Refining Methodological Reflection: Exploring the Interviewing Experience of Oocyte Donors

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15826/csp.2023.7.3.245

Abstract

The article reflects on the collaborative experience between a practicing psychologist actively involved in the oocyte donation protocol (participating in guide development, conducting interviews, and drawing conclusions for the clinic) and a philologist who interprets the interview transcripts using narrative and communicative situation analyses. The article begins by describing the interviewing process, the structure of the oocyte-donor guide, and the profile of a “stable donor,” drawing from Russian-language materials. Through narrative analysis of 21 transcripts, the roles of the interviewer and informant at each stage of the interview process are identified, along with their contributions to the discussion and testing of the communicative situation. The paper investigates both the instances of cooperation and discrepancies observed among the participants as they strive to construct a credible and value-consistent autobiographical narrative that comprehensively encompasses their donation experience. The article analyzes both explicit and hidden narrative motives placed by informants in a conversation unfolding from the respondent’s past into a projected future. The authors aim to situate this experience within a broader personal value context, which includes compensatory aspects related to the pressing concerns of potential donors.

Author Biographies

Natalya B. Gramatchikova, Institute of History and Archaeology, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Yekaterinburg, Russia

Natalia B. Gramatchikova, Cand. Sc. (Philology), Senior Researcher at the Center for Literary History, Institute of History and Archaeology, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences; former Associate Professor, Department of Russian and Foreign Literature, Ural Federal University. Her research interests include ego-documents, autobiographies, memory studies, folklore, anthropology, regional literature, and periodicals of the 19th–20th centuries. She is a co-author of six collective monographs and author of over 50 publications, including publications in journals indexed in WOS and SCOPUS databases.

Irina G. Polyakova, Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg, Russia

Irina G. Polyakova, Cand. Sc. (Sociology), Researcher at the Ural Interregional Institute of Social Sciences, Ural Federal University. Her research interests encompass psychological support for assisted reproductive technologies, sperm and egg donors’ motivations, the donor-recipient dyad (spousal couple), and methods of psychological support for participants of reproductive donation. She is the author (co-author) of fourteen publications in journals indexed in the WOS and SCOPUS databases.

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Published
2023-10-06
How to Cite
Gramatchikova, N., & Polyakova, I. (2023). Refining Methodological Reflection: Exploring the Interviewing Experience of Oocyte Donors. Changing Societies & Personalities, 7(3), 141–164. doi:10.15826/csp.2023.7.3.245
Citation Formats
Issue
Vol. 7, No. 3 (2023)
Section
Articles