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500+ Qualitative Research Titles and Topics

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Qualitative research is a methodological approach that involves gathering and analyzing non-numerical data to understand and interpret social phenomena. Unlike quantitative research , which emphasizes the collection of numerical data through surveys and experiments, qualitative research is concerned with exploring the subjective experiences, perspectives, and meanings of individuals and groups. As such, qualitative research topics can be diverse and encompass a wide range of social issues and phenomena. From exploring the impact of culture on identity formation to examining the experiences of marginalized communities, qualitative research offers a rich and nuanced perspective on complex social issues. In this post, we will explore some of the most compelling qualitative research topics and provide some tips on how to conduct effective qualitative research.

Qualitative Research Titles

Qualitative research titles often reflect the study’s focus on understanding the depth and complexity of human behavior, experiences, or social phenomena. Here are some examples across various fields:

• “Understanding the Impact of Project-Based Learning on Student Engagement in High School Classrooms: A Qualitative Study”
• “Navigating the Transition: Experiences of International Students in American Universities”
• “The Role of Parental Involvement in Early Childhood Education: Perspectives from Teachers and Parents”
• “Exploring the Effects of Teacher Feedback on Student Motivation and Self-Efficacy in Middle Schools”
• “Digital Literacy in the Classroom: Teacher Strategies for Integrating Technology in Elementary Education”
• “Culturally Responsive Teaching Practices: A Case Study in Diverse Urban Schools”
• “The Influence of Extracurricular Activities on Academic Achievement: Student Perspectives”
• “Barriers to Implementing Inclusive Education in Public Schools: A Qualitative Inquiry”
• “Teacher Professional Development and Its Impact on Classroom Practice: A Qualitative Exploration”
• “Student-Centered Learning Environments: A Qualitative Study of Classroom Dynamics and Outcomes”
• “The Experience of First-Year Teachers: Challenges, Support Systems, and Professional Growth”
• “Exploring the Role of School Leadership in Fostering a Positive School Culture”
• “Peer Relationships and Learning Outcomes in Cooperative Learning Settings: A Qualitative Analysis”
• “The Impact of Social Media on Student Learning and Engagement: Teacher and Student Perspectives”
• “Understanding Special Education Needs: Parent and Teacher Perceptions of Support Services in Schools

Health Science

• “Living with Chronic Pain: Patient Narratives and Coping Strategies in Managing Daily Life”
• “Healthcare Professionals’ Perspectives on the Challenges of Rural Healthcare Delivery”
• “Exploring the Mental Health Impacts of COVID-19 on Frontline Healthcare Workers: A Qualitative Study”
• “Patient and Family Experiences of Palliative Care: Understanding Needs and Preferences”
• “The Role of Community Health Workers in Improving Access to Maternal Healthcare in Rural Areas”
• “Barriers to Mental Health Services Among Ethnic Minorities: A Qualitative Exploration”
• “Understanding Patient Satisfaction in Telemedicine Services: A Qualitative Study of User Experiences”
• “The Impact of Cultural Competence Training on Healthcare Provider-Patient Communication”
• “Navigating the Transition to Adult Healthcare Services: Experiences of Adolescents with Chronic Conditions”
• “Exploring the Use of Alternative Medicine Among Patients with Chronic Diseases: A Qualitative Inquiry”
• “The Role of Social Support in the Rehabilitation Process of Stroke Survivors”
• “Healthcare Decision-Making Among Elderly Patients: A Qualitative Study of Preferences and Influences”
• “Nurse Perceptions of Patient Safety Culture in Hospital Settings: A Qualitative Analysis”
• “Experiences of Women with Postpartum Depression: Barriers to Seeking Help”
• “The Impact of Nutrition Education on Eating Behaviors Among College Students: A Qualitative Approach”
• “Understanding Resilience in Survivors of Childhood Trauma: A Narrative Inquiry”
• “The Role of Mindfulness in Managing Work-Related Stress Among Corporate Employees: A Qualitative Study”
• “Coping Mechanisms Among Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder”
• “Exploring the Psychological Impact of Social Isolation in the Elderly: A Phenomenological Study”
• “Identity Formation in Adolescence: The Influence of Social Media and Peer Groups”
• “The Experience of Forgiveness in Interpersonal Relationships: A Qualitative Exploration”
• “Perceptions of Happiness and Well-Being Among University Students: A Cultural Perspective”
• “The Impact of Art Therapy on Anxiety and Depression in Adult Cancer Patients”
• “Narratives of Recovery: A Qualitative Study on the Journey Through Addiction Rehabilitation”
• “Exploring the Psychological Effects of Long-Term Unemployment: A Grounded Theory Approach”
• “Attachment Styles and Their Influence on Adult Romantic Relationships: A Qualitative Analysis”
• “The Role of Personal Values in Career Decision-Making Among Young Adults”
• “Understanding the Stigma of Mental Illness in Rural Communities: A Qualitative Inquiry”
• “Exploring the Use of Digital Mental Health Interventions Among Adolescents: A Qualitative Study”
• “The Psychological Impact of Climate Change on Young Adults: An Exploration of Anxiety and Action”
• “Navigating Identity: The Role of Social Media in Shaping Youth Culture and Self-Perception”
• “Community Resilience in the Face of Urban Gentrification: A Case Study of Neighborhood Change”
• “The Dynamics of Intergenerational Relationships in Immigrant Families: A Qualitative Analysis”
• “Social Capital and Economic Mobility in Low-Income Neighborhoods: An Ethnographic Approach”
• “Gender Roles and Career Aspirations Among Young Adults in Conservative Societies”
• “The Stigma of Mental Health in the Workplace: Employee Narratives and Organizational Culture”
• “Exploring the Intersection of Race, Class, and Education in Urban School Systems”
• “The Impact of Digital Divide on Access to Healthcare Information in Rural Communities”
• “Social Movements and Political Engagement Among Millennials: A Qualitative Study”
• “Cultural Adaptation and Identity Among Second-Generation Immigrants: A Phenomenological Inquiry”
• “The Role of Religious Institutions in Providing Community Support and Social Services”
• “Negotiating Public Space: Experiences of LGBTQ+ Individuals in Urban Environments”
• “The Sociology of Food: Exploring Eating Habits and Food Practices Across Cultures”
• “Work-Life Balance Challenges Among Dual-Career Couples: A Qualitative Exploration”
• “The Influence of Peer Networks on Substance Use Among Adolescents: A Community Study”

Business and Management

• “Navigating Organizational Change: Employee Perceptions and Adaptation Strategies in Mergers and Acquisitions”
• “Corporate Social Responsibility: Consumer Perceptions and Brand Loyalty in the Retail Sector”
• “Leadership Styles and Organizational Culture: A Comparative Study of Tech Startups”
• “Workplace Diversity and Inclusion: Best Practices and Challenges in Multinational Corporations”
• “Consumer Trust in E-commerce: A Qualitative Study of Online Shopping Behaviors”
• “The Gig Economy and Worker Satisfaction: Exploring the Experiences of Freelance Professionals”
• “Entrepreneurial Resilience: Success Stories and Lessons Learned from Failed Startups”
• “Employee Engagement and Productivity in Remote Work Settings: A Post-Pandemic Analysis”
• “Brand Storytelling: How Narrative Strategies Influence Consumer Engagement”
• “Sustainable Business Practices: Stakeholder Perspectives in the Fashion Industry”
• “Cross-Cultural Communication Challenges in Global Teams: Strategies for Effective Collaboration”
• “Innovative Workspaces: The Impact of Office Design on Creativity and Collaboration”
• “Consumer Perceptions of Artificial Intelligence in Customer Service: A Qualitative Exploration”
• “The Role of Mentoring in Career Development: Insights from Women in Leadership Positions”
• “Agile Management Practices: Adoption and Impact in Traditional Industries”

Environmental Studies

• “Community-Based Conservation Efforts in Tropical Rainforests: A Qualitative Study of Local Perspectives and Practices”
• “Urban Sustainability Initiatives: Exploring Resident Participation and Impact in Green City Projects”
• “Perceptions of Climate Change Among Indigenous Populations: Insights from Traditional Ecological Knowledge”
• “Environmental Justice and Industrial Pollution: A Case Study of Community Advocacy and Response”
• “The Role of Eco-Tourism in Promoting Conservation Awareness: Perspectives from Tour Operators and Visitors”
• “Sustainable Agriculture Practices Among Smallholder Farmers: Challenges and Opportunities”
• “Youth Engagement in Climate Action Movements: Motivations, Perceptions, and Outcomes”
• “Corporate Environmental Responsibility: A Qualitative Analysis of Stakeholder Expectations and Company Practices”
• “The Impact of Plastic Pollution on Marine Ecosystems: Community Awareness and Behavioral Change”
• “Renewable Energy Adoption in Rural Communities: Barriers, Facilitators, and Social Implications”
• “Water Scarcity and Community Adaptation Strategies in Arid Regions: A Grounded Theory Approach”
• “Urban Green Spaces: Public Perceptions and Use Patterns in Megacities”
• “Environmental Education in Schools: Teachers’ Perspectives on Integrating Sustainability into Curricula”
• “The Influence of Environmental Activism on Policy Change: Case Studies of Grassroots Campaigns”
• “Cultural Practices and Natural Resource Management: A Qualitative Study of Indigenous Stewardship Models”

Anthropology

• “Kinship and Social Organization in Matrilineal Societies: An Ethnographic Study”
• “Rituals and Beliefs Surrounding Death and Mourning in Diverse Cultures: A Comparative Analysis”
• “The Impact of Globalization on Indigenous Languages and Cultural Identity”
• “Food Sovereignty and Traditional Agricultural Practices Among Indigenous Communities”
• “Navigating Modernity: The Integration of Traditional Healing Practices in Contemporary Healthcare Systems”
• “Gender Roles and Equality in Hunter-Gatherer Societies: An Anthropological Perspective”
• “Sacred Spaces and Religious Practices: An Ethnographic Study of Pilgrimage Sites”
• “Youth Subcultures and Resistance: An Exploration of Identity and Expression in Urban Environments”
• “Cultural Constructions of Disability and Inclusion: A Cross-Cultural Analysis”
• “Interethnic Marriages and Cultural Syncretism: Case Studies from Multicultural Societies”
• “The Role of Folklore and Storytelling in Preserving Cultural Heritage”
• “Economic Anthropology of Gift-Giving and Reciprocity in Tribal Communities”
• “Digital Anthropology: The Role of Social Media in Shaping Political Movements”
• “Migration and Diaspora: Maintaining Cultural Identity in Transnational Communities”
• “Cultural Adaptations to Climate Change Among Coastal Fishing Communities”

Communication Studies

• “The Dynamics of Family Communication in the Digital Age: A Qualitative Inquiry”
• “Narratives of Identity and Belonging in Diaspora Communities Through Social Media”
• “Organizational Communication and Employee Engagement: A Case Study in the Non-Profit Sector”
• “Cultural Influences on Communication Styles in Multinational Teams: An Ethnographic Approach”
• “Media Representation of Women in Politics: A Content Analysis and Audience Perception Study”
• “The Role of Communication in Building Sustainable Community Development Projects”
• “Interpersonal Communication in Online Dating: Strategies, Challenges, and Outcomes”
• “Public Health Messaging During Pandemics: A Qualitative Study of Community Responses”
• “The Impact of Mobile Technology on Parent-Child Communication in the Digital Era”
• “Crisis Communication Strategies in the Hospitality Industry: A Case Study of Reputation Management”
• “Narrative Analysis of Personal Stories Shared on Mental Health Blogs”
• “The Influence of Podcasts on Political Engagement Among Young Adults”
• “Visual Communication and Brand Identity: A Qualitative Study of Consumer Interpretations”
• “Communication Barriers in Cross-Cultural Healthcare Settings: Patient and Provider Perspectives”
• “The Role of Internal Communication in Managing Organizational Change: Employee Experiences”

Information Technology

• “User Experience Design in Augmented Reality Applications: A Qualitative Study of Best Practices”
• “The Human Factor in Cybersecurity: Understanding Employee Behaviors and Attitudes Towards Phishing”
• “Adoption of Cloud Computing in Small and Medium Enterprises: Challenges and Success Factors”
• “Blockchain Technology in Supply Chain Management: A Qualitative Exploration of Potential Impacts”
• “The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Personalizing User Experiences on E-commerce Platforms”
• “Digital Transformation in Traditional Industries: A Case Study of Technology Adoption Challenges”
• “Ethical Considerations in the Development of Smart Home Technologies: A Stakeholder Analysis”
• “The Impact of Social Media Algorithms on News Consumption and Public Opinion”
• “Collaborative Software Development: Practices and Challenges in Open Source Projects”
• “Understanding the Digital Divide: Access to Information Technology in Rural Communities”
• “Data Privacy Concerns and User Trust in Internet of Things (IoT) Devices”
• “The Effectiveness of Gamification in Educational Software: A Qualitative Study of Engagement and Motivation”
• “Virtual Teams and Remote Work: Communication Strategies and Tools for Effectiveness”
• “User-Centered Design in Mobile Health Applications: Evaluating Usability and Accessibility”
• “The Influence of Technology on Work-Life Balance: Perspectives from IT Professionals”

Tourism and Hospitality

• “Exploring the Authenticity of Cultural Heritage Tourism in Indigenous Communities”
• “Sustainable Tourism Practices: Perceptions and Implementations in Small Island Destinations”
• “The Impact of Social Media Influencers on Destination Choice Among Millennials”
• “Gastronomy Tourism: Exploring the Culinary Experiences of International Visitors in Rural Regions”
• “Eco-Tourism and Conservation: Stakeholder Perspectives on Balancing Tourism and Environmental Protection”
• “The Role of Hospitality in Enhancing the Cultural Exchange Experience of Exchange Students”
• “Dark Tourism: Visitor Motivations and Experiences at Historical Conflict Sites”
• “Customer Satisfaction in Luxury Hotels: A Qualitative Study of Service Excellence and Personalization”
• “Adventure Tourism: Understanding the Risk Perception and Safety Measures Among Thrill-Seekers”
• “The Influence of Local Communities on Tourist Experiences in Ecotourism Sites”
• “Event Tourism: Economic Impacts and Community Perspectives on Large-Scale Music Festivals”
• “Heritage Tourism and Identity: Exploring the Connections Between Historic Sites and National Identity”
• “Tourist Perceptions of Sustainable Accommodation Practices: A Study of Green Hotels”
• “The Role of Language in Shaping the Tourist Experience in Multilingual Destinations”
• “Health and Wellness Tourism: Motivations and Experiences of Visitors to Spa and Retreat Centers”

Qualitative Research Topics

Qualitative Research Topics are as follows:

• Understanding the lived experiences of first-generation college students
• Exploring the impact of social media on self-esteem among adolescents
• Investigating the effects of mindfulness meditation on stress reduction
• Analyzing the perceptions of employees regarding organizational culture
• Examining the impact of parental involvement on academic achievement of elementary school students
• Investigating the role of music therapy in managing symptoms of depression
• Understanding the experience of women in male-dominated industries
• Exploring the factors that contribute to successful leadership in non-profit organizations
• Analyzing the effects of peer pressure on substance abuse among adolescents
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with disabilities in the workplace
• Understanding the factors that contribute to burnout among healthcare professionals
• Examining the impact of social support on mental health outcomes
• Analyzing the perceptions of parents regarding sex education in schools
• Investigating the experiences of immigrant families in the education system
• Understanding the impact of trauma on mental health outcomes
• Exploring the effectiveness of animal-assisted therapy for individuals with anxiety
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful intergenerational relationships
• Investigating the experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals in the workplace
• Understanding the impact of online gaming on social skills development among adolescents
• Examining the perceptions of teachers regarding technology integration in the classroom
• Analyzing the experiences of women in leadership positions
• Investigating the factors that contribute to successful marriage and long-term relationships
• Understanding the impact of social media on political participation
• Exploring the experiences of individuals with mental health disorders in the criminal justice system
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful community-based programs for youth development
• Investigating the experiences of veterans in accessing mental health services
• Understanding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health outcomes
• Examining the perceptions of parents regarding childhood obesity prevention
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful multicultural education programs
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with chronic illnesses in the workplace
• Understanding the impact of poverty on academic achievement
• Exploring the experiences of individuals with autism spectrum disorder in the workplace
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful employee retention strategies
• Investigating the experiences of caregivers of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease
• Understanding the impact of parent-child communication on adolescent sexual behavior
• Examining the perceptions of college students regarding mental health services on campus
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful team building in the workplace
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with eating disorders in treatment programs
• Understanding the impact of mentorship on career success
• Exploring the experiences of individuals with physical disabilities in the workplace
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful community-based programs for mental health
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with substance use disorders in treatment programs
• Understanding the impact of social media on romantic relationships
• Examining the perceptions of parents regarding child discipline strategies
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful cross-cultural communication in the workplace
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with anxiety disorders in treatment programs
• Understanding the impact of cultural differences on healthcare delivery
• Exploring the experiences of individuals with hearing loss in the workplace
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful parent-teacher communication
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with depression in treatment programs
• Understanding the impact of childhood trauma on adult mental health outcomes
• Examining the perceptions of college students regarding alcohol and drug use on campus
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful mentor-mentee relationships
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with intellectual disabilities in the workplace
• Understanding the impact of work-family balance on employee satisfaction and well-being
• Exploring the experiences of individuals with autism spectrum disorder in vocational rehabilitation programs
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful project management in the construction industry
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with substance use disorders in peer support groups
• Understanding the impact of mindfulness meditation on stress reduction and mental health
• Examining the perceptions of parents regarding childhood nutrition
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful environmental sustainability initiatives in organizations
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with bipolar disorder in treatment programs
• Understanding the impact of job stress on employee burnout and turnover
• Exploring the experiences of individuals with physical disabilities in recreational activities
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful strategic planning in nonprofit organizations
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with hoarding disorder in treatment programs
• Understanding the impact of culture on leadership styles and effectiveness
• Examining the perceptions of college students regarding sexual health education on campus
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful supply chain management in the retail industry
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with personality disorders in treatment programs
• Understanding the impact of multiculturalism on group dynamics in the workplace
• Exploring the experiences of individuals with chronic pain in mindfulness-based pain management programs
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful employee engagement strategies in organizations
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with internet addiction disorder in treatment programs
• Understanding the impact of social comparison on body dissatisfaction and self-esteem
• Examining the perceptions of parents regarding childhood sleep habits
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful diversity and inclusion initiatives in organizations
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with schizophrenia in treatment programs
• Understanding the impact of job crafting on employee motivation and job satisfaction
• Exploring the experiences of individuals with vision impairments in navigating public spaces
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful customer relationship management strategies in the service industry
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with dissociative amnesia in treatment programs
• Understanding the impact of cultural intelligence on intercultural communication and collaboration
• Examining the perceptions of college students regarding campus diversity and inclusion efforts
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful supply chain sustainability initiatives in organizations
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder in treatment programs
• Understanding the impact of transformational leadership on organizational performance and employee well-being
• Exploring the experiences of individuals with mobility impairments in public transportation
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful talent management strategies in organizations
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with substance use disorders in harm reduction programs
• Understanding the impact of gratitude practices on well-being and resilience
• Examining the perceptions of parents regarding childhood mental health and well-being
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful corporate social responsibility initiatives in organizations
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with borderline personality disorder in treatment programs
• Understanding the impact of emotional labor on job stress and burnout
• Exploring the experiences of individuals with hearing impairments in healthcare settings
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful customer experience strategies in the hospitality industry
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with gender dysphoria in gender-affirming healthcare
• Understanding the impact of cultural differences on cross-cultural negotiation in the global marketplace
• Examining the perceptions of college students regarding academic stress and mental health
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful supply chain agility in organizations
• Understanding the impact of music therapy on mental health and well-being
• Exploring the experiences of individuals with dyslexia in educational settings
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful leadership in nonprofit organizations
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with chronic illnesses in online support groups
• Understanding the impact of exercise on mental health and well-being
• Examining the perceptions of parents regarding childhood screen time
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful change management strategies in organizations
• Understanding the impact of cultural differences on international business negotiations
• Exploring the experiences of individuals with hearing impairments in the workplace
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful team building in corporate settings
• Understanding the impact of technology on communication in romantic relationships
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful community engagement strategies for local governments
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in treatment programs
• Understanding the impact of financial stress on mental health and well-being
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful mentorship programs in organizations
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with gambling addictions in treatment programs
• Understanding the impact of social media on body image and self-esteem
• Examining the perceptions of parents regarding childhood education
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful virtual team management strategies
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with dissociative identity disorder in treatment programs
• Understanding the impact of cultural differences on cross-cultural communication in healthcare settings
• Exploring the experiences of individuals with chronic pain in cognitive-behavioral therapy programs
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful community-building strategies in urban neighborhoods
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with alcohol use disorders in treatment programs
• Understanding the impact of personality traits on romantic relationships
• Examining the perceptions of college students regarding mental health stigma on campus
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful fundraising strategies for political campaigns
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with traumatic brain injuries in rehabilitation programs
• Understanding the impact of social support on mental health and well-being among the elderly
• Exploring the experiences of individuals with chronic illnesses in medical treatment decision-making processes
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful innovation strategies in organizations
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with dissociative disorders in treatment programs
• Understanding the impact of cultural differences on cross-cultural communication in education settings
• Examining the perceptions of parents regarding childhood physical activity
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful conflict resolution in family relationships
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with opioid use disorders in treatment programs
• Understanding the impact of emotional intelligence on leadership effectiveness
• Exploring the experiences of individuals with learning disabilities in the workplace
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful change management in educational institutions
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with eating disorders in recovery support groups
• Understanding the impact of self-compassion on mental health and well-being
• Examining the perceptions of college students regarding campus safety and security measures
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful marketing strategies for nonprofit organizations
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with postpartum depression in treatment programs
• Understanding the impact of ageism in the workplace
• Exploring the experiences of individuals with dyslexia in the education system
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with anxiety disorders in cognitive-behavioral therapy programs
• Understanding the impact of socioeconomic status on access to healthcare
• Examining the perceptions of parents regarding childhood screen time usage
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful supply chain management strategies
• Understanding the impact of parenting styles on child development
• Exploring the experiences of individuals with addiction in harm reduction programs
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful crisis management strategies in organizations
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with trauma in trauma-focused therapy programs
• Examining the perceptions of healthcare providers regarding patient-centered care
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful product development strategies
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with autism spectrum disorder in employment programs
• Understanding the impact of cultural competence on healthcare outcomes
• Exploring the experiences of individuals with chronic illnesses in healthcare navigation
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful community engagement strategies for non-profit organizations
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with physical disabilities in the workplace
• Understanding the impact of childhood trauma on adult mental health
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful supply chain sustainability strategies
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with personality disorders in dialectical behavior therapy programs
• Understanding the impact of gender identity on mental health treatment seeking behaviors
• Exploring the experiences of individuals with schizophrenia in community-based treatment programs
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful project team management strategies
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder in exposure and response prevention therapy programs
• Understanding the impact of cultural competence on academic achievement and success
• Examining the perceptions of college students regarding academic integrity
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful social media marketing strategies
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with bipolar disorder in community-based treatment programs
• Understanding the impact of mindfulness on academic achievement and success
• Exploring the experiences of individuals with substance use disorders in medication-assisted treatment programs
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with anxiety disorders in exposure therapy programs
• Understanding the impact of healthcare disparities on health outcomes
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful supply chain optimization strategies
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with borderline personality disorder in schema therapy programs
• Understanding the impact of culture on perceptions of mental health stigma
• Exploring the experiences of individuals with trauma in art therapy programs
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful digital marketing strategies
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with eating disorders in online support groups
• Understanding the impact of workplace bullying on job satisfaction and performance
• Examining the perceptions of college students regarding mental health resources on campus
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful supply chain risk management strategies
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with chronic pain in mindfulness-based pain management programs
• Understanding the impact of cognitive-behavioral therapy on social anxiety disorder
• Understanding the impact of COVID-19 on mental health and well-being
• Exploring the experiences of individuals with eating disorders in treatment programs
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful leadership in business organizations
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with chronic pain in cognitive-behavioral therapy programs
• Understanding the impact of cultural differences on intercultural communication
• Examining the perceptions of teachers regarding inclusive education for students with disabilities
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with depression in therapy programs
• Understanding the impact of workplace culture on employee retention and turnover
• Exploring the experiences of individuals with traumatic brain injuries in rehabilitation programs
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful crisis communication strategies in organizations
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with anxiety disorders in mindfulness-based interventions
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with chronic illnesses in healthcare settings
• Understanding the impact of technology on work-life balance
• Exploring the experiences of individuals with learning disabilities in academic settings
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful entrepreneurship in small businesses
• Understanding the impact of gender identity on mental health and well-being
• Examining the perceptions of individuals with disabilities regarding accessibility in public spaces
• Understanding the impact of religion on coping strategies for stress and anxiety
• Exploring the experiences of individuals with chronic illnesses in complementary and alternative medicine treatments
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful customer retention strategies in business organizations
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with postpartum depression in therapy programs
• Understanding the impact of ageism on older adults in healthcare settings
• Examining the perceptions of students regarding online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful team building in virtual work environments
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with gambling disorders in treatment programs
• Exploring the experiences of individuals with chronic illnesses in peer support groups
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful social media marketing strategies for businesses
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with ADHD in treatment programs
• Understanding the impact of sleep on cognitive and emotional functioning
• Examining the perceptions of individuals with chronic illnesses regarding healthcare access and affordability
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with borderline personality disorder in dialectical behavior therapy programs
• Understanding the impact of social support on caregiver well-being
• Exploring the experiences of individuals with chronic illnesses in disability activism
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful cultural competency training programs in healthcare settings
• Understanding the impact of personality disorders on interpersonal relationships
• Examining the perceptions of healthcare providers regarding the use of telehealth services
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with dissociative disorders in therapy programs
• Understanding the impact of gender bias in hiring practices
• Exploring the experiences of individuals with visual impairments in the workplace
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful diversity and inclusion programs in the workplace
• Understanding the impact of online dating on romantic relationships
• Examining the perceptions of parents regarding childhood vaccination
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful communication in healthcare settings
• Understanding the impact of cultural stereotypes on academic achievement
• Exploring the experiences of individuals with substance use disorders in sober living programs
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful classroom management strategies
• Understanding the impact of social support on addiction recovery
• Examining the perceptions of college students regarding mental health stigma
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful conflict resolution in the workplace
• Understanding the impact of race and ethnicity on healthcare access and outcomes
• Exploring the experiences of individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder in treatment programs
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful project management strategies
• Understanding the impact of teacher-student relationships on academic achievement
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful customer service strategies
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with social anxiety disorder in treatment programs
• Understanding the impact of workplace stress on job satisfaction and performance
• Exploring the experiences of individuals with disabilities in sports and recreation
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful marketing strategies for small businesses
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with phobias in treatment programs
• Understanding the impact of culture on attitudes towards mental health and illness
• Examining the perceptions of college students regarding sexual assault prevention
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful time management strategies
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with addiction in recovery support groups
• Understanding the impact of mindfulness on emotional regulation and well-being
• Exploring the experiences of individuals with chronic pain in treatment programs
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful conflict resolution in romantic relationships
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with autism spectrum disorder in social skills training programs
• Understanding the impact of parent-child communication on adolescent substance use
• Examining the perceptions of parents regarding childhood mental health services
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful fundraising strategies for non-profit organizations
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with chronic illnesses in support groups
• Understanding the impact of personality traits on career success and satisfaction
• Exploring the experiences of individuals with disabilities in accessing public transportation
• Analyzing the factors that contribute to successful team building in sports teams
• Investigating the experiences of individuals with chronic pain in alternative medicine treatments
• Understanding the impact of stigma on mental health treatment seeking behaviors
• Examining the perceptions of college students regarding diversity and inclusion on campus.

