Data and Data Collection - The Nature, Origins, and Consequences of Finnish Shame-Proneness : A

2. Methodology

2.2. Procedure

2.2.2. Data and Data Collection

My personal interest in research on shame started during the eleven years in which I lived and worked as a missionary in Ethiopia in the 1980s and 1990s. During the first years I was there I felt shame many times, yet from the perspective of Ethiopian culture I had no reason to feel this way. My own cultural background made me feel ashamed although I did not

635 Cutcliffe 2000, 1483.

636 Becker 1993, 254-259.

637 Benoliel 1996, 412-413.

638 Glaser 1978, 106.

639 Reed & Runquist 2007, 119.

640 Cutcliffe 2005, 426.

violate the rules or standards of Ethiopians. The times when I was supposed to feel shame I did not because I was not able to identify the situation as shame inducing. Learning the cultural rules in Ethiopia and returning back to my home country after those eleven years I had to reprogram myself to identify culture-specific behaviors and shame inducing situations in Finland. Living in another culture opened my eyes to see first of all how universal shame is and secondly how much culture influences the development and manifestation of shame.

Another motivator for the shame research was the effects of shame in my own personal life. I recognized them during my years in Ethiopia when I had the symptoms of anxiety and burn-out. I believe that without the years in Ethiopia and without my personal experiences of shame I would not have been as sensitive to the complexity of shame experiences and their developments.⁶⁴¹

The present study of Finnish shame started in 2000 as a joint research project of the University of Helsinki and the University of Joensuu. The project was initiated by the researcher of the present study because of the researcher’s personal experiences and the fact that the phenomenon of shame had not been studied in Finland.⁶⁴² Participants for the study were recruited through advertisements in local and country-wide newspapers and magazines (see Appendix A). The advertisements were published in magazines that were meant for different kinds of audiences. They included publications such as Christian magazines, parish newsletters, organizational magazines and professional journals. Although the aim of the advertisements was to get essays about personal shame experiences, the title of the advertisements included the invitation to write about both guilt and shame experiences. The topic of guilt was included because it was supposed that not all the readers would be able to differentiate guilt and shame experiences. The advertisements included an invitation to write freely about personal shame experiences or to answer the questions that were included in the request. Participants were given a chance to write their essays either with their name and contact information or anonymously. Among those who wrote an essay with their contact information one lucky person had the chance of winning a prize of 85 Euros.

Altogether 325 people responded to the request in the advertisements by sending an essay either through the mail or e-mail. Out of the 325 participants 269 were female (82%), 51 were male (16%) and 5 persons (2%) did not reveal their gender. The average age was 52.9 years; the youngest participant was 19 years old the oldest was 90 years old. Fifty-one (16%) participants did not report their age. A majority of the participants, 249 (77%), disclosed their names and other personal information. Almost all of the participants who wrote about their most devastating shame experiences disclosed their personal information. Seventy-six (23%) participants wrote anonymous responses and many of them wrote about embarrassment and humiliation experiences. The author of the present study analyzed for his master’s thesis the essays of 132 participants, 116 women (88%) and 16 men (12%).⁶⁴³ The number of participants who wrote anonymously yet indicated their gender were 33 (25%) which was about the same as in the essay data. The criterion for the selection of analysis data was that they described personal shame experiences that were not just transient experiences of

641 Strauss & Corbin (1998, 38) note personal experience as one of the sources of research problems.

642 According to Strauss & Corbin (1998, 36-39), the source of the research problem could rise from such sources as suggested or assigned research problems, the technical and nontechnical literature, personal and professional experience or research itself during the initial interviews or observations.

