"Lay Person" or "Health Expert"? Exploring Theoretical and Practical Aspects of Reflexivity in Qualitative Health Research Bruce Bolam, Kate Gleeson, & Simon Murphy Abstract: Abstract: Although the need for reflexivity in qualitative research is widely acknowledged, the practical means by which researchers can engage in this process are comparatively underdeveloped. Researching lay health beliefs necessarily highlights the researchers' own embodied concerns and thus problematises the traditional distinction between "lay" and "expert" perspectives. We critically examine a range of theoretical and practical issues raised by these observations, with reference to an empirical study that involved the first author interviewing healthy participants about a range of health related topics. As an aid to reflexive practice, the first author was interviewed using the same interview schedule as used with study participants by the second author, this data being subsequently transcribed, coded and analysed in the same way. A range of benefits and difficulties encountered with this strategy are discussed. Acknowledging that there are problems with prescriptions regarding how to approach reflexivity in qualitative research, we nevertheless emphasise the need for the practical implementation of this process to be both clear and sensitive to specific research interests. Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2. The Meanings of Reflexivity: From Confessional Tales to Textual Radicalism 3. "Lay Person" or "Health Expert"? Reflexive Issues in Researching "Lay Health Beliefs" 3.1 Researcher objectivation: the use of a reflexive interview 3.2 The researcher as lay person and health expert 4. Discussion and Conclusion Acknowledgements References Authors Citation 1. Introduction This article is about doing reflexivity. 1 We argue that current debate about reflexivity in qualitative research often remains at the level of methodology and aim to demonstrate how qualitative investigators can move from theory to research praxis, via a critical examination of our reflexive work within a specific investigation. It is not our goal to provide prescriptive rules on "how to do" reflexivity, but to show how creative, and concrete, research procedures can be used to make reflexive labour more visible to both researcher and reader. [1] 1 Discussion of reflexivity in the qualitative literature is distinguishable from that concerning reflexive modernization in late modern society. This work is concerned with reflexive, risk- orientated social orders and the rise of public scepticism about expert discourses (e.g. BECK, GIDDENS & LASH, 1994). © 2003 FQS http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs/ Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research (ISSN 1438-5627) Volume 4, No. 2, Art. 26 May 2003 Key words: reflexivity, lay health beliefs, lay/ medical knowledge, qualitative health research FORUM: QUALITATIVE SOCIAL RESEARCH SOZIALFORSCHUNG