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Successful Qualitative Research: A Practical Guide for Beginners
*Shortlisted for the BPS Book Award 2014 in the Textbook Category*
*Winner of the 2014 Distinguished Publication Award (DPA) from the Association for Women in Psychology (AWP)*
Successful Qualitative Research: A Practical Guide for Beginners is an accessible, practical textbook. It sidesteps detailed theoretical discussion in favor of providing a comprehensive overview of strategic tips and skills for starting and completing successful qualitative research.
Uniquely, the authors provide a patterns framework to qualitative data analysis in this book, also known as thematic analysis. The authors walk students through a basic thematic approach, and compare and contrast this with other approaches. This discussion of commonalities, explaining why and when each method should be used, and in the context of looking at patterns, will provide students with complete confidence for their qualitative research journey.
This textbook will be an essential textbook for undergraduates and postgraduates taking a course in qualitative research or using qualitative approaches in a research project.
*Winner of the 2014 Distinguished Publication Award (DPA) from the Association for Women in Psychology (AWP)*
Successful Qualitative Research: A Practical Guide for Beginners is an accessible, practical textbook. It sidesteps detailed theoretical discussion in favor of providing a comprehensive overview of strategic tips and skills for starting and completing successful qualitative research.
Uniquely, the authors provide a patterns framework to qualitative data analysis in this book, also known as thematic analysis. The authors walk students through a basic thematic approach, and compare and contrast this with other approaches. This discussion of commonalities, explaining why and when each method should be used, and in the context of looking at patterns, will provide students with complete confidence for their qualitative research journey.
This textbook will be an essential textbook for undergraduates and postgraduates taking a course in qualitative research or using qualitative approaches in a research project.
400 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
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111 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 27, 2021
Very accessible primer on the complete qualitative research cycle. Mainly written for undergraduate students in psychology, I as a PhD candidate in an adjacent field (HCI/design) got quite a bit out of it as well. I particularly appreciated the theoretical foundation on qualitative paradigms and methods of analysis. This is often lacking in design research textbooks, and the distinction between qualitative data collection and qualitative analysis is frequently glossed over. This little book has increased my confidence in pursuing a full-on qualitative approach to my PhD.
December 4, 2023
Easy to read very helpful
Read
January 26, 2024read for uni, wasn't very fun but it was easy to understand, practical and very informative.
August 13, 2024
Fabulous. My Honours self thanks these authors for their dumbing down of thematic research.
December 30, 2024
You may be thinking, "Is this book about Hamilton?"
Well, that's a matter of perspective, but I'd say it's probably not.
But then again, even after finishing the book, I'm still not sure why there's a gold star.
I read this book per request of my summer research advisor during my undergrad. At the time, my only experience with qualitative research was extremely "practical." I hosted radio shows and podcasts with friends, constantly sought intimate conversations with people that "interested" me, and tended to find my most exciting discoveries from diaries and books. In other words, I was a literature student, not a psychologist - especially in the lab.
I was in my Junior year of uni and feared that "Psychology was not for me." You see, my university tends to be a bit more positivist - emphasizing the need for "numbers" to justify knowledge... In reality, numbers give you probabilities in very controlled and limited settings - not an understanding of the incredible complexities underlying the human psyche (And while we're here, psyche=soul, not mind. Psychology is the study of the soul - the immaterial, complex, and virtually nonexistent soul. I know, mind...blowing).
In case you couldn't tell, I turned to qualitative research out of spite for quantitative research which, at the time, I felt had become increasingly reductionist and generalizable to a fault. At the time, my research topics tended to reside in intersections between Anxiety, Autism, and Religion. This meant that numbers were rarely capable of illustrating any phenomenon I was interested in. This was becoming so frustrating that I had to seek help from universities across the pond - which led to the summer research opportunity I mentioned earlier. My hope at that point was that Qualitative research could investigate the complexities of humanity with a little more nuance than statistical probabilities.
Great news! It does!
Bad news! It makes it really hard to understand in traditional academia!
To suture this, Dr. Braun and Clarke emphasize the necessity of practical experience. Qualitative research is a craft, not a recipe or equation - which makes it extremely contradictory to how we're taught to know things.
Thankfully, Dr. Braun and Clarke realize this and do the best they can, but be prepared to find yourself lost! Don't worry, it's completely normal! It probably just means that you need more experience! Despite finding some parts borderline nonsensical, I'd say that the majority felt rather intuitive and the examples were usually enough to boost my morale. If I didn't understand it then, I'd come to understand it at 1AM on a Friday evening while drinking at the pub!
The best part about all of this is that Dr. Braun and Clarke made me not hate quantitative research! They highlighted its uses and its pitfalls honestly and intelligently which made it much easier to return to my home university and struggle through (yet another) stats course!
But that doesn't make it impervious to critique!
For one, I felt the wording was often contrived and hard to follow, and that wasn't because of the materials complexity. Sometimes, I had to revisit sentences several times just to get rewrite the most bland sentence in my notebook - thus is the life of an academic I guess.
