A committee member told me that I have to explain in the manuscript my personal interest in the dissertation topic as the researcher, and the inherent biases - particularly why I decided to conduct the research using a particular methodology, and how my identity may bias how I interpret the findings. I can't find examples of how others have done this in the social sciences. Do I refer to myself in the third person ("the researcher...")?

Help! I'm confused!

Hi D,

Andrews has a good paper which talks about finding your voice - 'Argumentation, Critical Thinking and the Post-Graduate Dissertation' (2007) Educational Review. He talks of the balance between the personal & impersonal & how to give your work an impassioned feel.
I've been positively encouraged to include myself in the work, in the 1st person, for example outlining my own progression almost in real-time as the research has progressed. I'm telling a story in which I have played a part, so 'I' have to be in it!!
Have you tried looking at other PhD theses on the British Library Ethos site? I'm sure you'll find examples of how to include the personal story.

Best of luck, Mog

You can find a fair bit in qualitative research about about locating yourself and explaining how you, as the researcher, influenced how your research developed. Feminist methodologies often talk quite a lot about this, from a first person point of view, or you could try looking at narrative studies - Riessman for example has some interesting points about explaining your positioning. You could look at:

Riessman, Catherine Kohler. 1993. Narrative Analysis. London: Sage Publications.

Any of her articles would have some similar points.

How you refer to yourself depends on your discipline and the tone of your thesis. You could try something like "As the primary researcher, my background [blah blah was important because]."

I hope that's useful, and good luck!