This unique text provides a broad introduction to qualitative analysis together with concrete demonstrations and comparisons of five major approaches. Leading scholars apply their respective analytic lenses to a narrative account and interview featuring "Teresa," a young opera singer who experienced a career-changing illness. The resulting analyses vividly exemplify what each approach looks like in action. The researchers then probe the similarities and differences among their approaches; their distinctive purposes and strengths; the role, style, and subjectivity of the individual researcher; and the scientific and ethical complexities of conducting qualitative research. Also included are the research participant's responses to each analysis of her experience. A narrative account from another research participant, "Gail," can be used by readers to practice the kinds of analysis explored in the book. This book will be important reading for graduate students, instructors, and researchers in psychology, education, social work, family studies and human development, sociology, and nursing.
It will also serve as a text in graduate-level qualitative analysis courses and as a supplement in graduate-level qualitative methods, PsyD research methods, and humanistic psychology courses and in phenomenological research seminars.