no breaking off to check references or typos. Barzun and Graff (1977) suggest resisting the temptation to break from writing in order to preserve momentum. The aim should be to stop where it would be easiest to resume. If the break is made at a difficult section, the researcher might struggle to restart, and will consequently start to procrastinate because of the motivation has been lost.  Stop Waiting Writing the report or thesis after the project ends should be avoided. Writing should be regular; some sections such as research methods and literature reviews can be written while the research is being planned and conducted. Writing up in a single operation is a difficult task. If the researcher’s mindset is to write when the study has been conducted or simply when they feel like it, they will find it difficult to complete their report or thesis on time and satisfac-

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torily. Writing a report or thesis should not be a frantic task that must be begun at the end of the project.  Do Not Be Influenced by Negative Thoughts  Writing is a skill that can be acquired and practiced, so the researcher must not listen to their inner voice telling them that they are bad at writing, but should remember that they already write, in the form of emails, text messages and probably comments on social media sites. Research reports and theses simply require writing more, so researchers should practice the skill regularly, which will improve their writing and make good enough for the purpose.  Set a Goal  An example is to write 300 words in 30–45 minutes every day. The researcher should answer their inner voice asking what the point of this is by noting the cumulative nature of the exercise: writing a little every day will help complete the report or thesis on time. For example, writing two 300-word paragraphs a day will result in 2100 words within a week and 8400 words within four. 

Tip You must leave your draft for a few days, or even weeks, before starting to edit it, because you will review your writing with a fresh pair of eyes.

Checklist for Drafting and Redrafting Process As you review your draft, ask yourself the following questions: • • • • • • • •

Do my arguments make sense? Are they rational and logical? Do I need to change the structure? Have I missed some material? Do I need to include more? Am I repeating the same issues? If so, which do I need to delete? Am I happy with my arguments overall? Could my arguments be clearer and stronger? Am I taking a critical approach while preserving essential disciplines in order to provide a holistic picture?

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• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

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Are there logical links between sections and chapters? Have I made in-text and end-text references carefully? Have I checked grammar and spelling? Can I break up long sentences? Have I used simple and jargon-free language? Have I anonymised and preserved participants’ privacy and confidentiality? Have I rectified all typos? Have I checked my sentence structure? Are my arguments lucid, and do they make sense? Have I checked the expected requirements in relation to line spacing, font, font size and margins? Have I numbered all the pages? Have I numbered the chapters, sections, tables, boxes, figures, images and graphs? Have I included all the appendices? Am I within my word limit? Have I included the title, tables, figures and end page? Have I used the passive rather than the active voice? Have I used discriminatory language? Can I make my arguments more engaging? Have I adhered to a paragraph structure? Am I making things difficult to understand? Have I argued convincingly?

Key Points • Your interpretation should be consistent with your findings. • Link your findings to your research questions, aims and objectives. • Position and link your findings in their context of the existing literature in your research area. • Be explicit and bold about significant findings and the contribution your research study is making. • Before start to write your research, report, dissertation or thesis, identify your audience. • Consider your findings in the context of the limitations, including methodological ones, of your study.

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• Congruences and contradictions between your findings and previous study must be identified. • Clearly state both the theoretical and the practical implications of your study. • Identify the structure of your research report, dissertation or thesis. • Quantitative research reports mostly adhere to standard structures, but those of qualitative reports are flexible and allow room for creative ways of presenting data. • Write clearly to communicate your research. • You should start writing at the outset of your study. • Write regularly and in small amounts. • Set yourself a daily word count target. Keep focussed and follow your plan rigorously. • Proof-read your work. • Do not try to edit as you write. • Take time to edit and polish your report. • Be prepared to go through several drafts before you finalise your report. Key Terms Accurate reporting Audience Case analysis structure Chronological structure Colloquial expression Comparative structure Convergence Data interpretations Disclosing results to research participants Dissemination Divergence Draft to a final version Ethical issues in interpretation Grounded theory Implicit moral judgements Labelling Linear-analytic structure

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Macro-ethnological structure Making metaphor Micro-ethnological structure Negative thoughts Objective interpretation Qualitative and quantitative writing style Racist language Reading and writing Research journal Sexist language Suspense structure Techniques of writing Theory-building structure Unsequenced structure Writing stories and biographies Questions for Critical Reflection Why should researchers share research findings? What would engage your audience when you present your findings? What are the main principles of writing a good research report or dissertation? What the challenges of writing a research report or dissertation? What techniques are key when reviewing and revising a research report or dissertation? How can researchers make their research reports sensitive? What is the main audience for your research findings? Why? What ethical issues must you consider when you disseminate your findings?

