Reflections on Certain Qualitative and Phenomenological Psychological Methods

Amedeo Giorgi

One could describe the status of psychological research today as one in which qualitative methods based upon diverse philosophies have been developing and advancing at a fast pace. It is a time therefore when reflections on this state of affairs are appropriate. The five essays in this book are all concerned with qualitative methods and their philosophical backgrounds. Briefly, the first essay contrasts the relative merits of the three most used philosophical bases for qualitative methods: empirical philosophy, hermeneutics, and Husserlian descriptive phenomenology. The second essay tries to resolve the tensions between descriptive and interpretive methods. Both are of service to science, but they relate to different conditions. The third essay discusses certain pitfalls that should be avoided when conducting psychological research on oneself. The fourth essay describes the extension of certain guidelines when using the descriptive phenomenological method. The fifth essay challenges the assumption of naturalism for psychology and argues for the development of a non-naturalistic method for psychology.