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Abstract
The purpose of this study was to explore how Traumatic Compassion Dissonance (TCD) was revealed through the lived experience of Laboratory Animal Science Professionals (LASP) in connection with their participation in animal suffering and euthanasia. The TCD phenomenon was explored through the languaging of participants in two unstructured focus group interviews. The study used Peck’s (2015) theory of Hermeneutic Constructivism as a mechanism to understand how languaging territorializes our knowing structures. The study design assumed a Gadamerian view of language as an authentic representation of the LASP lived experience. It also held space for generative knowing, as defined by Nicolaides (2023).
To present the research findings, the researcher created two overlapping fictional, first-person narratives. These narratives represented the mot juste, the co-created best words. These narratives used direct participant quotes, colored individually. In this way, the narratives represented the collective LASP experience without generalizing an individual’s experience.
Additionally, the researcher created a Focus Group mood chart to visually comprehend the flow of conversation and identify diametric viewpoints that may contribute to dissonance. Additionally, three verbal consistencies were noted that suggested common languaging around the TCD experience. Finally, laughter seemed to be a non-verbal communication construct that demonstrated connection and support, or the request for it, within these sensitive conversations.
Five generative conclusions were reached through the hermeneutic examination of the research data. 1) LASPs language around their experience of TCD only to the extent that they feel psychological safe. 2) The experience of TCD is directly related to the close bonds they form with laboratory animals. 3) The researcher should consider that the research experience may be generative and prepare accordingly. 4) TCD is most fundamentally an experience of relinquishing not- knowing, which is disorienting and may cause trauma and dissonance. 5) Yet, TCD can be generatively reconsidered as a disorganization rather than a condition, allowing the possibility for the creation of more adaptive structures of knowing. Future interventions must consider support for individuals and researchers engaging in this disorienting reorganization of meaning. Future studies may benefit from considerations of the LASP experience as a type of occupational stigma.
Additionally, the researcher created a Focus Group mood chart to visually comprehend the flow of conversation and identify diametric viewpoints that may contribute to dissonance. Additionally, three verbal consistencies were noted that suggested common languaging around the TCD experience. Finally, laughter seemed to be a non-verbal communication construct that demonstrated connection and support, or the request for it, within these sensitive conversations.
Five generative conclusions were reached through the hermeneutic examination of the research data. 1) LASPs language around their experience of TCD only to the extent that they feel psychological safe. 2) The experience of TCD is directly related to the close bonds they form with laboratory animals. 3) The researcher should consider that the research experience may be generative and prepare accordingly. 4) TCD is most fundamentally an experience of relinquishing not- knowing, which is disorienting and may cause trauma and dissonance. 5) Yet, TCD can be generatively reconsidered as a disorganization rather than a condition, allowing the possibility for the creation of more adaptive structures of knowing. Future interventions must consider support for individuals and researchers engaging in this disorienting reorganization of meaning. Future studies may benefit from considerations of the LASP experience as a type of occupational stigma.