643 Malinen 2002.

humiliation or embarrassment but devastating and life restricting events. The participants who responded to this criterion in their essays clearly indicated that their experiences were shame-based and that they were shame-prone people. In their essays they also indicated that the shame experiences involved feelings of inadequacy, inferiority and worthlessness or a fear of public exposure of self. Many participants who took part in the first phase of this research expressed in their essays their concerns about the impact of merciless spirituality in their childhood in that they thought this caused them strong feelings of shame. They described how their parents and significant others made them feel worthless by encouraging them to feel that not even God could accept them as they were. This motivated the author to study more about the participants’ childhood and adolescent shame experiences to determine the possible underlying factors for shame. The essays also motivated the researcher to draw a wider picture of the developmental process of Finnish shame-proneness.

Data Collection

The first phase of the present study of the developmental process of Finnish shame involved in-depth interviews with 19 people, who were selected from the group of 325 people who responded to the advertisement by writing essays. All 132 essays that were analyzed for the master’s thesis were included and an additional three men were selected for the present study although their essays were brief or did not otherwise fulfill the requirements for the data of the master’s thesis. They were three men who indicated their shame experiences but did not write very much about them. Participants⁶⁴⁴ who were contacted and invited to participate in the interview met the following criteria: (a) minimum age of 18 years old, (b) significant shame experience that occurred in childhood, adolescence or adulthood, (c) ability to analyze and articulate shame and life experiences in essays (d) willingness to participate in an interview (expressed in the essay). The central criterion for selecting the participants was their experiential knowledge of the phenomenon of shame.⁶⁴⁵ According to the strategies of grounded theory, there was no predetermined sample size.⁶⁴⁶ The participants were purposefully recruited according to the direction that the first interviews indicated. This sampling procedure made it possible to select participants who could give information that was needed in the current phase of analysis. Age diversity rather than homogeneity was a concern in selection of the participants.⁶⁴⁷ The intention was to find participants whose childhood and adolescent experiences differed and whose shame experiences as adults looked not similar but rather quite different.

644 From this point forward people who participated in the current study are called the participants or interviewees.

645 Cutcliffe 2000, 1477.

646 Glaser & Strauss 1967, 45, 47.

647 According to Devers & Robinson (2002, 245), “the researcher purposefully invites participants who will best be able to provide meaningful data … diversity is sought rather than homogeneity.” McMillan (2000, 271) explains the type and amount of the participants as following: “The sample of individuals for a grounded study is selected on their ability to contribute to the development of the theory. Often, a homogeneous sample is selected first, one in which each individual has had a similar experience. Once the theory is developed, a heterogeneous sample, individuals who have had different experiences, may be selected to confirm or disconfirm tenets of the theory. Typically, 20 to 30 interviews are needed with a homogeneous sample to reach a point where no new important information related to the theory is obtained (this is referred to as saturation).”

The selected participants were contacted by phone, e-mail or letter depending on the contact information they provided. They were told about the study and asked to participate. If they agreed, they were asked if they would be available to be individually interviewed one or more times. Thirteen of the nineteen interviewed participants were women and six were men.

Five participants were between thirty-five and thirty-eight years, five were between forty-one and forty-nine and seven were between fifty-two and fifty-nine. One participant was under 30 years and one was over 60 years old. All of the interviewed participants were white and Finnish.

Researchers typically employ a combination of data collection methods (triangulation) to devise a grounded theory.⁶⁴⁸ The present study involved five sets of data. The first data set consisted of essays written by 116 women and 19 men (n=135). The second data set consisted of audio taped in-depth interviews with 19 participants (n=19). A list of the participants is in Appendix B. Seven of the participants were interviewed more than once.

Multiple sequential interviews are recommended by grounded theory experts to form “a stronger basis for creating a nuanced understanding of social process.” They also permit independent checks over time and give an opportunity “to follow up on earlier leads, to strengthen the emerging processual analysis, and to move closer to the process itself.”⁶⁴⁹ The third set of data was the information in the personal notebooks that were given to the interviewees during the first interview and collected during the analysis stages from those who had used them. The fourth set of data consisted of medical reports that two of the interviewees provided for the researcher. The medical reports included the information concerning their visits to medical clinics and hospitals in their childhood. The fifth data set consisted of the results of the internalized shame survey that only the interviewed participants filled out. Their shame score was determined using the Internalized Shame Scale (ISS;

