Exploring reflexive methodology as a pluralist approach to enhance mixed methods research on coping and livability among LGBTQ people in Sweden

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article explores the use of reflexive methodology to enhance mixed methods queer psychological research in Sweden, by analysing data from a qualitative research project on how LGBTQ people cope with minority stress from four epistemological perspectives. A descriptive, hermeneutically and phenomenologically inspired analysis showed that coping should be understood from temporal perspective, where ‘microcoping’ covers strategies used in specific here and now-situations, and ‘macrocoping’ addresses general strategies used over time. We suggest that this differentiation is explored in further research. The analysis then included a theoretically driven perspective using feminist theories and discursive perspectives. Three themes resulted describing different types of constant ongoing work, ‘existential’, ‘relational’ and ‘reflexive’, that participants utilized to carve out a livable existence in the world. We suggest that reflexive methodology can help produce results that can be useful in a local as well as an international context and in relation to different audiences.