QUALITATIVE RESEARCH COMES OF AGE IN GERONTOLOGY
Vol. 32, No. 5,1992
581
tween the natural sciences and the humanities, the debate is old and ongoing (Lepenies, 1992). But most important, the debate cannot and should not subside; it is integral to our scientific aims on the one side and our subject matter on the other. The history of science shows many models for being scientific. Fine-grained ethnomethodological studies of scientific procedure from various disciplines suggest that "science" cannot, under the best conditions, be separated from the discretions, interpretive activity, and traditions of scientific practice (Knorr-Cetina & Mulkay, 1983; Latour & Woolgar, 1979; Lynch, 1982). Feminist criticism has shown that the conventions, not the spirit, of science form procedural strictures that work against understanding experience from unpopular points of view, and stressed that scientific practice always operates from a perspective (Harding, 1987; Smith, 1990). What the parochial view in the social, behavioral, and service sciences has touted as "science" is historical and practical myth, and has unnecessarily limited the inventive potential of our disciplines. Second, the promise. As science, qualitative research promises to represent the native complexities of the world we call the empirical. I refer here to subject matter, not methodology, although the two are related. Anyone who has spoken at length with, or observed the everyday lives of, those we variously call subjects, informants, or respondents knows that the act of speaking-with itself shapes or otherwise gives texture to what is reported. Ordinary caveats such as "it depends," "I've never thought about that before," "talking about it makes me . . .," and "compared with" indicate a sense of experience, and data, in the making. Meaning is not necessarily made on the spot but develops in relation to the retrospective and prospective attention given to it. We learn from the apparent contradictions we hear when, say, retirees report one thing at one time and later say the opposite. Or from the story of experience told by an adult daughter in a field setting that is conveyed in a different version by her frail mother. The enduring contingencies of living have a way of making difficult the sorting of conduct into either/or, yes/no, more or less. As scientists, we diversely theorize, deliberate over, debate, and periodically reformulate our own ideas about the lives we study; why should we suppose that those studied do not do likewise? Qualitative research does not try to see its way around such complexities but attempts to document their organization. Qualitative research assiduously attends to point of view in representing the empirical. Whatever the topic of research — be it caregiving, leisure, or another typical gerontological concern — those involved experience what they do from a particular point of view. There is no neutral standpoint. For example, although caregiving has been theorized and studied ad nauseam, qualitative research asks whether what we have theorized reflects, perhaps inadvertently, the viewpoint of, say, men as opposed to women, Euro-Americans as
Downloaded from http://gerontologist.oxfordjournals.org/ at University of Victoria on August 27, 2015
Qualitative research has had a longstanding, even pioneering presence in the social and behavioral sciences. It is a significant perspective in anthropology, psychology, sociology, education, nursing, communication, counseling, and organization studies, and it now has come of age in gerontology. Qualitative articles regularly appear in gerontology journals. For example, this issue carries an article by Alexander, Rubinstein, Goodman, and Luborsky (1992) on regrets of childless elderly women, and by Canadian colleagues Guberman, Maheu, and Maille (1992) on family caregiving. The many sessions of the annual meetings of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA), the achievement of formal interest group status within GSA, and the growth of related research and writing programs in personal meaning, narrative and discourse studies, cultural analysis, institutional ethnography, gender and caregiving, community studies, and age constructionism all attest to a vibrant and promising agenda. This popularity needs clarification and the promise needs specification, lest those working in other, equally important veins misconstrue the state of the art. First, the clarification. Qualitative research is not primarily a precursor to quantification. It is a separate and distinct tradition with its own standards of procedural rigor. The rigor is more analytic than technical, and thus may be deceptively captivating for the enthusiastic but untrained. Its aim is not to explore blindly, to muddle through, as it were, before ostensibly rigorous scientific practice takes over. Rather, it systematically and carefully attends to the organization of meaning in its various guises and venues, in relation to meaning's manifold contingencies. Meaning is ineluctably subjective, mediated but not necessarily determined by historical, cultural, organizational, and narrative conditions. Experience and voice are represented from the standpoint of those studied, for example, the diverse perspectives of professional caregivers, care receivers, family members, and significant others in home and institutional care (Gubrium, 1991). This requires — indeed, demands — keeping subjects and their worlds on center stage, never (not even late in the research process) in the background. Still, as many important research projects have shown, qualitative methods can be effectively combined with quantification. Qualitative methods help engender hypotheses for subsequent testing. "Triangulation" can make findings more compelling. Evaluation research that applies qualitative ("real-life") procedures portends more effective implementation. Qualitative research is science. It strives to generate theoretically informed findings and is empirically based. It is a pity that the idea of theory in some quarters is arbitrarily limited to hypothesis testing and that the original meaning of the word "empirical" (i.e., experiential) is taken to be synonymous with particular methodologies or kinds of data. Of course, the claim to science has been and continues to be debated both within and outside the ranks of qualitative researchers. Located as the social and behavioral sciences are be-