I also occasionally found some typos while reading but rarely enough to slow me down. I think one of them was ironically in a section that talked about the importance of clear wording in interview questions.
Lastly, I think that the headers and chapter objectives would be better if it tried to highlight main takeaways rather than merely state what the paragraph below was about. I get that the book is supposed to be read in short bursts, but I do think it should accommodate those trying to read everything in an evening (at least to some extent for all the crammers out there). When reading this book for an hour+, it can be really hard to stay focused on chunks of black squiggles. Having an opportunity to skim and still be able to pull something away would be amazing!
On the record, I was often able to do this, but sometimes not - and it was very frustrating when I couldn't.
In the end, I think this book is essential to any budding psychologist interested in quantitative or qualitative research. As a discipline we should be able to utilize and see value in any tool in the shed - and qualitative research can clearly do some amazing things! In case it already isn't, I hope this book becomes a core part of any Intro to Psychology course.
Thank you!!
Well, that's a matter of perspective, but I'd say it's probably not.
But then again, even after finishing the book, I'm still not sure why there's a gold star.
I read this book per request of my summer research advisor during my undergrad. At the time, my only experience with qualitative research was extremely "practical." I hosted radio shows and podcasts with friends, constantly sought intimate conversations with people that "interested" me, and tended to find my most exciting discoveries from diaries and books. In other words, I was a literature student, not a psychologist - especially in the lab.
I was in my Junior year of uni and feared that "Psychology was not for me." You see, my university tends to be a bit more positivist - emphasizing the need for "numbers" to justify knowledge... In reality, numbers give you probabilities in very controlled and limited settings - not an understanding of the incredible complexities underlying the human psyche (And while we're here, psyche=soul, not mind. Psychology is the study of the soul - the immaterial, complex, and virtually nonexistent soul. I know, mind...blowing).
In case you couldn't tell, I turned to qualitative research out of spite for quantitative research which, at the time, I felt had become increasingly reductionist and generalizable to a fault. At the time, my research topics tended to reside in intersections between Anxiety, Autism, and Religion. This meant that numbers were rarely capable of illustrating any phenomenon I was interested in. This was becoming so frustrating that I had to seek help from universities across the pond - which led to the summer research opportunity I mentioned earlier. My hope at that point was that Qualitative research could investigate the complexities of humanity with a little more nuance than statistical probabilities.
Great news! It does!
Bad news! It makes it really hard to understand in traditional academia!
To suture this, Dr. Braun and Clarke emphasize the necessity of practical experience. Qualitative research is a craft, not a recipe or equation - which makes it extremely contradictory to how we're taught to know things.
Thankfully, Dr. Braun and Clarke realize this and do the best they can, but be prepared to find yourself lost! Don't worry, it's completely normal! It probably just means that you need more experience! Despite finding some parts borderline nonsensical, I'd say that the majority felt rather intuitive and the examples were usually enough to boost my morale. If I didn't understand it then, I'd come to understand it at 1AM on a Friday evening while drinking at the pub!
The best part about all of this is that Dr. Braun and Clarke made me not hate quantitative research! They highlighted its uses and its pitfalls honestly and intelligently which made it much easier to return to my home university and struggle through (yet another) stats course!
But that doesn't make it impervious to critique!
For one, I felt the wording was often contrived and hard to follow, and that wasn't because of the materials complexity. Sometimes, I had to revisit sentences several times just to get rewrite the most bland sentence in my notebook - thus is the life of an academic I guess.
I also occasionally found some typos while reading but rarely enough to slow me down. I think one of them was ironically in a section that talked about the importance of clear wording in interview questions.
Lastly, I think that the headers and chapter objectives would be better if it tried to highlight main takeaways rather than merely state what the paragraph below was about. I get that the book is supposed to be read in short bursts, but I do think it should accommodate those trying to read everything in an evening (at least to some extent for all the crammers out there). When reading this book for an hour+, it can be really hard to stay focused on chunks of black squiggles. Having an opportunity to skim and still be able to pull something away would be amazing!
On the record, I was often able to do this, but sometimes not - and it was very frustrating when I couldn't.
In the end, I think this book is essential to any budding psychologist interested in quantitative or qualitative research. As a discipline we should be able to utilize and see value in any tool in the shed - and qualitative research can clearly do some amazing things! In case it already isn't, I hope this book becomes a core part of any Intro to Psychology course.
Thank you!!
July 13, 2023
For me this was a Bible of techniques in qualitative analysis. As I was new to it this book felt like I had someone there talking me through each step - written in a very conversational way and very easy to pick up and use for each section of my work. Wouldn't have managed my analysis without it!!
May 16, 2017
This is one of the few hands-on books on qualitative research which I found. In addition, it also discusses theory in a very accessible way. The book uses many cases to illustrate the methods.
April 3, 2017
Yeah no - 1.5*
It might be the book for you but it's definitely not the one for me. I mean the contents page is ridiculous and every paragraph heading has a place in the contents page...
The stuff's not even useful.
It might be the book for you but it's definitely not the one for me. I mean the contents page is ridiculous and every paragraph heading has a place in the contents page...
The stuff's not even useful.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews