Qualitative Research Methods for Psychologists: Introduction through Empirical Studies

CONSTANCE T. FISCHER (Ed.) Qualitative Research Methods for Psychologists: Introduction through Empirical Studies Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2006, 512 pages (ISBN 0-12-088470-4, US$89.95 Hardcover)

Reviewed by ANITA UNRUH

This book is intended as an introductory textbook for psychology students and psychologists who have been trained in traditional psychological research methods with the goal of providing an orientation to qualitative research frameworks and how they are applied to the many research questions that might be considered by psychologists.

The book begins with a useful introductory chapter by the editor that provides a historical overview of the emergence of psychology as a science concerned primarily with determining causal relationships. The editor then examines the origins of qualitative research and the contributions it can make as a post-modern epistemological perspective that is concerned with the meaning of psychological phenomena and the interrelationships of outcomes and circumstances of these phenomena. This discussion is followed by a review of practical matters pertaining to undertaking a qualitative thesis (or study). Some of this section includes standard advice for graduate students but a number of issues that are often particularly complex for qualitative researchers are considered by the editor (how much personal interest in the topic should be acknowledged by the researcher, the process of qualitative data collection and analysis, writing and publishing qualitative research, and, attending to ethical issues in qualitative research). This introduction is very helpful in setting qualitative methodologies within psychology both as a therapeutic profession, and as a scientific discipline, with a qualitative overview for the novice reader.

There are 13 chapters in the body of the book and they are gathered into three parts. The five chapters in Clinical Practices make linkages between psychotherapy and the qualitative methods or analytical approaches of discourse analysis, grounded theory, and phenomenology. The five chapters in Affective and Cognitive Processes discuss feminist collaborative research, phenomenology, and dialogical approaches as applied to affective and cognitive issues. They include discussions about qualitative research concerned with sexual abuse, anger, joy, forgiveness, and thought processes. The three chapters in Life Situations examine intuitive inquiry, experiential method, and focus groups as qualitative methods to address, respectively, embodiment of contemporary female mystics, being a stranger in a foreign land, and HIV/AIDS interventions in Botswana.

The authors of these chapters are respected qualitative researchers in psychology. Most come from the United States but several are from Canada or the United Kingdom. All of the chapters are written in the first person, in a narrative style. They tell a story about an author's approach to a particular psychological issue using qualitative method or analysis. The focus is primarily on method, processes, and analytical strategies though usually there is also some discussion about research findings particularly in chapters that are more focused on data analysis.

The book ends with a Question and Responses chapter by the editor that covers many of the questions novice qualitative researchers often have about qualitative research. The last section is a detailed Glossary of terms that are significant in understanding qualitative research. Both of these sections clarify many of the questions that are often raised by graduate students and beginning qualitative researchers particularly if their background is in quantitative research methods.

The writing by the editor and the chapter authors draws a reader deeply into their accounts of their work. I found this was particularly so for the introductory chapter, the questions and responses chapter, and the chapters on the dialogal approach and forgiveness, feminist research with sexually abused women, and, focus groups and HIV/AIDS in Botswana. In addition, the discussions about data analysis by many of the authors were often practical and insightful (e.g., Robbins' chapter on phenomenology and joy, Rennie's chapter on grounded theory and constant comparative analysis). Other chapters were more difficult to grasp as discussions of research methods. For example, the chapters in the section on Clinical Practices illustrated how various approaches to qualitative data analysis might be applied to understanding the psychotherapeutic process but it was less clear how one might use qualitative research to examine the effectiveness or usefulness of psychotherapeutic approaches.

An edited book often suffers from a fragmented overall portrayal of the primary area of interest. In this book, the editor reduced this problem in three ways: by clustering chapters into one of three areas; by providing structural advice for the novice qualitative researcher in the introductory chapter, questions and answers, and glossary; and by providing an editor's introduction in each chapter. In addition, the use of the first person by all of the authors provided a more cohesive and personal presentation that is highly effective for discussions about qualitative research. Nevertheless, the book does seem somewhat fragmented because most chapters, with the exception of those in the Clinical Practices section, stand alone and the authors do not refer to each other. Some of the chapter titles are obtuse and less inviting than they could be for a potential reader. For example, the title of the first chapter - An Assimilation Analysis of Psychotherapy: Responsibility for 'Being There' - is ambiguous as a first chapter in an introductory qualitative research method book. Although the narrative style of writing was highly engaging and provided interesting examples of qualitative methods and/or analysis, a didactic and basic overview of the method itself was sometimes needed but missing. As acknowledged by the editor, the emphasis in this book is on phenomenological methods. There was no discussion about ethnography, symbolic interactionism, life history or narrative research.

There is much in this book to recommend it as an introductory book on qualitative research for graduate students and beginning qualitative researchers. The discussions about analysis and the editor's contributions in the introduction and questions and answers are particularly helpful.

[Author Affiliation]

Constance T. Fischer is Professor in the Department of Psychology and member of the Center for Interpretive and Qualitative Research at Duquesne University.

Anita M. Unruh is Professor of Health and Human Performance, and Occupational Therapy at Dalhousie University. She is a qualitative and quantitative researcher with work in the area of spirituality and health, leisure and coping, and gender and pain. She is editor and author of a recent textbook, Pain - A textbook for therapists (2002, Churchill and Livingston).