About the author

Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

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• Literature Reviews
• Your Own Study/Experiment

Are you searching for a great topic for your psychology paper ? Sometimes it seems like coming up with topics of psychology research is more challenging than the actual research and writing. Fortunately, there are plenty of great places to find inspiration and the following list contains just a few ideas to help get you started.

Finding a solid topic is one of the most important steps when writing any type of paper. It can be particularly important when you are writing a psychology research paper or essay. Psychology is such a broad topic, so you want to find a topic that allows you to adequately cover the subject without becoming overwhelmed with information.

In some cases, such as in a general psychology class, you might have the option to select any topic from within psychology's broad reach. Other instances, such as in an  abnormal psychology  course, might require you to write your paper on a specific subject such as a psychological disorder.

As you begin your search for a topic for your psychology paper, it is first important to consider the guidelines established by your instructor.

Research Topics Within Specific Branches of Psychology

The key to selecting a good topic for your psychology paper is to select something that is narrow enough to allow you to really focus on the subject, but not so narrow that it is difficult to find sources or information to write about.

One approach is to narrow your focus down to a subject within a specific branch of psychology. For example, you might start by deciding that you want to write a paper on some sort of social psychology topic. Next, you might narrow your focus down to how persuasion can be used to influence behavior .

Other social psychology topics you might consider include:

• Prejudice and discrimination (i.e., homophobia, sexism, racism)
• Social cognition
• Person perception
• Social control and cults
• Persuasion, propaganda, and marketing
• Attraction, romance, and love
• Nonverbal communication
• Prosocial behavior

Psychology Research Topics Involving a Disorder or Type of Therapy

Exploring a psychological disorder or a specific treatment modality can also be a good topic for a psychology paper. Some potential abnormal psychology topics include specific psychological disorders or particular treatment modalities, including:

• Eating disorders
• Borderline personality disorder
• Seasonal affective disorder
• Schizophrenia
• Antisocial personality disorder
• Profile a  type of therapy  (i.e., cognitive-behavioral therapy, group therapy, psychoanalytic therapy)

Topics of Psychology Research Related to Human Cognition

Some of the possible topics you might explore in this area include thinking, language, intelligence, and decision-making. Other ideas might include:

• False memories
• Speech disorders
• Problem-solving

Topics of Psychology Research Related to Human Development

In this area, you might opt to focus on issues pertinent to  early childhood  such as language development, social learning, or childhood attachment or you might instead opt to concentrate on issues that affect older adults such as dementia or Alzheimer's disease.

Some other topics you might consider include:

• Language acquisition
• Media violence and children
• Learning disabilities
• Gender roles
• Child abuse
• Prenatal development
• Parenting styles
• Aspects of the aging process

Do a Critique of Publications Involving Psychology Research Topics

One option is to consider writing a critique paper of a published psychology book or academic journal article. For example, you might write a critical analysis of Sigmund Freud's Interpretation of Dreams or you might evaluate a more recent book such as Philip Zimbardo's  The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil .

Professional and academic journals are also great places to find materials for a critique paper. Browse through the collection at your university library to find titles devoted to the subject that you are most interested in, then look through recent articles until you find one that grabs your attention.

Topics of Psychology Research Related to Famous Experiments

There have been many fascinating and groundbreaking experiments throughout the history of psychology, providing ample material for students looking for an interesting term paper topic. In your paper, you might choose to summarize the experiment, analyze the ethics of the research, or evaluate the implications of the study. Possible experiments that you might consider include:

• The Milgram Obedience Experiment
• The Stanford Prison Experiment
• The Little Albert Experiment
• Pavlov's Conditioning Experiments
• The Asch Conformity Experiment
• Harlow's Rhesus Monkey Experiments

Topics of Psychology Research About Historical Figures

One of the simplest ways to find a great topic is to choose an interesting person in the  history of psychology  and write a paper about them. Your paper might focus on many different elements of the individual's life, such as their biography, professional history, theories, or influence on psychology.

While this type of paper may be historical in nature, there is no need for this assignment to be dry or boring. Psychology is full of fascinating figures rife with intriguing stories and anecdotes. Consider such famous individuals as Sigmund Freud, B.F. Skinner, Harry Harlow, or one of the many other  eminent psychologists .

Psychology Research Topics About a Specific Career

​Another possible topic, depending on the course in which you are enrolled, is to write about specific career paths within the  field of psychology . This type of paper is especially appropriate if you are exploring different subtopics or considering which area interests you the most.

In your paper, you might opt to explore the typical duties of a psychologist, how much people working in these fields typically earn, and the different employment options that are available.

Topics of Psychology Research Involving Case Studies

One potentially interesting idea is to write a  psychology case study  of a particular individual or group of people. In this type of paper, you will provide an in-depth analysis of your subject, including a thorough biography.

Generally, you will also assess the person, often using a major psychological theory such as  Piaget's stages of cognitive development  or  Erikson's eight-stage theory of human development . It is also important to note that your paper doesn't necessarily have to be about someone you know personally.

In fact, many professors encourage students to write case studies on historical figures or fictional characters from books, television programs, or films.

Psychology Research Topics Involving Literature Reviews

Another possibility that would work well for a number of psychology courses is to do a literature review of a specific topic within psychology. A literature review involves finding a variety of sources on a particular subject, then summarizing and reporting on what these sources have to say about the topic.

Literature reviews are generally found in the  introduction  of journal articles and other  psychology papers , but this type of analysis also works well for a full-scale psychology term paper.

Topics of Psychology Research Based on Your Own Study or Experiment

Many psychology courses require students to design an actual psychological study or perform some type of experiment. In some cases, students simply devise the study and then imagine the possible results that might occur. In other situations, you may actually have the opportunity to collect data, analyze your findings, and write up your results.

Finding a topic for your study can be difficult, but there are plenty of great ways to come up with intriguing ideas. Start by considering your own interests as well as subjects you have studied in the past.

Online sources, newspaper articles, books , journal articles, and even your own class textbook are all great places to start searching for topics for your experiments and psychology term papers. Before you begin, learn more about  how to conduct a psychology experiment .

What This Means For You

After looking at this brief list of possible topics for psychology papers, it is easy to see that psychology is a very broad and diverse subject. While this variety makes it possible to find a topic that really catches your interest, it can sometimes make it very difficult for some students to select a good topic.

If you are still stumped by your assignment, ask your instructor for suggestions and consider a few from this list for inspiration.

• Hockenbury, SE & Nolan, SA. Psychology. New York: Worth Publishers; 2014.
• Santrock, JW. A Topical Approach to Lifespan Development. New York: McGraw-Hill Education; 2016.

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

Chapter 7: Nonexperimental Research

Qualitative Research

Learning Objectives

• List several ways in which qualitative research differs from quantitative research in psychology.
• Describe the strengths and weaknesses of qualitative research in psychology compared with quantitative research.
• Give examples of qualitative research in psychology.

What Is Qualitative Research?

This textbook is primarily about  quantitative research . Quantitative researchers typically start with a focused research question or hypothesis, collect a small amount of data from each of a large number of individuals, describe the resulting data using statistical techniques, and draw general conclusions about some large population. Although this method is by far the most common approach to conducting empirical research in psychology, there is an important alternative called qualitative research. Qualitative research originated in the disciplines of anthropology and sociology but is now used to study many psychological topics as well. Qualitative researchers generally begin with a less focused research question, collect large amounts of relatively “unfiltered” data from a relatively small number of individuals, and describe their data using nonstatistical techniques. They are usually less concerned with drawing general conclusions about human behaviour than with understanding in detail the  experience  of their research participants.

Consider, for example, a study by researcher Per Lindqvist and his colleagues, who wanted to learn how the families of teenage suicide victims cope with their loss (Lindqvist, Johansson, & Karlsson, 2008) [1] . They did not have a specific research question or hypothesis, such as, What percentage of family members join suicide support groups? Instead, they wanted to understand the variety of reactions that families had, with a focus on what it is like from  their  perspectives. To address this question, they interviewed the families of 10 teenage suicide victims in their homes in rural Sweden. The interviews were relatively unstructured, beginning with a general request for the families to talk about the victim and ending with an invitation to talk about anything else that they wanted to tell the interviewer. One of the most important themes that emerged from these interviews was that even as life returned to “normal,” the families continued to struggle with the question of why their loved one committed suicide. This struggle appeared to be especially difficult for families in which the suicide was most unexpected.

The Purpose of Qualitative Research

Again, this textbook is primarily about quantitative research in psychology. The strength of quantitative research is its ability to provide precise answers to specific research questions and to draw general conclusions about human behaviour. This method is how we know that people have a strong tendency to obey authority figures, for example, or that female undergraduate students are not substantially more talkative than male undergraduate students. But while quantitative research is good at providing precise answers to specific research questions, it is not nearly as good at  generating  novel and interesting research questions. Likewise, while quantitative research is good at drawing general conclusions about human behaviour, it is not nearly as good at providing detailed descriptions of the behaviour of particular groups in particular situations. And it is not very good at all at communicating what it is actually like to be a member of a particular group in a particular situation.

But the relative weaknesses of quantitative research are the relative strengths of qualitative research. Qualitative research can help researchers to generate new and interesting research questions and hypotheses. The research of Lindqvist and colleagues, for example, suggests that there may be a general relationship between how unexpected a suicide is and how consumed the family is with trying to understand why the teen committed suicide. This relationship can now be explored using quantitative research. But it is unclear whether this question would have arisen at all without the researchers sitting down with the families and listening to what they themselves wanted to say about their experience. Qualitative research can also provide rich and detailed descriptions of human behaviour in the real-world contexts in which it occurs. Among qualitative researchers, this depth is often referred to as “thick description” (Geertz, 1973) [2] . Similarly, qualitative research can convey a sense of what it is actually like to be a member of a particular group or in a particular situation—what qualitative researchers often refer to as the “lived experience” of the research participants. Lindqvist and colleagues, for example, describe how all the families spontaneously offered to show the interviewer the victim’s bedroom or the place where the suicide occurred—revealing the importance of these physical locations to the families. It seems unlikely that a quantitative study would have discovered this detail.

Data Collection and Analysis in Qualitative Research

As with correlational research, data collection approaches in qualitative research are quite varied and can involve naturalistic observation, archival data, artwork, and many other things. But one of the most common approaches, especially for psychological research, is to conduct  interviews . Interviews in qualitative research can be unstructured—consisting of a small number of general questions or prompts that allow participants to talk about what is of interest to them–or structured, where there is a strict script that the interviewer does not deviate from. Most interviews are in between the two and are called semi-structured interviews, where the researcher has a few consistent questions and can follow up by asking more detailed questions about the topics that do come up. Such interviews can be lengthy and detailed, but they are usually conducted with a relatively small sample. The unstructured interview was the approach used by Lindqvist and colleagues in their research on the families of suicide survivors because the researchers were aware that how much was disclosed about such a sensitive topic should be led by the families not by the researchers. Small groups of people who participate together in interviews focused on a particular topic or issue are often referred to as  focus groups . The interaction among participants in a focus group can sometimes bring out more information than can be learned in a one-on-one interview. The use of focus groups has become a standard technique in business and industry among those who want to understand consumer tastes and preferences. The content of all focus group interviews is usually recorded and transcribed to facilitate later analyses. However, we know from social psychology that group dynamics are often at play in any group, including focus groups, and it is useful to be aware of those possibilities.

Another approach to data collection in qualitative research is participant observation. In  participant observation , researchers become active participants in the group or situation they are studying. The data they collect can include interviews (usually unstructured), their own notes based on their observations and interactions, documents, photographs, and other artifacts. The basic rationale for participant observation is that there may be important information that is only accessible to, or can be interpreted only by, someone who is an active participant in the group or situation. An example of participant observation comes from a study by sociologist Amy Wilkins (published in  Social Psychology Quarterly ) on a university-based religious organization that emphasized how happy its members were (Wilkins, 2008) [3] . Wilkins spent 12 months attending and participating in the group’s meetings and social events, and she interviewed several group members. In her study, Wilkins identified several ways in which the group “enforced” happiness—for example, by continually talking about happiness, discouraging the expression of negative emotions, and using happiness as a way to distinguish themselves from other groups.

Data Analysis in Quantitative Research

Although quantitative and qualitative research generally differ along several important dimensions (e.g., the specificity of the research question, the type of data collected), it is the method of data  analysis  that distinguishes them more clearly than anything else. To illustrate this idea, imagine a team of researchers that conducts a series of unstructured interviews with recovering alcoholics to learn about the role of their religious faith in their recovery. Although this project sounds like qualitative research, imagine further that once they collect the data, they code the data in terms of how often each participant mentions God (or a “higher power”), and they then use descriptive and inferential statistics to find out whether those who mention God more often are more successful in abstaining from alcohol. Now it sounds like quantitative research. In other words, the quantitative-qualitative distinction depends more on what researchers  do  with the data they have collected than with why or how they collected the data.

But what does qualitative data analysis look like? Just as there are many ways to collect data in qualitative research, there are many ways to analyze data. Here we focus on one general approach called  grounded theory  (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) [4] . This approach was developed within the field of sociology in the 1960s and has gradually gained popularity in psychology. Remember that in quantitative research, it is typical for the researcher to start with a theory, derive a hypothesis from that theory, and then collect data to test that specific hypothesis. In qualitative research using grounded theory, researchers start with the data and develop a theory or an interpretation that is “grounded in” those data. They do this analysis in stages. First, they identify ideas that are repeated throughout the data. Then they organize these ideas into a smaller number of broader themes. Finally, they write a  theoretical narrative —an interpretation—of the data in terms of the themes that they have identified. This theoretical narrative focuses on the subjective experience of the participants and is usually supported by many direct quotations from the participants themselves.

As an example, consider a study by researchers Laura Abrams and Laura Curran, who used the grounded theory approach to study the experience of postpartum depression symptoms among low-income mothers (Abrams & Curran, 2009) [5] . Their data were the result of unstructured interviews with 19 participants.  Table 7.1  shows the five broad themes the researchers identified and the more specific repeating ideas that made up each of those themes. In their research report, they provide numerous quotations from their participants, such as this one from “Destiny:”

Well, just recently my apartment was broken into and the fact that his Medicaid for some reason was cancelled so a lot of things was happening within the last two weeks all at one time. So that in itself I don’t want to say almost drove me mad but it put me in a funk.…Like I really was depressed. (p. 357)

Their theoretical narrative focused on the participants’ experience of their symptoms not as an abstract “affective disorder” but as closely tied to the daily struggle of raising children alone under often difficult circumstances.

The Quantitative-Qualitative “Debate”

Given their differences, it may come as no surprise that quantitative and qualitative research in psychology and related fields do not coexist in complete harmony. Some quantitative researchers criticize qualitative methods on the grounds that they lack objectivity, are difficult to evaluate in terms of reliability and validity, and do not allow generalization to people or situations other than those actually studied. At the same time, some qualitative researchers criticize quantitative methods on the grounds that they overlook the richness of human behaviour and experience and instead answer simple questions about easily quantifiable variables.

In general, however, qualitative researchers are well aware of the issues of objectivity, reliability, validity, and generalizability. In fact, they have developed a number of frameworks for addressing these issues (which are beyond the scope of our discussion). And in general, quantitative researchers are well aware of the issue of oversimplification. They do not believe that all human behaviour and experience can be adequately described in terms of a small number of variables and the statistical relationships among them. Instead, they use simplification as a strategy for uncovering general principles of human behaviour.

Many researchers from both the quantitative and qualitative camps now agree that the two approaches can and should be combined into what has come to be called  mixed-methods research  (Todd, Nerlich, McKeown, & Clarke, 2004) [6] . (In fact, the studies by Lindqvist and colleagues and by Abrams and Curran both combined quantitative and qualitative approaches.) One approach to combining quantitative and qualitative research is to use qualitative research for hypothesis generation and quantitative research for hypothesis testing. Again, while a qualitative study might suggest that families who experience an unexpected suicide have more difficulty resolving the question of why, a well-designed quantitative study could test a hypothesis by measuring these specific variables for a large sample. A second approach to combining quantitative and qualitative research is referred to as  triangulation . The idea is to use both quantitative and qualitative methods simultaneously to study the same general questions and to compare the results. If the results of the quantitative and qualitative methods converge on the same general conclusion, they reinforce and enrich each other. If the results diverge, then they suggest an interesting new question: Why do the results diverge and how can they be reconciled?

Using qualitative research can often help clarify quantitative results in triangulation. Trenor, Yu, Waight, Zerda, and Sha (2008) [7] investigated the experience of female engineering students at university. In the first phase, female engineering students were asked to complete a survey, where they rated a number of their perceptions, including their sense of belonging.  Their results were compared by the student ethnicities, and statistically, the various ethnic groups showed no differences in their ratings of sense of belonging.  One might look at that result and conclude that ethnicity does not have anything to do with sense of belonging.  However, in the second phase, the authors also conducted interviews with the students, and in those interviews, many minority students reported how the diversity of cultures at the university enhanced their sense of belonging. Without the qualitative component, we might have drawn the wrong conclusion about the quantitative results.

This example shows how qualitative and quantitative research work together to help us understand human behaviour. Some researchers have characterized quantitative research as best for identifying behaviours or the phenomenon whereas qualitative research is best for understanding meaning or identifying the mechanism. However, Bryman (2012) [8] argues for breaking down the divide between these arbitrarily different ways of investigating the same questions.

Key Takeaways

• Qualitative research is an important alternative to quantitative research in psychology. It generally involves asking broader research questions, collecting more detailed data (e.g., interviews), and using nonstatistical analyses.
• Many researchers conceptualize quantitative and qualitative research as complementary and advocate combining them. For example, qualitative research can be used to generate hypotheses and quantitative research to test them.
• Discussion: What are some ways in which a qualitative study of girls who play youth baseball would be likely to differ from a quantitative study on the same topic? What kind of different data would be generated by interviewing girls one-on-one rather than conducting focus groups?
• Lindqvist, P., Johansson, L., & Karlsson, U. (2008). In the aftermath of teenage suicide: A qualitative study of the psychosocial consequences for the surviving family members. BMC Psychiatry, 8 , 26. Retrieved from http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-244X/8/26 ↵
• Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures . New York, NY: Basic Books. ↵
• Wilkins, A. (2008). “Happier than Non-Christians”: Collective emotions and symbolic boundaries among evangelical Christians. Social Psychology Quarterly, 71 , 281–301. ↵
• Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research . Chicago, IL: Aldine. ↵
• Abrams, L. S., & Curran, L. (2009). “And you’re telling me not to stress?” A grounded theory study of postpartum depression symptoms among low-income mothers. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 33 , 351–362. ↵
• Todd, Z., Nerlich, B., McKeown, S., & Clarke, D. D. (2004) Mixing methods in psychology: The integration of qualitative and quantitative methods in theory and practice . London, UK: Psychology Press. ↵
• Trenor, J.M., Yu, S.L., Waight, C.L., Zerda. K.S & Sha T.-L. (2008). The relations of ethnicity to female engineering students’ educational experiences and college and career plans in an ethnically diverse learning environment. Journal of Engineering Education, 97 (4), 449-465. ↵
• Bryman, A. (2012). Social Research Methods , 4th ed. Oxford: OUP. ↵

Research in which data is gathered from a large number of individuals and described using a statistical technique.

A way to collect qualitative data consisting of both general questions and more detailed questions.

Small groups of people who participate together in interviews focused on a particular topic or issue.

Researchers become active participants in the group or situation they are studying.

Researchers start with the data and develop a theory or interpretation that is “grounded in” the data.

An interpretation of the data in terms of the themes identified through qualitative research.

The combination of quantitative and qualitative research.

Using both quantitative and qualitative methods simultaneously to study the same general questions and to compare the results.

Research Methods in Psychology - 2nd Canadian Edition Copyright © 2015 by Paul C. Price, Rajiv Jhangiani, & I-Chant A. Chiang is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research in Psychology

• Carla Willig - City University, London, UK
• Wendy Stainton Rogers - The Open University, UK
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The second edition of the SAGE  Handbook of Qualitative Research is an extraordinary compendium of the central current issues in qualitative research in psychology. Capturing the diversity and plurality of qualitative methods of investigation, this updated handbook also considers matters such as ethics and reflexivity shared across methods. Newly revised to include recent work in the burgeoning field of qualitative inquiry, it will be an essential companion for both new and experienced qualitative researchers.  Qualitative researchers in psychology owe a debt of gratitude to these editors for pulling this together. 

This is a very welcome and timely second edition of the highly-regarded SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research in Psychology . In the nine years since it was first published in 2008, qualitative research in psychology has flourished into a rich, diverse and vibrant field.  As the Editors of this Handbook note, there is a sense of sophistication that has evolved throughout these recent developments. There is also an increased confidence that can be seen across this updated Handbook, from the editors’ valuable framing of the field at the start through to the revised chapters and the inclusion of three new chapters. Notable additions to the Handbook include a chapter devoted to interpretation issues in qualitative research, new approaches to thematic analysis, developments and progress around metasynthesis, netnography and the implications of rapidly developing information and communication technologies for qualitative research. 

This Handbook will be highly valuable for a range of audiences, including for students in psychology and other social science disciplines, but also for academics, practitioners and activists (and indeed essential reading for many). It provides a comprehensive overview of the current state-of-play in qualitative research in psychology, covers a range of diverse methodologies, outlines key approaches and perspectives, and describes applications to specific subfields of psychology.  It doesn’t shy away from the many big questions, tensions, complexities and debates that are involved in qualitative research, including the range of positions and approaches that exist regarding epistemology, ethics and politics, and the varying priorities that different people bring to research. Rather it engages with these issues directly and in an accessible and welcoming manner, ensuring this Handbook will function as the clear and reliable guide for both novices and experienced researchers.  In this sense it is highly successful in meeting its purpose to “help its readers to gain a sense of the territory and to enable them to make well-informed methodological theoretical and ideological choices” (Stainton Rogers & Willig, p4).

