This module establishes identity and positionality as methodological foundations, not personal add-ons. Students learn that qualitative rigor begins before data collection, with clarity about who the researcher is, how meaning is constructed, and how language mediates interpretation.

The module introduces the Naming Gap as both:

• an empirical finding from the study, and
• a methodological lens for qualitative analysis.

This module operationalizes the Fuller Method principle that identity precedes interpretation, and interpretation precedes rigor.

Key Concepts

The Naming Gap

Research definition: A structural disconnect between lived experience and institutional recognition, produced through language, classification, and pathway visibility.

Methodological significance:

• Reveals how categories are constructed
• Alerts researchers to what is unnamed
• Guards against deficit interpretations

Exhaust All Options Principle

Before assigning meaning, the qualitative researcher must:

1. Examine participant language closely
2. Consider multiple interpretive frames
3. Return to context
4. Test alternative explanations
5. Delay closure

Neuroscience of Interpretation

Key points:

• Threat → amygdala activation → premature interpretation
• Safety → frontal cortex → meaning tolerance
• Reflexivity keeps interpretation open longer