Awareness of Dying

by Barney G. Glaser, Anselm L. Strauss

A study of the process of dying in American hospitals focuses upon discernible recurrent patterns of interaction between staff members, terminally ill patients, and their families

Genres: Sociology, Mental Health, Ethnography, Psychology, Nonfiction

305 pages, Hardcover

First published December 31, 1965

About the author

Barney G. Glaser is an American sociologist and one of the founders of the grounded theory methodology. Glaser was born in San Francisco, California and lives in nearby Mill Valley. He received his BA degree at Stanford in 1952. He pursued academic studies at the University of Paris where he studied contemporary literature. He also studied literature at University of Freiburg for two years during off-hours from his military service.

At Columbia he was a student of Paul Lazarsfeld and Robert K. Merton and received a Ph.D in 1961. The dissertation was published in the book Organizational Scientists: Their Professional Careers. Post-doc Glaser started a research collaboration with Anselm Strauss at the University of California, San Francisco. Together they wrote Awareness of Dying (1965) based on a study of dying in Californian hospitals. The book was a success. As a response to the many methodological questions on the dying study the first grounded theory (GT) methodology appeared in 1967 co-authored with Strauss: The Discovery of Grounded Theory.

In 1970 Glaser started the publishing company Sociology Press specializing in grounded theory methodologies and readers. The second grounded theory methodology was written by Glaser in 1978 (Theoretical Sensitivity). Thereafter, Glaser has published several readers of grounded theory and four more methodologies. He has traveled throughout the world giving workshops and seminars to many researchers. In 1998 Glaser received an honorary doctorate from Stockholm University.

In 1999 Glaser founded the non-profit web based organization Grounded Theory Institute. He owned Cascade Acceptance Corporation, which filed for bankruptcy in November 2009. In July 2010, the bankruptcy trustee declared that the company had been insolvent for at least two years, and the case was converted from a reorganization to a liquidation

Reviews

[Corey Colyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the first sociological study to explicitly deploy the Grounded Theory method in qualitative analysis. I read this book primarily to understand how GT was used in a successful study. The symbolic interaction of hospitalized death is fascinating. Glaser and Strauss organize their analysis around one primary key variable (the awareness context). Medically we can say that the patient is either dying or she is not. But the various people who interact with the patient (including the patient herself) vary in their awareness of this status. Glaser and Strauss examine the patient/staff/family interactions under different permutations of awareness contexts. I found this presentation to be intuitive, persuasive, and interesting. This is all the more important because neither medical sociology, nor death and bereavement are my areas.

Social Scientists would benefit from reading the final three chapters which lay out Glaser and Strauss's argument for their methodology. It is simple. Formal theory (say, Status Hierarchy or Relative Deprivation) that asserts propositions prior to a researcher engaging the substance of a particular real situation *will* mislead the analyst. While Glasser and Strauss don't use these specific terms, dogmatically asserting such formal theory before critically engaging with the substance of the topic leads to pattern fitting and confirmation bias. It is better, they argue, for the social scientist to dig into the substance of the social situation she wishes to understand and to build a "substantive" theory. As the theory emerges, she should carefully look for disconfirming evidence. It is at that stage that elements of formal existing theory may be brought in and tested against the evolving substantive theory. But only insofar as such concepts empirically earn their way into the analysis.

These chapters offer a prototype of the argument that Glaser and Strauss later advance in their classic monograph "Discovery of Grounded Theory". But I think the emphasis on "substance" in generating "substantive theory" as opposed to "formal theory" is useful for the social scientist trying to get a handle on his or her own work.

[Jamie Showrank · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful and comprehensive sociological study of human interactions, specifically with nurses, patients and families, in a hospital and context awareness. Excellent study! #behavior

[Táňa Sedláková · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is suitable for anyone who is willing to understand the roots of the grounded theory method. For a reader of current GTA based studies such experience might be rather refreshing. Glaser and Strauss used their detailed observations and conducted interviews to examine the dying patient and those around him in social interactions - family members, nurses, doctors, social workers, chaplains... The book brings deep understanding of complex, difficult and unfortunatelly still frequent situation of dying in the hospital.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to read this for a course in constructing theory from our data (as opposed to finding a way for our data to fit a theory). I actually really enjoyed it. It was a very emotional read and I had to constantly remind myself that it was written a long time ago and the experience of dying in a hospital is different now. But the subject matter was eyeopening, and the book was an excellent example of how to use our data to create our viewpoint and being open to unexpected discoveries.