Qualitative research approaches to social phenomena

Qualitative research methods have rapidly gained acceptance in mainstream academic psychology over the past four decades. As qualitative methods become more valued in psychology, particularly for their ability to illuminate social phenomena that quantitative approaches cannot address alone, scholars and practitioners alike are seeking out different qualitative methods to include in their investigations. This chapter provides a brief overview of eight of the most popular types of qualitative research methods: ethnography, phenomenology, discourse analysis, narrative research, grounded theory, action research, historical research, and case study research. As in quantitative or mixed methods approaches, each qualitative method needs to be examined for goodness of fit on a project-by-project basis, and the appropriate methodological choice depends on the research design and questions. Though there is an increasingly large range of qualitative methods or variations, this chapter is a useful starting point for psychologists, scholars, or practitioners who are interested in engaging with qualitative methods