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This research aimed to analyse whether shame can be a critical deciding factor for people recovering from their alcohol dependence. The study also aimed to understand whether shame is a crucial determinant factor for the prevention of relapse or not. In this report, an elaborate discussion will be done on the research methodology used for data collection, sampling technique, as well as for data analysis. This will be followed by a critical analysis of the research findings based on other research done on a similar topic. In the end, an evaluation will be done based on evidence-based research for improving the practice in this particular research area.
The type of research is not specifically mentioned in the article. It is only mentioned that narrative analysis has been done to understand the research area. However, usually, researchers decide the research philosophy and research design as well as the research approach for conducting any research. This is done because it gives a specific direction to the researchers to follow and enhances the validity and reliability of the research (Moon et al. 2019). There are mainly four types of research philosophy which are “Positivist”, “Realism”, “Post-positivist or Interpretivist”, and “Pragmatist”. For example, the pragmatist philosophy is where all the decisions are taken based on the practical situation or the research problem. It believes in freedom rather than following a strict rule in research (Simpson, 2018). There is no mentioning the type of research philosophy followed for conducting this research by Sawer et.al (2020). A specific type of research philosophy must be selected by these researchers and must be mentioned in the article to create a better understanding for the readers.
Other than research philosophy, research design helps to specify the type of research that will be followed to address the research problem. There are many types of research design such as “Descriptive research”, “Exploratory research”, “Experimental research” etc. All these types have unique characteristics (Rahi, 2017). For example, descriptive research describes the nature of a study as it exists at the time of research. It answers the questions like who, how, what, when, and where but does not answer the reason or “why” behind a particular incident (Atmowardoyo, 2019). The exploratory is useful for the development of hypotheses rather than testing them and the reason why it is called qualitative research (Van Dun et al. 2017). The experimental research is designed to establish the causal relationship between two variables and so it is used to test the hypotheses (Leppink, 2019). However, in the research article, nothing is mentioned but it can be predicted that a descriptive type of research must be used. However, there is no mention of the research approach as well, it can be predicted that inductive research has been used where the researchers tried to draw a general conclusion out of specific answers from participants.
The sampling technique used for this research is “Snowball Sampling” for collecting important data. It is a type of non-probability sampling where the information is collected by selecting a few individuals who are later asked to identify other people to gather more information (Sharma, 2017). They become a part of the sample as well and thus create a network of sample elements (Etikan and Bala, 2017). For this research, a total of eight participants have been contacted who were associated with “Alcoholic Anonymous (AA)” for convenience and as a reliable source of information. Among the participants 5 were male and 3 were male and there were no specific criteria for selecting them. They belong to the age group of 27-74 years and are currently recovering from their habit of alcoholism. All of them are alcohol dependent from 21 months to around 35 years of sobriety and are currently facing “abstinent”.
The interview technique has been used for data collection. The two main questions asked in the research were the way the participants told their stories of shame and how this shame was recognised by them while recovering from alcohol dependency. A detailed interview was taken to get as much data as possible. All the responses of the participants were captured for doing narrative analysis. For the analysis, all the answers have been read or transcribed carefully and again re-read before familiarising and making coding notes. After that, the narrative tone was identified and genres were assigned to each of the tones. A detailed summarization was done too. This was followed by identifying imagery as well as themes and the revising of transcript data was done if any disagreement arose among researchers. Each of the narratives was then rescheduled to coherent instead of creating biographies. In the end, a cross-analysis was done to find similarities and differences in their given answers.
All the ethics were carefully followed as the researchers maintained the confidentiality of the participants by keeping their names anonymous. Moreover, written consent was given along with properly mentioning the aim of the research.