The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research in Psychology is comprehensive and bold, celebrating the wide range of methods, approaches, perspectives and applications among qualitative research in psychology.  Written by leading psychologists, this handbook covers what are now well established qualitative methods while considering methodological changes required by contemporary developments, such as social media and the routine recording of people at work, blurring the distinctions between public and private and research and everyday practice.

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7.4 Qualitative Research

Learning objectives.

• List several ways in which qualitative research differs from quantitative research in psychology.
• Describe the strengths and weaknesses of qualitative research in psychology compared with quantitative research.
• Give examples of qualitative research in psychology.

What Is Qualitative Research?

This book is primarily about quantitative research . Quantitative researchers typically start with a focused research question or hypothesis, collect a small amount of data from each of a large number of individuals, describe the resulting data using statistical techniques, and draw general conclusions about some large population. Although this is by far the most common approach to conducting empirical research in psychology, there is an important alternative called qualitative research. Qualitative research originated in the disciplines of anthropology and sociology but is now used to study many psychological topics as well. Qualitative researchers generally begin with a less focused research question, collect large amounts of relatively “unfiltered” data from a relatively small number of individuals, and describe their data using nonstatistical techniques. They are usually less concerned with drawing general conclusions about human behavior than with understanding in detail the experience of their research participants.

Consider, for example, a study by researcher Per Lindqvist and his colleagues, who wanted to learn how the families of teenage suicide victims cope with their loss (Lindqvist, Johansson, & Karlsson, 2008). They did not have a specific research question or hypothesis, such as, What percentage of family members join suicide support groups? Instead, they wanted to understand the variety of reactions that families had, with a focus on what it is like from their perspectives. To do this, they interviewed the families of 10 teenage suicide victims in their homes in rural Sweden. The interviews were relatively unstructured, beginning with a general request for the families to talk about the victim and ending with an invitation to talk about anything else that they wanted to tell the interviewer. One of the most important themes that emerged from these interviews was that even as life returned to “normal,” the families continued to struggle with the question of why their loved one committed suicide. This struggle appeared to be especially difficult for families in which the suicide was most unexpected.

The Purpose of Qualitative Research

Again, this book is primarily about quantitative research in psychology. The strength of quantitative research is its ability to provide precise answers to specific research questions and to draw general conclusions about human behavior. This is how we know that people have a strong tendency to obey authority figures, for example, or that female college students are not substantially more talkative than male college students. But while quantitative research is good at providing precise answers to specific research questions, it is not nearly as good at generating novel and interesting research questions. Likewise, while quantitative research is good at drawing general conclusions about human behavior, it is not nearly as good at providing detailed descriptions of the behavior of particular groups in particular situations. And it is not very good at all at communicating what it is actually like to be a member of a particular group in a particular situation.

But the relative weaknesses of quantitative research are the relative strengths of qualitative research. Qualitative research can help researchers to generate new and interesting research questions and hypotheses. The research of Lindqvist and colleagues, for example, suggests that there may be a general relationship between how unexpected a suicide is and how consumed the family is with trying to understand why the teen committed suicide. This relationship can now be explored using quantitative research. But it is unclear whether this question would have arisen at all without the researchers sitting down with the families and listening to what they themselves wanted to say about their experience. Qualitative research can also provide rich and detailed descriptions of human behavior in the real-world contexts in which it occurs. Among qualitative researchers, this is often referred to as “thick description” (Geertz, 1973). Similarly, qualitative research can convey a sense of what it is actually like to be a member of a particular group or in a particular situation—what qualitative researchers often refer to as the “lived experience” of the research participants. Lindqvist and colleagues, for example, describe how all the families spontaneously offered to show the interviewer the victim’s bedroom or the place where the suicide occurred—revealing the importance of these physical locations to the families. It seems unlikely that a quantitative study would have discovered this.

Data Collection and Analysis in Qualitative Research

As with correlational research, data collection approaches in qualitative research are quite varied and can involve naturalistic observation, archival data, artwork, and many other things. But one of the most common approaches, especially for psychological research, is to conduct interviews . Interviews in qualitative research tend to be unstructured—consisting of a small number of general questions or prompts that allow participants to talk about what is of interest to them. The researcher can follow up by asking more detailed questions about the topics that do come up. Such interviews can be lengthy and detailed, but they are usually conducted with a relatively small sample. This was essentially the approach used by Lindqvist and colleagues in their research on the families of suicide survivors. Small groups of people who participate together in interviews focused on a particular topic or issue are often referred to as focus groups . The interaction among participants in a focus group can sometimes bring out more information than can be learned in a one-on-one interview. The use of focus groups has become a standard technique in business and industry among those who want to understand consumer tastes and preferences. The content of all focus group interviews is usually recorded and transcribed to facilitate later analyses.

Another approach to data collection in qualitative research is participant observation. In participant observation , researchers become active participants in the group or situation they are studying. The data they collect can include interviews (usually unstructured), their own notes based on their observations and interactions, documents, photographs, and other artifacts. The basic rationale for participant observation is that there may be important information that is only accessible to, or can be interpreted only by, someone who is an active participant in the group or situation. An example of participant observation comes from a study by sociologist Amy Wilkins (published in Social Psychology Quarterly ) on a college-based religious organization that emphasized how happy its members were (Wilkins, 2008). Wilkins spent 12 months attending and participating in the group’s meetings and social events, and she interviewed several group members. In her study, Wilkins identified several ways in which the group “enforced” happiness—for example, by continually talking about happiness, discouraging the expression of negative emotions, and using happiness as a way to distinguish themselves from other groups.

Data Analysis in Quantitative Research

Although quantitative and qualitative research generally differ along several important dimensions (e.g., the specificity of the research question, the type of data collected), it is the method of data analysis that distinguishes them more clearly than anything else. To illustrate this idea, imagine a team of researchers that conducts a series of unstructured interviews with recovering alcoholics to learn about the role of their religious faith in their recovery. Although this sounds like qualitative research, imagine further that once they collect the data, they code the data in terms of how often each participant mentions God (or a “higher power”), and they then use descriptive and inferential statistics to find out whether those who mention God more often are more successful in abstaining from alcohol. Now it sounds like quantitative research. In other words, the quantitative-qualitative distinction depends more on what researchers do with the data they have collected than with why or how they collected the data.

But what does qualitative data analysis look like? Just as there are many ways to collect data in qualitative research, there are many ways to analyze data. Here we focus on one general approach called grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). This approach was developed within the field of sociology in the 1960s and has gradually gained popularity in psychology. Remember that in quantitative research, it is typical for the researcher to start with a theory, derive a hypothesis from that theory, and then collect data to test that specific hypothesis. In qualitative research using grounded theory, researchers start with the data and develop a theory or an interpretation that is “grounded in” those data. They do this in stages. First, they identify ideas that are repeated throughout the data. Then they organize these ideas into a smaller number of broader themes. Finally, they write a theoretical narrative —an interpretation—of the data in terms of the themes that they have identified. This theoretical narrative focuses on the subjective experience of the participants and is usually supported by many direct quotations from the participants themselves.

As an example, consider a study by researchers Laura Abrams and Laura Curran, who used the grounded theory approach to study the experience of postpartum depression symptoms among low-income mothers (Abrams & Curran, 2009). Their data were the result of unstructured interviews with 19 participants. Table 7.1 “Themes and Repeating Ideas in a Study of Postpartum Depression Among Low-Income Mothers” shows the five broad themes the researchers identified and the more specific repeating ideas that made up each of those themes. In their research report, they provide numerous quotations from their participants, such as this one from “Destiny:”

Well, just recently my apartment was broken into and the fact that his Medicaid for some reason was cancelled so a lot of things was happening within the last two weeks all at one time. So that in itself I don’t want to say almost drove me mad but it put me in a funk.…Like I really was depressed. (p. 357)

Their theoretical narrative focused on the participants’ experience of their symptoms not as an abstract “affective disorder” but as closely tied to the daily struggle of raising children alone under often difficult circumstances.

Table 7.1 Themes and Repeating Ideas in a Study of Postpartum Depression Among Low-Income Mothers

The Quantitative-Qualitative “Debate”

Given their differences, it may come as no surprise that quantitative and qualitative research in psychology and related fields do not coexist in complete harmony. Some quantitative researchers criticize qualitative methods on the grounds that they lack objectivity, are difficult to evaluate in terms of reliability and validity, and do not allow generalization to people or situations other than those actually studied. At the same time, some qualitative researchers criticize quantitative methods on the grounds that they overlook the richness of human behavior and experience and instead answer simple questions about easily quantifiable variables.

In general, however, qualitative researchers are well aware of the issues of objectivity, reliability, validity, and generalizability. In fact, they have developed a number of frameworks for addressing these issues (which are beyond the scope of our discussion). And in general, quantitative researchers are well aware of the issue of oversimplification. They do not believe that all human behavior and experience can be adequately described in terms of a small number of variables and the statistical relationships among them. Instead, they use simplification as a strategy for uncovering general principles of human behavior.

Many researchers from both the quantitative and qualitative camps now agree that the two approaches can and should be combined into what has come to be called mixed-methods research (Todd, Nerlich, McKeown, & Clarke, 2004). (In fact, the studies by Lindqvist and colleagues and by Abrams and Curran both combined quantitative and qualitative approaches.) One approach to combining quantitative and qualitative research is to use qualitative research for hypothesis generation and quantitative research for hypothesis testing. Again, while a qualitative study might suggest that families who experience an unexpected suicide have more difficulty resolving the question of why, a well-designed quantitative study could test a hypothesis by measuring these specific variables for a large sample. A second approach to combining quantitative and qualitative research is referred to as triangulation . The idea is to use both quantitative and qualitative methods simultaneously to study the same general questions and to compare the results. If the results of the quantitative and qualitative methods converge on the same general conclusion, they reinforce and enrich each other. If the results diverge, then they suggest an interesting new question: Why do the results diverge and how can they be reconciled?

Key Takeaways

• Qualitative research is an important alternative to quantitative research in psychology. It generally involves asking broader research questions, collecting more detailed data (e.g., interviews), and using nonstatistical analyses.
• Many researchers conceptualize quantitative and qualitative research as complementary and advocate combining them. For example, qualitative research can be used to generate hypotheses and quantitative research to test them.
• Discussion: What are some ways in which a qualitative study of girls who play youth baseball would be likely to differ from a quantitative study on the same topic?

Abrams, L. S., & Curran, L. (2009). “And you’re telling me not to stress?” A grounded theory study of postpartum depression symptoms among low-income mothers. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 33 , 351–362.

Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures . New York, NY: Basic Books.

Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research . Chicago, IL: Aldine.

Lindqvist, P., Johansson, L., & Karlsson, U. (2008). In the aftermath of teenage suicide: A qualitative study of the psychosocial consequences for the surviving family members. BMC Psychiatry, 8 , 26. Retrieved from http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-244X/8/26 .

Todd, Z., Nerlich, B., McKeown, S., & Clarke, D. D. (2004) Mixing methods in psychology: The integration of qualitative and quantitative methods in theory and practice . London, UK: Psychology Press.

Wilkins, A. (2008). “Happier than Non-Christians”: Collective emotions and symbolic boundaries among evangelical Christians. Social Psychology Quarterly, 71 , 281–301.

Research Methods in Psychology Copyright © 2016 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research in Psychology

• By: Carla Willig & Wendy Stainton Rogers
• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Publication year: 2017
• Online pub date: December 18, 2017
• Discipline: Psychology
• Methods: Narrative research , Theory , Grounded theory
• DOI: https:// doi. org/10.4135/9781526405555
• Keywords: community psychology , cultural psychology , developmental psychology , forensic psychology , health psychology , knowledge , social theory Show all Show less
• Print ISBN: 9781473925212
• Online ISBN: 9781526405555
• Buy the book icon link

Subject index

The Second Edition of The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research in Psychology provides comprehensive coverage of the qualitative methods, strategies, and research issues in psychology. Qualitative research in psychology has been transformed since the first edition's publication. Responding to this evolving field, existing chapters have been updated while three new chapters have been added on Thematic Analysis, Interpretation, and Netnography. With a focus on methodological progress throughout, the chapters are organised into three sections: Section One: Methods Section Two: Perspectives and Techniques Section Three: Applications In the field of psychology and beyond, this handbook will constitute a valuable resource for both experienced qualitative researchers and novices for many years to come.

Front Matter

• Editorial Board
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• List of Boxes
• Notes on the Editors and Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1: Introduction

Part I: METHODOLOGIES

• Chapter 2: Thematic Analysis
• Chapter 3: Ethnography
• Chapter 4: Action Research
• Chapter 5: Conversation Analysis
• Chapter 6: Discursive Psychology
• Chapter 7: Foucauldian Discourse Analysis
• Chapter 8: Psychoanalytic Approaches to Qualitative Psychology
• Chapter 9: Memory Work
• Chapter 10: Narrative Inquiry
• Chapter 11: The Descriptive Phenomenological Psychological Method
• Chapter 12: Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis
• Chapter 13: Q Methodology
• Chapter 14: Grounded Theory Methods for Qualitative Psychology

Part II: PERSPECTIVES AND APPROACHES

• Chapter 15: Ethics in Qualitative Psychological Research
• Chapter 16: Interpretation in Qualitative Research
• Chapter 17: Qualitative Methods in Feminist Psychology
• Chapter 18: Postcolonialism and Psychology: Growing Interest and Promising Potential
• Chapter 19: Community Psychology
• Chapter 20: Social Representations
• Chapter 21: Visual Approaches: Using and Interpreting Images
• Chapter 22: Netnography: Radical Participative Understanding for a Networked Communications Society
• Chapter 23: Using Computer Packages in Qualitative Research: Exemplars, Developments and Challenges
• Chapter 24: Mixing Qualitative and Quantitative Methods: A Pragmatic Approach

Part III: APPLICATIONS

• Chapter 25: Social Psychology
• Chapter 26: Health Psychology
• Chapter 27: Developmental Psychology
• Chapter 28: Clinical Psychology
• Chapter 29: Qualitative Research in Counselling and Psychotherapy: History, Methods, Ethics and Impact
• Chapter 30: Qualitative Methods in Organizational Psychology
• Chapter 31: Forensic Psychology
• Chapter 32: Cultural Psychology
• Chapter 33: Cognitive Psychology
• Chapter 34: Review and Prospect

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Research Topics & Ideas: Psychology

100+ Psychology Topic Ideas To Fast-Track Your Research

If you’re starting out on the dissertation or thesis journey for your psychology degree, the very first challenge you’ll face is finding a solid research topic . In this post, we’ll help get the topic ideation process started by providing a meaty list of research ideas, spanning a range of psychology sub-disciplines. We’ll also look at some examples from actual theses and dissertations to give you an idea of what these look like in the real world.

NB – This is just the start…

The topic ideation and evaluation process has multiple steps (which we’ll explain a little later). Therefore, it’s important to recognise that this post is only the first step in finding a high-quality psychology-centred research topic. To develop a research topic, you’ll need to identify a clear and convincing research gap , and a viable plan of action to fill that gap.

If this all sounds a bit intimidating, be sure to check out our free dissertation mini-course , which covers the process of writing a dissertation or thesis from A-Z. You can also sign up for our free webinar that explores how to find a high-quality research topic. Alternatively, if you’d like hands-on help, have a look at our 1-on-1 coaching service .

Overview: Psychology-Related Topics

• How to find a research topic (video)
• Behavioural psychology
• Clinical psychology
• Cognitive psychology
• Developmental psychology
• Educational psychology
• Forensic psychology
• Social psychology
• Sports psychology
• Examples of actual dissertation topics
• Free Webinar : Topic Ideation 101
• Where to get extra help

How To Find A Research Topic

In the video below, we explain how to find suitable research ideas (in psychology or any field), and how to then refine those into well-articulated potential topics for your dissertation or thesis. We also discuss a few important evaluation criteria to help you make the right choice for your project.

Below you’ll find a list of research ideas to get your thinking started. Please note that these research topic ideas are intentionally broad and generic, so you will need to refine them a fair deal using the techniques we discussed in the video above.

We’ve grouped the topic ideas based on a few popular areas of psychology to make it a little easier for you to find something in your particular field of interest. That said, there is naturally some overlap between topics, so keep this in mind.

Research Ideas: Behavioural Psychology

• Cultural variation in behaviour and mental health of adolescents during a disaster: a case study
• The impact of parental drug use and risky behaviour on early child development
• The effects of video game violence on aggressive behaviour among teenage boys in school
• The relationship between adverse childhood experiences and adult risk-seeking behaviour
• The impact of physical exercise on anxiety and health-harming behaviour
• The relationship between personality traits and addiction behaviour
• The effects of reinforcement schedules on decision-making and associative learning
• The effects of daily mindfulness practice on stress and anxiety in middle-aged women
• The use of behavioural interventions in the treatment of eating disorders in poorer communities
• Understanding implicit cognitive processes involved in the over-consumption of fast food
• The use of cognitive behavioural therapy for alcohol addiction treatment
• The impact of extensive technology use in children on long-term attention and focus
• The impact of social media on self-destructive behaviour and poor mental health outcomes
• Exploring the role of sleep and sleep deprivation on healthy behaviours

Research Ideas: Clinical Psychology

• The use of mindfulness-based approaches in the treatment of anxiety disorders among college students
• The use of technology in the delivery of psychological services in war-torn countries
• The effectiveness of dialectical behaviour therapy for borderline personality disorder
• The use of virtual reality technology in the treatment of phobias and PTSD among war veterans
• The role of childhood adversity on adult mental health in immigrant populations in the USA
• The role of genetics and epigenetics in the development of bipolar disorder in Pakistani women: an integrative review
• The effectiveness of pharmacotherapy in the treatment of social anxiety among hikikomori in Japan
• The perception of healthcare workers and patients on the use of teletherapy for the delivery of psychological services
• The impact of social support on mental health outcomes among single parents.
• The effectiveness of integrative therapeutic approaches in the treatment of schizophrenia
• The effectiveness of trauma-focused therapies on post-traumatic growth in domestic abuse survivors
• The role and use of cognitive-behavioural therapy for depression among first-generation students
• The effectiveness of family therapy in addressing childhood trauma and depression
• The impact of cultural mistrust on the diagnosis and treatment of mental health issues in culturally-diverse populations
• The effectiveness of group therapy on post-traumatic stress symptoms among survivors of sexual assault

Research Ideas: Cognitive Psychology

• The impact of lifelong aerobic exercise on cognitive function in old age
• The effects of evening screen use on cognitive development in preschool children
• The impact of sleep deprivation on decision-making among graduate students
• The use of neuroimaging to understand the neural basis of memory retrieval
• The effect of conservative religious homes on social functioning in LGBT+ adolescents
• The role of positive emotions in working memory among high school learners
• The neural basis of decision-making and problem-solving during undergraduate statistic assessments
• The neural basis of language processing among adults learning English as a second language
• The role of technological tools in improving working memory in older adults
• The role of attention in emotional face processing among adult males
• The impact of depression on cognitive function during ageing The impact of daily meditation and mindfulness practice on cognitive function
• The relationship between increased protein intake and improved cognitive function
• The effects of stress on cognitive function among final-year learners

Research Ideas: Developmental Psychology

• The impact of maternal affection on cognitive, social, and emotional development
• The effects of parenting styles on children’s executive function
• The impact of late-night screen use on child development
• The role of digital play on child development outcomes
• Exploring the impact of poverty on early child development in Brazil
• The trauma-informed care as moderating the impact of trauma on child development
• Evaluating the relationship between peer relationship quality and child social development
• The impact of child-targeted media and advertising on child behavioural development
• The role of parental attachment in child resilience
• The moderating impact of culture on bullying and child social development
• The impact of single-parenting on child development in India
• The impact of early educational interventions on child socio-emotional development
• The impact of digital technology use on adolescent development and mental health
• The impact of socioeconomic status on child executive function
• The role of genetics and epigenetics on child neurodevelopmental outcomes linked to depression

Need a helping hand?

Research Ideas: Educational Psychology

• The relationship between self-regulated learning and academic performance in asynchronous versus synchronous learning environments
• Exploring effective parental involvement strategies and their impact on student achievement
• The role of intrinsic motivation in formative assessment in the classroom
• The impact of classroom management and practice on student learning and behaviour
• University students’ preference regarding online learning environments
• The effects of gentrification on student achievement in traditionally poor neighbourhoods
• The impact of teacher expectations and academic self-concept on K12 student mathematics performance
• The use and effectiveness of game-based learning in a high school biology classroom
• The impact of prejudice on the relationship between student motivation and academic performance among Black university students
• The impact of culture on second language English student learning preferences
• The effects of student self-efficacy and engagement on academic performance in secondary school mathematics
• The role of metacognition in learning musicality in hip hop
• The role of small group instruction on teacher efficacy and stress in early childhood education
• The perception and use of multimedia among high school biology teachers in France
• The use of augmented reality applications and its impact on student learning, motivation and attitude

Research Ideas: Forensic Psychology

• The impact of trauma on the psychological functioning of police officers and first responders
• Understanding cultural considerations during forensic psychological assessment and treatment of trauma
• Ethical considerations of the use of AI in forensic psychology in the legal system
• The psychological factors related to recidivism among white collar female offenders in the USA
• The psychological factors related to false confessions among juveniles
• Understanding the use of psychological assessment in the evaluation of eyewitness testimony in criminal courts in England
• The impact of trauma on the reflective functioning of adult female sexual assault victims
• The use and effectiveness of psychological interventions in reducing recidivism among non-violent criminals
• The impact of domestic violence on the mental health and forensic evaluation of men
• Exploring the ethical considerations and use of behavioural analysis in the study of criminal behaviour
• The use and limitations of neuropsychological assessment in forensic evaluations
• The use of social media forensics in evaluating criminal behaviour in violent crimes
• The racialised use of psychological assessment in the evaluation of competency to stand trial in Canada
• Exploring the use and availability of virtual reality technologies in forensic psychology in Spain
• The impact of motivational interviewing-based interventions among criminalized drug users

Research Ideas: Social Psychology

• The impact of prejudice and discrimination on social behaviour among African immigrants in South Africa
• The impact of social networks on behaviour and well-being among young adult females
• The effects of social identity on non-conformity in University students
• The effects of group dynamics on risk-seeking behaviour in adult men
• The impact of social media on the quality of interpersonal relationships among high school learners
• The impact of parental emotional intelligence on pro-social behaviour in children and adolescents
• The effects of conformity and deviance on social attitudes and behaviour during a global recession
• The effects of Tik Tok on social comparison and self-esteem among teenage girls
• Understanding gendered differences in social influence and algorithms on impulsive decision-making
• The effects of social support on mental health among healthcare workers in the UK
• The effects of gender roles on social behaviour among trans teens
• The impact of perceived power and social status on the behaviour of social media influencers
• The impact of social norms on prosocial behaviour among women
• The effects of community participation on aggression and violence in middle-aged men
• The impact of culture and gender on social behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic

Research Ideas: Sports Psychology

• The moderating role of cultural factors on the relationship between mental health and sports performance in team sports
• The role of mindfulness practice in addressing stress and anxiety in young national athletes
• The relationship between team cohesion and performance in cricket teams
• The effect of transformational leadership on female sports teams in Canada
• The effect of positive self-talk on athletic performance and motivation among Olympic athletes
• The use and perception of hypnosis in New Zealand team sports Understanding stress and burnout in University team athletes
• The efficacy of personalised nutrition and diet on athletic performance among sprinters
• Exploring mental preparation techniques and their effect on athletic motivation and resilience among team-sport athletes
• Exploring the perception and understanding of goal-setting characteristics on athletic performance among team coaches
• The effects of motivational feedback on the performance of female gymnasts
• The perception and use of visualization and imagery among coaches as a means to enhance sport performance
• The impact of sports injuries on mental health and recovery in high school athletes
• The moderating role of sleep on mental toughness and sports performance in Olympic athletes
• The use and perception of technology in sports training and performance in little league softball

Psychology-Related Dissertations & Theses

While the ideas we’ve presented above are a decent starting point for finding a research topic in psychology, they are fairly generic and non-specific. So, it helps to look at actual dissertations and theses to see how this all comes together in practice.

Below, we’ve included a selection of research projects from various psychology degree programs to help refine your thinking. These are actual dissertations and theses, written as part of Master’s and PhD-level programs, so they can provide some useful insight as to what a research topic looks like in practice.

