The careful stone-turner: Thinking about ethical tensions arising in an autoethnography of childhood emotional neglect

Abstract

Autoethnographic research combines elements of autobiography and ethnography, and examines a phenomenon or experience in its social and historical contexts. My research aim is to increase understanding of childhood emotional neglect using autoethnography to bridge the gap between an objective, third person account and subjective, autobiographical account. This methodology fits better with some approaches to psychology than others. Privileging the subjective experience of the individual, autoethnography is not a methodology for those with a positivist or experimental leaning; however, it is a good fit for those who see the world through a more constructivist, social psychology lens. This article explores three ethical considerations: tensions between the requirements of the ethical review panel and the chosen methodology; the question of additional members of the same family taking part; and the duty of researcher self-care in sensitive research.