References Barzun, J., & Graff, H. E. (1977). The modern researcher (3rd ed.). Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Baumeister, R., & Tierney, J. (2011). Willpower: Rediscovering our greatest strength. Allen Lane.

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Blaxter, L., Hughes, C., & Tight, M. (2010). How to research (4th ed.). The Open University and McGraw-Hill Education. Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2013). Successful qualitative research: A practical guide for beginners. Sage. Burns, E. B. (2000). Introduction to research methods. Sage Publications. Cournoyer, D.  E., & Klein, W. (2000). Research methods for social work. A Pearson Education Company. Drew, C. J., Hardman, M. L., & Hosp, J. L. (2008). Designing and conducting research in education. Sage. Harvey, B. (2004). The impact of the commodification of relationship on lifelong learning. PhD Thesis, University of Leicester. Liamputtong, p. (2020). Qualitative research methods (5th ed.). Oxford University Press. Liamputtong, P., Shields, N., & Gallichio, A. (2017). Presentation of research findings: writing a qualitative and quantitative research report. In P. Liamputtong (Ed.), Research methods in health: Foundations for evidence-­ based practice (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. Lillis, T., & North, S. (2006). Academic writing. In S. Potter (Ed.) Doing Postgraduate Research. (2nd Ed), London: The Open University in association with Sage Publications. Miles, M. B., Huberman, A. M., & Saldana, J. (2014). Qualitative data analysis: A methods sourcebook (3rd ed.). Sage. O’Leary, Z. (2005). Researching real-world problems: A guide to methods of inquiry. Sage Publications Ltd.. Peshhkin, A. (1993). The goodness of qualitative research. Educational Researcher, 22(2), 24–30. Piers, P., Carr, J., Eardley, E., Chadwick, D., & Porter, K. (2011). An introduction to clinical research. Oxford University Press. Reamer, F. C. (2010). Ethical Issue in Social Work research. In B. Thyer (Ed.), The Handbook of Social Work Research Methods. Sage. Rubin, A., & Babbie, E.  R. (2014). Research methods for social work. Cengage Learning. Savin-Baden, M., & Major, C.  H. (2013). Qualitative research: The essential guide to theory and practice. Routledge. Sterba, S. K. (2006). Misconduct in the analysis and reporting of data: Bridging methodological and ethical agendas for change. Ethics & Behavior, 16, 305–318.

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Wasserman, R. (2013) Ethical issues and guidelines for conducting data analysis in psychological research Ethics and Behavior, 23(1), p. 3–15. Wolcott, H. (1994). Transforming qualitative data. Sage.

Suggested Reading Miles, M. B., Huberman, A. M., & Saldana, J. (2014). Qualitative data analysis: A methods sourcebook (3rd ed.). Sage. Reamer, F. C. (2010). Ethical issue in social work research. In B. Thyer (Ed.), The handbook of social work research methods. Sage.

Appendixes

Appendix A An example of a Gantt chart regarding a small-scale research

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 S. Haider, Sensitive Research in Social Work, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85009-8

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Activity

Search literature

Read literature

Apply ethical approval

Request access

Develop interview questions

Pilot interview

Revise questions

Conduct interview

Data analysis

Data interpretation

Write literature review

Write research methodology and methods

Write results and analysis

Write introduction and conclusion

ID

1

2

3

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8

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13

14

1

Jun

Months

7

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Project title:

13

Jun 19

Jun 25

Jun 31

Jun 1

Jul 7

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Social work and radicalisation

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Jul 19

Jul 25

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Aug

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Project leader: Project start date: Exp. end date:

Arisha

Arisha

Arisha

Arisha

Arisha

Arisha

Arisha

Arisha

Arisha

Arisha

Arisha

Arisha

Arisha

Arisha

Who?