Lett
place, and what is particular and general about the process. Jaber F. Gubrium, PhD
Professor of Sociology University of Florida Gainesville, FL References
Alexander, B. B., Rubinstein, R. L, Goodman, M., & Luborsky, M. (1992). A path not taken: A cultural analysis of regrets and childlessness in the lives of older women. The Gerontologist, 32, xxx-xxx. Cuberman, N., Maheu, P., & Maille\ C. (1992). Women as family caregivers: Why do they care? The Gerontologist, 32, xxx-xxx. Gubrium, J. F. (1991). The mosaic of care: Frail elderly and their families in the real world. New York: Springer. Gubrium, J. F. (1992). Voice and context in a new gerontology. InT. R. Cole, W. A. Achenbaum, P. L. Jakobi, & R. Kastenbaum (Eds.), Voices and visions in aging: Toward a critical gerontology. New York: Springer. Harding, S. (Ed.). (1987). Feminism and methodology. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Knorr-Cetina, K. D., & Mulkay, M. (Eds.). (1983). Science observed. Beverly Hills: Sage. Latour, B., & Woolgar, S. (1979). Laboratory life: The social construction of scientific facts. London: Sage. Lepenies, W. (1992). Between literature and science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lynch, M. (1982). Art and artefacts in laboratory science. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Smith, D. E. (1990). Texts, facts, and femininity. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
to the EditoL Time to Abandon "Caregiving"? A Reply to Parmelee and Katz
Positive Ageism?
In her recent editorial, "Ageism: Rhetoric and Reality," Fay Lomax Cook (1992) says, "If we label attitudes as ageist if they are overly negative ('negative ageism') or overly positive ('positive ageism'), the term could come to signify very little (Palmore, 1990)." If not positive ageism, what would she call the stereotypes that most elders are kind, wise, dependable, affluent, powerful, and happy? If not positive ageism, what would she call the special tax breaks for elders, special housing programs for elders only, Supplemental Security Income (a guaranteed annual income for 65 + and disabled), and Medicare (for those 65 + only)? Perhaps she would prefer the term "reverse ageism" (as in "reverse racism")? Regardless of the term, a balanced view of ageism must recognize both its negative and positive forms. Erdman B. Palmore; PhD
Geriatric Education Center Duke University Medical Center Durham, NC References
Cook, F. L. (1992). Ageism: Rhetoric and reality. The Gerontologist, 32, 292293. Palmore, E. (1990). Ageism: Negative and positive. New York: Springer.
582
Parmelee and Katz's (1992) thoughtful editorial on our research (Hinrichsen, Hernandez, & Pollack, 1992) prompts us to ask a fundamental question: "Has the term 'caregiving' outlived its usefulness?" According to Parmelee and Katz, our research "departs from the more general caregiving literature" by failing to carefully define and delineate those activities uniquely tied to providing care to a depressed older person. Yet, our definitions of caregiver and conceptualization of the caregiving enterprise were consistent with the vast majority of studies of caregiving in dementia and physical illness and we explicitly note the limitations of this broad approach. Recent discussions of the need for a detailed understanding of who caregivers are and the specific activities tied to their roles (see Stone, 1991) persuasively argue for more definitional clarity. Parmelee and Katz question whether the caregiver model used in studies of dementia and physical illness is applicable to depression. We disagree with Parmelee and Katz that "tasks facing 'caregivers' to depressed elderly people will differ radically" from those associated with care for physically and cognitively impaired elderly. Differ? Yes. Radically? No. As clinicians we are impressed that major depression can render some perThe Gerontologist
Downloaded from http://gerontologist.oxfordjournals.org/ at University of Victoria on August 27, 2015
opposed to African-Americans, husbands as opposed to wives, spouses as opposed to adult children, the middle class as opposed to the poor, professionals as opposed to laypersons, the well as opposed to the sick. Do the respondents who hint that they do not think about caregiving in the way they were asked about it not tell us as much? Does the respondent who prefaces remarks with phrases such as "speaking as an aide" or "speaking objectively" not urge us to continually examine voice and its point of departure as a feature of the very process of speaking with those studied (Cubrium, 1992)? The way we choose to construct research designs and formulate questions itself has empirical consequences — something of which qualitative research is continually aware. (Yes, even designs may be perspectival and preclude researchers from registering certain experiences as data.) Above all, qualitative research is a way of knowing, a way of documenting the aging experience and making its distinct contribution to the field. There are many equally acceptable and scientific ways of doing gerontology, just as our humanistic colleagues reveal the aging experience in their ways. Broadly, qualitative research does what all of us aim to do: understand what it means to grow or be older, how that varies in time and