• Effects of a Patient Question Prompt List on Outpatient Palliative Care Appointments (McDarby, 2022)
• The role of affect and exercise goals in physical activity engagement in younger and older adults (Stojanovic, 2022)
• Lay Theories about Whether Emotion Helps or Hinders Reasoning and Well-being (Karnaze, 2022)
• The effects of blast-induced traumatic brain injury on two transgenic models of Alzheimer’s Disease (Gann, 2020)
• Understanding the parental mind: Examining the stability of parental reflective functioning across the birth of a child and associations with maternal mind-mindedness (Pitzen, 2021)
• An investigation of ineffective ally behaviours (Collier, 2019)
• Response Inhibition-Related Beta Power: Distinguishing Cognitively Intact Elders by Risk for Alzheimer’s Disease (Evans, 2021)
• Recognition Memory of Extremely High-Frequency Words (Miller, 2019)
• The Relationship between Dementia Caregiver Burden and Caregiver Communications in a Memory Clinic Setting (Martin, 2021)
• Examination of Maternal Versus Paternal Ratings of Child Pre-Injury Functioning in Predicting Child Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms (Sayer, 2021)
• Electromyography As A Means of Predicting The Rubber Hand Illusion (Teaford, 2021)
• Linking Diversity Climate and Feedback Seeking Through Interpersonal Processes and Race Effects (Flores, 2021)

Looking at these titles, you can probably pick up that the research topics here are far more specific and narrowly-focused , compared to the generic ones presented earlier. This is an important thing to keep in mind as you develop your own research topic. That is to say, to create a top-notch research topic, you must be precise and target a specific context with specific variables of interest . In other words, you need to identify a clear, well-justified research gap.

Fast-Track Your Topic Ideation

Still unsure about how to find the right topic for your research project? Check out our private coaching services , where we work with psychology students on a 1:1 basis to help them find the perfect topic.

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10 Comments

Great insight

A very interesting site that offers a variety of options regarding research topics.

You’re most welcome

A good platform to get information

Amazing and interesting options 👌

Very useful but had not any field of research in health psychology

I feel honored going through this lovely stuff put together. Thank you so much

I need counseling psychology research topics

very empowering and insightful presentations. Can I be assisted in crafting a school psychology-related research topic about African context

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Qualitative Research

Rajiv S. Jhangiani; I-Chant A. Chiang; Carrie Cuttler; and Dana C. Leighton

Learning Objectives

• List several ways in which qualitative research differs from quantitative research in psychology.
• Describe the strengths and weaknesses of qualitative research in psychology compared with quantitative research.
• Give examples of qualitative research in psychology.

What Is Qualitative Research?

This textbook is primarily about  quantitative research ,  in part because most studies conducted in psychology are quantitative in nature . Quantitative researchers typically start with a focused research question or hypothesis, collect a small amount of numerical data from a large number of individuals, describe the resulting data using statistical techniques, and draw general conclusions about some large population. Although this method is by far the most common approach to conducting empirical research in psychology, there is an important alternative called qualitative research . Qualitative research originated in the disciplines of anthropology and sociology but is now used to study psychological topics as well. Qualitative researchers generally begin with a less focused research question, collect large amounts of relatively “unfiltered” data from a relatively small number of individuals, and describe their data using nonstatistical techniques, such as grounded theory, thematic analysis, critical discourse analysis, or interpretative phenomenological analysis. They are usually less concerned with drawing general conclusions about human behavior than with understanding in detail the experience  of their research participants.

Consider, for example, a study by researcher Per Lindqvist and his colleagues, who wanted to learn how the families personally impacted by teenage suicides cope with their loss (Lindqvist, Johansson, & Karlsson, 2008) [1] . They did not have a specific research question or hypothesis, such as, What percentage of family members join suicide support groups? Instead, they wanted to understand the variety of reactions that families had, with a focus on what it is like from  their perspectives. To address this question, they interviewed the families of 10 teenage suicide experiences in their homes in rural Sweden. The interviews were relatively unstructured, beginning with a general request for the families to talk about the person who experienced this event and ending with an invitation to talk about anything else that they wanted to tell the interviewer. One of the most important themes that emerged from these interviews was that even as life returned to “normal,” the families continued to struggle with the question of why their loved one committed suicide. This struggle appeared to be especially difficult for families in which the suicide was most unexpected.

The Purpose of Qualitative Research

Again, this textbook is primarily about quantitative research in psychology. The strength of quantitative research is its ability to provide precise answers to specific research questions and to draw general conclusions about human behavior. This method is how we know that people have a strong tendency to obey authority figures, for example, and that female undergraduate students are not substantially more talkative than male undergraduate students. But while quantitative research is good at providing precise answers to specific research questions, it is not nearly as good at  generating  novel and interesting research questions. Likewise, while quantitative research is good at drawing general conclusions about human behavior, it is not nearly as good at providing detailed descriptions of the behavior of particular groups in particular situations. And quantitative research is not very good at communicating what it is actually like to be a member of a particular group in a particular situation.

But the relative weaknesses of quantitative research are the relative strengths of qualitative research. Qualitative research can help researchers to generate new and interesting research questions and hypotheses. The research of Lindqvist and colleagues, for example, suggests that there may be a general relationship between how unexpected a suicide is and how consumed the family is with trying to understand why the teen committed suicide. This relationship can now be explored using quantitative research. But it is unclear whether this question would have arisen at all without the researchers sitting down with the families and listening to what they themselves wanted to say about their experience. Qualitative research can also provide rich and detailed descriptions of human behavior in the real-world contexts in which it occurs. Among qualitative researchers, this depth is often referred to as “thick description” (Geertz, 1973) [2] . Similarly, qualitative research can convey a sense of what it is actually like to be a member of a particular group or in a particular situation—what qualitative researchers often refer to as the “lived experience” of the research participants. Lindqvist and colleagues, for example, describe how all the families spontaneously offered to show the interviewer the persons bedroom or the place where the suicide occurred—revealing the importance of these physical locations to the families. It seems unlikely that a quantitative study would have discovered this detail.

Table 6.3 Some contrasts between qualitative and quantitative research

Data Collection and Analysis in Qualitative Research

Data collection approaches in qualitative research are quite varied and can involve naturalistic observation, participant observation, archival data, artwork, and many other things. But one of the most common approaches, especially for psychological research, is to conduct  interviews . Interviews in qualitative research can be unstructured—consisting of a small number of general questions or prompts that allow participants to talk about what is of interest to them—or structured, where there is a strict script that the interviewer does not deviate from. Most interviews are in between the two and are called semi-structured interviews, where the researcher has a few consistent questions and can follow up by asking more detailed questions about the topics that come up. Such interviews can be lengthy and detailed, but they are usually conducted with a relatively small sample. The unstructured interview was the approach used by Lindqvist and colleagues in their research on the families of those who took their life by suicide because the researchers were aware that how much was disclosed about such a sensitive topic should be led by the families, not by the researchers.

Another approach used in qualitative research involves small groups of people who participate together in interviews focused on a particular topic or issue, known as focus groups . The interaction among participants in a focus group can sometimes bring out more information than can be learned in a one-on-one interview. The use of focus groups has become a standard technique in business and industry among those who want to understand consumer tastes and preferences. The content of all focus group interviews is usually recorded and transcribed to facilitate later analyses. However, we know from social psychology that group dynamics are often at play in any group, including focus groups, and it is useful to be aware of those possibilities. For example, the desire to be liked by others can lead participants to provide inaccurate answers that they believe will be perceived favorably by the other participants. The same may be said for personality characteristics. For example, highly extraverted participants can sometimes dominate discussions within focus groups.

Data Analysis in Qualitative Research

Although quantitative and qualitative research generally differ along several important dimensions (e.g., the specificity of the research question, the type of data collected), it is the method of data  analysis  that distinguishes them more clearly than anything else. To illustrate this idea, imagine a team of researchers that conducts a series of unstructured interviews with people recovering from alcohol use disorder to learn about the role of their religious faith in their recovery. Although this project sounds like qualitative research, imagine further that once they collect the data, they code the data in terms of how often each participant mentions God (or a “higher power”), and they then use descriptive and inferential statistics to find out whether those who mention God more often are more successful in abstaining from alcohol. Now it sounds like quantitative research. In other words, the quantitative-qualitative distinction depends more on what researchers  do  with the data they have collected than with why or how they collected the data. 

But what does qualitative data analysis look like? Just as there are many ways to collect data in qualitative research, there are many ways to analyze data. Here we focus on one general approach called  grounded theory  (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) [3] . This approach was developed within the field of sociology in the 1960s and has gradually gained popularity in psychology. Remember that in quantitative research, it is typical for the researcher to start with a theory, derive a hypothesis from that theory, and then collect data to test that specific hypothesis. In qualitative research using grounded theory, researchers start with the data and develop a theory or an interpretation that is “grounded in” those data. They do this analysis in stages. First, they identify ideas that are repeated throughout the data. Then they organize these ideas into a smaller number of broader themes. Finally, they write a  theoretical narrative —an interpretation of the data in terms of the themes that they have identified. This theoretical narrative focuses on the subjective experience of the participants and is usually supported by many direct quotations from the participants themselves.

As an example, consider a study by researchers Laura Abrams and Laura Curran, who used the grounded theory approach to study the experience of postpartum depression symptoms among low-income mothers (Abrams & Curran, 2009) [4] . Their data were the result of unstructured interviews with 19 participants.  Table 6.4  shows the five broad themes the researchers identified and the more specific repeating ideas that made up each of those themes. In their research report, they provide numerous quotations from their participants, such as this one from “Destiny:”

Well, just recently my apartment was broken into and the fact that his Medicaid for some reason was cancelled so a lot of things was happening within the last two weeks all at one time. So that in itself I don’t want to say almost drove me mad but it put me in a funk.…Like I really was depressed. (p. 357)

Their theoretical narrative focused on the participants’ experience of their symptoms, not as an abstract “affective disorder” but as closely tied to the daily struggle of raising children alone under often difficult circumstances.

The Quantitative-Qualitative “Debate”

Given their differences, it may come as no surprise that quantitative and qualitative research in psychology and related fields do not coexist in complete harmony. Some quantitative researchers criticize qualitative methods on the grounds that they lack objectivity, are difficult to evaluate in terms of reliability and validity, and do not allow generalization to people or situations other than those actually studied. At the same time, some qualitative researchers criticize quantitative methods on the grounds that they overlook the richness of human behavior and experience and instead answer simple questions about easily quantifiable variables.

In general, however, qualitative researchers are well aware of the issues of objectivity, reliability, validity, and generalizability. In fact, they have developed a number of frameworks for addressing these issues (which are beyond the scope of our discussion). And in general, quantitative researchers are well aware of the issue of oversimplification. They do not believe that all human behavior and experience can be adequately described in terms of a small number of variables and the statistical relationships among them. Instead, they use simplification as a strategy for uncovering general principles of human behavior.

Many researchers from both the quantitative and qualitative camps now agree that the two approaches can and should be combined into what has come to be called  mixed-methods research  (Todd, Nerlich, McKeown, & Clarke, 2004) [5] . (In fact, the studies by Lindqvist and colleagues and by Abrams and Curran both combined quantitative and qualitative approaches.) One approach to combining quantitative and qualitative research is to use qualitative research for hypothesis generation and quantitative research for hypothesis testing. Again, while a qualitative study might suggest that families who experience an unexpected suicide have more difficulty resolving the question of why, a well-designed quantitative study could test a hypothesis by measuring these specific variables in a large sample. A second approach to combining quantitative and qualitative research is referred to as  triangulation . The idea is to use both quantitative and qualitative methods simultaneously to study the same general questions and to compare the results. If the results of the quantitative and qualitative methods converge on the same general conclusion, they reinforce and enrich each other. If the results diverge, then they suggest an interesting new question: Why do the results diverge and how can they be reconciled?

Using qualitative research can often help clarify quantitative results via triangulation. Trenor, Yu, Waight, Zerda, and Sha (2008) [6] investigated the experience of female engineering students at a university. In the first phase, female engineering students were asked to complete a survey, where they rated a number of their perceptions, including their sense of belonging.  Their results were compared across the student ethnicities, and statistically, the various ethnic groups showed no differences in their ratings of their sense of belonging.  One might look at that result and conclude that ethnicity does not have anything to do with one’s sense of belonging.  However, in the second phase, the authors also conducted interviews with the students, and in those interviews, many minority students reported how the diversity of cultures at the university enhanced their sense of belonging. Without the qualitative component, we might have drawn the wrong conclusion about the quantitative results.

This example shows how qualitative and quantitative research work together to help us understand human behavior. Some researchers have characterized qualitative research as best for identifying behaviors or the phenomenon whereas quantitative research is best for understanding meaning or identifying the mechanism. However, Bryman (2012) [7] argues for breaking down the divide between these arbitrarily different ways of investigating the same questions.

• Lindqvist, P., Johansson, L., & Karlsson, U. (2008). In the aftermath of teenage suicide: A qualitative study of the psychosocial consequences for the surviving family members. BMC Psychiatry, 8 , 26. Retrieved from http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-244X/8/26 ↵
• Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures . New York, NY: Basic Books. ↵
• Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research . Chicago, IL: Aldine. ↵
• Abrams, L. S., & Curran, L. (2009). “And you’re telling me not to stress?” A grounded theory study of postpartum depression symptoms among low-income mothers. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 33 , 351–362. ↵
• Todd, Z., Nerlich, B., McKeown, S., & Clarke, D. D. (2004) Mixing methods in psychology: The integration of qualitative and quantitative methods in theory and practice . London, UK: Psychology Press. ↵
• Trenor, J.M., Yu, S.L., Waight, C.L., Zerda. K.S & Sha T.-L. (2008). The relations of ethnicity to female engineering students’ educational experiences and college and career plans in an ethnically diverse learning environment. Journal of Engineering Education, 97 (4), 449-465. ↵
• Bryman, A. (2012). Social Research Methods , 4th ed. Oxford: OUP. ↵

Research that typically starts with a focused research question or hypothesis, collects a small amount of numerical data from a large number of individuals, describes the resulting data using statistical techniques, and draws general conclusions about some large population. 

Research that begins with a less focused research question, collects large amounts of relatively “unfiltered” data from a relatively small number of individuals, describes data using nonstatistical techniques, such as grounded theory, thematic analysis, critical discourse analysis, or interpretative phenomenological analysis and aims to understand in detail the experience of the research participants.

A qualitative research method to collect lengthy and detailed information from participants using structured, semi-structured, or unstructured sets of open-ended questions.

Used in qualitative research which involves small groups of people who participate together in interviews focused on a particular topic or issue.

Researchers start with the data and develop a theory or an interpretation that is “grounded in” those data.

A qualitative research method that involves an interpretation of the data in terms of the themes a researcher has identified.

Research that combines both quantitative and qualitative approaches.

The idea to use both quantitative and qualitative methods simultaneously to study the same general questions and to compare the results.

Qualitative Research Copyright © 2022 by Rajiv S. Jhangiani; I-Chant A. Chiang; Carrie Cuttler; and Dana C. Leighton is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Non-Experimental Research

31 Qualitative Research

Learning objectives.

• List several ways in which qualitative research differs from quantitative research in psychology.
• Describe the strengths and weaknesses of qualitative research in psychology compared with quantitative research.
• Give examples of qualitative research in psychology.

What Is Qualitative Research?

This textbook is primarily about  quantitative research ,  in part because most studies conducted in psychology are quantitative in nature . Quantitative researchers typically start with a focused research question or hypothesis, collect a small amount of numerical data from a large number of individuals, describe the resulting data using statistical techniques, and draw general conclusions about some large population. Although this method is by far the most common approach to conducting empirical research in psychology, there is an important alternative called qualitative research . Qualitative research originated in the disciplines of anthropology and sociology but is now used to study psychological topics as well. Qualitative researchers generally begin with a less focused research question, collect large amounts of relatively “unfiltered” data from a relatively small number of individuals, and describe their data using nonstatistical techniques, such as grounded theory, thematic analysis, critical discourse analysis, or interpretative phenomenological analysis. They are usually less concerned with drawing general conclusions about human behavior than with understanding in detail the experience  of their research participants.

Consider, for example, a study by researcher Per Lindqvist and his colleagues, who wanted to learn how the families of teenage suicide victims cope with their loss (Lindqvist, Johansson, & Karlsson, 2008) [1] . They did not have a specific research question or hypothesis, such as, What percentage of family members join suicide support groups? Instead, they wanted to understand the variety of reactions that families had, with a focus on what it is like from  their  perspectives. To address this question, they interviewed the families of 10 teenage suicide victims in their homes in rural Sweden. The interviews were relatively unstructured, beginning with a general request for the families to talk about the victim and ending with an invitation to talk about anything else that they wanted to tell the interviewer. One of the most important themes that emerged from these interviews was that even as life returned to “normal,” the families continued to struggle with the question of why their loved one committed suicide. This struggle appeared to be especially difficult for families in which the suicide was most unexpected.

The Purpose of Qualitative Research

Again, this textbook is primarily about quantitative research in psychology. The strength of quantitative research is its ability to provide precise answers to specific research questions and to draw general conclusions about human behavior. This method is how we know that people have a strong tendency to obey authority figures, for example, and that female undergraduate students are not substantially more talkative than male undergraduate students. But while quantitative research is good at providing precise answers to specific research questions, it is not nearly as good at  generating  novel and interesting research questions. Likewise, while quantitative research is good at drawing general conclusions about human behavior, it is not nearly as good at providing detailed descriptions of the behavior of particular groups in particular situations. And quantitative research is not very good at communicating what it is actually like to be a member of a particular group in a particular situation.

But the relative weaknesses of quantitative research are the relative strengths of qualitative research. Qualitative research can help researchers to generate new and interesting research questions and hypotheses. The research of Lindqvist and colleagues, for example, suggests that there may be a general relationship between how unexpected a suicide is and how consumed the family is with trying to understand why the teen committed suicide. This relationship can now be explored using quantitative research. But it is unclear whether this question would have arisen at all without the researchers sitting down with the families and listening to what they themselves wanted to say about their experience. Qualitative research can also provide rich and detailed descriptions of human behavior in the real-world contexts in which it occurs. Among qualitative researchers, this depth is often referred to as “thick description” (Geertz, 1973) [2] . Similarly, qualitative research can convey a sense of what it is actually like to be a member of a particular group or in a particular situation—what qualitative researchers often refer to as the “lived experience” of the research participants. Lindqvist and colleagues, for example, describe how all the families spontaneously offered to show the interviewer the victim’s bedroom or the place where the suicide occurred—revealing the importance of these physical locations to the families. It seems unlikely that a quantitative study would have discovered this detail.

Table 6.3 Some contrasts between qualitative and quantitative research

Data Collection and Analysis in Qualitative Research

Data collection approaches in qualitative research are quite varied and can involve naturalistic observation, participant observation, archival data, artwork, and many other things. But one of the most common approaches, especially for psychological research, is to conduct  interviews . Interviews in qualitative research can be unstructured—consisting of a small number of general questions or prompts that allow participants to talk about what is of interest to them—or structured, where there is a strict script that the interviewer does not deviate from. Most interviews are in between the two and are called semi-structured interviews, where the researcher has a few consistent questions and can follow up by asking more detailed questions about the topics that come up. Such interviews can be lengthy and detailed, but they are usually conducted with a relatively small sample. The unstructured interview was the approach used by Lindqvist and colleagues in their research on the families of suicide victims because the researchers were aware that how much was disclosed about such a sensitive topic should be led by the families, not by the researchers.

Another approach used in qualitative research involves small groups of people who participate together in interviews focused on a particular topic or issue, known as focus groups . The interaction among participants in a focus group can sometimes bring out more information than can be learned in a one-on-one interview. The use of focus groups has become a standard technique in business and industry among those who want to understand consumer tastes and preferences. The content of all focus group interviews is usually recorded and transcribed to facilitate later analyses. However, we know from social psychology that group dynamics are often at play in any group, including focus groups, and it is useful to be aware of those possibilities. For example, the desire to be liked by others can lead participants to provide inaccurate answers that they believe will be perceived favorably by the other participants. The same may be said for personality characteristics. For example, highly extraverted participants can sometimes dominate discussions within focus groups.

Data Analysis in Qualitative Research

Although quantitative and qualitative research generally differ along several important dimensions (e.g., the specificity of the research question, the type of data collected), it is the method of data  analysis  that distinguishes them more clearly than anything else. To illustrate this idea, imagine a team of researchers that conducts a series of unstructured interviews with people recovering from alcohol use disorder to learn about the role of their religious faith in their recovery. Although this project sounds like qualitative research, imagine further that once they collect the data, they code the data in terms of how often each participant mentions God (or a “higher power”), and they then use descriptive and inferential statistics to find out whether those who mention God more often are more successful in abstaining from alcohol. Now it sounds like quantitative research. In other words, the quantitative-qualitative distinction depends more on what researchers  do  with the data they have collected than with why or how they collected the data. 

But what does qualitative data analysis look like? Just as there are many ways to collect data in qualitative research, there are many ways to analyze data. Here we focus on one general approach called  grounded theory  (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) [3] . This approach was developed within the field of sociology in the 1960s and has gradually gained popularity in psychology. Remember that in quantitative research, it is typical for the researcher to start with a theory, derive a hypothesis from that theory, and then collect data to test that specific hypothesis. In qualitative research using grounded theory, researchers start with the data and develop a theory or an interpretation that is “grounded in” those data. They do this analysis in stages. First, they identify ideas that are repeated throughout the data. Then they organize these ideas into a smaller number of broader themes. Finally, they write a  theoretical narrative —an interpretation of the data in terms of the themes that they have identified. This theoretical narrative focuses on the subjective experience of the participants and is usually supported by many direct quotations from the participants themselves.

As an example, consider a study by researchers Laura Abrams and Laura Curran, who used the grounded theory approach to study the experience of postpartum depression symptoms among low-income mothers (Abrams & Curran, 2009) [4] . Their data were the result of unstructured interviews with 19 participants.  Table 6.4  shows the five broad themes the researchers identified and the more specific repeating ideas that made up each of those themes. In their research report, they provide numerous quotations from their participants, such as this one from “Destiny:”

Well, just recently my apartment was broken into and the fact that his Medicaid for some reason was cancelled so a lot of things was happening within the last two weeks all at one time. So that in itself I don’t want to say almost drove me mad but it put me in a funk.…Like I really was depressed. (p. 357)

Their theoretical narrative focused on the participants’ experience of their symptoms, not as an abstract “affective disorder” but as closely tied to the daily struggle of raising children alone under often difficult circumstances.

The Quantitative-Qualitative “Debate”

Given their differences, it may come as no surprise that quantitative and qualitative research in psychology and related fields do not coexist in complete harmony. Some quantitative researchers criticize qualitative methods on the grounds that they lack objectivity, are difficult to evaluate in terms of reliability and validity, and do not allow generalization to people or situations other than those actually studied. At the same time, some qualitative researchers criticize quantitative methods on the grounds that they overlook the richness of human behavior and experience and instead answer simple questions about easily quantifiable variables.

In general, however, qualitative researchers are well aware of the issues of objectivity, reliability, validity, and generalizability. In fact, they have developed a number of frameworks for addressing these issues (which are beyond the scope of our discussion). And in general, quantitative researchers are well aware of the issue of oversimplification. They do not believe that all human behavior and experience can be adequately described in terms of a small number of variables and the statistical relationships among them. Instead, they use simplification as a strategy for uncovering general principles of human behavior.

Many researchers from both the quantitative and qualitative camps now agree that the two approaches can and should be combined into what has come to be called  mixed-methods research  (Todd, Nerlich, McKeown, & Clarke, 2004) [5] . (In fact, the studies by Lindqvist and colleagues and by Abrams and Curran both combined quantitative and qualitative approaches.) One approach to combining quantitative and qualitative research is to use qualitative research for hypothesis generation and quantitative research for hypothesis testing. Again, while a qualitative study might suggest that families who experience an unexpected suicide have more difficulty resolving the question of why, a well-designed quantitative study could test a hypothesis by measuring these specific variables in a large sample. A second approach to combining quantitative and qualitative research is referred to as  triangulation . The idea is to use both quantitative and qualitative methods simultaneously to study the same general questions and to compare the results. If the results of the quantitative and qualitative methods converge on the same general conclusion, they reinforce and enrich each other. If the results diverge, then they suggest an interesting new question: Why do the results diverge and how can they be reconciled?

Using qualitative research can often help clarify quantitative results via triangulation. Trenor, Yu, Waight, Zerda, and Sha (2008) [6] investigated the experience of female engineering students at a university. In the first phase, female engineering students were asked to complete a survey, where they rated a number of their perceptions, including their sense of belonging.  Their results were compared across the student ethnicities, and statistically, the various ethnic groups showed no differences in their ratings of their sense of belonging.  One might look at that result and conclude that ethnicity does not have anything to do with one’s sense of belonging.  However, in the second phase, the authors also conducted interviews with the students, and in those interviews, many minority students reported how the diversity of cultures at the university enhanced their sense of belonging. Without the qualitative component, we might have drawn the wrong conclusion about the quantitative results.