30 August 20

01 June 20

Arisha Zoya

356 Appendixes

 Appendixes 

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Appendix B A checklist of a critical analysis of peer-reviewed research articles Title Author name(s) Journal title Volume Number/issue Page number Yes No Introduction Are all the terms used in the research questions defined? Is the research problem included with explicit justifications to carry out the research? Are there any issues, concerns or conflicts of interest between researchers and funders in relation to the research findings? Literature review Does the literature review provided a balanced analysis and evaluation of the materials used? Is the literature review unbiased? Does the literature review identify and justify the need for the research proposed? Are the limitations of the literature identified? Does the literature review include up-to-date materials? Does the literature review include important studies in the subject area? Do all research questions and hypotheses (if appropriate) arise from the literature review? If hypotheses are used, are they clear? Research methods Are the justifications for using specific research approaches, research strategies and research methods explained? Is the research design appropriate to investigate the research questions? Sample Are the sampling frame, strategy and size clearly included and justified? Is adequate information given in relation to the recruitment and selection of the participants? Is there any bias or coercion in recruiting participants? Ethics Is there explicit evidence of informed consent and voluntary involvement of participants? Is the research reviewed by an ethical committee for research? (continued)

358 Appendixes (continued) Title Is there evidence of confidentiality and anonymity in the research article? If vulnerable participants were involved, is there evidence of carrying out the research sensitively and meeting participants’ physical, psychological and emotional needs? Results Are the results presented clearly, including graphical representation of data? Do the results correspond with the research questions? Data analysis and discussion Is an appropriate data analysis technique used? Is there adequate detail to understand how data analysis was carried out? Is statistical data analysis (if appropriate) correctly applied? Is there any evidence of manipulation of data to justify particular findings? Is enough analysis provided to understand how the conclusion is reached? Is previous research used to formulate the discussions? Limitations, recommendations and conclusion Are the limitations of the research included? Are the implications of the research identified and discussed? Are further areas of research indicated?

Index

A

Abstract, 32, 143, 263, 302 Acceptance, 87, 124, 125 Accept silence, 229, 230 Accuracy of data, 292 Accurate observation skills, 238 Accurate reporting, 331–332 Action-oriented research, 33 Actuarial, 168–169 Aesthetics, 24 Ambient, 166 Anonymity, 15, 99, 101, 110, 190, 200, 227, 233, 246, 253, 254, 276, 277 ANOVA, 317, 320 Anxiety, 15, 132–133, 168, 193, 201, 204, 207, 236, 320, 337 Artificial communication, 126 Arts-based inquiry, 66, 67 Arts-informed inquiry, 66

Arts-informing inquiry, 66, 67 Asking questions, 42, 89, 146, 220, 225, 227–230, 242, 277 Assurance of anonymity, 200 Asynchronous focus groups, 250 Audience, 84, 103, 267, 302, 336–338, 344, 349 Audio recording, 225, 242, 290 Autobiographical account, 189 Autonomy, 5, 6, 90, 91, 194 Avoid bias, 151 Axiology, 14, 21, 24 B

Beneficence, 90–91 Body language, 107, 127, 128, 133, 190, 198 Borton’s framework, 143–144 Bracketing, 58–60

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 S. Haider, Sensitive Research in Social Work, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85009-8

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360 Index

Build a rapport, 15, 123, 134, 135, 189, 198, 248 Building rapport and relationships, 124–127 Bureaucratic paperwork, 181 C

Cartesian dualism, 186 Case study, 15, 47, 68–73, 135, 190, 256, 337 Cause and effect, 48 Characteristics, 6, 27–29, 31–40, 44–48, 50–51, 55, 69, 71, 113, 114, 166, 201, 207, 222, 250, 294, 335 Chi-square, 317, 320 Chronological structure, 340 Chronomics, 126 Cleaning your data, 289, 292 Closed questions, 27, 228, 232, 272, 273, 275, 277 Coding strategy, 296–298 Competence to consent, 104–109 Concluding questions, 256 Conclusion, 6, 32, 57, 128, 144, 151, 221, 232, 296, 316, 333, 335–337, 346 Concurrent mixed methods, 44 Confidentiality, 15, 81, 84, 87, 91, 92, 95–97, 99, 101, 110, 113, 114, 124, 176, 190, 200, 224, 226, 227, 233, 234, 246, 253, 254, 259, 261, 276, 291 Conflict and disagreement, 252 Conscious experience, 187 Constant comparison, 16, 306–307 Constructionism, 14, 21, 30–31, 35, 39, 67

