Disclosure Decisions and Patterns After a Near-Death Experience.
1993 DOI: 10.31390/gradschool_disstheses.5513 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Ethnography |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 50 |
| Population | Near-death experiencers in the southern Louisiana region |
| Topics | Near-death experience |
| Citations | 4 |
| Key findings | The study confirmed prior findings on the powerful role of responses to early disclosures, the need to bring thoughts and feelings together to facilitate confrontation, and the essential role of listener response. It reports new findings on an extended set of decision variables, a distinction between decisions to initiate disclosure and decisions to respond with disclosure, and ways adjacent events can complicate disclosure decisions. |
Abstract
As a dimension of privacy regulation, self-disclosure is the means through which individuals manage the psychological boundary area between the inner, private world and the outer, public world of interaction with others. In communication research, a gap has been noted between self-disclosure as defined by scientific method and self-disclosure as it is experienced by people in their daily life. This study reduces that gap by investigating disclosure decisions about a major life experience through the thick perspectives of the individuals themselves. Disclosure is examined as a context-embedded communicative process. To provide a thick description of disclosure decisions, an ethnographic methodology is used in this investigation. In-depth ethnographic interviews are the primary means for examining these disclosure decisions. Recent work by psychoneuroimmunologists has provided important evidence that disclosure of traumatic experience benefits physiological and psychological well-being. This study examines self-disclosure decisions and patterns among persons who have encountered a near-death experience. A near-death experience (NDE) is the name given to extramundane events reported by individuals after they have revived from a life-threatening physical crisis. Near-death experiences occur frequently and are known to produce profound and long-lasting effects. Gallup reported that 5% of American adults have had a near-death experience during a physical crisis. Substantial research had been conducted recently about this extraordinary happening, but little is known about subsequent disclosure decisions. For this research project, I located and interviewed 50 near-death experiencers from within the southern Louisiana region. This study confirmed previous research regarding the powerful role of responses to early disclosures, the need to bring thoughts and feelings together to facilitate confrontation, and the essential role of listener response. New findings included an extended purview of decision variables and the distinction between decisions to initiate disclosure and decisions to respond with disclosure. This research also found that adjacent events can complicate disclosure decisions in ways not examined in communication research. Finally, in a discussion of secrecy I identified areas which have immediate consequences for disclosure processes and which merit further investigation.
Comparable studies
Other qualitative studies on near-death experience, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qualitative thematic analysis of the phenomenology of near-death experiences Cardiac arrest survivors | 2018 | Qualitative study | n = 34 |
| Do Suicide Survivors Report Near-Death Experiences? Persons who had been close to death as a result of a suicide attempt | 1982 | Qualitative study | n = 36 |
| The evolving self: finding meaning in near-death experiences using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis Female participants who had near-death experiences | 2008 | Qualitative study | n = 3 |
| Investigation of the phenomenology, physiology and impact of spiritually transformative experiences - kundalini awakening. Persons having a spiritually transformative experience (e.g., spontaneous energetic... | 2021 | Qualitative study | |
| Near-death experiences and religion: A further investigation Near-death experiencers | 1984 | Qualitative study | n = 40 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 2
Cites 6
- The Near-Death Experience Scale The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease June 1, 1983
- Otherworld Journeys: Accounts of Near-Death Experience in Medieval and Modern Times Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion December 1, 1987
- Distressing Near-Death Experiences Psychiatry February 1, 1992
- Childhood Near-Death Experiences Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine November 1, 1986
- Near-death experiences and personal values American Journal of Psychiatry May 1, 1983
and 1 more in the library