This example shows how qualitative and quantitative research work together to help us understand human behavior. Some researchers have characterized qualitative research as best for identifying behaviors or the phenomenon whereas quantitative research is best for understanding meaning or identifying the mechanism. However, Bryman (2012) [7] argues for breaking down the divide between these arbitrarily different ways of investigating the same questions.

• Lindqvist, P., Johansson, L., & Karlsson, U. (2008). In the aftermath of teenage suicide: A qualitative study of the psychosocial consequences for the surviving family members. BMC Psychiatry, 8 , 26. Retrieved from http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-244X/8/26 ↵
• Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures . New York, NY: Basic Books. ↵
• Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research . Chicago, IL: Aldine. ↵
• Abrams, L. S., & Curran, L. (2009). “And you’re telling me not to stress?” A grounded theory study of postpartum depression symptoms among low-income mothers. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 33 , 351–362. ↵
• Todd, Z., Nerlich, B., McKeown, S., & Clarke, D. D. (2004) Mixing methods in psychology: The integration of qualitative and quantitative methods in theory and practice . London, UK: Psychology Press. ↵
• Trenor, J.M., Yu, S.L., Waight, C.L., Zerda. K.S & Sha T.-L. (2008). The relations of ethnicity to female engineering students’ educational experiences and college and career plans in an ethnically diverse learning environment. Journal of Engineering Education, 97 (4), 449-465. ↵
• Bryman, A. (2012). Social Research Methods , 4th ed. Oxford: OUP. ↵

Research that typically starts with a focused research question or hypothesis, collects a small amount of numerical data from a large number of individuals, describes the resulting data using statistical techniques, and draws general conclusions about some large population. 

Research that begins with a less focused research question, collects large amounts of relatively “unfiltered” data from a relatively small number of individuals, describes data using nonstatistical techniques, such as grounded theory, thematic analysis, critical discourse analysis, or interpretative phenomenological analysis and aims to understand in detail the experience of the research participants.

A qualitative research method to collect lengthy and detailed information from participants using structured, semi-structured, or unstructured sets of open-ended questions.

Used in qualitative research which involves small groups of people who participate together in interviews focused on a particular topic or issue.

Researchers start with the data and develop a theory or an interpretation that is “grounded in” those data.

A qualitative research method that involves an interpretation of the data in terms of the themes a researcher has identified.

Research that combines both quantitative and qualitative approaches.

The idea to use both quantitative and qualitative methods simultaneously to study the same general questions and to compare the results.

Research Methods in Psychology Copyright © 2019 by Rajiv S. Jhangiani, I-Chant A. Chiang, Carrie Cuttler, & Dana C. Leighton is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY article

Approaching the nature of consciousness through a phenomenal analysis of early vision. what is the explanandum.

• Department of Mental Health, Azienda ULSS 1 Dolomiti, Belluno, Italy

Loorits (2014) identifies the solution to the hard problem of consciousness in the possibility of fully analyzing seemingly non-structural aspects of consciousness in structural terms. However, research on consciousness conducted in recent decades has failed to bridge the explanatory gap between the brain and conscious mind. One reason why the explanatory gap cannot be filled, and consequently the problem remains hard, is that experience and neural structure are too different or “distant” to be directly compatible. Conversely, structural aspects of consciousness can be found in phenomenal experience. One possible alternative, therefore, is to seek the structure of seemingly non-structural aspects of consciousness not in the neural substrate, but within consciousness itself, through a phenomenal analysis of the qualitative aspects of experience, starting from its simplest forms. An essential premise is to reformulate the explanandum of consciousness, which is usually attributed to qualia and what it is like to be in a certain state. However, these properties do not allow us to identify the fundamental aspects of phenomenal experience. Sensations such as the redness of red or the painfulness of pain are inseparable from the context of the experience to which they belong, making qualia appear as phenomenal artifacts. Furthermore, the simplest qualitative aspects can be found in early vision. They are involved in perceptual organization and necessarily have relational significance. The unitary set of qualities found in early vision—such as those related to being an object, background or detail—constitutes the explanandum of the simplest forms of consciousness and seems to imply a justifying structure. Although early vision is characterized by interdependent qualitative components that form a unitary whole, we cannot find in it the structure of seemingly non-structural aspects of consciousness. Phenomenal appearance alone does not seem sufficient to identify a unitary structure of consciousness. However, the closeness of these characteristics to a unitary structure prompts us to delve into less explored territory, using the components of experience also as possible explanans.

Introduction

In a 2014 paper, Loorits stated that “one possible way to present the hard problem of consciousness is to consider three seemingly plausible theses that are in an interesting tension. First, all the objects of physics and other natural sciences can be fully analyzed in terms of structure and relations, or simply, in structural terms. Second, consciousness is (or has) something over and above its structure and relations. Third, the existence and nature of consciousness can be explained in terms of natural sciences.” In other words, if we want consciousness to be explained in terms of natural sciences, we should be able to analyze it in structural terms. However, consciousness seems to be something that goes beyond its structure and relations. Loorits sees the possibility of analyzing in structural terms seemingly non-structural aspects of consciousness like qualia as the solution to the hard problem of consciousness.

Loorits founds his arguments on Crick and Koch’s work on consciousness ( Crick and Koch, 1998 ). The idea is that the structure of a quale is a network of nodes (neurons) in the brain. A fully structural account of consciousness answers the question of how phenomenal consciousness could possibly “rise” from neural activity: if the hypothesis is correct, then the phenomenal consciousness simply is a certain complex pattern of neural activity. On this account a person experiences a particular quale when a given ensemble of neurons reaches a certain threshold.

However, this hypothesis does not seem capable of solving the hard problem, which is basically bridging the explanatory gap between physical properties and experience ( Levine, 1983 ). It does not explain how a sensation could emerge from the activity of a network of neurons in the brain. Even in the way Loorits (2014) poses it, the hard problem seems to remain unresolved. In the years since Crick and Koch’s (1998) pioneering research, numerous authors have sought to identify the structure of Phenomenal Consciousness in neuronal organization ( Seth and Bayne, 2022 ).

During the last three decades, the advent and development of new scientific procedures, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography, have allowed neuroscientists to study the activity of the living brain. These methods have been extensively used to identify with an acceptable degree of accuracy the neural correlates of any aspect of mental activity ( Nani et al., 2019 ). Tracking the correlations between brain processes and states of phenomenal consciousness (neural correlates of consciousness) is the basic method of scientific consciousness research ( Tononi and Koch, 2008 ; Polák and Marvan, 2018 ). Many potential neural correlates have been investigated. A classic example of an attempt to identity neural correlates of consciousness comes from the study by Sheinberg and Logothetis (1997) , who used the phenomenon of binocular rivalry and significant correlation between neuronal activity and the conscious percept in infero-temporal cortex but not V1. My previous article ( Forti, 2021 ) provides a detailed description of the correlations between brain processes and phenomenal consciousness. In short, one could say that consciousness is dependent on the brainstem and thalamus for arousal; that basic cognition is supported by recurrent electrical activity between the cortex and the thalamus at gamma band frequencies; and that some kind of working memory must, at least fleetingly, be present for awareness to occur ( Calabrò et al., 2015 ).

With regard to subcortical structures, the cerebellum has four times more neurons than the cortex but has little effect on consciousness and its contents ( Lemon and Edgley, 2010 ). By contrast, brainstem lesions typically cause immediate coma by damaging the reticular activating system and its associated neuromodulatory systems. However, neurological patients with a severely damaged cortex, but with relatively spared brainstem function, typically remain in a vegetative state. This suggests that brainstem activity is insufficient to sustain consciousness. Rather, it is likely that the activity of heterogeneous neuronal populations within the brainstem, hypothalamus and basal forebrain, which project diffusely to thalamic and cortical neurons and promote their depolarization, provides an important background condition for enabling consciousness by facilitating effective interactions among cortical areas ( Parvizi and Damasio, 2001 ).

The role of the thalamus in consciousness remains controversial. Small bilateral lesions in the intralaminar nuclei of the thalamus can lead to coma, and chronic thalamic electrical stimulation may promote recovery in some patients with disorders of consciousness. Although the so-called core neurons in primary thalamic nuclei have focused connectivity, several higher-order thalamic nuclei are rich in widely projecting matrix cells, which may facilitate interactions among distant cortical areas. Thus, some thalamic cells may represent critical enabling factors for consciousness ( Van der Werf et al., 2002 ; Koch et al., 2016 ).

With regard to cortical activity, according to the Global Neuronal Workspace model ( Dehaene et al., 1998 ), when a stimulus is presented but not consciously perceived, activation can be seen mainly in the associated primary sensory cortices. When the stimulus is consciously perceived, however, activation in primary cortical areas is followed by a delayed ‘neural ignition’ in which a sustained wave of activity propagates across prefrontal and parietal association cortices ( Noel et al., 2019 ) and send top-down signals back to all processors ( Maillé and Lynn, 2020 ).

Other evidence across lesion, stimulation, and recording studies consistently point to regions in the “back” of the cortex, including temporal, parietal, and occipital areas, as a “posterior hot zone” that seems to play a direct role in specifying the contents of consciousness ( Koch et al., 2016 ). By contrast, evidence for a direct, content-specific involvement of the “front” of the cortex, including most prefrontal regions, is missing or unclear ( Boly et al., 2017 ). Although most prefrontal regions may be “mute” as regards to consciousness, it remains possible that some prefrontal regions, such as ventromedial areas ( Koenigs et al., 2007 ) or premotor areas, may contribute specific conscious contents, such as feelings of reflection, valuation, and affect.

Recent neuroscientific findings challenge the widely held assumption that similar neural mechanisms underlie different types of conscious awareness, such as seeing, feeling, knowing, and willing. Even within a single modality such as conscious visual perception, the anatomical location, timing, and information flow of neural activity related to conscious awareness vary depending on both external and internal factors ( He, 2023 ). For example, whether the prefrontal cortex is involved in conscious perception might depend on the characteristics of the sensory input: if it is simple and unambiguous, the prefrontal cortex might not be needed ( DiCarlo et al., 2012 ); if it is complex or ambiguous, at least ventral prefrontal cortex appears to be recruited.

Some pathological conditions such as Contralateral Neglect syndrome could provide a window into consciousness. Jerath and Crawford (2014) suggest that the thalamus generates a dynamic default three-dimensional space by integrating processed information from corticothalamic feed-back loops, creating an infrastructure that may form the basis of our consciousness.

The impact of the circadian rhythms on spectral characteristics of EEG signals and on consciousness fluctuations has been investigated for more than half a century ( Lehnertz et al., 2021 ). An activated or desynchronized EEG, one of the oldest electrophysiological indices of consciousness, is still one of the most sensitive and useful markers available ( Koch et al., 2016 ). Spontaneous activity in the alpha-band may index, or even causally support, conscious perception ( Gallotto et al., 2017 ). Low gamma-band (30–50 Hz) synchronization between neural groups coding the various features of objects currently populating experience has been proposed as a mechanism for dynamic functional integration in the brain and has been suggested to be the biological basis of perceptual experience and feature binding ( Doesburg et al., 2009 ).

The time course of conscious perception has been studied using event-related potential components associated with awareness. Railo et al. (2011) argue that the visual awareness negativity component that occurs around 200 ms after stimulus presentation might be associated with conscious perception, and late positivity that occurs around 300–400 ms after stimulus presentation might be associated with conscious access ( Raffone et al., 2014 ). Different event-related potentials likely correspond to different aspects of phenomenal consciousness—not all of consciousness—which may explain some of the disagreements in the literature ( Friedman et al., 2023 ).

Recently, a number of theories have proliferated attempting to explain phenomenal experience and qualia based on the activity of electromagnetic field ( Jones and Hunt, 2023 ). Field theories have arguably made real progress in explaining how fields integrate colors to form unified pictorial images ( McFadden, 2020 , 2023 ; Ward and Guevara, 2022 ). Theories of consciousness rooted in quantum physics are also well known ( Hameroff and Penrose, 2014 ; Tuszynski, 2020 ). A major problem for quantum mind theories is to explain how quantum effects can occur in the brain at a sufficient scale to be useful ( Tegmark, 2000 ; Bond, 2023 ).

However, all these studies do not seem to be able to bridge the explanatory gap between physical phenomena and phenomenal experience ( Skokowski, 2022 ; Jones and Hunt, 2023 ; Sanfey, 2023 ). Neuroscientists track how light impinging on the retina is transformed into electrical pulses, relayed through the visual thalamus to reach the visual cortex, and finally culminates in activity within speech-related areas causing us to say “red.” But how such experience as the redness of red emerges from the processing of sensory information is utterly mysterious ( Kanai and Tsuchiya, 2012 ). In other words, these studies do not seem capable of explaining the phenomenal and qualitative, seemingly non-structural aspects of consciousness. That is to say, they do not seem capable of bridging the explanatory gap between experience and physical substrate as is the case with the “qualitative” properties of wood and stone ( Loorits, 2014 ).

In my opinion, a possible alternative is to look for the structure of seemingly non-structural aspects of consciousness not in the neuronal substrate, but in consciousness itself, through a phenomenal analysis of the qualitative aspects of experience, starting from its simplest forms. An essential prerequisite for this hypothesis is to define the explanandum in terms that can be useful for research. This article is aimed at defining the explanandum, i.e., what about consciousness we find useful to explain. In particular, I will try to highlight that qualia, which many authors identify as the main explanandum of consciousness, do not have a phenomenal existence as isolated entities and that the qualitative aspects analyzed in the literature must be placed in a more complex structural context than is commonly believed. Furthermore, the simplest qualitative aspects belong to early perception and necessarily have relational significance. This is a first step of a phenomenal analysis that I will develop further elsewhere, hypothesizing a hidden structure of consciousness.

The problem of the specificity of consciousness

An often underestimated problem is the specificity of the aspects of consciousness that constitute the explanandum. In this sense, a theory of consciousness cannot avoid referring to qualia or, as I call them in this paper, the qualitative aspects of experience. The idea that consciousness has some features over and above its structural and relational properties has been strongly criticized by many (for example by most of the functionalists, behaviorists, and representationalists). However, most of the attempts to analyze consciousness in fully structural terms have ended up eliminating or simply ignoring certain (qualitative) aspects of consciousness whose existence is considered as absolutely obvious by many ( Loorits, 2014 ). By eliminating or ignoring certain aspects of consciousness, these approaches to consciousness propose a correlation with something that is not necessarily conscious. In other words, one could say that they fail to identify the specificity of consciousness.

What aspects of consciousness that we recognize as such are useful in formulating a theory of consciousness? One way of asking this question is to ask what aspects of consciousness are specific, in order to avoid referring to “false positives,” i.e., states that are not conscious even though they exhibit some features typical of consciousness. The properties most often associated with consciousness ( James, 1890 ; Tononi and Edelman, 1998 ; Zeman, 2001 ; Edelman, 2003 ; Searle, 2004 ) are the following: qualitative character; subjective; unitary; intentional; selective, with a foreground and background. According to Searle (2000) , the essential trait of consciousness that we need to explain is unified qualitative subjectivity. Tononi and Koch (2015) identify five essential properties that belong to conscious experience, namely intrinsicality, composition, information, integration, and exclusion.

A fundamental distinction is the one between “Phenomenal” Consciousness and “Access” Consciousness ( Block, 1995 , 2005 ). Access consciousness can be considered a non-specific form of consciousness, as it can belong to consciousness, but also to many other non-conscious states ( Tyler, 2020 ). Many theories of consciousness, as was historically the case with binding ( Feldman, 2013 ), fail from square one precisely because they refer to something that is not specific to consciousness. Specificity is not fulfilled in the case of the unity of consciousness either, even though this is a characteristic that almost all authors attribute to consciousness. The unity of consciousness at a single time ( Bayne, 2010 ), related to the ability to integrate information from all senses into one coherent whole—e.g. unified images ( Jones and Hunt, 2023 ), can apply to different non-conscious systems. In Recurrent Processing Theory, the unconscious visual functions of feature extraction and categorizations are mediated by the feedforward sweep, while conscious functions related to perceptual organization are mediated by recurrent cortico-cortical connections ( Lamme, 2010 ). However, these latter functions - that only occur when conscious percepts are present—are candidate neuronal correlates of consciousness. They are not conscious by themselves.

The Higher Order Theory of consciousness claims that a mere first-order representation is not sufficient for conscious experiences to arise ( Brown et al., 2019 ). However, even a first-order state being in some ways monitored or meta-represented by a relevant higher-order representation is in no way sufficient for a state of consciousness to occur. The Global Neuronal Workspace model ( Baars, 1997 ; Dehaene et al., 1998 ; Dehaene, 2014 ) is a model according to which conscious access occurs when incoming information is made globally available to multiple brain systems through a network of neurons with long-range axons. Why should global accessibility give rise to conscious experience ( Chalmers, 2007 )? Intentionality, as a quality of being directed toward an object, has often been associated with consciousness. But even a non-conscious system like an automaton can relate to something external to it. Not even the ability to select one region of the field as the object rather than another ( Schwarzkopf and Rees, 2015 ) guarantees the occurrence of conscious experience. Therefore, there are aspects that do belong to consciousness, but not in a specific way. In the absence of specific features of consciousness, there is a risk of formulating a theory that refers to something that is compatible with the absence of consciousness.

Conversely, the specific characteristics of consciousness can be attributed to its phenomenal aspect. It is precisely this aspect of consciousness that is extremely difficult to explain in relational and structural terms. Phenomenal Consciousness (PC) seems to represent what is unique to consciousness, which exists exclusively in the presence of consciousness and not in other situations. Consequently, if a property such as unity undoubtedly applies to consciousness, then we should understand how the unity that manifests itself on the phenomenal level differs from other forms of unity ( Wiese, 2017 ).

Difficulty arises when we try to better define the meaning of PC. How can we characterize phenomenal consciousness? Specificity is fulfilled if one experiences something in being an organism. According to Nagel (1974) , a being is conscious just if there is “something that it is like” to be that creature, i.e., some subjective way the world seems or appears from the creature’s mental or experiential point of view. This is a vague and imprecise concept, presumably referring to a set of several closely intertwined components, such as more or less complex qualitative aspects, subjectivity and value connotations. As Loorits (2014) points out, “the most common ways to introduce the hard problem are intuitively appealing but rather obscure in meaning.”

A similar way of characterizing phenomenal consciousness is the notion of qualia ( Kind, 2008 ). Qualia seem to fully meet the specificity criterion. The sheer qualitative feel of pain is a very different feature from the pattern of neuron firing that causes the pain ( Searle, 1997 ). We shall see that the concept of quale, as interpreted by many authors, also appears questionable. In view of these limitations, in this paper I will refer to the concept of qualitative aspect rather than the concept of quale.

Phenomenal analysis: investigating consciousness “from within”

The seemingly insurmountable difficulty of explaining the phenomenal aspects of consciousness must prompt us to reflect. We look for the structure of PC in the brain substrate, apparently without succeeding. However, we must ask ourselves whether the problem lies in consciousness itself rather than in the substrate. The extreme difficulty of explaining qualia in terms of brain structure could be considered an anomaly in the sense described by Lightman and Gingerich (1992) . An anomalous fact is one that is unexpected and difficult to explain within an existing explanatory framework. According to Kuhn, awareness of anomaly is “the recognition that nature has somehow violated the pre-induced expectations that govern normal science.” In this sense, the structure of seemingly non-structural aspects of consciousness could be sought not in the neuronal substrate, but in consciousness itself. While it is known that consciousness has structural aspects, it is underestimated that many of them are related to its qualitative aspects. As I will try to highlight in this paper, the relational and unitary nature of its qualitative aspects cannot be ignored.

Experience and brain structure are too different or “distant” to be directly compatible. On the contrary, structural aspects of consciousness can be found in phenomenal experience. We can “perceive” the relational characteristics of PC. As will be discussed further below, despite the supposed intrinsic nature of qualia, many phenomenal aspects of experience—if not all—appear relational to us. At the same time, we can experience the unity of PC. The components of the perceptual field, such as the part and the whole, appear dependent on each other ( Wagemans et al., 2012 ; Tononi and Koch, 2015 ).

Consequently, an analysis in structural terms of consciousness could be carried out not by searching for the structural features of the brain that can account for the phenomenal characteristics of consciousness ( Tononi and Koch, 2015 ), but starting from the phenomenal properties of consciousness. There are phenomenal aspects that we do not usually take into account. It is important to point out that in almost all theories of consciousness, phenomenal aspects are either ignored altogether or are analyzed in a very cursory and superficial way.

The hypothesis of a structure of consciousness can only be explored by correctly identifying the starting point. This paper is devoted to the search for the explanandum—what about consciousness we find useful to explain, both in terms of specificity and simplicity. The explanandum of consciousness is usually traced back to qualia and what it is like to be in a certain state. However, the explanandum must be reformulated, since qualia, taken alone, are a phenomenal artifact. In addition, these properties do not make it possible to identify the basic aspects of phenomenal experience. Sensations such as the redness of red or the painfulness of pain must be placed in a more complex structural context than is commonly believed. The simplest qualitative aspects—such as those related to being an object, background or detail—can be found in early vision. Such phenomenal qualities, which are manifold and different from each other, are perceived in relation to each other and seem to form a unitary whole.

As I will explain later in the text, I am not referring to the most frequent definitions of early vision, which can start from retinal vision ( Tomasi, 2006 ; Ghosh, 2020 ). Here I am referring to it as the simplest form of visual experience, related to perceptual organization. In this sense, early vision corresponds to Kanizsa’s (1979 , 1980) “primary vision.” Early vision does not involve recognition, semantic interpretation, or other higher cognitive processing of visual information.

I call the method I adopt in this paper phenomenal analysis. Quite simply, its objective is to identify the structure of consciousness on the basis of the analysis of the phenomenal and qualitative aspects of experience, starting from its simplest forms. I call this analysis phenomenal rather than phenomenological because, while my approach has aspects in common with phenomenology in the observation of conscious phenomena, it does not aspire to embrace a methodological apparatus as complex as the one of phenomenology. My analysis primarily addresses very simple forms of experience, trying to prioritize the aspects that seem to belong to the fundamental “framework” of consciousness and might be involved in the formation of its structure.

Moreover, phenomenology investigates what characterizes perceptions, judgments or feelings. Its goals do not involve the search for an explanation of consciousness, as phenomenology addresses phenomena as they manifest themselves in the intentional consciousness of the subject. “Phenomenology is concerned with attaining an understanding and proper description of the experiential structure of our mental/embodied life; it does not attempt to develop a naturalistic explanation of consciousness, nor does it seek to uncover its biological genesis, neurological basis, psychological motivation, or the like” ( Gallagher and Zahavi, 2008 ).

With respect to the matter of simplicity, it is worth noting that, in addition to identifying the specific aspects of consciousness, a theory of consciousness should identify the simplest forms of phenomenal consciousness. There are several reasons for this. First of all, in any theory it is important to identify the fundamental aspects of the phenomenon under study. The identification of elementary units has been a key in many fields of science and could also be a key in the field of consciousness research ( Kanai and Tsuchiya, 2012 ). Secondly, it is necessary to identify the simplest level at which consciousness manifests itself. Edelman (2003) distinguishes between primary consciousness, which concerns sensations, images and perceptual experiences in general, and higher-order consciousness, which includes self-consciousness and language. However, the main problem is the description of primary consciousness, because higher-order consciousness emerges from processes that are already conscious. Thirdly, the simplest forms of consciousness might have been the first to appear in the course of evolution and the primary significance of its appearance should be traced to them. Finally, the most difficult aspects to explain seem to be the apparently less complex ones. In this sense, the mystery of consciousness seems to boil down to the impossibility of explaining the fact that we experience sensations ( Chalmers, 1995 ). Simple aspects such as the redness of red or the painfulness of pain help identify the problem of consciousness very effectively ( Humphrey, 2006 ).

I will focus phenomenal analysis not on qualia and raw feelings, but on the qualitative aspects of the simplest forms of visual experience taken as a whole. This way, phenomenal analysis makes it possible to highlight the relational nature of the qualitative aspects of perceptual experience. As we shall see in the course of the analysis, at some point there comes the problem of explaining how the qualitative components of the conscious field form a totality of interdependent parts. In fact, the different qualitative components of the phenomenal field appear to be both distinct and dependent on each other at the same time, without it being possible to identify which structure is responsible for this.

This appears to be a limitation of an analysis that considers only the apparent aspects of visual experience. However, the “closeness” of these characteristics to a unitary structure prompts us to delve into less explored territory, using the components of experience also as possible explanans. In a separate paper, starting from the nature of appearance itself, I will consider the need to postulate the existence of non-apparent aspects.