Constructive supervision, 209 Content analysis, 16, 307, 310–313 Control variable, 26 Convenience sampling, 223 Convergence, 327, 328 Conversation analysis, 289, 307–309 Counselling, 95, 125, 175, 206, 209–212 Covert observation, 244 Critical social research, 14 Critical thinking, 15, 123, 147–150 Culturally neutral interpretation, 265 D

Danger, 5, 162, 165, 166, 169, 174, 176, 177, 180, 191, 239 Data interpretations, 326–331 Data management, 15, 117, 246, 247, 279 Data protection principles, 112–115, 247 Data reduction, 40 Debriefing sessions, 133, 199, 206, 226 Deciding what to interview, 176–178 Deciding when to interview, 175–176 Deductive research, 38, 239 De-escalation technique, 179–182 Defining and naming themes, 300 Delete cases, 314 Delete variables, 314 Deontological, 86–87, 89 Descriptive phenomenology, 58–60, 63 Descriptive statistics, 40, 315–316, 319, 320, 341 Determinism, 27, 36

 Index 

Digital storytelling, 51, 52, 54, 67, 263 Direct questions, 228, 229 Disclosing results to research participants, 334 Disclosure, 98, 100, 103, 135, 200, 276 Discriminatory languages, 113, 127, 343–344 Discussion, 15, 53, 62, 82, 102–103, 150, 181, 187, 199, 206, 228, 236, 250, 252, 254, 256–260, 263, 266–268, 292–294, 300, 305, 336, 340, 346 Dissemination, 11, 89, 117, 172, 333 Distress protocol, 133, 178, 194–197, 199, 227, 238, 247, 261, 269 Divergence, 327–328 Double questions, 276 Draft to a final version, 341–342 Dualism, 36, 37, 186 E

Economic life, 6 Economic risk, 200 Effective assessment, 238 Effectively manage, 12, 137, 185 Effective risk assessment, 161, 163 Efficiency, 265 Eliminate or reduce harms, 12, 85, 114, 116, 192, 198 Emic perspective, 307 Emotional distress, 95, 132, 193–197, 199, 202, 203, 207, 339 Emotional engagement, 189 Emotional labour, 185, 200, 201, 208

361

Emotional neutrality, 186 Emotional state, 180, 188, 197, 198, 201 Emotional work, 200–195 Empathy, 124, 125, 130–131, 134, 180, 197, 198, 226, 238, 242, 252, 266 Empiricism, 36 Empowerment, 33, 44, 91, 94, 95, 193, 265 Encouragement and approval, 125 Ensure transparency, 41 Environment, 6, 9, 29, 34, 56, 101, 113, 124, 135, 145, 164, 167, 175, 178, 198, 199, 225, 227, 232, 237–240, 242, 252, 257, 261, 262, 271, 294, 307 Epistemology, 14, 21, 23–26, 33, 60 Establishing contact with the participants, 175 Ethical approval, 15, 115–116, 174, 237, 241, 248 Ethical issues in interpretation, 331–334 Ethics, 12, 14, 24, 81–84, 86, 88, 89, 92–93, 99, 103, 105, 116–117, 176, 244, 268, 331 Ethnographic analysis, 307 Ethnography, 15, 47, 55–57, 306, 307, 309, 312, 313, 329 Etic perspective, 306, 307 Experiential learning cycle, 143 Expressive behaviour, 187 F

Face-to-face interviewing, 227, 236, 237, 250, 262, 270, 271 Feminism, 14, 21, 32–34, 67

362 Index

Feminist moral theory, 87–88 Fidelity, 92 Field notes, 52, 57, 241–243, 246, 247 Focus group, 29, 62, 69, 103, 126, 179, 219, 227, 249–259, 264, 269, 279, 280, 290, 292, 293, 298, 300, 305, 345 Frequency of words, 305, 306 G

