Fincham Ben, Scourfield Jonathan, Langer Susanne
School of Applied Social Science, University of Brighton, Brighton, United Kingdom.
Qual Health Res. 2008 Jun;18(6):853-62. doi: 10.1177/1049732307308945.
The article discusses the effects on the researcher of reading disturbing secondary data (defined here as evidence gathered by someone other than the researcher). The case study is a qualitative sociological autopsy of suicide, and the secondary data--written documents and photographs--are all from case files in a British coroner's office. Following ethnographic detail about the research setting and research process, there is discussion of the diverse secondary data sources in these files, particularly in relation to the impact on the researcher. Some general observations are made about emotion in the research process and potential strategies for responding to emotion. The authors locate their responses to reading about suicides within the broader context of the social processing of death and distress, and also consider whether emotional reactions to data have any analytical purchase.
本文讨论了阅读令人不安的二手数据（此处定义为研究者以外的人收集的证据）对研究者的影响。该案例研究是对自杀进行的定性社会学剖析，二手数据——书面文件和照片——均来自英国验尸官办公室的案件档案。在对研究背景和研究过程进行人种志细节描述之后，文章讨论了这些档案中多样的二手数据来源，特别是其对研究者的影响。文中对研究过程中的情感以及应对情感的潜在策略进行了一些一般性观察。作者将他们阅读自杀相关内容后的反应置于死亡和痛苦的社会处理这一更广泛背景中，并思考对数据的情感反应是否具有任何分析价值。
