Does the research refine or add to a new theory?
The research adds to the quantitative material on the subject by adopting a qualitative, phenomenological approach. Suicide has increased alarmingly amongst African-American males (Thomas, 2009). The maternal voice is rarely, if ever, heard; Granting mothers of suicide victims this opportunity can help both practical and theoretical applied research in that social workers and counseling programs can be better structured to help families cope with the loss, as well as other programs aimed to alleviate the problem. The study may throw new light on suicide from a spiritual aspect, or from some other aspect, perhaps because it is considered taboo that has hitherto been overlooked. By describing the real experiences of African-American mothers who have lost a male child to suicide, underlying cultural and spiritual elements that render the subject taboo may emerge that will help us understand the phenomenon better.
Does the research refute a theory or test a theory?
In a manner of speaking the research may be testing the theory that parents of a child who commits suicide are blamed for the child's death and involuntarily liked less. This theory was formulated by American researchers in the U.S.A. (Calhoun et al., 1980) and may well be relative to the nationality and ethnicity of the parents. In some countries, of the Middle East, for instance, suicide of particular individuals is seen as an honor (since their death was seen as sacrifice for holy cause). By taking a phenomenological approach, the study will be investigating whether African-American mothers feel that they are liked less by their community and society and blamed for the child's death as Calhoun et al. (1980) propose.
Does the research expand a theory by telling us something new?
The research expands a theory by adding a qualitative aspect to the investigation. There has been a dramatic rise in suicide rates in the African-American community, yet the impact on the mother has rarely if ever been studied in a qualitative manner. Moreover, as...
(12010) pointed out, families prefer to express denial regarding the suicide of one of their members. Most prefer to move on with their lives, and suicide, seen as a shame, prefers not to talk about it. A phenomenological exploration therefore encourages previously silenced voices to be heard.
A phenomenological exploration -- by encouraging mothers to speak -- may also advance the field in that cultural and spiritual factors, articulating suicide to be 'taboo' may openly emerge allowing the community and researchers to better deal with and understand the phenomena.
Moreover, aspects that may emerge will be able to enable us to take the phenomenon to new levels. Such as, for instance, we may well find out that the experience may be more or less depressing if the mother were of a particular socio-economic strata. Or that spiritual affiliation may mitigate he maternal response. Or that the mother's response may hinge on the child's birth order or gender. Some of these derivatives and more may emerge from the phenomenological study, potentially taking the research in variegated new and exciting directions.
References
Calhoun, L.S., Selby, J., Faulstich, M.E. (1980). Reactions to the parents of the child suicide: A study of social impressions. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 48, 535-536.
Campbell, B. (n.d.) Phenomenology as research method. Victoria Univ.
http://www.staff.vu.edu.au/syed/alrnnv/papers/bev.html
Crotty, M. (1998) The foundations of social research. Allen & Unwin.
Giorgi, A. (1989), One type of analysis of descriptive data: procedures involved in following a scientific phenomenological method in Methods: A Journal of Human Science, Annual Edition.
Moustakas, C. (1994). Phenomenolgoical research methods. Sage Pub. CA
Wann, TW. (1964). Behaviorism and phenomenology. Univ. Chicago: Chicago.
van Manen, M. (1990), Researching Lived Experience: Human Science for Action Sensitive Pedagogy, State university of New York Press, Albany, New York.