Gantt chart, 136, 137, 139, 156 Gender discrimination, 33 Generalisation, 32 Generating initial codes, 298 Genuineness, 125 Goal, 35, 47, 64, 67, 70, 71, 94, 134, 136–138, 243, 266, 296, 334, 347, 348 Good communicator, 252 Grounded theory, 306, 329 Group interview, 250 Group work, 269 H

Hard-to-reach, 2, 5, 49 Hard-to-reach groups, 49, 101, 277 Harmful or beneficial outcomes, 162 Harms vs. benefits, 85 Hazard, 165, 169, 174, 238 Health and well-being, 84, 133, 197, 198, 201, 202, 205, 207–209, 234, 335 Hermeneutic, 58, 60, 61, 266 Hidden population, 2, 5 Hypothesis, 38, 39, 42 Hypothetical questions, 277

I

Idiography, 61 Impact of risk, 174 Implicit moral judgements, 344 Increased self-awareness, 193 Indigenous research, 297 Individualism, 87 Inductive process, 72 Inferential statistics, 16, 289, 316–320 Informal discussions, 206 Informed consent, 15, 81, 91, 96–102, 109, 110, 118, 233, 246, 261, 268 Interpreters, 127, 166, 185, 209, 224, 237 Interpretive phenomenology, 60 Interpretive phenomenology analysis, 61 Interpretivism, 14, 21, 28–30, 35, 39, 45, 188 Intervals, 315, 320 Interview guide, 228, 233, 236–238, 279 Interviews, 27, 29, 39, 42, 43, 48, 49, 52, 55, 59, 62, 65, 68, 69, 93, 99, 105, 107, 110, 117, 123, 124, 126, 129, 130, 132, 133, 135, 165–168, 172, 174–180, 189–191, 193, 197–199, 203, 205, 206, 209–213, 219–221, 224–240, 242, 249, 250, 259–264, 269–271, 274, 277–280, 290–295, 297, 298, 305, 313, 314, 339, 345 Interview schedule, 233–235 Introduction, 220, 254, 279, 345 Introductory questions, 256

 Index 

Intrusive research, 245 Intrusive threat, 7 J

Jefferson system, 290–292 Justice, 38, 44, 87, 90, 91, 169, 194 K

Keep it going, 347 Key questions, 256 Keyword analysis, 304, 305 L

Labelling, 4, 6, 344 Language-based research method, 263 Law of probability, 164 Leading questions, 276 Legal risk, 200 Life course research, 51, 52 Life history research, 51, 52 Likelihood, 114, 161, 165, 168, 169, 175, 181, 332 Limited listeners, 128 Linear-analytic structure, 336 Literature review, 127, 137–139, 148, 151–156, 203, 328, 346, 347 Lone working protocol, 167 M

Management of emotion, 185 Manage your time, 136, 137, 156, 334, 347 Managing participants’ physical safety, 192

363

Mann-Whitney U-test, 320 Marginalised people, 33, 34, 36, 54, 268 Mean, 96, 314, 315 Median, 96, 315 Mentees, 203, 204 Mentoring, 203–204, 345 Mentors, 142, 176, 203, 204, 209 Method-led research, 26 Mindfulness, 133, 144, 207 Mixed methods, 14–15, 33, 37–38, 42–47, 71, 345 Mode, 96, 315 Monitor and review, 169, 197–198 Multiple-case, 68 Multiple realities, 29, 31 N

Narrative analysis, 301–306 Narrative research, 50, 54, 62, 71 Natural sciences, 26, 27, 189 Negative thoughts, 348 Neutral, 27, 32, 126, 153, 230, 260, 265 Nominal, 314, 315, 320 Non-judgemental attitude, 87, 124 Non-judgemental behaviour, 226 Non-maleficence, 90, 91, 194 Non-parametric tests, 317, 320 Non-participant observation, 55, 240, 246, 248 Non-probability sampling, 223, 235, 311 Non-verbal cues, 107, 128, 180, 225, 226, 229, 236, 270, 290, 292, 309 Notetaking, 224, 225

