What Happens When Researchers Inquire Into Difficult Emotions?: Reflections on Studying Women's Anger Through Qualitative Interviews

Qualitative research methods have the potential to elicit rich descriptions of emotional experiences, particularly if the research is about a topic that is important to the participants in the study. The open-ended nature of these methods makes possible the emotional involvement of both participants and researchers. This article considers the utility of interview approaches and, specifically, phenomenological interviewing in studies of emotions. Drawing from a study of teachers' anger experiences, the emotional implications of using this type of method for research participants and researchers is explicated. The article concludes with implications for qualitative researchers studying difficult emotions or topics in which participants are likely to experience and express difficult emotions within the context of the research.