Sexual Identity Development in Mexican

Masculinity
A qualitative proposal for a mix-methods study.

PSY4110 - Applied Qualitative Methods

Course coordinator: Philippa Kerr

Candidate no: 6

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Developing a proposal for a qualitative research work in times of pandemic and supervisor crisis
and subject to investigate is a challenging task; however, as Silverman relates in the various
testimonies found in his book “Doing Qualitative Research”, qualitative research involves a
process in which data collection as well as its analysis and supervision guidance is fraught with
difficulties; the current combination of stressors could, as well, be one of the many people who
carry out this type of research experience. Changing a research proposal implies a change of
theoretical background, assumptions and ways of acquiring information. In the following text, I
will present a qualitative research proposal that seeks to describe the process of sexual identity
development that Mexican men live, both hetero and non-hetero, in their adolescence and their
current adulthood; with a focus on how masculine norms and culture shape this process. This
proposal is being considered to be part of a mix-methods study and will provide detailed
explanations on how sexual identity develops in addition to the results that quantitative data will
offer. Questions about the proposal and the epistemological stance will be answered in this text.

Sexual identity development is understood as “the individual and social processes by which
persons acknowledge and define their sexual needs, values, sexual orientation, preferences for
sexual activities, modes of sexual expression, and characteristics of sexual partners.” (Dillon et
al., 2011) Likewise, each person lives their sexual identity development as a member of sexual
identity group. This group can be predominant and privileged (heterosexual) or marginalized and
considered a minority (LGBT+ identities). Hence, sexual identity development is an individual as
well as a social process. According to Dillon et al., both processes, social and individual, are lived
through five stages: compulsory heterosexuality, active exploration, diffusion, deepening and
commitment, and synthesis.

With this theory in mind, the answer to the following questions will be sought: How do Mexican
men live their process of sexual identity development in adolescence? How does this process shape
their sexual identity development during adulthood? In what way does belonging to a privileged
(heterosexuals) or minority group (LGBT+) impact their sexual identity development process?

The proposal to analyze these processes in men arises from a set of personal experiences as a
teacher in a Catholic high school, accompanying processes of young adolescents who ended up
turning to me when they felt judged by the institution. Silverman states that the self can be a
starting point for an investigation: “for some, direct personal experience becomes a starting point

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for their research […] for some graduate students, selecting a topic derives from a sense of social
obligation”. (Silverman, 2017) My case has a combination of the two. On one hand, I was
concerned about the way in which most adolescent boys had great difficulty talking about their
feelings specially when they were about attraction or vulnerability with another person. On the
other hand, it seemed that they constantly wanted to build an image in which my accompaniment
did not matter so much, canceling me at the last minute. However, they looked for me outside
school hours in times of crisis because they didn't feel like they had anyone. A constant reflexive
exercise seemed to weigh more and it was easier to go to someone in times of immediate need.
This research, based on its methodology, seeks to generate a reflective exercise in men; an
opportunity to give us time and space to think about what we live in a normalized way: our
sexuality.

Because the work focuses on males, masculinity will be an important focus of observation.
“Masculinity is a constant exercise, not always voluntary, that goes beyond the notion of
individuality and contributes to the production of normative systems that constrain and oblige men
to behave in certain ways”. (Lozano Verduzco, 2013) However, the roles and values linked to
masculinity (e.g. sexual power and availability, physical strength, greater financial contribution,
competition, less emotional expression, etc.) cannot be fulfilled one hundred percent; this
generates that men who do not conform to the model are marginalized and rejected while those
who conform to the model exercise their rejection and violence towards them. You build your
manhood, and manhood is also tested in the sexual realm. Due to this, it seems important to know
how men live the development of their sexual identity in both stages of life in order to locate the
present noises and social threats; making a specific focus on male norms, as well as the strategies
that men have to live a development of their sexual identity in a more integral way. This brings us
to the last research question: How do masculine norms influence sexual identity development
during both stages?

The proposed methodology for data collection will be from what I´m calling “personal video
interviews” and focus groups. The concept of personal video interviews comes from a tool used in
qualitative methodology known as video diaries. Quirarte Martínez, tells us how in his thesis “The
Contradictions of Masculinity” he used video diaries to compile 7 narratives about how Mexican
men live the desires, emotions and masculine identity. “The technique used in my research cannot

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be regarded as semi-structured interviews per se, given that the ‘question-answer’ interaction did
not happen at the same time and space; rather, a series of topics and questions were sent to the
participants, who then recorded themselves in video addressing some or all of the inquiries.”
(Quirarte Martínez, 2019) Quirarte Martínez also answered their participants with a video and
together they constructed narrative reflections around his research topic. The difference with this
proposal is that the concept of diary reflects the repetitive use of that tool and involves a process
of collecting data longitudinally. For this research proposal, after receiving their personal video
interviews they will be answered with a video of thanks for their participation and with clarifying
questions regarding narratives that have not been made clear. The possibility of carrying out a
process with the participants is short due to the limited time of the master program.