Vol. 32, No. 5,1992
581
tween the natural sciences and the humanities, the debate is old and ongoing (Lepenies, 1992). But most important, the debate cannot and should not subside; it is integral to our scientific aims on the one side and our subject matter on the other. The history of science shows many models for being scientific. Fine-grained ethnomethodological studies of scientific procedure from various disciplines suggest that "science" cannot, under the best conditions, be separated from the discretions, interpretive activity, and traditions of scientific practice (Knorr-Cetina & Mulkay, 1983; Latour & Woolgar, 1979; Lynch, 1982). Feminist criticism has shown that the conventions, not the spirit, of science form procedural strictures that work against understanding experience from unpopular points of view, and stressed that scientific practice always operates from a perspective (Harding, 1987; Smith, 1990). What the parochial view in the social, behavioral, and service sciences has touted as "science" is historical and practical myth, and has unnecessarily limited the inventive potential of our disciplines. Second, the promise. As science, qualitative research promises to represent the native complexities of the world we call the empirical. I refer here to subject matter, not methodology, although the two are related. Anyone who has spoken at length with, or observed the everyday lives of, those we variously call subjects, informants, or respondents knows that the act of speaking-with itself shapes or otherwise gives texture to what is reported. Ordinary caveats such as "it depends," "I've never thought about that before," "talking about it makes me . . .," and "compared with" indicate a sense of experience, and data, in the making. Meaning is not necessarily made on the spot but develops in relation to the retrospective and prospective attention given to it. We learn from the apparent contradictions we hear when, say, retirees report one thing at one time and later say the opposite. Or from the story of experience told by an adult daughter in a field setting that is conveyed in a different version by her frail mother. The enduring contingencies of living have a way of making difficult the sorting of conduct into either/or, yes/no, more or less. As scientists, we diversely theorize, deliberate over, debate, and periodically reformulate our own ideas about the lives we study; why should we suppose that those studied do not do likewise? Qualitative research does not try to see its way around such complexities but attempts to document their organization. Qualitative research assiduously attends to point of view in representing the empirical. Whatever the topic of research — be it caregiving, leisure, or another typical gerontological concern — those involved experience what they do from a particular point of view. There is no neutral standpoint. For example, although caregiving has been theorized and studied ad nauseam, qualitative research asks whether what we have theorized reflects, perhaps inadvertently, the viewpoint of, say, men as opposed to women, Euro-Americans as
Downloaded from http://gerontologist.oxfordjournals.org/ at University of Victoria on August 27, 2015
Qualitative research has had a longstanding, even pioneering presence in the social and behavioral sciences. It is a significant perspective in anthropology, psychology, sociology, education, nursing, communication, counseling, and organization studies, and it now has come of age in gerontology. Qualitative articles regularly appear in gerontology journals. For example, this issue carries an article by Alexander, Rubinstein, Goodman, and Luborsky (1992) on regrets of childless elderly women, and by Canadian colleagues Guberman, Maheu, and Maille (1992) on family caregiving. The many sessions of the annual meetings of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA), the achievement of formal interest group status within GSA, and the growth of related research and writing programs in personal meaning, narrative and discourse studies, cultural analysis, institutional ethnography, gender and caregiving, community studies, and age constructionism all attest to a vibrant and promising agenda. This popularity needs clarification and the promise needs specification, lest those working in other, equally important veins misconstrue the state of the art. First, the clarification. Qualitative research is not primarily a precursor to quantification. It is a separate and distinct tradition with its own standards of procedural rigor. The rigor is more analytic than technical, and thus may be deceptively captivating for the enthusiastic but untrained. Its aim is not to explore blindly, to muddle through, as it were, before ostensibly rigorous scientific practice takes over. Rather, it systematically and carefully attends to the organization of meaning in its various guises and venues, in relation to meaning's manifold contingencies. Meaning is ineluctably subjective, mediated but not necessarily determined by historical, cultural, organizational, and narrative conditions. Experience and voice are represented from the standpoint of those studied, for example, the diverse perspectives of professional caregivers, care receivers, family members, and significant others in home and institutional care (Gubrium, 1991). This requires — indeed, demands — keeping subjects and their worlds on center stage, never (not even late in the research process) in the background. Still, as many important research projects have shown, qualitative methods can be effectively combined with quantification. Qualitative methods help engender hypotheses for subsequent testing. "Triangulation" can make findings more compelling. Evaluation research that applies qualitative ("real-life") procedures portends more effective implementation. Qualitative research is science. It strives to generate theoretically informed findings and is empirically based. It is a pity that the idea of theory in some quarters is arbitrarily limited to hypothesis testing and that the original meaning of the word "empirical" (i.e., experiential) is taken to be synonymous with particular methodologies or kinds of data. Of course, the claim to science has been and continues to be debated both within and outside the ranks of qualitative researchers. Located as the social and behavioral sciences are be-