364 Index O

Objective interpretation, 332–333 Objectivity, 27, 29, 32, 34, 55, 60, 72, 153, 187, 230, 269, 279, 312, 332 Observations, 16, 26, 27, 29, 30, 42, 48, 49, 55, 65, 68, 69, 93, 107, 131, 133, 143, 163, 193, 198, 207, 219, 238–249, 263, 279, 290 Observation skills, 133 Online, 49, 54, 56, 57, 81, 99–103, 198, 227, 229, 233, 236, 250, 270, 271, 280, 290 Ontology, 14, 21, 23, 24, 26, 60 Open-ended questions, 273, 274, 278 Ordinal, 315, 317, 320 Organisational and administrative skills, 134 P

Pacing interviews, 206 Paralinguistics, 127 Parametric tests, 317, 320 Participant observation, 240, 242, 248, 249 Participatory action research, 15, 47, 63–66, 72 Peer coaching, 204 Percentage table, 315, 316 Personal safety, 162, 179, 192 Phenomenology, 15, 47, 58–63, 72 Photovoice, 16, 65, 219, 263–269 Physiological arousal, 187 Place, 36, 46, 82, 88, 89, 96, 107, 125, 145, 168, 175, 177, 187, 188, 193, 202, 237, 239, 244,

247, 259–262, 295, 297, 302, 335 Plan, 1, 15, 57, 95, 105, 117, 133, 134, 136–139, 143, 156, 161, 163, 166, 170, 173, 177, 181, 182, 199, 202, 204–206, 209, 212, 221, 227, 244, 247, 249, 261, 262, 295, 338, 341, 342, 346, 347, 350 Planning, 14, 15, 64, 104, 110, 123, 134, 138, 156, 181, 239, 253, 254, 256–257, 289, 347 Planning and prioritising, 138–139 Plan of action, 47, 174 Political threat, 7 Positionality, 244 Positivism, 14, 21, 26–28, 30, 31, 45, 48, 56, 187, 269 Post modernist philosophy, 88–89 Potential harms, 5, 85, 91, 98, 116, 246, 247 Power, 9, 11, 31, 34, 36, 51, 84, 99, 113, 116, 125, 172, 205, 259, 268, 303, 312, 316, 329 Power imbalances, 17, 91, 99, 110, 112, 116, 134, 252, 262, 343 Pre-interview, 224–227 Presence, 7, 166, 167, 178, 205, 244, 249 Pretend listeners, 128 Principles of risk assessment, 164 Principles of risk management, 173 Privacy, 15, 81, 84, 92, 94, 95, 99, 101, 103, 108, 110, 113, 176, 195, 200, 224, 226, 227, 233, 246, 247, 253, 276, 291, 349 Probability sampling, 221–223 Probing, 15, 132, 189, 228, 229, 278

 Index 

Probing questions, 132, 230 Professional judgement approach, 168, 169 Prompting, 15, 131, 229 Prompting questions, 230 Proxemics, 127 Psychological and emotional distress, 95, 132, 193–197, 339 Psychological and emotional well-­being, 197 Psychotherapy, 235 Purposive sampling, 223, 244, 256 Q

Qualitative, 4, 14–16, 21, 29, 31–33, 37–51, 55, 56, 62, 67, 68, 71, 72, 92, 104, 124, 135, 161, 174, 187–189, 201, 207, 208, 210, 221, 223, 235, 239, 244, 245, 249, 250, 258, 259, 269, 274, 278, 279, 289, 290, 292, 293, 296, 297, 306, 312–315, 319, 320, 325, 327–331, 336–341, 345, 346, 350 Qualitative and quantitative writing style, 338–341 Qualitative data analysis, 16, 290, 296–297, 313, 314, 320 Qualitative interviews, 211, 235, 236 Quantitative, 14–16, 21, 28, 33, 37–49, 71, 72, 187, 220–222, 239, 242, 245, 269, 270, 274, 278, 279, 289, 290, 292, 312–316, 319, 320, 325, 327, 331, 332, 337–339, 341, 345, 346, 350

365

Quantitative data analysis, 16, 289, 290 Questionnaires, 27, 28, 39, 48, 49, 65, 68, 69, 101, 110, 111, 117, 198, 219, 232, 236, 239, 264, 269–280, 290, 293, 311, 314, 319, 345 Questions-led research, 14, 26 R