Qualia are a phenomenal artifact

One of the main problems in the approach to consciousness is that we tend to identify the simplest aspects of experience with qualia. It is a common view that simple qualia could be a useful starting point for a theory of consciousness. Koch (2004) wonders how the elemental feelings and sensations making up conscious experience arise from the concerted actions of nerve cells and their associated synaptic and molecular processes. The assumption is that if we explain the neuronal substrate of pain, sweetness and the redness of red we lay the foundation for explaining consciousness.

However, identifying the simplest aspects of experience with qualia is erroneous. According to the majority of authors, considering qualia as a possible starting point for a theory of consciousness means being able to think of them as isolated, or extrapolating them from objects and other components of the field of experience as fully representative of experience itself. Then, it means being able to look for the simplest possible explanation of consciousness at the level of brain organization. It should be noted that, although Lewis separates the properties of qualia from those of objects, he does not identify them with conscious experience: “This given element in a single experience of an object is what will be meant by ‘a presentation.’ Such a presentation is, obviously, an event and historically unique. No identification of the event itself with the repeatable content of it is intended” ( Lewis, 1929 ). However, the way in which literature on consciousness has defined the concept of quale over time has coincided with a tendency to separate it from anything having to do with the idea of relationship and structure. Qualia are intrinsic, i.e., non-relational ( Dennett, 1988 ; de Leon, 2001 ; Siddharth and Menon, 2017 ). As Loorits (2014) points out, qualia are some features of consciousness over and above its structural and relational properties.

The meaning of non-relational is not univocal. We must distinguish between internal relations and external relations. Regarding the former, Dennett (1988) states that “qualia … are intrinsic properties—which seems to imply … that they are somehow atomic and unanalyzable.” Simple qualia such as blueness or sweetness have no obvious signs of an internal structure ( Haun and Tononi, 2019 ). According to Loorits (2014) , in the classical view, qualia would be monadic, not compositional, and with no internal structure: “when I have a visual perception of a red apple, I have a direct epistemic access to many structural features of my visual experience: the size and shape of the perceived apple, for instance. I do not have similar direct epistemic access to the structure of the perceived redness of my visual experience.”

However, it should be noted that the non-analyzability of qualia is related to the fact that they are characterized by an internal homogeneity, which Metzinger (2004) calls ultrasmoothness, in the sense that they have a grain structure. We should keep in mind that at the conscious level we can make a phenomenal distinction only by contrasting one region with another. If there is no contrast within a red surface, we perceive it as homogeneous and cannot make any phenomenal distinction. However, its supposed non-analyzability, which we perceive phenomenally as homogeneity, is a piece of information about the region of the perceptual field that differs from the possibility of any point or part of that region not being red. Experiencing the redness of red means seeing the red color distributed homogeneously over an object. This is information that we receive from experience and that we ignore if we speak abstractly about the redness of red. Therefore, the unanalyzability of qualia is at least questionable with regard to its internal relations.

With regard to external relations, according to de Leon (2001) , “that qualia are intrinsic means that their qualitative character can be isolated from everything else going on in the brain (or elsewhere) and is not dependent on relations to other mental states.” According to the standard view, qualia are not in themselves, representational or intentional ( Loar, 2002 ). According to Dennett (1988) , intrinsic means that they are non-relational properties, which do not change depending on the experience’s relation to other things. Consequently, qualia would not be related:

1. with other mental states and behavioral output, so they are not mental states in the functional sense of the term ( de Leon, 2001 ; Van Gulick, 2017 );

2. with the stimulus and, in a broad sense, with the external reality to which they refer (see inverted or absent qualia), so they are non-intentional and non-representational ( Loar, 2002 );

3. with other components within the experiential field; or at least, they can be separated from them, e.g., from the object, so they are universals ( Lewis, 1929 ; Dennett, 1988 ).

While the first two statements concern undeniably important aspects, specifically the functional and the intentional ones, the third is crucial for a phenomenal conception of consciousness. Claiming that qualia are not characterized by their relations to other components of the field has three implications: first, the idea that extrapolation from other components of the field can allow the phenomenal properties of qualia to be preserved; second, that everything within the field that has to do with relation is not, in the strict sense of the word, phenomenal; and third, that everything that has to do with relation, and more broadly with structure, can be explained in terms of cerebral or other organization.

However, relations with other components of the experiential field have to do with the very nature of experience, of what is phenomenal. In the absence of such relations, qualia risk being incompatible not only with a functional and intentional view of mind ( Loar, 2002 ), but also with the essence of PC. Since qualia are extrapolated from the phenomenal experience in which they are placed, they give no guarantee of retaining phenomenal qualities, so they cannot be considered fully representative of the experience itself. The universality of qualia, i.e., the possibility of their being recognized from one experience to another, must be distinguished from their phenomenal nature, which is related to their relations in each individual experience. At the same time, it is difficult to deny the phenomenal nature of the relational aspects of consciousness, such as seeing the object place itself in the foreground and the background extend behind it.

If we limit ourselves to vision, some of the most frequently described qualia are the ones that refer to colors. Scholars refer to the redness of red, using terminology that is different from the one of common sense and referring to a visual experience that is distant from the usual ones. Interestingly, scholars do not refer to the way we see a face, which is much closer to the reality of conscious vision, and which is used as a prototype of conscious experience in many experiments on neural correlates of consciousness ( Koch et al., 2016 ). This is probably because it would be much more difficult to describe the phenomenal experience of a face in non-relational terms.

Dennett (1988) defines qualia as the ways things seem to us. As an example, he cites the way we see a glass of milk at sunset. According to Dennett, “the particular, personal, subjective visual quality of the glass of milk at sunset is the quale of your visual experience at the moment.” However, it is very difficult to have this kind of experience and describe it in the absence of its internal relations: the whiteness and liquidity of milk, the fact that the milk is contained in the glass, the convexity and transparency of the glass, the table on which the glass of milk is standing, the sun next to the glass that disappears over the horizon, the particular light of sunset that affects the way the glass looks, the feeling that this vision can arouse, and our state of mind when we see the glass. What would this experience be without these relations? Would it be an experience in an absolute sense? Is it possible to really separate the elements that, in relation to each other, make up our phenomenal reality from the way they seem to us? Are we assuming that there is a conscious quale of the vision of the glass of milk at sunset that is associated with the non-conscious vision of the glass of milk at sunset?

Or are we assuming that qualia give to a perceptual state the particular qualities that would make it phenomenal, whereby the phenomenal character would be determined in the relation between qualia and perceptual state? In other words, “qualia … are properties of sensations and perceptual states, namely the properties that give them their qualitative or phenomenal character—those that determine ‘what it is like’ to have them” ( Shoemaker, 1991 ). This could mean that, in order to be conscious, the vision of an object must have particular qualities. But the conscious nature of perception is either an expression of the set of relations existing between the components of the field—without our being able to confidently assign a particular status to any of them—or we must assume that something similar happens to when the magic dust from the wand of Cinderella’s fairy godmother turns the pumpkin into a carriage.

The intrinsic nature of qualia can be traced to the supposed simplicity of some of them, such as the ones related to color. But this misunderstanding stems from a phenomenal simplicity of the perception of a color which, in fact, is not so simple. Let us try to replace red with black in a black-and-white world, made up of black, white and a range of grays. It is a simpler world, but it is to all intents and purposes a phenomenal world. In a black-and-white world, it becomes much more difficult to speak of the blackness of black as an intrinsic element. Dark gray is phenomenally dark gray because it differs from the white background more than light gray and less than black. Black is black because it equals black and differs from white more than any shade of gray. It is hard to imagine that this does not apply to a color like red that is immersed in a more complex range of relations, including, in addition to the light–dark dimension, saturation and relation to other colors.

In this sense, a certain shade is necessarily related to something that is outside the field of the stimulus. Perception of so-called elemental qualities implies the involvement of memory in the conscious field, as Edelman (2001) eloquently expressed with the concept of remembered present . Perceiving a color implies similarities and differences with reference patterns that cannot derive solely from the present stimulus and that must consciously manifest themselves somehow, e.g., “in the background.” In other words, not only the premises of the perceived quality, but also the perceived quality itself, in the way it is perceived, imply the involvement of elements that are not present in the stimulus. One of the properties of qualia, which gives them their universal character, is precisely the fact of being recognized from one experience to another ( Lewis, 1929 ).

Briefly, it is more correct to speak of qualitative aspects as components of experience rather than qualia. They cannot be analyzed independently of the experiential field to which they belong. If we consider qualitative aspects taken in isolation as fully representative of experience, we distort their phenomenal essence. It is an operation that creates a phenomenal artifact ( de Laguna, 1916 ).

If, on the contrary, we admit that the qualitative aspects of experience cannot be extrapolated from the context to which they belong without undermining their phenomenal nature, an important consequence is that they are necessarily relational. Being relational is an integral part of the nature of what is qualitative. Unless we assume that the entire field of experience is something intrinsic, monadic, and nonrelational, the object of phenomenal analysis can only be the field of experience in its totality and in its internal relations.

The simplest aspects of consciousness should be researched in perception

Another consequence of considering qualitative aspects of experience as relational is that we will not necessarily focus primarily on the qualitative aspects of what we might call the classical qualia. Although it can occur in the simplest forms of consciousness, a qualitative feel is something that characterizes a conscious experience but is not identified with it. None of us perceives the quale of green, of sweetness, of pain alone . We perceive something green, something sweet, we perceive pain in a part of the body and therefore in relation to it. We cannot help but perceive these sensations in relation to something . There is no evidence that by eliminating what green belongs to, it would retain those phenomenal properties or that it would retain phenomenal properties in general. Also in common usage, in addition to having a positive or negative connotation, a quality is a characteristic or feature that someone or something has ( Encyclopædia Britannica, 2023 ).

Moreover, if the quality is inevitably the quality of something, this something is in turn always in relation to a background . In other words, a phenomenal quality cannot but belong to something, and this something cannot but belong to a background. Green belongs to the leaf, pain to the knee. In turn, the green leaf is on the tree, the painful knee is in the leg. As Merleau-Ponty (1945) points out, “at the outset of the study of perception, we find in language the notion of sensation, which seems immediate and obvious: I have a sensation of redness, of blueness, of hot or cold. It will, however, be seen that nothing could in fact be more confused, and that because they accepted it readily, traditional analyses missed the phenomenon of perception … When Gestalt theory informs us that a figure on a background is the simplest sense-given available to us, we reply that this is not a contingent characteristic of factual perception, which leaves us free, in an ideal analysis, to bring in the notion of impressions. It is the very definition of the phenomenon of perception, that without which a phenomenon cannot be said to be perception at all. The perceptual ‘something’ is always in the middle of something else, it always forms part of a ‘field’… The pure impression is, therefore, not only undiscoverable, but also imperceptible and so inconceivable as an instant of perception.” A qualitative feel, insofar as it relates to a perceptual “something” that belongs to a “field,” merely adds a sensory aspect to this dyad.

There is a philosophical tradition that tends to attribute the primitive aspects of experience to sensation. According to Reid (1764/1997) , if sensation is a simple, subjective datum, perception is a complex cognitive act that actively unifies a set of sensations by ascribing them to an object. It is widely believed that the most relevant aspect of perception is the extraction of relevant information from sensation: detecting, identifying, recognizing ( Fesce, 2023 ). The idea that sensations precede perception ( Gärdenfors, 2006 ) has been somewhat reframed by the attribution of the simplest forms of phenomenal experience to qualia and raw feelings. However, perception is not a more complex and organized form of sensation. The formation of the object is the sine qua non for the occurrence of experience. In my view, sensations can only occur in a perceptual context that is, ab initio , multisensory ( Bennett and Hill, 2014 ; Bayne and Spence, 2015 ; O’Callaghan, 2015 ) and in which sensations are in a way dependent on perceptual aspects. In other words, they can only occur within a conscious perceptual experience ( Hardin, 1992 ). On this basis, rather than with classic qualia and simple sensations, basic consciousness might coincide with perception and the qualitative aspects associated with it.

It could be argued that our experience does not necessarily refer to an object. Even without making reference to the Eastern disciplines ( Srinivasan, 2020 ), it is enough to close our eyes to experience darkness. But in these cases we cannot help but experience our body: if we focus on the visual experience, our body will act as a background to the darkness we perceive and will in turn be perceived in the background of the perceptual space in which our body is located ( Jerath et al., 2015 ). The conscious perception of light and dark, which is identified as one of the simplest things we can perceive ( Edelman and Tononi, 2000 ), is only possible at a level comparable to that of the perception of an object.

If we keep in mind that, in the classical sense of the term, quality is such in relation to a reference pattern existing in memory, that it is in relation to an object, and that the object is in relation to a contrasting background, it is clear that the simplest aspects of phenomenal experience can be detected most easily in a simple figure and thus in early vision. In this sense, early vision is what gestaltists call “primary vision,” which occurs even before object recognition ( Kanizsa, 1979 , 1980 , 1991 ). Kanizsa (1980) states that “visual perception is a complex cognitive activity, in which it is possible to distinguish at least two levels or moments: the moment of the formation of the visual object, i.e., the primary process by which sensory input is organized and segmented, and a secondary process that includes the more properly intellectual operations of categorization, signification, and interpretation that the mind performs on the results of primary segmentation.” So, I am referring to early vision as the simplest form of visual experience, related to perceptual organization. It does not involve interpretation or other strictly cognitive processing of visual information.

The figure/background organization is often listed among the properties of consciousness, with similar but not entirely overlapping meanings such as foreground/background, situation, figure/background, center/periphery, selection or choice ( James, 1890 ; Zeman, 2001 ; Edelman, 2003 ; Searle, 2004 ; Northoff et al., 2023 ). After all, vision—which I will address here in its phenomenal aspects—is the preferred field of investigation of consciousness for many authors ( Koch, 2004 ; Jerath et al., 2015 ; Lamme, 2020 ; Ludwig, 2023 ). It is worth noting that for gestaltists perception is not preceded by sensation but is a primary and immediate process. Structured wholes or Gestalts, rather than sensations, are the primary units of mental life ( Wagemans et al., 2012 ). According to Lamme (2020) , perceptual organization is the visual function that is central to understanding the transition from unconscious to conscious seeing. Processes of grouping and figure-ground segregation depend strongly on the stimulus that is evoking these operations being consciously perceived.

It could be argued that, by investigating the principles that determine the grouping or the choice of a region of the field as an object rather than as a background, the Gestalt approach somewhat circumvents the hard problem, since it limits itself to the so-called “functional” aspects of perceptual organization ( Lamme, 2010 , 2020 ). However, it should be pointed out that the perception of a figure against a background cannot be equated with the mere result of an operation like the assignment of borders, to which cognitive science attributes the choice of the object ( Williford and von der Heydt, 2013 ). Ever since Rubin’s first descriptions, it has been clear that a figure seen against the background of something has purely phenomenal characteristics. The figure has an object-like character, and there is a tendency to see the figure as positioned in front, and the ground at a further depth plane and continuing to extend behind the figure. Furthermore, the border separating the two segments is perceived as delineating the figure’s shape as its contour, whereas it is irrelevant to the shape of the ground ( Todorovic, 2008 ).

These characteristics are not taken into account in identifying the basic phenomenal aspects of consciousness. However, they are no less qualitative than the redness of red and the painfulness of pain. Moreover, in the visual field there are not only the figure and the background. A visual object is not such if, in addition to differentiating itself from the background, it does not have an inhomogeneity that underlies its details, its constituent parts and its surface texture. Secondly, in addition to the object and background there are secondary objects and backgrounds, elements that come together to form Gestalts, and so on. Likewise, being an object, a detail, a Gestalt or a secondary object involves attributing a certain phenomenal quality to that part of the field.

The qualities of the field components that result from perceptual organization appear even simpler than the ones usually identified with qualia, with raw feelings and seemingly elementary aspects of phenomenal experience: redness, sweetness, painfulness, roundness, distinction between light and dark. In contrast to classical qualitative aspects, the quality related to being an object can be derived exclusively from features present in the stimulus. There is no need to bring up anything from memory to see an object against the background of something. Although there is no unanimous agreement on this point, it can be argued that in most cases the relation of the object to the background depends on autochthonous factors, that is, on factors that are all in the stimulus, thereby they do not depend on previous knowledge, expectancies, voluntary sets, intentions of the observer ( Luccio, 2011 ).

The Gestalt approach is for all intents and purposes a phenomenological approach. However, in studying perceptual organization, it has addressed very simple aspects of conscious experience. The perceptual field is made up of figure and background, main objects and secondary objects, clear components and other less clear components. One reason why it is difficult to conceive of the perceptual field in its entirety is the progressive fading of its components. However, this is an aspect that is part of consciousness and that cannot be ignored. It is therefore necessary to formulate a conception of experience that includes its fading. One problem lies in the fact that perceptibility declines progressively, with no clear boundary between what we see clearly and what we do not see at all. It is worth noting that in very simple stimulus conditions, as in many of those studied by Gestaltists, we can sufficiently perceive all the relationships in the field, partially overcoming this difficulty.

Galus and Starzyk (2020) and Galus (2023a , b) propose the Reductive Model of the Conscious Mind. It is based on the distinction among different aspects of consciousness served by independent neural processes. According to the authors, attempts to define the phenomenon of consciousness have encountered difficulties. They seemed insurmountable because they strived to explain a multifaceted phenomenon, realized by completely different neural, biophysical, and behavioral phenomena, using one definition, one process or property of matter. The basic structure of consciousness includes three main aspects: Perceptual Consciousness, Executive Consciousness, and Reporting Consciousness. This complex view includes perceptions, the manipulation of the world and of objects, the sensations we derive from this manipulation, emotions, interoception of states of the organism that deviate from a condition of homeostasis. Embodiment requires having a body equipped with senses of external and internal signals reporting on the state of the environment and the state of homeostasis. This body must also be able to respond to detected signals from the environment and its own body.

It is worth noting the hypothesis of how secondary perception can visualize thoughts as well as imagery, memories, and dreams. As Galus (2023a) underlines, “the more important aspect of secondary signal transmission up-down is the dramatic increase in the ability to learn and analyze situations quickly. Thanks to the visualization of one’s thoughts, it was possible not only to react directly to sensory stimuli but also to imagine the sequence of actions and plan the reactions optimally. Moreover, it is less about the logical analysis of possible responses and making appropriate decisions but about the idea of how one’s body functions, muscle tension, the position of the limbs, and the dynamics of movements.”

The scope of my paper is much more limited. I focus on a simpler level. I refer neither to classically defined qualia, nor to interoception. Of course, emotions and qualia of internal states play a fundamental role for the mental states aimed at maintaining homeostasis. However, as we have seen with regard to the phenomenal nature of the perception of object and background, even a simple visual perception is conscious and must be explained and justified as such. Following the distinction of Galus and Starzyk (2020) , I think that direct perception can be conscious even if it is not accompanied by phenomenal feelings.

The role of the relationship between subject and object in basic consciousness remains to be clarified. The question is whether this apparently obvious role ( Searle, 2004 ; Damasio, 2010 ; Damasio and Damasio, 2022 ) is a fundamental aspect of PC. As phenomenologists argue ( Gallagher and Zahavi, 2008 ), even in the absence of self-consciousness in the full sense of the term, consciousness would be characterized by pre-reflective self-consciousness, which is involved in having experiences as one’s own and can be construed as a kind of low-level self-consciousness ( Flanagan, 1992 ). In a similar sense, Kriegel (2004) speaks of peripheral self-consciousness.

If the basic aspect of consciousness is perception in its simplest forms, it appears less intimately linked to subjectivity than sensations. It is certainly true that our conscious experiences are subjective. However, it is one thing to take an interest in the world around us; it is another to observe ourselves as we observe the world. It is one thing to have an egocentric perspective; it is another to have an allocentric perspective, such as when we look at a map. Sensations—such as heat or pain—that directly concern the subject and its relations to the outside world are one thing; “distal” features of the outside world that are such because of the relations between the elements that make it up—such as the roundness of an object or the number of trees in the forest in front of us—are another. When we turn our attention to the outside world, our conscious experiences are not characterized by introspective awareness ( Seager, 2002 ). When we become absorbed in some intense perceptual task, we are vividly conscious but, often, we may lose the sense of self ( Tononi and Koch, 2008 ).

If we hypothetically eliminated the subjective component of consciousness, the phenomenal problem of vision—about why a red triangle appears as such and it is not just a configuration eliciting a response—would still remain unsolved. The fact that a red triangle appears to us cannot be the only element accounting for its appearance and for its phenomenal ontology ( Forti, 2009 ). It is therefore possible to temporarily set aside the problem of subjectivity. As Merleau-Ponty (1945) points out, “it is the very notion of the immediate which is transformed: henceforth the immediate is no longer the impression, the object which is one with the subject, but the meaning, the structure, the spontaneous arrangement of parts.”

In my view, early vision can represent a form of experience that, by allowing subjectivity to be temporarily put in abeyance, provides a pathway to consciousness that may facilitate the formulation of third-person theoretical constructs. Experimental situations in which gestalt laws are tested represent experiences that feature characteristics of phenomena observable in the third person perspective. Or, at least, the role of the subject can be considered irrelevant. In these situations, what we see seems to depend phenomenally on the relationships between the components of the field rather than on the relationships between object and percipient subject. Most Gestalt laws concern the organization of conscious vision. They are based exclusively on the relations existing in the perceptual field, starting with the relation of the object to the background ( Luccio, 2011 ). Of course, vision necessarily implies a point of view, but it is the same with many recording and measuring instruments. Moreover, perception can be considered a public mode of observation. In this sense, visual perception has aspects in common with the scientific approach, of which, through observation of the world around us, it is the basis ( Gallagher and Zahavi, 2008 ).

The explanandum is a unitary whole of qualities

What do we find if we analyze the simplest forms of visual perceptual experience? The first observation might be in some respects obvious and in others questionable: the simplest aspects of consciousness can be seen in the perception of a simple figure against the background of something ( Merleau-Ponty, 1945 ). Unlike classical qualia, a figure has a clear relation to the background, which is essential for the perception to have the phenomenal characteristics that are well known to us. The “quale” of the object can only be perceived or conceived in relation to the “quale” of the background.

But not only the figure against the background of something is relational. We have seen that all qualitative aspects of consciousness are relational. These aspects include the ones that are usually attributed to qualia, whereby the quality is such in relation to a reference pattern in memory and is in relation to an object that is in turn in relation to a contrasting background. If we simply examine the relations existing in early perception, the relational aspect is even more evident. Any content can only have phenomenal characteristics in relation to other contents or aspects of the perceptual field, starting from the object and background. Being the main object implies at least a background, other objects over which it prevails, as well as the details and parts of which it is made up.

Another fundamental aspect of phenomenal experience, related to the previous one, is the unity we experience in all perceptions. Since Descartes and Kant, unity has been considered by almost all authors to be among the fundamental characteristics of consciousness. Often, the attribution of unity to consciousness has implied a monadic conception of consciousness. It should be noted that identifying consciousness with a simple and intrinsic unity is not the exclusive prerogative of classical qualia. In fact, it includes most qualitative conceptions—or conceptions referable to the idea of “what it is like to be”—insofar as reference is made to something that does not appear to be analyzable in its internal structure.

In my opinion, it is preferable to adopt a conception—like the gestalt—whereby unity is not monadic but is such through the interdependence of the parts that make up the field of experience ( Kanizsa, 1980 ; Wagemans et al., 2012 ; Tononi and Koch, 2015 ). Unity is clearly found in the visual experiences described by gestaltists, starting from the relationship between part and whole. In a simple perceptual situation, the relations between the elements of the field are characterized by mutual dependence, in the sense that each component of the field is such in function of the others, e.g., object-background, gestalt-constituent elements, object-detail, main object-secondary object. Interdependence seems to involve multiple elements of the field at the same time. A detail could not be perceived as part of an object if at the same time the object were not perceived as belonging to a background. We thus move from a monadic conception of consciousness to a conception whereby the qualitative aspects of consciousness are necessarily manifold and at the same time closely related to each other. The phenomenal analysis of perceptual experience highlights that its qualitative aspects are relational and that consciousness appears to us as unitary through the mutual dependence of these relations. Consequently, we can say that the explanandum is a unitary set of qualities , i.e., a set of qualities closely dependent on each other, which we can find in its simplest forms in early vision. Such an explanandum may appear insufficient, but it certainly cannot be reduced to something that does not include these features taken together. This conception is clearly different from the mosaic of qualia, which entails a mere combination of different qualities ( Jansen, 2017 ). The relationship between the various qualitative aspects is something more complex. It entails relationships of interdependence and on different hierarchical levels—not only between objects, but also between contiguous regions.

Above I stated that unity per se is not specific to consciousness, as it could belong to many non-conscious organizations, and that, if a property such as unity undoubtedly applies to consciousness, then we should understand how the unity that manifests itself on the phenomenal level differs from other forms of unity ( Wiese, 2017 ). The concept of a unitary set of qualities is well suited to this statement, as unity concerns specific properties of consciousness such as the qualitative aspects. In this sense, the qualities that characterize consciousness are necessarily interdependent parts of a whole that encompasses the entire field. The co-presence of the qualitative aspect and the unity aspect is thus crucial in identifying the explanandum of consciousness.

