Reflexivity and research reflexivity

Chapter 2 explains how reflexivity is approached in the literature in a number of ways, largely focussed around four major themes, which are: self-reflexivity, focused on everyday processes of individual adaptation. critical reflexivity, which seeks to identify the social constructions of tradition and ideology that shape our interpretations of experience; relational reflexivity, which considers the ways in which our thinking is shaped by the influence and insights of others; and radical reflexivity, which takes the principles of self and critical reflexivity to their ultimate conclusion by questioning the possibility of robust foundational truths. The chapter goes on to show how there are two over-arching ways in which reflexivity is implemented, namely future-oriented reflexivity and past-oriented reflexivity, that are linked together in a reinforcing cycle.