A subjectivity statement describes a person's character and how it relates to the topic of a research project. (Pierre, 2015).
Personality Traits Influence Research
Personality traits influence how a person perceives the world around them or the subject under study. Religion, education level, listening skills, intelligence, emotional stability, interests in singing or traveling, aspirations, leadership abilities, capacity for empathy with those in need, political affiliations, and virtues like honesty or kindness are some aspects of personality that may influence the research process and results. (Roulston & Shelton, 2015).
Examining Personality for Subjectivity
To make a subjectivity statement, a researcher identifies these traits and examines how and when they affect the thinking pattern or ability to make choices while researching. For example, if the subject of research is within the researcher's political opposition, he may be biased and write a one-sided report or conclusion. The purpose of subjectivity statement is to show how neutral or otherwise the processes of data collection and interpretation are. Unlike in objectivity research processes, in subjectivity research, human contact with people in social settings has a high probability of affecting how they deduce and conclude studies.
I am generally an intuitive person. I have more internal traits than external ones. This means that I am most likely to carry out and conclude a research based on what I feel or relate to in my daily lifestyle. For example, in my future research topic 'How Can Nursing Home Administrators Retain Nurses?' it is probable that I would recommend to the administration to motivate existing nurses through offering paid travelling holiday trips. Additionally, I would focus on the importance of listening to the nurses' employment and work-related social needs such as providing nursing area for nurses who are breastfeeding. This service may motivate them to continue working within the nursing home. Being a faithful Christian and a dependable person, I am likely to study the effect of religion on nurses' ability to work with minimal or no supervision because I expect every religious person to be honest at work and provide results even when no authority is present to oversee their work.
My personal background may influence my research through reliance on what I already know or presume to know as based on my expectations and experiences. Consequently, my research would be biased (Lee, 2014). My personality would thus affect the study in various ways. For example, the study may be credible, authentic, and valid only to the extent of factual data (Houghton, Casey, Shaw & Murphy, 2013). However, in the areas of conclusion and recommendations, the content will be largely dependent on how I see, feel, or perceive them to be as influenced by my external and internal traits. For instance, being a Christian may lead to a preconception that Jewish participants would make my work difficult. Jewish people believe that Christians are worthless and can be easily converted into Judaism. I would thus be quick to conclude that working with this group of people in a nursing setting would be difficult. Consequently, retaining them in the health facility would be based on their religious beliefs and relationship with non-Jew. As a consequence, the research's validity may be in question.
Subjectivity statement is an important element in qualitative research process. It helps researchers to know how their experiences and traits can affect the research results. By identifying and examining the personality in relation to the people studied, the validity, truthfulness, and reliability of the outcomes can be gauged. It also points out areas of biasness.
References
Houghton, C., Casey, D., Shaw, D., & Murphy, K. (2013). Rigour in qualitative case-study
research. Nurse researcher, 20(4), 12-17.
Lee, C. J. (2014). In Search of Subjectivity: A reflection of a Teacher Educator in a Cross
cultural Context. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 46(13), 1427-1434.
Pierre, E. A. S. (2015). Refusing human being in humanist qualitative inquiry. Qualitative
inquiry—past, present, and future: A critical reader, 103.
Roulston, K., & Shelton, S. A. (2015). Reconceptualizing bias in teaching qualitative research
methods. Qualitative Inquiry, 21(4), 332-342.