Unlike Gestaltists and other authors ( Tononi and Koch, 2015 ), this totality should not be identified in the object as a structured whole, but in the total field of experience, which includes background, fringe parts and progressively fading components. We often consider only the most salient contents of consciousness, disregarding the progressively fading field and ignoring other components even when they are sufficiently perceptible. If we do not limit ourselves to the main object, its main features, and the gestalts present in the field, but we also take into account elements such as the background, secondary objects, parts of an object, components of a gestalt, and less important elements, the unitary set of qualities that we identify in a phenomenal analysis of early perception becomes progressively evanescent. The difficulty of dealing with such situations can be partly overcome by limiting ourselves to the simplicity of many stimulus situations analyzed by Gestaltists, in which the progressive fading of the perceptual field is negligible.

Discussion: in search of the unitary structure of consciousness

At first glance, one might think that identifying the explanandum in a unitary set of qualities is equivalent to identifying the structure of consciousness, at least in such elementary forms as early vision. But things are not so simple. I started from the need to analyze in structural terms qualia or, rather, the qualitative aspects of consciousness. The analysis of the simplest forms of perceptual consciousness led us to point out that these qualitative aspects are not only relational, but also form a unitary whole. Thus, the existence of a unitary set of qualities does not allow us to limit ourselves to analyzing in structural terms a single quality. We must also explain their relational nature, the way their relations form a unitary whole and their interdependence in perceptual organization. On the one hand, this explanation may seem more difficult. On the other hand, we can assume that quality and interdependence are somehow related, at least in early vision.

Jones and Hunt (2023) approach this issue in a similar way, but do not challenge the phenomenal reality of qualia. According to these authors, the main problems in neuroscience’s accounts of qualia seem to fit into three categories: the coding/correlation problem, the qualia-integration problem, and the hard problem. In my view, these are not three distinct questions, even though they are interrelated; they constitute a single fundamental question, which is to explain the unitary set of qualities encountered in early perception.

With regard to the unity of visual experience, it is not sufficient to say that the various qualitative aspects of consciousness are perceived as interdependent. The perceived interdependence does not explain the qualities of perceptual experience, but neither does it explain how these qualities form a unitary whole. Saying that the explanandum is a unitary whole of qualities is not the same as identifying the structure of the consciousness, i.e., how that whole is organized into a unitary whole. Consciousness should have a structure that justifies such unity.

Therefore, Loorits’ argument that consciousness should have a structure must be completed by stating that the structure of consciousness should have that unitary character that is typical of consciousness. The goal is to look not for a series of separate structural aspects, but for a unitary structure. We must ask ourselves whether the relational aspects we identify in experience are compatible with the unity we feel in all perceptual experiences. We cannot separate these aspects. It is neither sufficient to identify on its own the unity we all feel in our experience, nor to identify relational or structural aspects that do not ensure unity by themselves. In a way, a phenomenal analysis goes over the two poles of conscious experience: its being composite, in that it is made up of multiple qualitatively characterized contents or phenomenal distinctions, and at the same time unitary, so much so that, through qualia, it recalls the idea of a monad. How is it possible to reconcile these two poles?

The unity manifested through the interdependence of the parts of the field of experience can be interpreted as a form of integration. Tononi and Koch (2015) propose the Integrated Information Theory (IIT) and list structure (composition) and unity (integration) among the properties of consciousness. In this sense, as a result of the interdependence of phenomenal distinctions, integration is phenomenal evidence rather than a theory. Historically, this has been clear to many authors who have tried to define consciousness ( Brogaard et al., 2021 ; Hirschhorn et al., 2021 ; Solms, 2021 ). The problem is to explain how integration, as manifested in conscious experience, can come about. The IIT postulates an organization of the neuronal substrate characterized by complexity and by the presence of high levels of integration and differentiation. This proposal appears to be an almost tautological and overly general explanation to justify the particular kind of integration that we observe in experience. Life also involves a complex organization of organic molecules, but postulating a high level of complexity is not sufficient to explain it. Moreover, the IIT does not address the specific qualitative aspect ( Cooke, 2021 ), so it is precisely the qualitative aspects that are integrated into experience. Even if the IIT proposes an explanation for the qualitative aspect ( Tononi, 2008 ), it does not correlate it with the integration that occurs in the perceptual field. By not including an explanation of the qualitative aspects and their relations, a complex system such as the one postulated by the proponents of the IIT may belong to non-conscious organizations.

Moreover, structure should be constitutive, not just reflecting relations existing in the stimulus field. We should identify a structure that is not contingent, but constitutive of each experience and somewhat independent of the type of stimuli ( Buzsáki, 2007 ; Bayne et al., 2016 ; Smith, 2018 ; Kent and Wittmann, 2021 ; Northoff and Zilio, 2022 ). Many structural aspects highlighted in the literature seem to reflect the organization in the apparent reality of specific contents rather than the internal structure of the conscious field. Of course, we can assume that conscious structure allows us to capture structural aspects of the reality around us, so the ability to capture a structure present in external reality may also be an expression of conscious structure.

A unitary structure can be identified in a simple relationship between figure and background and in their interdependence. The coherence and unity of what we perceive cannot be separated from its belonging to the background: “the background, which need never have been made determinate, affects the appearance of what is determinate by letting it appear as unified, bounded figure” ( Dreyfus, 1992 ). It should be emphasized that this is a phenomenal unitary structure, in that object and background have qualitative characteristics that appear as a function of each other. In essence, there is a unitary structure in the simplest manifestation of consciousness, a phenomenal object in the form of a simple figure. This structure appears constitutive and non-contingent, because we cannot perceive the object without the background. It is constitutive because without this relationship there is no consciousness—even though this relationship reflects a fundamental aspect in the surrounding reality, i.e., the fact that as a rule the world is made up of objects in a space.

However, if we analyze images that are just a little more complex, a unitary structure becomes more difficult to detect. Unity, which manifests itself through the interdependence of the parts, remains perceptible, but we cannot identify the structure underpinning it. It is possible to identify relational qualitative aspects, but they do not seem able to provide phenomenal unity. In their comprehensive approach, gestaltists postulate the unity of the field, but they do not explain it ( Wagemans et al., 2012 ). The various Gestalt laws explain in heterogeneous ways different forms of grouping and the figure-background organization, but not the unity of the perceptual field.

Faced with the heterogeneity of relations between the parts, the apparent unity of perceptual experience leads us to wonder how these different relations constitute a unitary whole. Object, background, gestalt, detail, secondary objects are all expressions of the relationship with something else, but, at first glance, they do not allow us to understand how they constitute a unitary whole. We might say that the various phenomenal qualities are not all on the same plane. In a perceptual experience the main object stands in the foreground. Other qualities are associated with it in a subordinate way; others are associated with such qualities, and so on, until they completely fade away. However, not even conceiving the various phenomenal qualities as a set of progressively fading hierarchical relationships justifies the apparent unity of the field. Indeed, the phenomenally subordinate relationship of the qualities associated with the main object is not limited to the background’s secondary role, but it includes such heterogeneous relationships as the ones involving the secondary objects, parts, details, and elements that form a gestalt. Why do objects, backgrounds, gestalts and details appear as they appear and at the same time are part of a unitary experience?

If we focus on a more complex image than a figure against a homogeneous background, it is not enough to say that on the table there are a bottle, two plates and some glasses, that a picture hangs on the wall, and that we perceive these objects as a unitary whole. There is a gap between the unity we perceive and the possibility of identifying the structure underlying it through relationships that make it possible. We cannot identify the structure that provides the unity we experience and perceive even when the composition of an image seems random. We can put random elements into a visual field ( Kanizsa, 1980 ) and the image will retain its own unity. Thus, unity is not merely contingent.

At a preliminary phenomenal analysis, the problem of the unitary structure of consciousness seems without solution. The fact that we perceive the experience as unitary and perceive the various qualitative aspects as interdependent seems to be a kind of mystery for which we cannot find an explanation, either in brain organization or in experience itself. Phenomenal appearance alone does not seem sufficient to identify a unitary structure of consciousness.

This paper has arguably achieved the goal of identifying an explanandum in terms that can be useful for research, but it has not achieved the goal of identifying the unitary structure of consciousness. The unitary set of qualities that I have identified as the explanandum of consciousness is not a real structure, let alone a unitary structure. While it is a unitary set of qualities, it neither tells us what the structure of seemingly non-structural aspects like the qualities of object and background is, nor does it identify the unitary character of that structure. However, this does not mean going back to the search for the physical substrate that has proven to be dead-end. Elements of “closeness” with the structural aspects of consciousness can be found in appearance itself. The results of the analysis of the simplest forms of perceptual experience, with the presence of closely interdependent qualitative components that form a unitary whole prompt us to go beyond the mere phenomenal appearance, using the components of experience also as possible explanans.

One of the most obvious explananda is appearance, which is nothing else than the etymological meaning of consciousness as a phenomenal entity. In the simplest sense, it implies the possibility of something being perceived consciously. However, it is the very appearance and the way it is structured in perceptual experience that makes us think that the perceptive field contains within itself parts responsible for the appearance, yet they remain imperceptible. Other components of experience that could constitute a possible explanans are generally neglected phenomenal aspects like overlapping of the contents of the field and surroundedness. Surroundedness is a relationship whereby a region is surrounded by or surrounds a contrasting region, and it has a broader meaning than the one we assign to the figure-ground relationship. I will examine the possibility of going beyond the mere phenomenal appearance elsewhere, hypothesizing that the structure of consciousness is somehow conscious, although “hidden” from consciousness itself. Such a structure might provide a kind of link that can bridge—or at least reduce—the explanatory gap between experience and brain processes and thus help solve the hard problem.

Data availability statement

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

Author contributions

BF: Writing – original draft.

The author declares that no financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Conflict of interest

The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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Keywords: explanatory gap, conscious structure, phenomenal analysis, explanandum, qualia, early vision

Citation: Forti B (2024) Approaching the nature of consciousness through a phenomenal analysis of early vision. What is the explanandum? Front. Psychol . 15:1329259. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1329259

Received: 28 October 2023; Accepted: 07 March 2024; Published: 18 March 2024.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2024 Forti. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Bruno Forti, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

• Open access
• Published: 25 March 2024

A great way to bring up health behaviour topics at playgroup: a qualitative evaluation of the Healthy Conversations @ Playgroup program

• Georgia Middleton 1 ,
• Brittany J. Johnson 1 ,
• Dimity Dutch 1 ,
• Stewart G. Trost 2 ,
• Rebecca Byrne 3 ,
• Hayley E. Christian 4 , 5 ,
• Anna Henry 4 ,
• Caroline O. Terranova 3 ,
• Kate E. Williams 6 ,
• Li Kheng Chai 3 , 7 ,
• Denise S. K. Brookes 3 ,
• Kate Simon 3 &
• Rebecca K. Golley 1  

BMC Public Health volume  24 , Article number:  890 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

213 Accesses

Metrics details

The early years is a critical stage to establish optimal nutrition and movement behaviours. Community playgroups are a relaxed environment for parents with a focus on social connection and supporting parents in their role as ‘First Teachers’. Playgroups are therefore an opportunistic setting to promote health behaviours in the early years. To support parents with young children around healthy lifestyle behaviours, the Healthy Conversations @ Playgroup program was delivered in urban and regional areas, across three Australian jurisdictions between 2021–2023.

This qualitative evaluation aimed to understand how the Healthy Conversations @ Playgroup program was experienced by parents, playgroup coordinators and peer facilitators.

Semi-structured virtual interviews and focus groups were conducted with parents, playgroup coordinators (i.e., person responsible for coordinating the playgroup) and peer facilitators (i.e., trained facilitator for the program) that participated in the Healthy Conversations @ Playgroup study. Transcripts were analysed following a thematic analysis approach.

Twenty-eight playgroup parents, coordinators or peer facilitators participated in one of 8 focus groups or 5 interviews. Four themes were developed: Program strengths and challenges; Setting strengths and challenges; Factors that impact program delivery; Participant’s suggestions for future program delivery.

Conclusions

The Healthy Conversations @ Playgroup program was valued by parents, providing validation and normalisation of parenting practices, and fostering a shared experience of parenting. Playgroups are a convenient setting for families to attend. The dynamic and distracting nature of the playgroup setting were carefully considered when designing the program. Strategies to further enhance program engagement could include use of coordinator or parent champions, tailored delivery, and extending the reach to other family members.

Trial registration

Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12621000055808, registered 22 January 2021, https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=380890

Peer Review reports

The early years of life are critical for establishing health-promoting behaviours to support optimal health, growth, and development [ 1 , 2 ]. Health-promoting behaviours include regular physical activity, limited screen time, healthy eating, and adequate sleep [ 1 ]. However, recent population-level surveys indicate that only 28% of Australian children aged 2–3 years are meeting both fruit and vegetable recommendations [ 3 ], and only 17% of Australian children aged 2–5 years are meeting both physical activity and sedentary behaviour recommendations [ 4 ]. Health behaviours established in the early years can track into adolescence and adulthood, influencing health across the life course [ 2 , 5 , 6 ]. Therefore, it is important to intervene early and establish healthy behaviours in childhood [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ].

Parents are children’s first teachers, and their parenting practices are instrumental in shaping children’s eating, movement, and sleep behaviours [ 12 , 13 , 14 ]. Parenting practices are specific, observable parenting actions such as creating a safe, interesting environment, setting limits and rules, having realistic expectations, and using appropriate feedback and consequences [ 15 , 16 ]. Supportive parenting practices and the family environment are integral for developing child autonomy [ 17 ]. Autonomy supporting parenting practices, where parents encourage thoughtful child decision-making, have been shown to support the development of healthy behaviours in children [ 18 ]. However, previous research has indicated that parents require knowledge, skills, and confidence to effectively use autonomy supportive practices to promote child health behaviours [ 14 , 19 ].

Parent involvement has been recognised as integral for improving child health behaviour outcomes that support healthy growth [ 20 , 21 , 22 ]. However, programs delivered through Early Childhood Education and Care settings, while suitable for reaching a large proportion of preschool-aged children, are not necessarily conducive to parental participation and engagement as parents time at the setting is limited [ 23 , 24 ]. Programs delivered in community settings where parents already attend with their child may have a higher likelihood of success, particularly where there are existing mechanisms for parent support [ 25 ]. Community playgroups are one such setting, offering a unique model of informal family support by bringing together groups of families with young children in local settings for shared play and socialising. Community playgroups offer a low- or no-cost, safe, and relaxed environment where existing social networks exist among attending parents, they enable shared learning and support, and are facilitated by a playgroup coordinator who is often a parent volunteer [ 26 ]. Despite playgroups existing internationally, including in the United Kingdom and United States, few child health promotion programs have been delivered and evaluated in community settings such as playgroups [ 27 ].

In 2018, Fuller and colleagues conducted focus groups with parents attending community playgroups in Brisbane, Australia, to determine what parents would find acceptable in a program delivered in playgroups [ 28 ]. The findings indicated that parents did not want to be ‘educated’ but desired strategies and support for dealing with parenting challenges. This aligns with previous reports that programs supporting parents commonly provide education, advice, and strategies [ 16 , 29 , 30 ] but parents also require support for increased capability and confidence [ 7 , 28 , 31 , 32 ]. Additionally, parents did not want to lose their valuable playgroup time to an external program and felt the support and guidance received from other parents at playgroup facilitated autonomy supporting parenting practices [ 28 ].

The Healthy Conversations @ Playgroup program was designed to support parents to use autonomy promoting parenting practices to improve children’s eating, movement, screen time and sleep behaviours [ 26 ]. The program was designed to be suitable to embed in the universal care system. The program was evaluated in community playgroups, hereafter referred to as playgroups, in three Australian jurisdictions (South Australia, Western Australia, Queensland; urban and regional areas) as a multi-site randomised controlled trial (ACTRN12621000055808) [ 26 ]. Recruitment, program delivery and evaluation occurred between 2021–2023, over three waves (due to COVID-19). Playgroup associations in each state promoted the program to all registered playgroups, who self-selected to participate ( n  = 51 total playgroups participated in the evaluation). In brief, the H ealthy Conversations @ Playgroup program comprises 10 conversations delivered by a peer facilitator (a parent external to the playgroup, employed and trained to deliver the program) over five fortnightly sessions within the usual playgroup schedule [ 26 ]. The conversations were designed to increase parents’ capability and self-efficacy to implement autonomy-supportive parenting practices . Conversation topics included: reducing stress at mealtimes, limiting screens without tantrums, supporting movement skills in children, bedtime activities and routines to support sleep, and celebrating achievements. Further details of the program design and quantitative evaluation are reported in Trost et al. [ 26 ]. This qualitative study aimed to understand how the Healthy Conversations @ Playgroup program was experienced by parents, playgroup coordinators, and peer facilitators.

Study design

This study aligns with a critical qualitative approach, informed by critical realism ontology and an epistemological orientation of contextualism [ 33 ]. Through this position, we acknowledge that human practices shape the way we experience and know about reality and the world, and that human experiences cannot be studied in isolation from the contexts in which they exist [ 33 ]. This is well suited to understanding the shared experiences of participating in or delivering the Healthy Conversations @ Playgroup program. A thematic analysis approach guided the collection and analysis of data for this study [ 33 , 34 ].

Recruitment

Parents who participated in the Healthy Conversations @ Playgroup trial were eligible to participate in this qualitative study. As contact information of participating parents was collected for the broader program, this information was available to recruit parents into this qualitative study. Parents were invited via phone by a member of the research team to participate in a virtual focus group, between November 2022 to February 2023. Each playgroup in the program had a playgroup coordinator, a contact person who was typically a parent or community volunteer. Their contact information was also collected for the broader program and thus available to the research team to recruit into the qualitative study. Playgroup coordinators were invited via email or phone by a member of the research team to participate in a virtual focus group. Contact details of the peer facilitators who were responsible for delivering the Healthy Conversations @ Playgroup program were also available to the research team for this qualitative study. Peer facilitators were invited via email by a member of the research team to participate in a virtual one-on-one interview. Potential participants were provided with an information sheet, allocated to a suitable focus group or interview time, and asked to provide verbal (parents) or written consent (peer facilitators and playgroup coordinators) to participate.

Data collection

Two semi-structured focus group/interview guides were developed, one for parents, and one for playgroup coordinators and peer facilitators (Additional file 1 ). Both guides were pilot tested with participants, and as they required no major changes their data were used in analysis. The guides were designed based on those used in Fuller et al.’s focus groups [ 28 ], and other qualitative explorations of parenting practices [ 35 , 36 ]. The questions aimed to explore participants’ experiences of the program, what they perceived as program strengths and weaknesses, and what they would recommend for future iterations. Focus groups were chosen because they encourage group reflection and exploration of potentially sensitive issues by creating a safe space where similar experiences or views can be shared, and a shared experience can be created [ 37 ]. One-on-one interviews were chosen for the peer facilitators to encourage depth of responses, and to maintain their confidentiality as they were known to one another [ 37 ]. Peer facilitators were offered copies of their transcripts for review; none took up the offer. Due to the nature of focus groups, this was not possible for other participants.

All focus groups and interviews were conducted via video call using Microsoft Teams Version 1.6.00.11166, and were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim by professional transcription agency OutScribe Transcription, a human transcription service. GM (PhD), an experienced qualitative researcher, conducted all focus groups and interviews, and another member of the research team acted as notetaker (DD or research assistant). GM conducted the qualitative exploration as an independent party to the Healthy Conversations @ Playgroup program. They were not involved in the design, delivery, or evaluation of the program, and had no prior relationship to participants. This potentially helped reduce social desirability bias and protected participants from feeling pressured to provide a socially acceptable response to the designers or deliverers of the program.

The data collection and analysis team, comprising of GM, DD, BJJ, and a research assistant are white females with no children and approached this research from a background in public health and dietetics. All work in the space of child and family health and nutrition and have varying degrees of experience and knowledge working with this population group and researching childhood health behaviours and related parenting practices. GM had no prior experience with playgroups; however, BJJ, DD and the research assistant were involved in other aspects of the broader program, excluding program delivery. DD and the research assistant had minimal qualitative research experience prior to this study, but were supported and guided by GM.

Data analysis

The basic principles of thematic analysis were followed, as seen in Fig.  1 . This involved following the six steps of thematic analysis as laid out by Braun and Clarke [ 33 , 34 ]. GM coded all transcripts, and DD coded 70% of the transcripts, to familiarise themselves with the data and the coding structure, and to incorporate alternative perspectives. NVivo 12Pro qualitative analysis software (QSR International Pty Ltd. 2018) was used for organisation and management. Team analysis meetings were held regularly (GM, DD, BJJ), and DD and GM maintained reflexive journals across all stages of data analysis to bracket assumptions, reflect on findings and document analytical queries for future discussion. This study was limited to sampling participants from the Healthy Conversations @ Playgroup trial, and thus data saturation did not guide recruitment. However, the themes developed through analysis were analytically robust and well supported by the data, and the team are confident that saturation of the themes presented in this article was achieved, as new data was not producing new or conflicting findings.

The six steps of thematic analysis [ 33 , 34 ] and how they were applied in the current study

Sample and participant characteristics

Twenty-eight individuals participated in this qualitative evaluation: 17 parents, 6 playgroup coordinators, and 5 peer facilitators (Additional Fig. 1 ). Six focus groups were conducted with parents ( n  = 2–5 per group), two focus groups were conducted with playgroup coordinators ( n  = 3 per group), and five individual interviews were conducted with peer facilitators, lasting approximately 46 min (range 36–60 min). Participants were from South Australia ( n  = 10), Western Australia ( n  = 10), and Queensland ( n  = 8). Full demographic characteristics of participants are described in Table  1 . Peer facilitators were parents themselves, often familiar with the playgroup setting from personal or professional experience.

Four main themes were derived across parent, playgroup coordinator, and peer facilitator transcript data: 1) Program strengths and challenges, 2) Setting strengths and challenges, 3) Factors impacting program delivery, and 4) Participant’s suggestions for future program delivery. All participants have been given pseudonyms. See Additional Fig.  2 for analysis coding tree.

Theme 1: Program strengths and challenges

Within this theme, there are four subthemes: 1) Relevant, helpful conversations, 2) Reducing parenting pressures, 3) Fostering peer support, and 4) Ever-changing challenges of parenting. See Table  2 for participant quotes against each subtheme.

Relevant, helpful conversations

Parents described their involvement in the Healthy Conversations @ Playgroup program as a positive experience and described the opportunity to have conversations about relevant topics as a strength of the program. Parents commented that while it is not unusual for these topics to be discussed between parents at playgroup, they welcomed the dedicated time to have these conversations. Peer facilitators and playgroup coordinators echoed these sentiments and noted the importance of having the peer facilitator start the conversation and keep it on track. They reflected on the importance of the conversational, rather than stand-and-deliver style.

Reducing parenting pressures

Parents described not feeling judged by peer facilitators and other parents in the program and felt the program fostered an environment of open-mindedness. There was a shared understanding at the playgroups that what works for one family may not work for another, and that no parent is perfect. Parents also described that the program reaffirmed their choice of parenting practices and boosted their confidence. This sentiment was echoed by peer facilitators, who described intentionally approaching the conversations in a way that would not increase pressure on parents. Both peer facilitators and playgroup coordinators described the program facilitated a safe environment for parents to share their experiences and fostered an understanding that all families were different.

Fostering peer support

Participants identified peer support as a core strength of the program, fostered by peer facilitators and other parents. The value of having a ‘peer’ facilitate the conversations, as someone who had ‘been through it’ and could speak to their own experiences, was evident across participant responses and viewed as a strength of the program. Parents provided peer support through connecting with one another and sharing their own experiences and strategies. This was particularly helpful for first-time parents who could learn from parents who had older children and had dealt with similar challenges in the past. The peer-sharing provided an opportunity for parents to identify with one another and learn from each other. The program normalised the challenges parents often face at this stage of child development, and a common shared parenting experience was fostered.

Ever-changing challenges of parenting

Although the program topics were thought to be relevant, participants noted that some topics were of more interest than others. Some parents felt that they had already overcome the challenges associated with some topics, and others did not find the topics of relevance to their child at the time of the program. The ever-changing nature of the challenges parents face as children grow was generally cited as why topics were not always viewed as relevant for parents.

Theme 2: Setting strengths and challenges

Within this theme, there are three subthemes: 1) Playgroups are a suitable setting for programs supporting parents, 2) Playgroup environments can be distracting, and 3) Playgroups have varied attendance. See Table  3 for participant quotes against each subtheme.

