Explainer · Plain-language
Reflexivity: Definition, Meaning & Examples | CASRAI
Reflexivity is the practice of researchers critically examining how their own background, assumptions, and presence shape the research process and its findings. It is a hallmark of rigorous qualitative inquiry.
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Examining the researcher’s influence
Reflexivity rests on the recognition that, in qualitative research, the researcher is part of the research — they design questions, build relationships with participants, and interpret meaning. Reflexivity is the disciplined practice of reflecting on how their assumptions, disciplinary lens, emotions, and social position shape each of these activities. Rather than treating subjectivity as contamination to be eliminated, reflexive practice treats it as something to be acknowledged, examined, and made transparent so its effects can be understood.
Positionality and power
A central concept is positionality: the researcher’s situated standpoint — shaped by identity, experience, and relationship to the topic and participants — and how it affects access, rapport, and interpretation. Reflexivity attends especially to power dynamics between researcher and participants, and to how the researcher’s "insider" or "outsider" status colours what people share and how it is read. Many qualitative reports now include a positionality statement that makes these factors explicit to readers.
Reflexivity and trustworthiness
In qualitative inquiry, reflexivity is one of the practices that establishes trustworthiness — the qualitative counterpart to the validity and reliability prized in quantitative research. By documenting how interpretations were arrived at and how the researcher’s perspective was managed, reflexivity supports credibility and confirmability, helping readers judge whether findings are grounded in the data rather than merely in the researcher’s preconceptions. It is therefore an analytic resource, not just an ethical nicety.
How reflexivity is practised
Reflexivity is operationalised through concrete techniques. A reflexive journal records the researcher’s evolving thoughts, decisions, and reactions throughout fieldwork and analysis, creating an audit trail. Memo-writing, supervision or peer debriefing, and team discussion expose blind spots. A written positionality statement situates the researcher for the reader. Together these practices turn reflexivity from a vague disposition into a documented, examinable part of the methodology that strengthens the credibility of the account.
Key facts
At a glance
- Definition: Critical self-examination of the researcher’s own influence
- Field: Central to qualitative research
- Key concept: Positionality — the researcher’s situated standpoint
- Supports: Trustworthiness, credibility and confirmability
- Documented: Via reflexive journals and positionality statements
- Stance: Subjectivity is examined and made explicit, not hidden
Common misconceptions
What people often get wrong
Often heard: Reflexivity means trying to remove all researcher bias.
Actually: No — qualitative reflexivity acknowledges and examines the researcher’s influence rather than pretending it can be eliminated.
Often heard: Reflexivity is just the researcher writing about their feelings.
Actually: No — it is a disciplined analytic practice that traces how positionality shapes design, data, and interpretation, supporting trustworthiness.
Often heard: Reflexivity applies equally to all quantitative studies.
Actually: No — it is primarily a qualitative practice. Quantitative work manages researcher influence chiefly through blinding, standardisation, and validity checks.
Going deeper
