Research

Dr. Charmaz wrote a book called Good Days, Bad Days: The Self in Chronic Illness and Time in 1991, a book about illness. The book contains three main categories; 1) Chronic Illness as Interruption, 2) Intrusive Illness, and 3) Immersion in Illness. She wanted to write a book about this because of her past experiences with it. Throughout many of her interviews she used her own experiences to connect with a participant she was interviewing.

            Sid many interviews with different people and she would continue to see these participants more times to see how they had improved with their illnesses. Dr. Charmaz depended on getting close to her participants in order to collect her data. She knew how comfortable these people would need to feel in order to talk to her. In order to help make the participants comfortable Dr. Charmaz had to look back at her own past. Doing this helped her understand the participants better.

            She found out many different types of ways to communicate with the participants that also made them feel more comfortable talking to her. She realized how many different things can effect how the participants act or react to things.

            The book is called Good Days, Bad Days: The Self in Chronic Illness and Time not only because it is about illness but also because it is about the good and bad days that people have when they are ill. Dr. Charmaz’s definition of a good day is, “minimal intrusiveness of illness, maximal control over mind, body, and actions, and greater choice of activities.”