“I Didn’t Know I Was Isolated Until I Wasn’t Isolated Any More”

Abstract

This article explore the use of groups as one way of conducting political research within psychology, and challenging the overindividualistic approach of most psychological studies and theories. Calling on her own research studies, the author explores the possibilities presented by groups to create social spaces, in which meaning and narratives are co-constructed in dynamic negotiation. Working with groups in a participatory and democratic process can create rich, deep, and varied knowledge that highlights the wider context of individual experiences. To achieve this aim, personal and group reflexivity must be a part of the research process. In so doing, groups can offer ways to disrupt the dichotomy and change the power relationship between researcher and participant, as groups offer a different composition of research relations, not limited to just two hierarchal positions. The interactions between participants can create a collective mosaic: a fusion of points of view, experiences, and understandings.

Patient perspectives on peer support for adults with type 1 diabetes: a need for diabetes-specific social capital

“…The use of group discussions and participatory methods revealed dimensions of understanding that might have remained untapped in more conventional data collection techniques. 35 , 36 For example, testing different peer support methods enabled reactions to concrete peer relations and revealed unmet and, for some participants, unknown needs. The use of various methods and a diverse sample is believed to increase the robustness of the results.…”

What Works in Police Training? Applying an Evidence-Informed, General, Ecological Model of Police Training

“…2 To produce the Grounded Theory, data was collected and analyzed over a 6-months period. A range of data sources were used, including policy documents describing pedagogical and technical aspects of the training; elite interviews (Richards, 1996) -- in-depth interviews with high-ranking officers across the organization; individual/group interviews with the staff of the education unit, field commanders, and police officers who underwent training in the IPBG (see Lavie-Ajayi, 2014); and structured observations of various types of training sessions. The data was analyzed using an intricate, multi-stage process, which follows the structured approach proposed by Strauss and Corbin (1998).…”