Lett
place, and what is particular and general about the process. Jaber F. Gubrium, PhD
Professor of Sociology University of Florida Gainesville, FL References
Alexander, B. B., Rubinstein, R. L, Goodman, M., & Luborsky, M. (1992). A path not taken: A cultural analysis of regrets and childlessness in the lives of older women. The Gerontologist, 32, xxx-xxx. Cuberman, N., Maheu, P., & Maille\ C. (1992). Women as family caregivers: Why do they care? The Gerontologist, 32, xxx-xxx. Gubrium, J. F. (1991). The mosaic of care: Frail elderly and their families in the real world. New York: Springer. Gubrium, J. F. (1992). Voice and context in a new gerontology. InT. R. Cole, W. A. Achenbaum, P. L. Jakobi, & R. Kastenbaum (Eds.), Voices and visions in aging: Toward a critical gerontology. New York: Springer. Harding, S. (Ed.). (1987). Feminism and methodology. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Knorr-Cetina, K. D., & Mulkay, M. (Eds.). (1983). Science observed. Beverly Hills: Sage. Latour, B., & Woolgar, S. (1979). Laboratory life: The social construction of scientific facts. London: Sage. Lepenies, W. (1992). Between literature and science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lynch, M. (1982). Art and artefacts in laboratory science. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Smith, D. E. (1990). Texts, facts, and femininity. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
to the EditoL Time to Abandon "Caregiving"? A Reply to Parmelee and Katz
Positive Ageism?
In her recent editorial, "Ageism: Rhetoric and Reality," Fay Lomax Cook (1992) says, "If we label attitudes as ageist if they are overly negative ('negative ageism') or overly positive ('positive ageism'), the term could come to signify very little (Palmore, 1990)." If not positive ageism, what would she call the stereotypes that most elders are kind, wise, dependable, affluent, powerful, and happy? If not positive ageism, what would she call the special tax breaks for elders, special housing programs for elders only, Supplemental Security Income (a guaranteed annual income for 65 + and disabled), and Medicare (for those 65 + only)? Perhaps she would prefer the term "reverse ageism" (as in "reverse racism")? Regardless of the term, a balanced view of ageism must recognize both its negative and positive forms. Erdman B. Palmore; PhD
Geriatric Education Center Duke University Medical Center Durham, NC References
Cook, F. L. (1992). Ageism: Rhetoric and reality. The Gerontologist, 32, 292293. Palmore, E. (1990). Ageism: Negative and positive. New York: Springer.
582
Parmelee and Katz's (1992) thoughtful editorial on our research (Hinrichsen, Hernandez, & Pollack, 1992) prompts us to ask a fundamental question: "Has the term 'caregiving' outlived its usefulness?" According to Parmelee and Katz, our research "departs from the more general caregiving literature" by failing to carefully define and delineate those activities uniquely tied to providing care to a depressed older person. Yet, our definitions of caregiver and conceptualization of the caregiving enterprise were consistent with the vast majority of studies of caregiving in dementia and physical illness and we explicitly note the limitations of this broad approach. Recent discussions of the need for a detailed understanding of who caregivers are and the specific activities tied to their roles (see Stone, 1991) persuasively argue for more definitional clarity. Parmelee and Katz question whether the caregiver model used in studies of dementia and physical illness is applicable to depression. We disagree with Parmelee and Katz that "tasks facing 'caregivers' to depressed elderly people will differ radically" from those associated with care for physically and cognitively impaired elderly. Differ? Yes. Radically? No. As clinicians we are impressed that major depression can render some perThe Gerontologist
Downloaded from http://gerontologist.oxfordjournals.org/ at University of Victoria on August 27, 2015
opposed to African-Americans, husbands as opposed to wives, spouses as opposed to adult children, the middle class as opposed to the poor, professionals as opposed to laypersons, the well as opposed to the sick. Do the respondents who hint that they do not think about caregiving in the way they were asked about it not tell us as much? Does the respondent who prefaces remarks with phrases such as "speaking as an aide" or "speaking objectively" not urge us to continually examine voice and its point of departure as a feature of the very process of speaking with those studied (Cubrium, 1992)? The way we choose to construct research designs and formulate questions itself has empirical consequences — something of which qualitative research is continually aware. (Yes, even designs may be perspectival and preclude researchers from registering certain experiences as data.) Above all, qualitative research is a way of knowing, a way of documenting the aging experience and making its distinct contribution to the field. There are many equally acceptable and scientific ways of doing gerontology, just as our humanistic colleagues reveal the aging experience in their ways. Broadly, qualitative research does what all of us aim to do: understand what it means to grow or be older, how that varies in time and
