AESTHETIC FORMS OF DATA REPRESENTATION IN QUALITATIVE FAMILY THERAPY RESEARCH

Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, Jan 2005 by Piercy, Fred P, Benson, Kristen

Of course, more positivist qualitative researchers can unapologetically use alternative methods to capture and represent the lived experience of their participants. In fact, we believe that traditional qualitative (and quantitative) researchers should consider alternative ways to present their findings that connect with various audiences on emotional as well as intellectual levels, and reflect the experiences of their research participants. Creative presentation methods are not owned by one particular group of researchers, nor should they be. The researchers' epistemologies will guide them in explaining their use in either positivist terms (i.e., as reflecting a certain reality) or interpretive terms (i.e., as inviting multiple realities).

There are also similarities between more traditional forms of research presentation and more interpretive, artistic forms. Paget (1990) reminds us that many traditional texts are also interpretive in that the author massages, summarizes, and inductively organizes text in a particular way. Paget (1990) contends that both her analytic text and her ethnoperformances are interpretive.

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH, DATA, AND FINDINGS

Qualitative research itself takes many forms, and the variations of qualitative inquiry are growing. At the same time, certain qualities are associated with qualitative research. According to Gilgun (in press):

"Qualitative" as a term connotes flexibility of design, researchers who value and build upon reflexivity and subjectivity, constructivist assumptions, rich phenomenological descriptions, and implicit appeals to readers' personal experiences for understanding and interpreting findings. In general, qualitative approaches are thought to be more concerned with what it means to be human-or ontological concerns-and less concerned with epistemological concerns of reliability and validity. (p. 3)

Another area of potential confusion is the distinction between data and findings. If a researcher presents data without analysis, the data excerpts necessarily will be partial, in that they will focus on one aspect of the phenomenon being studied. That is, different data excerpts will tell different stories. The qualitative researcher, in one way or another, usually sifts through, organizes, and presents data in some meaningful way. The sifting-through process (described in different ways by proponents of different qualitative traditions) results in findings that the researcher contextualizes and shapes for the audience. The researcher may, for example, emphasize the emotional tone of the findings (as we illustrate in this article) over the cognitive themes.

We decided to title our article "aesthetic methods," rather than "alternative methods," because of our emphasis on methods that connect the audience in a more feeling level to both data and findings. Miles and Huberman (1994) document a variety of "alternative" forms, such as charts, diagrams, and matrices, that the qualitative researcher may use to represent his or her findings. We will emphasize, instead, "aesthetic" methods of presentation that call for a more evocative, interpretive response from the reader or audience, another level of reflection and meaning making (sometimes hand-in-hand with raw data, and sometimes not). We are not saying that one type of presentation method is superior to another. Instead, we believe that researchers and consumers can appreciate research findings at different levels through the various ways in which findings are presented.