The problem of unconsciousness in qualitative research

Although reflexivity is critical to the practice of qualitative research, the problem of unconsciousness seems to stand in its way. If aspects of lived experience are unconscious to an engaged participant, then how can one become reflexive? This paradox, and the problems it poses for qualitative research, are discussed. Varying conceptualisations of unconsciousness are presented. Unconsciousness can be understood as revealed through language, as primarily non-verbal, or as ultimately irrelevant to human experience. In addition, the source of unconscious material can be conceptualised as internal and subjective, or as contextual and direcdy observable. From these assumptions follow diverse approaches to qualitative research. If unconsciousness is structured via language, then research must focus on the words through which participants describe their experience. If, however, unconsciousness is distinct from language, then qualitative methods must incorporate non-verbal data. The presumed locus of unconsciousness will also affect one's research methods. Internal explanations require querying the subject, and external explanations entail scrutinising context. Examples of qualitative methods and the diverse approaches from which they proceed are presented It is argued that reflexivity demands scrutiny and articulation of the verbal, non-verbal and contextual components that define a particular research project. The author details his own experiences in this regard, and outlines areas in need of further methodological development.     

I thought that I heard you laughing: Contextual facial expressions modulate the perception of authentic laughter and crying

It is well established that categorising the emotional content of facial expressions may differ depending on contextual information. Whether this malleability is observed in the auditory domain and in genuine emotion expressions is poorly explored. We examined the perception of authentic laughter and crying in the context of happy, neutral and sad facial expressions. Participants rated the vocalisations on separate unipolar scales of happiness and sadness and on arousal. Although they were instructed to focus exclusively on the vocalisations, consistent context effects were found: For both laughter and crying, emotion judgements were shifted towards the information expressed by the face. These modulations were independent of response latencies and were larger for more emotionally ambiguous vocalisations. No effects of context were found for arousal ratings. These findings suggest that the automatic encoding of contextual information during emotion perception generalises across modalities, to purely non-verbal vocalisations, and is not confined to acted expressions.     

Book reviews

Weiskrantz, L. (1986). Blindsight: A case study and implications. Oxford University Press. Pp. 187. ISBN 0-19-852129-4. £19.50.

Humphreys, G. W. & Riddoch, M. J. (1987). to see but not to see: A case study of visual agnosia. Hove and London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Ltd. Pp. 124. ISBN 0-83677-064-9. £12.95.

Downing, J. A. (1988). Advances in psychology: Cognitive psychology and reading in the USSR. Amsterdam: North Holland; Elsevier Science Publishers. Pp. 471. ISBN 0-444-70374-8. $108.00.

John Beech & Ann Colley (Eds.) (1987). Cognitive approaches to reading. Chichester: John Wiley. Pp. xii + 315.

James Wertsch (Ed.) (1985). Culture, communication and cognition: Vygotskian perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 379. ISBN 0-521-25214-8. £27.50 (Hardback).

Fodor, J. A. (1987). Psychosemantics: The problem of meaning in the philosophy of mind. Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press. Pp. xiii, 1-171. ISBN 0-262-06106-6.

Richardson, K. (1988). Understanding Psychology. Milton Keynes: The Open University Press. Pp. 114. ISBN 0-335-09842-8. Paperback £7.95.

Stanovich, Keith E. (Ed.) (1988). Children's reading and the development of phonological awareness. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. Pp. 177. ISBN 0-8143-1909-2. $20.00.

Allport, A., MacKay, D.G., Prinz, W., & Scheerer, E. (Eds.), (1987). Language perception and production: Relationships between listening, speaking, reading, and writing. London: Academic Press. Pp. xiii + 497. ISBN 0-12-052750-2. £32.00

Light, L. L. & Burke, D. M. (eds.) (1988). Language, Memory and Aging. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 280. ISBN-0-521-32942-6. £27.50

Friedman, S.L., Scholnick, E.F., and Cocking, R. R. (1987). Bleuprints for thinking: The role of planing in cognitive development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. xv + 559. ISBN 0-521-25605-4. £40.00.     

Physical Disability and Suicidal Ideation: A Community‐Based Study of Risk/Protective Factors for Suicidal Thoughts

Although the significance of poor physical health for suicide risk is well established, the potential relevance of physical disability, as distinct from diseases and traumas that give rise to disability, has received little attention. Prior evidence suggests the possible utility of the stress process theoretical model for understanding variations in risk for suicide ideation and the contribution of physical disability to such risk. In this article, we examine the independent and joint explanatory significance of physical disability and components of the stress process model for risk of suicide ideation. Data from an ethnically diverse and representative sample of disabled and nondisabled adults (n = 1,768) reveal that physical disability is associated with a greater risk of lifetime suicidal ideation.