The use of this tool can generate freedom for the participants by eliminating the factor of
immediate relationship with the interviewer. However, this should not be confused with the
creation of a natural context in which the participants share their perceptions and experiences
without the influence of the researcher since he is outside the scene. (Jones et al. 2014). In the end,
both participants and researcher generate a co-production relationship of knowledge around this
form of visual communication. In a technical sense, the use of these personal video interviews has
two advantages: recordings are easy to archive for constant use in research and participants do data
collection themselves. (Potter, 2012) The downsides would lie in constantly reminding participants
to conduct and send their video interviews.

According to Silverman, focal studies have mostly been used commercially for marketing studies.
Here, participants do not answer direct questions to the interviewer; rather, the researcher seeks to
generate a discussion on a topic among the participants. One of the problems surrounding the focus
groups is that the researcher usually presents himself as an “outsider”. In the case of this research,
as in the case of Sara Crawley presented by Silverman, the contacts already built with hetero and
non hetero men will be used (Silverman, 2017). Having worked in a school, with groups of
masculinities and in my adolescence with religious groups enables me to the have contacts with
the future purposive sample. “Purposive sampling allows us to choose a case because it illustrates
some feature or process in which we are interested. […] purposive sampling demands that we
think critically about the parameters of the population we are studying and to choose our sample
case carefully on this basis.” (Silverman, 2017)

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In this case, the involvement of men with religious values linked to masculinity as well as men
who relate to feminist spaces or LGBT + movements are essential. In this research, 2 focus groups
will be proposed that share a common experience around the development of their sexual identity.
The first will be made up of heterosexual and non-heterosexual men linked to religious groups
within the Catholic Church. In my experience in this sphere, I met several people who claimed to
be gay in an identity but not practical way; since sin is committing homosexual acts. This with the
premise of investigating how the masculine values present in the Catholic religion influence the
development of sexual identity. The second group will be made up of heterosexual and non-
heterosexual men linked to feminist, masculinity groups or LGBT + communities. This with the
premise that these men have had contact with spaces and people who question and explore in a
practical and / or cognitive way what is related to their sexual identities. Each group will be made
up of 10 people (5 hetero and 5 non-hetero). All men sampled should be adult males between 20
and 35 years old. If the contacts already made in these communities are not sufficient, the technique
of snowball sampling will be used; using the social network of our initial contacts to reach the
sample criteria. (Silverman, 2017)

In this research proposal the same sample would be used for the personal video interviews. In both
data collection techniques, questions will be asked or discussions will be encouraged around the
construction of the participants' sexual identity during their adolescence and in their current life as
adults. The benefit of this purposive sampling are that it´s theoretically based since the groups are
separated based on a greater or lesser adjustment to masculine norms. The use of both focus groups
and personal video interviews will also allow us to generate a triangulation between personal
information that participants share with a camera and information that they seek to put into
discussion in front of members who belong to similar identity groups. However, as Silverman
points out, the hope of revealing a “whole picture” using more than one type of data could only be
an illusion that leads us to make an imprecise or lazy analysis if one of the data types is given
preference due to its easier analysis. (Silverman, 2017)

Finally, the analytical approach suggested would be Thematic Analysis. “TA is a method for
systematically identifying, organizing, and offering insight into patterns of meaning (themes)
across a data set.” (Braun & Clarke, 2012) This allows the researcher to identify collective
meanings and experiences among participants; it´s important to take into account that these

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patterns should be identified in data sets and not only within a single data item. In the same way,
identifying patterns does not necessarily imply that they are important or significant; therefore,
patterns must be identified in relation to the research question. In the case of this research, the
patterns to be identified would cluster around the different phases in the development of the sexual
identity shared by the participants, belonging to a majority or minority group and their
consequences, as well as the presence of narratives that show masculine regulations. Of course,
these are just assumptions and the data sets will be the ones that will ultimately provide the
patterns, these patterns will end up allowing the use of the chosen theory or its rethinking. One of
the advantages of TA is its flexibility, this allows the researcher to focus on data in many ways.
One can focus on the meanings of the entire data set or on specific cases related to the phenomenon
to be analyzed. “You can report the obvious or semantic meanings in the data, or you can
interrogate the latent meanings, the assumptions and ideas that lie behind what is explicitly
stated.” (Braun & Clarke, 2006)

However, something to keep in mind when doing TA is not to make themes that are totally
related to the data collection questions since this would only describe the direct answer to the
question and not necessarily an identification of a pattern in our data set. Other problems in this
type of analysis are the lack of evidence on a topic, the forced elaboration of a topic or the
mismatch between the TA and the theoretical background. This is why it is important to justify
the elaboration of themes as well as their incorporation in the theoretical base.(Braun & Clarke,
2012)

