Death in the balance : a constructivist interpretation of the impact of awaiting capital punishment on death row prisoners

Abstract

The epistemological framework, 'constructivism', posits the notion that we can only know our own construction of others and the world and not the objective truth about others and the world. Constructivism has been used in this study to describe the psychological experiences of death row inmates. The research design focused on the experiences of three prisoners currently serving their sentences at Pretoria's Maximum Prison. The use of narrative and its concomitant interpretation was used as a method of co-research as it was viewed to be coterminous with the idea of co-construction, where the experience between this co­ researcher and the prisoners could be linked up in a systemic, temporal and thematically consistent way. Despite the content of the material being subjective and nongeneralisable, it has been attuned to bring forth distinctions that are liable to be heuristic-- this generated an enticing novelty that stimulated this co-researcher. Readers are wished a similar outcome.