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It’s a Tuesday morning and I’m in my graduate
seminar on specialized topics in social psychology, anxiously thumbing my pen. I
think about how sometimes others in the class fidget when they’re eager to
share an idea, but in my case, my fiddling is due more to anticipation about
how my idea will be received than enthusiasm. Knowing that I’ll be kicking
myself in the head later on for failing to speak up, I decide to compromise (with
myself) by prefacing my contribution: “This
might sound like a me-search
question, but…”
Me-search
is a colloquial expression for when researchers focus on questions or issues
that they themselves have a personal connection to, often implying a non-objective
or unscientific relationship between the researcher and the subject matter (Sumerau,
2016; Ayoub & Rose, 2016). Since beginning my graduate studies, learning
how to develop research questions and design studies to answer them, me-search
is a concept I’ve become familiar with and conflicted by. Is my focus on
Black-American women’s experiences problematic, given that I am a
Black-American woman myself? Am I able to carry out “good research” if my lived
experiences considerably inform my research questions and ways of approaching
them?
Questions concerning subjectivity and
scientific research are by no means new, especially within the realm of
critical race and feminist studies. For instance, one reoccurring concept in
this literature is researcher reflexivity. Reflexivity implies that “the
experimenter is implicated in the dynamic making of accounts of the world and,
consequently, of the world itself” (Morawski, 2005, p.81). In other words, even
with scientific methods, researchers’ own biases and perspectives aren’t
completely eliminated when conducting psychological research. Importantly,
these subjectivities are present for both minority and majority-group
researchers…in fact, some argue that majority-group researchers are also partaking
in me-search by studying European-American college-age (or WEIRD; Henrich,
Heine, & Norenzayan, 2009) samples (Ray, 2016)!
Despite my own apprehensions about
sounding “me-search-y,” I ultimately agree with feminist academics who argue subjectivities,
especially those of people of color, are good
for academia. Take for example Patricia Hill-Collin’s (1986) discussion of
the value of self-definition for Black female scholars. Hill-Collins maintains
that this self-valuation in research renders Black women’s standpoints visible
and resists Black women’s dehumanization in research. Relatedly, having a
minority-group perspective as starting point for research is beneficial in more
faithfully representing certain experiences. A reliance on cultural schemas for
studying members of marginalized groups (rather than their self-definitions)
may lead to poor representations of these groups’ experiences in research
(Purdie-Vaughns & Eibach, 2008). Additionally, having a personal understanding
of a social phenomenon may imply better methodology. Reflexivity offers the
ability to reflect on if certain measures make sense for some social groups,
but not necessarily others (Cole, 2009).
Given the underrepresentation of
non-White psychologists (Lin et al., 2015), me-search conducted by minority
scholars is not self-interested, but rather incredibly important. By no means
do I mean to imply that minority researchers must study experiences of marginalized groups, but rather there is
no shame in it for those who do. Conducting research on issues that impact us
might be me-search, but it’s me-search that is vital for a well-rounded body of
work and better-representation of our experiences.
Written by Lucy De Souza, M.A.
Ayoub, P., & Rose, D. (2016, April 14). In Defense of “Me”
Studies. Retrieved from
Cole, E. R. (2009). Intersectionality and research in psychology. American
Psychologist, 64(3), 170-180.
Henrich, J., Heine, S. J., & Norenzayan, A. (2010). The
weirdest people in the world? Behavioral and Brain
Sciences, 33(2-3), 61-83.
Hill-Collins, P. (1986). Learning from the Outsider Within: The
Sociological Significance of Black Feminist
Thought. Social Problems, 33(6),
14-32.
Lin, L., Nigrinis, A., Christidis, P., & Stamm, K. (2015, July
15). Demographics of the U.S. Psychology Workforce
Findings from the American Community
Survey (Rep.). Retrieved
Morawski, J. G. (2005). Reflexivity and the psychologist. History
of the Human Sciences, 18(4), 77-105.
Ray, V. (2016, October 21). The Unbearable Whiteness of Mesearch.
Retrieved from
Sumerau, J. E. (2016, August 5). Cisgender Me-Search. Retrieved
from
Purdie-Vaughns, V., & Eibach, R. P. (2008). Intersectional
invisibility: The distinctive advantages and disadvantages of
multiple subordinate-group identities. Sex
Roles, 59(5), 377-391.
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