The Interactionist Self and Grounded Research: Reflexivity in a Study of Emergency Department Clinicians

Peter Nugus

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.4.1.10

Authors

Peter Nugus University of New South Wales. Australia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.4.1.10

Keywords:

Symbolic interactionism, Reflexivity, Self, Emergency Department, Grounded theory

Abstract

This paper shows how the theory of symbolic interactionism shaped a grounded investigation of the organizational labor of Australian Emergency Department (ED) clinicians. Further, it shows how symbolic interactionism supports reflexive criteria for validating grounded research. Using ethnographic methods across two metropolitan EDs, interactionism’s emphasis on roles applied equally to the relationship between researcher and participants as to the relationships among participants. Specifically, the researcher generated data by positioning interactionism as the mediator of the emergent relationship between researcher and participants. The results of this positioning were: a traceable path from understanding to interpretation and the search for consequentiality rather than truth. Interactionism facilitated the co-production by the researcher and participants of limits on the generalizability of the data. The paper is an argument for symbolic interactionism as a means not merely to generate sociological findings, but to conceptualize the impact of the researcher on the grounded research process.

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Author Biography

Peter Nugus, University of New South Wales. Australia

Peter Nugus (PhD) is a medical sociologist in the Centre for Clinical Governance Research, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Australia. He researches on the sociology of health organizations, professional identity and integrated care. Peter is a Research Fellow on the Interprofessional Learning Project and is based in the ACT Department of Health, the Centre's industry partner, in Canberra.

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