Finnish version by B. Malinen, unpublished). The participants filled out the ISS in the beginning of the first interview. The participants were asked to fill out the ISS because the essays indicated that some of the participants seemed to have low self-esteem and some high self-esteem. The descriptions of their shame experiences also greatly varied: some of them were described as feelings of inferiority and worthlessness, some participants described a fear of public self-exposure and the shame of imperfection. The ISS was meant to measure the degree of their internalization of shame and to evaluate the basic level of self-esteem. The following is the list of sources of data that is used in the present study:

1. Handwritten and typed essays were collected by the researcher and his assistant. These essays were the basic data for the present study.

2. Audio-taped interviews were selectively transcribed by the researcher depending on the importance of what was said by participants.

3. Personal diaries (diaries given to the participants at the first interview).

4. Medical reports.

5. Internalized Shame Scale scores.

648 Strauss & Corbin 1998, 11-12, 44, 52. According to Happ & Kagan (2001, 189), possible data sources for grounded theory research are “unstructured informal interviews, open-ended formal interviews, participant and non-participant observation, clinical record analysis, computerized physiologic data/trending, relevant policies, procedures, committee reports, diaries, patients' written communication.”

649 Charmaz 2003b, 318, 319.

84 Interviews

In-depth interviews were conducted by the author at different locations to accommodate the schedules of the author and interviewees (i.e., the interviewee’s or interviewer’s home, at the University of Helsinki, in a hotel room or in the facilities of a local parish). All interviewees agreed that the interviews could be tape-recorded. The topics of the interview were obtained from the participants’ concepts in their essays and from the shame literature that was reviewed during the author’s master’s thesis.⁶⁵⁰ The list of single words or short expressions (i.e., first childhood memory, physical discipline, parents’ personality, spirituality at childhood, and personal mental health) that were used in the interviews is in Appendix C.

The list was used as a reminder of the important topics of the interviews.⁶⁵¹ The interviews consisted of open-ended questions which were designed to elicit unspecified and expanded responses describing personal experiences. The interviewer avoided using leading and closed questions to obtain the interviewees’ own perspective.

When a specific topic was discussed or dealt with in depth it was crossed out or a note was made to remind the interviewer to revisit the topic later. The interviewees were encouraged to talk freely about whatever they seemed to understand as important to the topic. They were infrequently interrupted or guided to talk about a particular topic. Following the suggestions of Charmaz, the interviewer only asked a few clarifying questions or comments to encourage interviewees to freely express their opinions and engage in storytelling.⁶⁵² Many topics overlapped which made it possible to go back to specific threads of conversations that were discussed earlier to gain a deeper understanding of their opinions and experiences. Note taking during interviews helped remind the interviewer to return to specific topics. The interviewees were told the purpose of the researcher’s notes and were encouraged to keep talking and not wait for the interviewer to finish his notes.⁶⁵³

Interviews lasted on the first round approximately one hour and on the second round 40 minutes each. After each interview, the list of topics was refined and new areas of discussion were added according to the topics which were raised by the interviewee. Out of the nineteen participants, seven were interviewed more than once. During the interviews the “flip-flop technique” was used to obtain different perspectives on the participants’ experiences.⁶⁵⁴ Instead of asking the interviewees about their experiences, they were asked to describe their

“ideal” childhood: What could have been different? How could their parents have behaved?

What would their childhood be like if it had been full of love and care?

During the second round of the interviews the participants were asked to clarify some of their earlier thoughts. At the same time specific questions were asked to validate the emerging

650 According to Strauss & Corbin (1990, 205), initial interview questions might be based on “concepts derived from literature or experience or, better still, from preliminary fieldwork.”

651 This is the procedure that Charmaz (2003b, 315) uses “to keep the interaction informal and conversational.”

652 Charmaz 2003b, 315.

653 According to Charmaz (2003b, 316), “taking notes on key points during the interview helps as long as it does not distract either interviewer or participant.” She sees that the notes “remind the interviewer to return to earlier points and suggest how he or she might frame follow-up questions.”