The potential of bias is quiet for this research as snowball sampling is used and the margin of error in result is high. Moreover, the sampling size is also very small and the validity of the research is dependent on the quality of the sample drawn which must be logical and representative of the population (Rahman, 2020). The larger the sample size the more is accuracy in the result. Furthermore, it can be seen that qualitative research has been used in this scenario, which is difficult to reproduce as difference of data and samples will create hindrance (Harding, 2018). Sometimes, an unconscious bias for the participants can be present in the research that reduces the validity and reliability of the research findings (Mohajan, 2018). Sometimes data is created that has questionable value with less rigidity.
Critical analysis will help to break the study into smaller components for better understanding and find support for effective argument (Chatfield, 2017). A total of four research papers have been identified to support the similar matter as well as similar results to support the findings of the original article. Data collection technique, which are primary or secondary as well as type of data, such as qualitative or quantitative, are the basis of selecting these four research articles. The original research has used the snowball sampling technique to contact the research participants. The number of participants was very few and they are the representatives of only one organisation that helps sober to quit this bad habit. These eight participants are representatives of the population suffering from the same problem and seeking help. Hammarlund et al. (2018) produced a systematic qualitative research based on data collected from previous research to support various social stigmas including shame or embarrassment in individuals impacting the individuals seeking treatment for quitting their alcohol addiction. A total of 31 were included in the qualitative research. All of these 31 studies were conducted in different parts of the world including the UK, Russia, Ukraine, USA, Australia, Israel, Canada, Georgia and other European countries. Moreover, all of these researches were conducted based on qualitative data analysis just like this research that enhances the reliability of the result of this research. The finding justified that “Shame” or “Embarrassment” is one of the important barriers for sobers seeking treatment or help.
This secondary data for detecting the barriers in the treatment of sober has been also followed in research by May and Nielsen (2019). The researchers of this study have chosen 16 publications from reliable databases such as “Pubmed”, “Scopus” and “PsycINFO” to collect data and support their results of the research. This is more reliable as it is representing the whole population rather than just the people of AA. They found that along with shame, lack of knowledge regarding alcoholism treatment, fear of giving up drinking, inaccessibility to treatment due to money constraints, and cultural beliefs are some of the barriers in adapting treatment to quit alcoholism.
A similar approach for qualitative data analysis has been adopted in this original research as well. Here, the narrative analysis technique has been used for transcribing the necessary data and making themes out of them. Following reading and rereading the responses the researchers identified mainly three genres to address the first question regarding the ways participants told the stories of shame. The genres were “Melodrama”, “Comedy theatre” as well as “Quest”. Paul and Diana were categorised into this genre as their description of the answer were dramatic and exaggerated the characters along with highly emotional events. The responses were like such that they are talking about other people rather than themselves. On the other hand, Raj expressed himself as a humorous person depicting the life of an actor to induce laughter. Other participants including James, Gary, Dean, Mathew, Michelle, and James were categorised into the quest genre because their narratives took the researchers on a journey in search of something and which always had a happy ending. All the memories were recalled that helped to express themselves completely.
From the above mentioned two research as well the original research by Sewer et al. (2020) has found that acknowledging the wrong and openly talking about it is a way to relieve shame. Sharing feelings of someone could help reduce shame during recovery. Providing care helps reduce distress and develop a sense of belongingness. This can promote safety as well as trust to effectively manage shame and coping up with sobriety. These techniques are useful for sobering to express themselves so that it can help them to reduce their feeling of shame significantly. Helping others is useful to have a feeling of worthiness and speedy recovery from the condition. In addition, expressing the feelings and accepting the shame help to reduce the feeling of inferiority and inadequacy which is, in turn, help to quit the habit of alcoholism.