Racist language, 344 Ranking scales, 272, 273 Ratio, 315, 320 Reading and writing, 137 Realism, 36 Recognition, 104, 187, 202–203, 209 Recording of interviews, 224–226 Reduce background noises, 230 Reflection, 15, 64, 70, 123, 139, 141–145, 147, 192, 204, 205, 243, 263, 264, 268, 309, 330 Reflexivity, 34, 205 Relaxation techniques, 145, 209 Research diary, 144, 205, 334, 335 Research journal, 144, 205, 206, 243, 334–337 Research methodology, 25, 33, 55, 56, 58, 59, 62 Research methodology and method, 47, 95, 336, 346 Research methods, 16, 23, 25, 26, 29, 31, 33, 36–40, 44, 46, 47, 54, 55, 57, 59, 65–70, 72, 93, 109, 110, 154, 172, 174, 188, 219, 231, 232, 236–239, 245, 247, 249, 259–265, 267–270, 273, 278, 279, 290, 297, 312, 314, 319, 339, 341, 347

366 Index

Research outcomes, 27, 270 Research paradigm, 14, 23, 24, 70, 179, 278 Research participants, 10, 12, 17, 32, 33, 35, 45, 52, 53, 58, 61, 63, 65, 71, 72, 81, 83–85, 90–93, 95, 96, 98, 100, 107, 110, 112, 116–118, 126, 127, 132, 134, 135, 139, 165, 166, 173, 175, 178, 181, 185, 186, 188–192, 194, 198–201, 205, 222, 223, 226, 227, 229, 232, 234–237, 246–248, 250, 252, 254, 256, 257, 262, 263, 265, 266, 278, 279, 290, 302, 306, 328, 333–335, 339 Research philosophy, 35, 297 Research questions, 14, 16, 22, 23, 25, 26, 36, 37, 39, 40, 42, 44, 45, 47, 55, 58, 62, 66, 70, 71, 86, 98, 114, 115, 117, 156, 173, 179, 194, 211, 221, 223, 227, 231, 232, 240, 242, 254, 256, 257, 267, 278, 289, 291, 296, 299, 300, 312, 313, 326, 328, 334, 346, 349 Research strategies, 15, 22, 34, 43, 47–50, 52, 55, 56, 62–66, 68, 70–72, 113, 339 Research topic, 2–6, 14, 48, 100, 129, 185, 225, 238, 241, 250, 252, 257, 259, 336 Research world, 239, 245 Respect, 11, 13, 85, 87, 88, 90, 109–111, 117, 125, 126, 129, 153, 177, 199, 210, 226, 240, 247, 252, 312, 341 Responsiveness, 125

Results, 4, 8, 23, 40, 41, 44, 66, 83, 86, 89, 94, 97, 100, 109, 114, 131, 164, 165, 181, 189, 192, 207, 230, 244, 265, 290, 302, 313–317, 319, 320, 326–329, 331–334, 336–341, 344, 346, 348 Reviewing themes, 300 Risk assessment, 15, 161–181, 192, 261, 262 Risk factors, 163, 166–168 Risk log, 174 Risk management, 164, 165, 167, 169–173, 182 Risks, 1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15, 43, 53, 81, 85, 90, 91, 93, 95, 97, 98, 103, 105–109, 116–118, 138, 161–175, 177–179, 181, 191–200, 202, 208, 209, 212, 227, 233, 237, 246, 249, 261, 269 Risk to researchers, 8, 163, 164, 167 Risk variables, 169 Risky behaviour, 169 Role of a facilitator, 252 S

Safety protocol, 15, 161, 174–180, 192, 262 Sample mean approach, 314 Sample size, 62, 235, 237, 244, 248 Sampling, 114, 221–223, 235, 237, 244, 248, 256, 257, 278, 279, 311, 317, 331, 339 Sampling methods, 221–238 Self-awareness, 123, 131, 139–141 Self-care, 206, 207, 212

