Quantitative and Qualitative Research

I thought I would write a few paragraphs about research methods, as a way of positioning the next few articles I want to pen. I am considering my Psychology training on one hand, and that of my Psychotherapy training on the other.

The first required quantitative research, the other qualitative research. Quantitative research reminds me of the Enlightenment which arrived in Aotearoa in “1769 when Captain James Cook and his Endeavour companions arrived at Uawa” (Salmond 2020). The Endeavour “was a travelling sideshow of the Enlightenment, lavishly provided with scientific equipment to scan the heavens, collect, and examine plants and animals”. This perspective was connected to René Descartes who believed “the thinking self – became the eye of the world” and “as the mind’s eye replaced the Eye of God people were separated from Nature, and eventually from each other”. However, there is also a much more creative way to approach research, that of a qualitative stance. It is this that I will be exploring over the next few articles.  

In the late 1980s I undertook a Master of Science in Psychology. As part of this I was required to write a thesis. This was a quantitative piece of work that required me to think of a topic that I wanted to research, create a hypothesis, design a study to test this, collect data and statistically analyse the numbers. I could then consider what I found against the hypothesis, review other papers and then write my conclusion.

The shape of this work was outward from me. I could consider myself separate from the topic, whilst analysing other people’s behaviours. You might say that I had little skin in the game. Findlay (2011) states that quantitative research “seeks to explain and ‘prove’”. Although I learnt a lot (basically about statistics and recruitment) I was not required to be self-reflective. For instance, why might I unconsciously be drawn to researching recruitment?

In 2015 I was ready to start my dissertation for my Master of Arts in Psychotherapy. I was required to use a qualitative approach, using at least two of the three research methods taught. “Qualitative research aims to be inductive and exploratory, typically asking ‘what’ and ‘how’, and posing questions related to description and understanding” (Findlay, 2011). The shape of this work was inward towards me. I suddenly had more than skin in the game, I had bones, flesh, body, and an unconscious ancestral realm to grapple with. I was part of the research, yet I was not the goal of the research.

In an early part of my qualitative research, I felt drawn to my old quantitative research methods, when I was exploring the topic of Depersonalization (Simeon & Abugel 2009, Sierra 2012). I had stumbled across “The Cambridge Depersonalization Scale” (Sierra, 2012) which allowed behaviours to be categorised with numbers. I felt the excitement of being able to measure again and with that taking myself out of my research. It slowly dawned on me that this was potentially a lovely defence from sitting with my work and sinking deeper. I put the books down. I re-turned to “Qualitative research findings tend to be complex, rich, messy and ambiguous. They are usually expressed though words or through creative arts” (Findlay, 2011).

My Psychotherapy training included three different types of qualitative research methods and tools, which I thought would be useful to write about over the next few articles. These are Imaginal Research (Romanyshyn, 2013), Heuristic Research (Moustakas, 1990) and Embodied Enquiry (Todres, 2007). The reason I am doing this, is not so that you can undertake a Masters in Psychotherapy, more that you might find interesting both the process and tools involved to be able to sink into the unconscious.

Finlay, L. (2011) Phenomenology for Therapists. Researching the Lived World. Wiley-Blackwell.

Moustakas, C. (1990). Heuristic Research. Design. Methodology and Applications. Sage Publications Inc.

Romanyshyn, R. D. (2013). The Wounded Researcher. Research with Soul in Mind. Spring Journal Books.

Salmond, A. (2020). Tears of Rangi. Experiments Across Worlds. Auckland University Press.

Sierra, M. (2012) Depersonalization. A New Look at a Neglected Syndrome. Cambridge University Press.

Simeon, D. & Abugel, J. (2009). Feeling Unreal. Depersonalization Disorder and the Loss of the Self. Oxford University Press.

Todres, L. (2007). Embodied Enquiry. Phenomenological Touchstones for Research, Psychotherapy and Spirituality. Palgrave MacMillan.