The original research article only used “Qualitative research” to address the research area and find answers for whether or not shame creates any barrier in recovering from alcoholism. Research conducted in the similar context used quantitative research for a similar study to specifically address how shame is creating barriers in the treatment of alcoholism (Randles and Tracy 2013). A total of 125 people from AA were asked to participate in the face-to-face and telephonic interviews followed by an analysis of their responses. The research concluded that shame certainly creates barriers in accepting the treatment and moreover, it makes the sober continue engaging in consuming alcohol. Similar qualitative research using 133 samples has been conducted by McGaffin et al. (2013). This study aimed to establish the relationship of shamee, guilt, as well as self-forgiveness with accepting and responding to the treatment for alcoholism. It could be found that shame is an important element for self-acceptance. However, it sometimes enhances the probability of personal distress. Empathy is useful to enhance the effectiveness of quitting alcoholism. It also concluded that self-forgiveness, guilt as well as shame together play a critical role to accept reality rather than avoiding it. There can be different reasons for the development of such shame. It is partially true that the feeling of unworthiness and not having good relationships with parents and peers could be a possible cause of shame and getting addicted to alcohol to hide this shame could be a strong reason. Therefore, it can be said that although the researchers have used qualitative research for data analysis, quantitative research which is more reliable than the qualitative one yields similar results.
The two areas chosen for critical analysis of the research paper were the data collection tool and the data analysis technique followed in this research and its comparison was done with other research on a similar topic. The interview technique has been used for the collection of primary data. In this regard, 8 participants have been chosen to get their response to understand whether or not shame actually creates a barrier to sobriety. A total of two images were identified where one of them was giving a feeling of their lack of ability to stop drinking despite giving a lot of effort. This helped the researchers realise inability to control one’s life was itself an origin of shame (Newell and Burnard, 2010). The next image was the urge to become invisible in the fear of being exposed to others.
The second question of this research was to understand how this shame was understood by the participants seeking to recover from sobriety. The first theme that emerged from the question was “Addicted Parents” as almost half of the participants accepted that the reason for becoming addicted was influenced by their alcohol-addicted parents and this was their initial source of shame. Some of them felt difficulty adjusting with their peers and the other one (Mathew) followed his father's path that causing his parents to get separated. Some research supports the fact that shame can be one of the crucial triggers for alcoholism (Luoma et al. 2018). In other cases, addiction caused deterioration in the relationship with the parents as well in some of the samples. “Inferiority” has been identified as the core reason for shame and drinking helped them to channelize this feeling into something else to at least manage their shame (Chinnusamy et al. 2021). The participants used to think they had something flawed inside them and drinking could only help them to hide that feeling of inferiority. In the last theme, it could be seen that despite quitting alcoholism one of the participants was still in touch with AA to support and help others in their journey. Hearing others help to make relationships and normalise their past, helping them to release the shame they were feeling (Wiggins, 2021). In addition, acknowledging the shame empowered them and helped them to start their recovery journey.
Similar results have been found in other qualitative and quantitative data as well. The researchers have developed themes out of the responses to evaluate the result. The quantitative data analysis could be more reliable than the qualitative one to make the research approach more objective to describe, explain, as well as quantify the problem (Goertzen, 2017). The findings could be more generalised to represent the population. Moreover, if the researchers could include the secondary data along with the quantitative one it could enhance the reliability of the findings of the research and provide more evidence to support the result (Basias and Pollalis, 2018). Other than that, the researchers limited the research only to a specific geographic area and that too specific to the people associated with AA (Taylor and Ryan, 2020). The acceptance of the research could be more if more participants would have been contacted by sending emails or personal messages on social media that would have made this research more valid (Remler and Van Ryzin, 2021). The snowball sampling technique is good when concerning a specific area; however, it changes the research bias (Parker et al. 2019). The researchers could have directly contacted the organisation and randomly selected samples to make this research more valid as well as reliable.
An elaborate discussion was done about the type of research methods used in conducting this research that addressed the issues in the methodology. This section also incorporated the data collection, analysis, sampling technique as well as the potential of bias that reduces the reliability and validity of this research. After that, a critical discussion was done on research analysis and findings to address the way data analysis has been done to conclude. In order to support the research findings, help from some other research papers were taken to prove the findings of the concerned research paper is true. In the end, the evaluation was done based on evidence-based research to improve the research area.
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