Objective: The notion of the Roshamon Effect, or multiple, varying perspectives on the same phenomenon resulting from individual differences and perceptions, is well recognized. Yet, means to incorporate perspectives, or even integrate drastically different types of data, such as experiential and observational, are not well articulated. The purpose of this presentation is to identify the issues inherent in using divergent experiential and observational data from a number of different perspectives and sources.
Design: The qualitative ethnography used as the example for this discussion explores teenagers experiences of living with diabetes, as well as their parents and their health care providers perceptions of that experience.
Population, Sample, Setting: Approximately 25 teenagers with Type I diabetes, their parents and health professionals from a large pediatric diabetes education clinic participated in this study.
Methods: Interviews, videos taken by teenage participants and recorded observations of the health care encounter were used to explore different world views about the nature of living with diabetes. These various views extraneous to the adolescent labels teenaged diabetics as “being in denial”.
Concepts or variables studied together: Thus, the focus of this study was to explore the nature of denial. The diverse and conflicting worldviews was an important analytic dimension of denial.
Findings: There are significant differences between retrospective reflection by adolescent participants, their parents, and their health care providers. The challenge for analysis is to develop a comprehensive model using divergent data sources (video, observational and interview) and conflicting perspectives.
Conclusions: The tension between diverse data sources and types has been a main pillar of qualitative inquiry. What is less well articulated are the strategies through which different positions emerging in the data can be utilized.
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