Essentials of Descriptive-Interpretive Qualitative Research

Robert Elliott, PhD, is Professor of Counselling at the University of Strathclyde. He received his doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles, and is professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Toledo (Ohio). He has spent most of his career as a psychotherapy researcher trying out and inventing different research methods. He is co-author of Facilitating Emotional Change (1993), Learning Process-Experiential Psychotherapy (2004), Research Methods in Clinical Psychology (3rd ed., 2015), as well as more than 170 journal articles and book chapters. He is past president of the Society for Psychotherapy Research and previously co-edited the journals Psychotherapy Research and Person-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapies.    Ladislav Timulak, PhD, is an Associate Professor at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. He is Course Director of the Doctorate in Counselling Psychology course. Ladislav (or Laco for short; read Latso) is involved in the training of counselling psychologists and various psychotherapy trainings in Ireland and internationally. Laco is both an academic and a practitioner. He is interested in research methodology and psychotherapy research, particularly the development of emotion-focused therapy. He has written six books, over 80 peer-reviewed papers, and various chapters in both his native language, Slovak, and in English. He serves on various editorial boards and in the past served as a co-editor of Counselling Psychology Quarterly.  

Series Foreword by Clara E. Hill and Sarah Knox

1. Why a Generic Descriptive-Interpretive Approach to Qualitative Research?

2. Designing the Study

3. Data Collection

4. A Framework of Key Modes of Qualitative Data Analysis

5. Writing the Manuscript

6. Methodological Integrity

7. Summary and Conclusions

Appendix. Example Studies

References