 Index 

Self-completion questions, 270 Self-discipline, 136–137 Self-disclosure, 34, 134–135 Self-reflexivity, 32 Semi-closed questions, 274 Semiotic analysis, 309–310 Semi-structured interviews, 165, 230, 233, 236, 279, 291 Sensitive questions, 43, 49, 275 Sensitive research, 1–13, 16, 33, 43–45, 91–94, 96, 107, 113, 117, 125, 134, 136, 138, 145, 148, 156, 162, 163, 166, 175, 177, 181, 188, 191–200, 202, 208–210, 220, 221, 228, 236, 239, 245, 254, 256–257, 269, 276, 314, 325, 336 Sensitive social work research, 1–17, 21–73, 81–118, 123–156, 161–181, 185–213, 219–280, 289–320, 325–351 Set a goal, 348 Sexist language, 115, 343 Sharing findings, 231 Silence, 15, 128, 129, 225, 229, 230 Simple random sampling, 222 Single-case embedded, 68 Single-case holistic, 68 Situation, 6, 28, 36, 43, 67–69, 82, 89, 92, 103, 116, 126, 131–133, 135, 142, 146, 150, 162, 164, 178–180, 186, 188, 198, 220, 244, 275, 297, 302, 345 SMART, 134 Snowballing sampling, 223, 257 Social change, 10, 33, 34, 36, 63, 64, 270 Social desirability, 276

367

Social risk, 199–200 Social support, 28, 235 Social transformation, 36, 63 Socio-linguistic narrative analysis, 302–303 SOLER model, 126 Spirituality, 208 SPSS, 292, 314, 319, 320 Standardised, 30, 43, 48, 71, 240, 245, 277 Stigma, 5, 6, 200 Stop procrastinating, 347 Stop waiting, 347 Stratified sampling, 311 Structured interviews, 27, 39, 48, 49, 227, 229, 230, 240, 271, 290, 314 Structured observations, 240–244, 248, 314 Subjective, 2, 31, 34, 36, 61, 66, 125, 188, 262, 264, 336 Subjectivity, 28, 29, 34, 72, 169, 245, 263, 331–333 Summarising questions, 256 Supervision, 204, 206, 209, 273 Survey, 2, 4, 15, 28, 43, 47–49, 71, 93, 101, 156, 192, 271, 290 T

Taboo topics, 2 Teleological, 86, 87, 89 Telephone, 166, 172, 179, 222, 227, 229, 232, 236, 250, 271, 278 Telephone conferencing, 250 Terminate interviews, 198 Thematic analysis, 291, 297–300, 307, 311, 320

368 Index

Themes, 37, 40, 53, 84, 224, 225, 240, 268, 296–300, 304, 307, 311, 312, 320, 327, 337, 339, 346 Therapy, 207, 210, 211 Threat of disclosure, 276 Time, 12, 15, 22, 30, 44, 46, 49, 51, 52, 55–57, 68, 71, 91, 95, 99, 103, 104, 108, 123, 124, 126, 128, 129, 134, 136–139, 145, 146, 155, 156, 167, 168, 172, 175–178, 190, 193, 198, 200, 201, 203, 206, 210, 220, 221, 227, 229, 232, 233, 235–237, 240, 243, 246, 248, 250, 253, 256–259, 261, 264, 268, 270, 271, 277, 278, 290, 291, 294–298, 302, 303, 327, 330, 333–335, 337, 346–348, 350 Title, 97, 115, 170, 233, 344 Transcribers, 166, 185, 203, 209–210 Transparency, 41, 112, 293, 296, 332 Trust and commitment, 203 T-tests, 317, 320 Two-way questions, 272 U

Uncertainty, 8, 162, 164, 204, 236 Unstructured interviews, 29, 230, 232, 235, 279

V

Veracity, 92 Vicarious trauma, 16, 185, 199, 202, 207–210 Vicarious traumatisation, 207, 208 View, 5, 6, 22, 28, 30, 31, 34, 37–39, 43–45, 48, 50, 54, 55, 58, 59, 63, 66–70, 95, 101, 102, 107, 108, 110, 111, 113, 125, 129, 130, 135, 141, 142, 149, 154, 189, 190, 193, 204, 210, 220, 224, 226, 230, 236, 244, 245, 249, 250, 252, 253, 257–260, 273, 274, 292, 293, 301–304, 306, 312, 328, 329, 333–335, 337, 339 Visual arts-based research, 15 Visual research method, 263–268 Voluntary participation, 15, 81, 98, 99, 103–104, 227, 233, 246, 253, 254 Vulnerabilities, 5, 6 W

Walking tour interview, 262 Warmth, 125 Words in context, 305, 310 Wrap up, 231, 238 Write the report, 300 Writing stories and biographies, 330