Managing Insider Research

Abstract

From 1993 until 1999, the author was engaged in a qualitative doctoral study that explored the issues that arise for social workers who make a transition from paid agency employment to private practice. The idea for the research study arose from her personal experience of this transition and of the ethical and professional issues this raises. The findings of the study have been previously reported (van Heugten, 2001, 2002, 2003; van Heugten and Daniels, 2001a, 2001b, 2002). This article focuses on tools the researcher employed to overcome some of the methodological dilemmas that emerged due to the insider nature of the research. The author proposes that intersubjective conceptualizations of countertransference that have emerged from the field of psychoanalysis, provide a useful additional aid to the management of potential insider bias. The other methodological issue explored in this article concerns the reliability of respondents’ retrospective self reports about decision making processes.

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