In epistemological terms this proposal sees the participants' responses as constructed narratives
that need to be analyzed. However, these narrations are a co-production of the collaboration
between the participants and the researcher in the case of personal video interviews, and between
the participants in the case of focus groups. These conceptions would position this research in an
epistemological stand present in the paradigm of critical theory. Critical theory presents a
transactional and subjectivist epistemology: “The investigator and the investigated object are
assumed to be interactively linked, with the values of the investigator (and of situated "others")
inevitably influencing the inquiry. Findings are therefore value mediated”. (Guba & Lincoln,
1994) In this research proposal what can be known is intertwined with the relationship between
the researcher and the participant; this relationship is what generates a dialectical methodology

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that seeks to transform reality through the acceptance of the historical constructions that shape us
in order to see how we can change and transform these constructions with criticism and hope.
(Guba & Lincoln, 1994)

This is why the objective of this proposal is not to know the truth about the way in which sexual
identity is developed in Mexican men; but to know the ways they have to narrate their experience,
the ways in which they recognize their own constructions. This is also why the objective goes
beyond the description of experiences, it goes towards the identification of patterns, of possible
strategies that shed light on how men deal with the conformation of their sexual identity in a
healthier way towards themselves and towards others. How some of their ways of restraining and
pressuring ourselves and others come from different constructions and how this could be different.

“It is difficult to find out what happened in the past by asking present-day respondents. This is not
because they may lie but simply because we all view the past through the lens of the present. Hence
this kind of retrospective study is likely to offer inaccurate information”. (Silverman, 2017) This
quote from Silverman also allows us to have a perspective of our epistemological position; indeed,
the proposed sample should share about their experiences in adolescence, thus offering a
retrospective perception. This is exactly what this study is looking for, digging into the gaze of the
past, in order to obtain a reflective and conscientious look at what has been lived. A study with
young adults can give us a more similar perspective to this search than study with adolescents.

Regarding the problem of falling into anecdotalism, there are several ways to solve it. The first is
to seek respondent validation, that the participants confirm our interpretations. This can be done
easily by clarifying their narratives both in the focus group and in the personal video interviews.
Second, instead of choosing a few extracts from the abstract that seem irrefutable, we can place
perspectives from a broader context where the trajectories that led to these conclusions can be read.
To demonstrate both processes and evidence that led to conclusions is to be methodically aware.
(Silverman, 2017)

In terms of validity, which is basically the credibility that our interpretations will have, it is
proposed to take the following actions: try to deal with contrary cases and locate our examples
contextualizing, follow the trajectory of the discourse of our participants and not take only data
chunks, examine results contrary to our assumptions, make use of triangulation based on focus
groups and personal video interviews and use tabulators to measure the frequency of the described

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phenomena. In qualitative theory “We generalize to theoretical propositions, not to populations.
We sample social relations, not individuals. We can test theories by choosing extreme or deviant
cases. We can choose new cases during our research, confident that this is not problematic but
expected and useful. We stop gathering more cases when we repeatedly fin the same answers: data
saturation”. (Silverman, 2007)

References
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology,
3, 77–101. doi:10.1191/1478088706qp063oa

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2012). Thematic analysis. APA Handbook of Research Methods in Psychology, Vol
2: Research Designs: Quantitative, Qualitative, Neuropsychological, and Biological., 2, 57–71.
https://doi.org/10.1037/13620-004

Dillon, F. R., Worthington, R. L., & Moradi, B. (2011). Sexual Identity as a Universal Process. Handbook of
Identity Theory and Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7988-9

Guba, E. G., & Lincoln, Y. S. (1994). Competing paradigms in qualitative research. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S.
Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 105-117). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Jones, R. L., Fonseca, J., Silva, L. D. M., Davies, G., Morgan, K., and Mesquita, I. (2014). The promise and
problems of video diaries: building on current research. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and
Health, 7(3), 395–410.

Lozano Verduzco, I. (2013). Masculinity and Identity: Restrictive ways of being? In Contemporary
Sexuality: An Anthology (Third, pp. 37–47). Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company.

Potter, J. (2012). Discourse analysis and discursive psychology. In Cooper, H. (Editor-in-Chief). APA
handbook of research methods in psychology: Vol. 2. Quantitative, qualitative, neuropsychological,
and biological (pp. 111-130). Washington: American Psychological Association Press.

Quirarte Martínez, R. (2019). The Contradictions of Masculinity: Desire, emotions and masculine
identities of seven heterosexual Mexican men.
https://researcharchive.vuw.ac.nz/xmlui/handle/10063/8585

Silverman, D. (2017). Doing qualitative research (Sage, Ed.; 5th edition).