Qualitative psychology emphasizes individual experiences and uses subjective methods like observation and interviews. It aims to construct hypotheses through deep analysis rather than numerical evidence. Psychoanalytic theories rely heavily on talk therapy and subjective ideas.
Qualitative psychology is not a particular, focused branch of psychology, but rather a way of approaching psychological research and theories. Qualitative methods are an alternative to quantitative approaches involving statistics and other numerical tools. More subjective methods such as interviewing and observation are the cornerstones of qualitative research. Some theories of psychology, such as psychoanalysis, depend more on a qualitative approach.
The idea behind qualitative psychology is to place emphasis on individual and personal experiences. Psychologists are therefore interested in learning about each subject’s experiences and how each subject filters those experiences through their unique perspective. Proponents of such an approach also advocate conducting research in naturalized environments that allow more of an individual’s true nature to emerge.
As such, qualitative methods are typically informal and not as rigidly structured as most scientific experiments. For example, a researcher practicing qualitative psychology might simply observe and make notes of individuals as they perform routine behaviors and interactions in their everyday context. The researcher could conduct research in a park, a workplace, or even a home.
Interviews are another common research tool used in qualitative psychology. Questions can provide valuable insight into an individual’s thought processes. However, in qualitative analysis, specific questions are left as open-ended and broad as possible to allow the research subject to control the content and length of the response.
This openness highlights another key aspect of qualitative psychology approaches: working to construct a hypothesis or theory through deep analysis rather than trying to prove an existing assumption through statistical and numerical evidence. Other qualitative methods reinforce this inductive approach. For example, researchers might conduct group or social comparisons via focus groups in which individuals are brought together to provide collective feedback on a topic. Psychologists might also study individuals through their creations, such as analyzing works of art or written texts for models and insights.
Most areas of psychology use a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, but some theories are more qualitative in nature than others. Practitioners of the psychoanalytic theories and methods of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and others tend to place more emphasis on talk therapy. Most of their approaches are based on a patient freely addressing past issues and present issues through conversations with a counselor. In a larger context, these theories emphasize subjective and largely abstract ideas such as levels of consciousness or the idea of an impulse-driven id in combat with a law-abiding superego in humans.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
