three - Listening and enabling the sharing of beliefs and values in later life

Summary

Interviewing about beliefs and values

Little is written of the inherent practical difficulties in questioning and listening to older people speaking about sensitive issues. For some older people, such matters can include personal beliefs, which may never have been readily discussed before. We also have to bear in mind that thoughts about beliefs and values may never have been fully processed and thus remain difficult to articulate. The older person may fear being judged as foolish, uneducated, or misunderstood. In addition to having a good knowledge of the ageing process, we have found in our research that the researcher, as both listener and collector of data, requires further skills that are not easily identifiable. The qualitative researcher is sometimes seen as a negotiator who is able to collect data using a variety of methods (Strauss and Corbin, 1998; Marshall and Rossman, 2006). The literature discusses methods in some detail, but there is a lack of understanding of the skills necessary to understand the world from another's perspective. The idea that the researcher and the participant, at whatever age, will form a mutually beneficial relationship, certainly in longitudinal projects, is rarely considered.

There is still a tendency for researchers, especially in psychology, to favour quantitative approaches to the study of religion and spirituality. A wide range of questionnaire measures are in use (Hill and Hood, 1999). This no doubt reflects caution about using new research methods in an area which still lacks scientific respect. However, as Coyle (2008) among others has argued, qualitative methods are especially appropriate to researching areas of human experience, such as religion and spirituality, where there is no consensus about the ontological status of the reality being studied. Involvement with an interested interviewer also allows for the teasing out of the meaning of the religious/meaning words used, whereas the meaning of standardised terms employed in survey questionnaires may remain blurred and ambiguous. This advantage is heightened in longitudinal study, where participants over time gain confidence in expressing themselves about an area of life that is acknowledged as important but is often left poorly articulated.

The nature of qualitative longitudinal research is similar to the therapeutic process. Jones (1991: 211) points to the fact that she, together with other researchers, has noted the therapeutic and counselling role of some interviews.