Tennent2026
| Tennent2026 | |
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| BibType | ARTICLE |
| Key | Tennent2026 |
| Author(s) | Emma Tennent, Elle Henderson |
| Title | Against Recruiting Participants for Psychology Research |
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| Tag(s) | EMCA, Recruitment, Ethics, Discursive psychology, Social interaction, Categories, In press |
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| Year | 2026 |
| Language | English |
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| Journal | Qualitative Psychology |
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| URL | Link |
| DOI | 10.1037/qup0000354 |
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Abstract
Recruiting participants is prevalent in psychology and many social sciences. Although qualitative approaches are often positioned as critical alternatives to quantitative methods, underlying assumptions about recruitment are shared across paradigms. These assumptions are that (a) researchers can determine groups of people with relevant identities, (b) recruitment can be accomplished by naming such identities, and (c) participants so recruited will be able to speak to/from these identities. We draw on discursive psychology, ethnomethodology, and conversation analysis to highlight the metatheoretical assumptions of recruiting participants. We show how the categorical logic underpinning recruitment involves problematic power relations. Two case studies illustrate how categories typically characterized as “demographic” (gender and ethnicity) are negotiated by participants in social interaction. We argue that studying naturally occurring data decenters researchers’ agendas and offers a powerful way to realize principles like honoring voice or lived experience.
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