The Practical Use of Awareness Theory

Editor’s note: Through examples found in their seminal theory, Awareness of Dying, Glaser and Strauss (1965) demonstrated how to develop and write a classic grounded theory in a way that is applicable to practice. Awareness of Dying was one of four monographs that culminated from a six-year funded...

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Main Author: Barney G. Glaser
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Sociology Press 2021-12-01
Series:Grounded Theory Review: An International Journal
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Online Access:https://groundedtheoryreview.org/index.php/gtr/article/view/389
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author Barney G. Glaser
author_facet Barney G. Glaser
author_sort Barney G. Glaser
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description Editor’s note: Through examples found in their seminal theory, Awareness of Dying, Glaser and Strauss (1965) demonstrated how to develop and write a classic grounded theory in a way that is applicable to practice. Awareness of Dying was one of four monographs that culminated from a six-year funded research program titled Hospital Personnel, Nursing Care and Dying Patients (Glaser & Strauss, 1968). In Awareness of Dying, Glaser and Strauss identified different levels of awareness of impending death and the effects these have on patients, families, nurses, and physicians. They discovered four distinctly different awareness contexts: closed awareness, suspected awareness, mutual pretense awareness, and open awareness. In other words, to what degree does the patient know that he or she is dying and how do others participate in that knowledge. Glaser and Strauss found that awareness contexts affected many elements of medical and nursing care and relationships among staff, patients, and families. In discussing their theory, Glaser and Strauss emphasized the importance of usefulness, clarity, and parsimony in the development of grounded theories. Indeed, through a review of the literature, Andrews and Nathaniel in 2009 confirmed that the theory continues to be useful in practice. Glaser and Strauss’s chapter has been edited and reprinted several times. In various forms, this paper was published as a chapter in in Awareness of Dying (1965) and subsequently in The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research (1967). As reprinted here, the chapter has been gently edited for clarity and context from the version found in Applying Grounded Theory: A Neglected Option (Glaser, 2014) and includes Glaser and Strauss’s original footnotes. It is included in this issue of Grounded Theory Review as an example of the practical usefulness of a substantive grounded theory.
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spelling doaj-art-87cf17236f424275b233bc8a3b61b1bb2025-08-20T02:20:51ZengSociology PressGrounded Theory Review: An International Journal1556-15421556-15502021-12-012002The Practical Use of Awareness TheoryBarney G. Glaser Editor’s note: Through examples found in their seminal theory, Awareness of Dying, Glaser and Strauss (1965) demonstrated how to develop and write a classic grounded theory in a way that is applicable to practice. Awareness of Dying was one of four monographs that culminated from a six-year funded research program titled Hospital Personnel, Nursing Care and Dying Patients (Glaser & Strauss, 1968). In Awareness of Dying, Glaser and Strauss identified different levels of awareness of impending death and the effects these have on patients, families, nurses, and physicians. They discovered four distinctly different awareness contexts: closed awareness, suspected awareness, mutual pretense awareness, and open awareness. In other words, to what degree does the patient know that he or she is dying and how do others participate in that knowledge. Glaser and Strauss found that awareness contexts affected many elements of medical and nursing care and relationships among staff, patients, and families. In discussing their theory, Glaser and Strauss emphasized the importance of usefulness, clarity, and parsimony in the development of grounded theories. Indeed, through a review of the literature, Andrews and Nathaniel in 2009 confirmed that the theory continues to be useful in practice. Glaser and Strauss’s chapter has been edited and reprinted several times. In various forms, this paper was published as a chapter in in Awareness of Dying (1965) and subsequently in The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research (1967). As reprinted here, the chapter has been gently edited for clarity and context from the version found in Applying Grounded Theory: A Neglected Option (Glaser, 2014) and includes Glaser and Strauss’s original footnotes. It is included in this issue of Grounded Theory Review as an example of the practical usefulness of a substantive grounded theory. https://groundedtheoryreview.org/index.php/gtr/article/view/389Classic Grounded Theoryawarenessfitunderstandinggeneralitycontrol
spellingShingle Barney G. Glaser
The Practical Use of Awareness Theory
Grounded Theory Review: An International Journal
Classic Grounded Theory
awareness
fit
understanding
generality
control
title The Practical Use of Awareness Theory
title_full The Practical Use of Awareness Theory
title_fullStr The Practical Use of Awareness Theory
title_full_unstemmed The Practical Use of Awareness Theory
title_short The Practical Use of Awareness Theory
title_sort practical use of awareness theory
topic Classic Grounded Theory
awareness
fit
understanding
generality
control
url https://groundedtheoryreview.org/index.php/gtr/article/view/389
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