654 Strauss & Corbin 1990, 94-95.

analysis.⁶⁵⁵ At the end of the second interview the participants were asked to reflect on the earlier findings and tell how well they described their life experiences. The reflections were used as a guide for further analysis. Strauss and Corbin emphasized the need “ to occasionally check out assumptions, and later hypotheses, with participants what you think you are finding in the data and ask them whether your interpretation matches their experiences with that phenomenon—and if not, then why.”⁶⁵⁶

Writing reflective memos during the research process is highly recommended.⁶⁵⁷ Keeping reflective memos happened by writing down in a personal journal such things as the researcher’s first reactions to the interviews, specific notes on events that could have influenced the interviewee’s emotional state during the interview,⁶⁵⁸ and suggestions for future interviews. A more objective memo includes comments and ideas on the discussed topics that were apparent shortly after the interview. The following two examples of reflective memos are excerpts from the researcher’s personal journal:

Reflective memo of Selma’s first interview: “Selma sounded like an ideal interviewee. She has not gone through therapy but she had analyzed her life by herself and read lots of psychological literature. She was able to describe her childhood experiences very well. During the interview, she looked relaxed and told me after the interview that she found it easy to talk to me. She would have been willing to tell even more about her life if there had been more time.”

Reflective memo of Helen’s first interview: “As the interviewee wished the interview happened at the interviewer’s home. She sat by the window so that she could look out of the window during the interview. She talked a lot and she was very open. She cried once for awhile but she was still eager to tell about her experiences.”

More objective memo of Hanna’s first interview: “Hanna was a big surprise from the beginning of the interview. She told me that she could not remember anything from her childhood before she was of school age. She wondered what could have happened during the first years of her life because she has totally forgotten those years. Did something very traumatic happened in her early childhood?

She described a very strong and life binding shame experience and she was one of the interviewees who got the lowest self-esteem score and the highest shame score from the ISS. Her interview was good because she provided data that was divergent from the data that other interviewees provided.”

During the interviews, as Charmaz described in her study, “once in a while, the interviews elicited tears and sadness” and “many people remarked that the interview spurred them to reflect upon their lives or was therapeutic.”⁶⁵⁹ It was also true that the interviews spurred the participants to reflect upon their lives and while the interviews became significant events for many participants they found the experience of being interviewed therapeutic and cathartic.⁶⁶⁰ The interviewer made sure that by the end of the interviews the interviewees had calmed down and were not anxious or otherwise emotionally confused. The interviewees had the interviewer’s phone number and other contact information and they were told not to hesitate to call if they felt they needed to for any reason. The participants were eager to hear the

655 Charmaz (2003b, 312) notes that “grounded theory interviewing differs from in-depth interviewing as the research proceeds in that grounded theorists narrow the range of interview topics to gather specific data for their theoretical framework.” See also Charmaz 1991, 275.

656 Strauss & Corbin 1990, 45.

657 Glaser & Strauss 1967, 108; Strauss & Corbin 1990, 110, 217-221.

658 See the discussion about the effects of current mood for the recalled memories in the next chapter of Critical Consideration of the Data.

659 Charmaz 1991, 275.

660 Charmaz 1991, 275; Charmaz 2003b, 326.

results of the study because they believed that the analysis of the data could give them a deeper understanding of their life experiences and some answers to their questions as to why some things happened to them. Excerpts from the essays and the interviews are used in this report as examples of the participants’ experiences.⁶⁶¹

Critical Consideration of the Data

There is a concern in the present study involving the reliance on retrospective reports which are subject to such concerns as inaccuracy, memory bias and a lack of external corroboration.

In the present study, the participants’ reports were collected retrospectively, which may have increased the subjective nature of the reports either by leading to a minimization or enhancement of the strength of the emotional experiences they described. There are good reasons to be cautious about retrospective reports because recollection is clearly a

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