Blackwell Reference Online

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Peer debriefing is a technique used by qualitative researchers for multiple reasons. Good qualitative researchers plan ahead when designing a study to include peer debriefing or a variation of it. Peer debriefing allows a peer to review and assess transcripts, emerging categories from those transcripts, and the final report. In addition, a peer acts as a sort of critical detective or auditor. This peer may detect whether or not a researcher has over-emphasized a point, or missed a rival legitimate hypothesis, under-emphasized a point, and in general does a careful reading of the data and the final report. Many writers have suggested that peer debriefing enhances the trustworthiness and credibility of a qualitative research project ( Lincoln & Guba 1985 ; Creswell 1998 ; Spall 1998 ; Spillett 2003 ; Janesick 2004 ). Included in the peer review of information might be the full data set such as observations, transcripts, documents, photographs, and videotaped interviews. The term itself, peer debriefing, is favored in the field of sociology. In other fields, similar terms are used to denote the same process. These terms include the words outside reader, auditor, and peer reviewer. In the history of anthropology, outside reader was the term used to characterize what has evolved into the role of peer debriefing. For example, Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson used the term outside ... log in or subscribe to read full text