Playgroups are a suitable setting for programs supporting parents

Playgroups were described as a suitable setting for a child health promotion program supporting parents, as they were familiar, casual, relaxed, and safe environments. Peer facilitators and playgroup coordinators described playgroups as providing a receptive audience with the potential for broad reach in the community. Aligning with the design and intention of the program, attending playgroup was already part of parents’ routine, and therefore attendance at the program was viewed by many as convenient. Parents valued not having to make additional time to attend the program outside of their existing activities and appreciated being able to attend with their children, thus confirming the thinking behind the program design.

Playgroup environments can be distracting

Although playgroups were identified as a suitable and convenient setting for delivery of the program, participants acknowledged the playgroup environment as one with frequent distractions for parents and peer facilitators, due to competing demands on attention. Distractions largely came from children requesting their parent’s attention. This could pose a challenge for parents attempting to engage in the conversations, and for peer facilitators trying to facilitate the conversations. Peer facilitators and playgroup coordinators also noted the challenges of different layouts of playgroups. The way the playgroups were set-up in the space, and the way they were coordinated were noted as impacting parents’ ability to engage with the conversations.

Playgroups have varied attendance

Another challenge presented by the playgroup setting was the varied attendance of parents from week to week. This could impact parents’ ability to engage in conversations not just through their own attendance, but through the inconsistent presence of others. The varied attendance meant group size and dynamics changed frequently, which impacted the engagement of parents and the quality of conversations. The COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbated issues with attendance at the time.

Theme 3: Factors that impact program delivery

Within this theme, there are five subthemes: 1) Each playgroup is unique, 2) Timing of and between sessions, 3) Group dynamics, 4) Perceived engagement with the program, and 5) Competence of peer facilitator. This theme is composed exclusively of peer facilitator and playgroup coordinator data, as it relates to how the program was run and the questions that were asked of these population groups. See Table  4 for participant quotes against each subtheme.

Each playgroup is unique

It was evident from participant descriptions that each playgroup runs differently, depending on the parents, the playgroup coordinators, and the physical space and environment. Peer facilitators noted that these components impacted their delivery of the program, and how easy it was for parents to engage. From peer facilitator’s perspectives, the playgroup coordinators were integral to the program’s success. If playgroup coordinators were supportive and valued the program, and set-up the playgroup to be conducive to participation, this increased the likelihood that parents could engage.

Timing of and between sessions

Sessions were intended to be delivered every two weeks, but because of personal illness, or COVID-19 disruptions, some peer facilitators ran sessions weekly or had longer breaks between sessions. The shorter distance between sessions was viewed positively by some peer facilitators, who found it easier to engage parents when sessions were delivered in close succession. The timing of the sessions over the year also appeared to impact parents’ engagement, with peer facilitators noting better parental participation when the program was provided further along in the school term compared to the first weeks of term, where parents were more likely wanting to ‘catch up’ after the break from playgroups over the holidays.

Group dynamics

Peer facilitators and program coordinators described group dynamics impacting parents’ engagement in the program. Peer facilitators described conversations as easier to facilitate when parents were confident and relaxed with each other. When the dynamics were not as constructive, facilitating the conversations was more challenging, particularly when parents were not as open to sharing or contributing to discussion. Playgroups with an established group of parents led to constructive conversations, especially compared with new groups where parents were not as familiar with one another. However, peer-facilitators observed established friendship groups within a playgroup could make it difficult for those who were not part of the friendship group to contribute.

Perceived engagement with the program

Playgroup coordinators and peer facilitators noted that a number of the parents who were involved in the program appeared to already be very confident and familiar with the topics, and thus were not as interested in participating in the conversations. Some parents were also more interested in catching up with one another or spending time with their child(ren) than engaging in the conversations. Peer facilitators noted that parents’ interest or engagement in the topics often determined how easy or challenging the conversations were to facilitate. When parents were engaged, facilitators felt they barely had to drive the conversation at all, but when parents were not interested, facilitators could feel as though they were talking to an empty room. Playgroup coordinators and peer facilitators also observed the opportunity the conversations brought to engage newer parents or those with minimal established connections at playgroup, noting that engagement could change over time from passively observing, to more actively contributing as time went on.

Competence of peer facilitator

Due to the dynamic nature of playgroups, it was important that the person delivering the program could adapt to each playgroup environment. The importance of peer facilitators being competent, flexible, and confident in their delivery to accommodate the playgroup environment was acknowledged in participant’s responses. As anticipated in the design of Healthy Conversations @ Playgroup , this was integral to program delivery, due to the varied nature of playgroups, and factors that impacted parents’ engagement in the conversations.

Theme 4: Participant’s suggestions for future program delivery

Within this theme, there are three subthemes: 1) Who and how of program delivery, 2) Program content, and 3) Tailoring to meet playgroup needs. These are participant’s suggestions for the program based on their perceptions and experiences, and many sit in contradiction to the strengths and benefits of the program they expressed. See Table  5 for participant quotes against each subtheme.

Who and how of program delivery

Due to the distracting nature of playgroups, participants suggested offering the program in a setting that more easily allows parents to concentrate, such as at a time and place away from children, or where child-supervision was provided. Participants described flexibility for delivery, including drop-in, once-off or follow-up sessions, virtual delivery of sessions, and increased opportunities for co-parent involvement. These suggestions sit in contrast to the benefits and strengths of the current delivery and setting of the Healthy Conversations @ Playgroup program described by participants, and it is clear that there needs to be balance between the benefits of the playgroup setting against its challenges.

These participants were asked how they envisioned long-term program delivery. Playgroup coordinators and peer facilitators suggested that support from playgroups at the jurisdiction level was required to ensure delivery of the program could be maintained through playgroups on an ongoing basis. Alternatively, they suggested other service providers who could potentially deliver the program instead. For sustainable delivery of the program, peer facilitators discussed the option for the program to be delivered by playgroup coordinators or champions.

Program content

Participants suggested additional topics for the program. Common suggestions were behaviour management and regulation, child development, sibling relationships, speech and language development, and toileting. Parents also suggested topics related to engaging with specialists, parenting roles and support, child developmental transitions, and further information on using screen time positively. Playgroup coordinators and peer facilitators also suggested introduction of solids, parent self-care, and toothbrushing.

Peer facilitators and playgroup coordinators suggested providing more practical tips, more resources or handouts for parents to revisit, and opportunities for notetaking. However, these suggestions contradict the strength of the relaxed, informal conversation-style format of the program, which parents explicitly preferred over stand-and-deliver lecture-style programs. Participants also suggested providing practical activities for children and/or parents during the conversations that aligned with the conversation topics for each session, to keep the children busy and parents engaged.

Tailoring to meet playgroup needs

Some participants suggested splitting the program by child age, so that only information relevant to child age and stage was being discussed. Others disputed this suggestion, as they felt this would negatively impact the peer support provided by parents with different experiences. Peer facilitators indicated that it would be helpful to have more involvement with the playgroup prior to delivering the program, to support specific tailoring of the program to individual playgroup environments and parent characteristics.

The study aim was to understand how the Healthy Conversations @ Playgroup program was experienced by parents, playgroup coordinators, and peer facilitators. Through qualitative analysis of focus group and interview data, peer support and normalising parenting challenges were found to be key program strengths. Playgroups were suitable for delivering this type of program, but the setting presented a dynamic environment that required flexibility and cooperation for successful program delivery.

Social support was a strength of the Healthy Conversations @ Playgroup program. The support provided by peers helped to normalise and create a shared experience of parenting. Peer support was facilitated by having parents of children of different ages and stages and having a ‘peer’ facilitate the sessions. The program helped parents feel more confident and assured in their parenting practices, which is an important aspect of parent capacity and likelihood of participating in positive parenting practices [ 38 ]. Research has shown that capacity building is an integral component of successful behaviour change [ 31 ], and without this feeling of confidence and capability, it is less likely parents would make behaviour changes at home [ 7 , 28 , 32 ]. Many programs in the child health promotion space provide education, advice and strategies, and the fostering of parenting support and capacity is often overlooked [ 7 , 28 , 31 , 32 ]. For parents to be able to effectively support health behaviours in children, they need to feel supported themselves.

The Healthy Conversations @ Playgroup program was unique in using an existing community setting with social connection. It has been established that the health and wellbeing of caregivers, including parents, is integral to being able to care for others [ 39 ]. This sentiment was discussed by parents in the present study, “for the kids to be healthy, their mummy’s need to be healthy as well”. Parenting is challenging and too often parents feel alone in the challenges they face [ 40 ], especially first-time parents [ 41 ]. Mothers in particular bear the brunt of social expectation for their children’s health status [ 42 , 43 ], and feelings of shame and stigma at not being ‘good enough’ can lead to poor outcomes for both parents and children [ 43 ]. The Healthy Conversations @ Playgroup program drew on the strengths of the playgroup setting, as an environment that provides social support, a sense of belonging and feelings of reassurance and validation [ 44 , 45 ]. The finding that the program was able to provide this support to parents as a novel way to improve child health behaviours was reassuring, as it was an intention of the program as informed by the focus groups that preceded the program design [ 28 ].

The playgroup setting provided an optimal environment for fostering support and was considered convenient and comfortable for parents and children. Delivering the program in a setting where parents already attend is another core strength of Healthy Conversations @ Playgroup , and a facilitator to parental engagement in a program such as this, as it did not require transport or attendance to an additional setting [ 20 , 46 ]. However, playgroups were also described as a dynamic and potentially distracting environment by all participant groups. The dynamic and distracting nature of playgroups was anticipated [ 28 ] and strategies were incorporated into the program design by having facilitators who could embrace the complexity of the environment, work constructively with enthusiastic playgroup coordinators, and engage in flexible delivery to ensure the conversations suited parents in their playgroup environment. This flexibility of delivery aligns with the emphasis on effective facilitation for successful program implementation [ 47 ]. To further strengthen program delivery in the playgroup setting, participants suggested the facilitator attend each playgroup prior to the program to understand the contexts, parent needs, and group dynamics and tailor their delivery accordingly.

While the program was viewed positively by most participants in this study, some parents felt that they were already addressing the topics presented in the Healthy Conversations @ Playgroup program at home. However, population-representative health survey data indicates that majority of households are still not meeting recommendations for these health behaviours [ 3 , 4 , 48 , 49 , 50 ], presenting an incongruence between what parents say they do at home, and what actually occurs. Additionally, parents valued hearing other’s experiences, but few acknowledged their role in helping others through sharing their own experiences. Playgroups pose a convenient, safe, and supportive environment for programs that aim to foster parent capacity building for promoting health behaviours in children. Program champions could be used to enhance the delivery of these programs through playgroups, helping to increase participation, reach and engagement, and motivate change.

Strengths and considerations

This qualitative study allowed an in-depth evaluation of the Healthy Conversations @ Playgroup program and is one of the first qualitative evaluations of a health promotion program set in a community playgroup setting. GM, who conducted the focus groups and interviews, was independent to the program and had no part in its design or delivery, reducing the potential for social desirability bias to impact the findings. Most transcripts were coded by two members of the research team, which strengthened the interpretation of the findings and the depth of the analytical discussions with the broader team. Participants were sampled from those already attending playgroups, and had self-selected to both be a part of the Healthy Conversations @ Playgroup program, and this qualitative evaluation, therefore may not reflect the views and profiles of broader parent population. Finally, as this was an opportunistic evaluation of the program, many parents had received the program over 12 months prior to participating in the focus group and therefore the results presented in this study may be impacted by recall bias.

Implications for research and practice

The Healthy Conversations @ Playgroup program is a first step in supporting positive child health behaviours in a playgroup setting. Many of the program strengths aligned with the intention of the program design, as informed by the focus groups with parents [ 28 ], confirming consultation with the target population as an integral step in program design. Building from these strengths, future iterations of the program could look at reach and engagement with support networks such as co-parents and other caregivers to strengthen practices at home. The use of champions to increase reach and engagement is also worth exploring. Some parents in this study did not recognise the value they had in supporting others who were struggling, which is an underutilised opportunity in the supportive environment fostered at playgroups. The scalability of the program, including how it’s delivered, and how much it’s tailored to the individual setting, is an area for future research.

The Healthy Conversations @ Playgroup program was valued by participants and provided social support, confidence, reassurance, validation of parenting practices, and fostered normalisation and a shared experience of parenting. It provided opportunities for sharing strategies and learning from others on how to engage in autonomy supporting parenting practices at home. Playgroups are a convenient and safe setting for children and their families and are ideal for delivering health promotion programs such as Healthy Conversations @ Playgroup . Potential opportunities to support future delivery of the program in playgroups to help reach a broader parent population include engaging broader support networks including co-parents and grandparents, and enlisting program champions, to increase reach and engagement, motivate change, and strengthen practices at home.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to the nature of the data, the conditions of ethics approval, and privacy concerns, but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank playgroup partners including Play Matters Australia (in Queensland), Playgroup South Australia and Playgroup Western Australia for their collaboration and assistance with recruiting playgroups and facilitating recruitment of participants and delivery of the program. We especially wish to acknowledge the work and support of Penny Allen, Alana Hitchcock, Nicole Walker, Melissa Luhrman and Andrew McMahon from Play Matters Australia; Craig Bradbrook, Rebecca Blunn, and Alicia Beames from Playgroup SA; and David Zarb and Caroline Ince from Playgroup WA.

We would also like to thank the parents, peer facilitators and playgroup coordinators who participated in this qualitative evaluation, for their time and sharing their experiences. Finally, we would like to thank Samantha Morgillo, Research Assistant at Flinders University, who supported this work.

This project is funded by the Australian Government Medical Research Future Fund Preventative Public Health Research Initiative (2019; GNT1200764). HC is supported by a National Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellowship (#102549) and partially by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council's Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course (Project ID CE200100025). BJJ is supported by an Early- Mid Career Researcher Fellowship from The Hospital Research Foundation Group (2022-CF-EMCR-008-QA25323). RB is supported by an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DE230101053). No funders contributed to the design of the study, nor had a role in data collection, management, analysis, and interpretation, nor in the dissemination of findings.

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Georgia Middleton, Brittany J. Johnson, Dimity Dutch & Rebecca K. Golley

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Stewart G. Trost

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Contributions

GM, BJJ, RKG and SGT conceived the study, with assistance from LKC, COT, HEC, KEW, AH and DSKB. DD and GM recruited participants with assistance from BJJ, HEC, SGT, and AH. GM conducted focus groups and interviews and DD supported as note-taker. GM led data analysis and BJJ and DD assisted, with support from all co-authors. GM drafted the manuscript, with assistance from DD, BJJ, and RKG. All authors contributed to synthesis of results, reviewing, editing, and approving the final version of the paper.

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Correspondence to Brittany J. Johnson or Rebecca K. Golley .

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Ethics approval and consent to participate.

This project was performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of Children’s Health Queensland (HREC/19/QCHQ/66486), The Queensland University of Technology (2000000576), Flinders University (2586) and The University of Western Australia (RA/4/20/6386). All participants provided informed consent prior to participating.

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AH and KS were site coordinators for the Healthy Conversations @ Playgroup trial and acted as peer facilitators in some instances. All other authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Supplementary Information

Additional file 1..

 Interview/focus group schedules. Interview/focus group schedules containing the questions that guided the focus group and interview discussions.

Additional file 2.

 Participant flow through Healthy Conversations @ Playgroup qualitative evaluation study. Figure of the flow through the study of the three population groups included in the qualitative evaluation.

Additional file 3.

 Coding tree for thematic analysis of interview and focus group data. Description: Figure of the coding tree that sits behind the results presented in the paper

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Middleton, G., Johnson, B.J., Dutch, D. et al. A great way to bring up health behaviour topics at playgroup: a qualitative evaluation of the Healthy Conversations @ Playgroup program. BMC Public Health 24 , 890 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-17703-x

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Where Is Autism Represented in the World Happiness Report?

Including disability data could help address societal barriers to happiness..

Posted March 28, 2024 | Reviewed by Michelle Quirk

• Despite comprising 16% of the global population, the disability community's happiness is often overlooked.
• By incorporating disability-specific data, policymakers can formulate more-inclusive strategies.
• Amplifying the disability community's experiences can drive systemic changes for a more equitable world.

March 20 is a big day in my world. It is the International Day of Happiness , which my workplace uses to message the importance of enhancing well-being in the autism community. It is also the day that the World Happiness Report (Heliwell et al., 2024) is released each year. The World Happiness Report is released annually by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, a global initiative of the United Nations. It ranks countries based on various factors related to happiness and well-being. It has been published annually since 2012.

Newest Happiness Rankings

Typically, the media highlights which country is the happiest—indeed, that is exciting data. This year, the Scandinavian countries are leading the world in happiness again, which has been true since the report's inception; Finland topped the list as the happiest country for the 7th consecutive year. This year, the report provided additional information about people's happiness at different life stages or age ranges, the first time the report had been organized in this manner. The report provides rankings by age group. Interestingly, a particular age group in one country can vary widely from their overall rankings. For example, Lithuania topped the list for children and young people under 30 but placed 52nd in the overall rankings.

These age group data and national rankings are all interesting, but what I look for in the report each year is the representation of people with disabilities. The World Health Organization (2023) estimates that 16 percent of the world's population, approximately 1.6 billion people, is disabled. I quickly searched the report, and disability is mentioned just once. This single mention is in reference to gender , noting that although women outlive men, women have lower levels of mental and physical health and a greater burden of later life sickness and disability, possibly lowering their satisfaction with life.

Disability in Research

People with disabilities are often marginalized (McConkey et al., 2021; Valle & Connor, 2019). Research doesn’t regularly consider happiness when assessing people with disabilities. Research and intervention efforts for individuals with autism and other disabilities have focused primarily on remediating perceived deficits (Fine, 2019). Some research has reported that people with disabilities report lower rates of happiness, including those living in low- and middle-income countries (Emerson & Llewellyn, 2023), while others document people with disabilities thriving and flourishing (Thompson et al., 2020; Sen Mukherjee & Barr, 2023). There is a reasonable argument that disability does not create unhappiness; rather, it's the lack of access to critical quality-of-life factors such as opportunities to meet others and create strong relationships, transportation, employment, and the ability to access one's community fully. These barriers can and should be addressed by society before assuming that disability contributes to unhappiness.

The World Happiness Report has taken on an enormous task in evaluating well-being worldwide. The researchers' efforts are commendable. This year's breakdown related to age will provide meaningful information to researchers and policymakers. Lithuanians will most likely ask themselves, “What happens to our happy children—how can we do better to maintain a happy population?” In the United States, we will be asking ourselves about changes we simply must take to address the low level of happiness for our young people (under age 30).

But I can’t help but want to have a greater understanding of the happiness of the 16 percent of the world's population that identifies as disabled. The magnitude of this research and its ability to influence world populations—I can only imagine what it could do to affect change for people with disabilities.

Emerson, E., & Llewellyn, G. (2023). The wellbeing of women and men with and without disabilities: evidence from cross-sectional national surveys in 27 low- and middle-income countries. Quality of Life Research , 32(2), 357–371.

Fine, M. (2019). Critical Disability Studies: Looking Back and Forward. Journal of Social Issues , 75(3), 972–984.

Helliwell, J. F., Layard, R., Sachs, J. D., De Neve, J.E., Aknin, L. B., & Wang, S. (Eds.). (2024). World Happiness Report 2024.

McConkey, R., Slater, P., Smith, A., Dubois, L., & Shellard, A. (2021). Perceptions of the rights and capabilities of people with intellectual disability in the United States. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 34(2), 537–545.

Sen Mukherjee, A., & Barr, M. (2023). “A blessing and a burden”: Exploring posttraumatic growth in doctors with acquired invisible disability—An interpretative phenomenological analysis. British Journal of Health Psychology , 28(2), 586–603.

Thompson, T., Talapatra, D., Hazel, C. E., Coleman, J., & Cutforth, N. (2020). Thriving with Down syndrome: A qualitative multiple case study. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities , 33(6), 1390–1404.

Valle, J. & Connor, D. (2019). Rethinking Disability: A Disability Studies Approach to Inclusive Practices 2nd Edition. Routledge Press. Milton, Oxfordshire

World Health Organization (2023, March 7) Disability .

Patricia Wright, Ph.D., MPH, is executive director of Proof Positive, a national non-profit that works to integrate and expand well-being programming for autistic individuals and their communities.

• Find a Therapist
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Understanding what emotional intelligence looks like and the steps needed to improve it could light a path to a more emotionally adept world.

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• Published: 25 March 2024

Outcomes of professional misconduct by nurses: a qualitative study

• Shokoh Varaei   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7126-2014 1 ,
• Nahid Dehghan Nayeri   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1594-6790 2 ,
• Leila Sayadi   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7613-3051 3 ,
• Mehraban Shahmari   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2501-8667 4 &
• Akram Ghobadi   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7673-7362 5  

BMC Nursing volume  23 , Article number:  200 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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Professional misconduct by nurses is a critical challenge in providing safe quality care, which can lead to devastating and extensive outcomes. Explaining the experiences of clinical nurses and nursing managers in this regard using an in-depth qualitative method can be beneficial. This study was conducted with the aim of explaining the experiences of nurses regarding the outcomes of professional misconduct.

The present study used a qualitative descriptive with a conventional content analysis approach. A total of 22 clinical nurses and nursing managers were selected through purposive sampling until data saturation was reached. Data were collected using semi-structured in-depth interviews and analyzed using Graneheim and Lundman’s approach.

Analyzed data were categorized into four main themes and 11 subthemes: (1) Physical outcomes: critical threat and weakening patients’ safety; (2) Psychological outcomes: psycho-emotional responses of patients and their families, moral distress, and cautionary tale of nurses; (3) Financial outcomes: imposing costs on the patient and financial loss of the nurse; (4) Organizational outcomes: the normalization of misconduct, chaos in the organization, waste of the organization’s resources, and reputational damage to the organization.

Professional misconduct by nurses can have adverse outcomes for patients in physical, mental, and financial dimensions, their families, nurses, and healthcare organizations. Therefore, it is indispensable to adopt management strategies to reduce the rate of professional misconduct.

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Nurses play a vital role in ensuring patients’ well-being and recovery. They are patients’ trustworthy caregivers, advocates, and instructors [ 1 ]. According to the code of ethics for nurses, they have the responsibility for protecting the patient, society, and the profession against possible harm [ 2 ]. Maintaining nurses’ ethical standards and professional conduct is imperative in ensuring patient safety, trust, and integrity of the nursing profession [ 1 , 3 , 4 ]. In the nursing profession as a caring and humane profession, there is the possibility of another reality termed professional misconduct [ 5 , 6 , 7 ]. Professional misconduct refers to any practice or action by nurses that deviates from the established ethical and professional standards and guidelines [ 8 , 9 ].

Professional misconduct in nursing is a multifaceted issue with wide-ranging outcomes in patient safety (physical and mental harm or even death), trust in the healthcare system, and healthcare workers’ well-being. Professional misconduct can damage the profession’s reputation and weaken nurses’ vital role in society [ 10 , 11 ].

Considering that professional misconduct weakens the integrity of nursing practice, perceiving consequences is of particular importance for nurses, healthcare managers, and policymakers since it emphasizes the prominence of maintaining the highest professional standards [ 12 ]. As part of a broader research initiative, this study extensively examines the multifaceted repercussions of such misconduct, extending beyond immediate effects, to deepen understanding across various dimensions. Given healthcare organizations’ mandate to deliver high-standard care with minimal harm, comprehending these implications becomes paramount. The research enhances related knowledge by categorizing the consequences of misconduct, highlighting potential dangers and irreparable harm. Also, it emphasizes the imperative of responsibility and ethical conduct to enhance patient quality and safety. Through this endeavor, the study addresses gaps in understanding within the field.

Study design, setting, and participants

This qualitative descriptive study was conducted through the generic qualitative design and content analysis approach to data analysis. The study setting was different wards of general and referral hospitals in the capital of one of the western provinces of Iran. The participants included in the study were selected using purposive sampling. The inclusion criteria included at least a bachelor’s degree in nursing, an experience of observing professional misconduct by colleagues, and the willingness to discuss experiences. Before conducting the interview, the researcher coordinated the interview time and location while establishing communication with the eligible participants and explaining the study objectives. In order to achieve maximum diversity and richness of data, participants with diverse personal and professional characteristics were selected. Sampling continued until saturation, resulting in the inclusion of 22 nurses and nursing managers aged between 25 and 48 years (Table  1 ).

Data collection

After preparing the interview guide using the expert opinions of the research team, the data were collected through a semi-structured individual interview. Each interview lasted between 45 and 90 min. Data collection was performed by the first author under the supervision and cooperation of the research team. Participants were asked: “Describe your experience on the outcomes of professional misconduct.” “Who is affected by the outcomes of professional misconduct? Explain it.” At the end of the interview, open questions were asked. The interviews were recorded using a mobile phone with the participants’ permission. Data collection and analysis were performed simultaneously from February 2021 to August 2021.

Data analysis

The conventional content analysis method was employed by following five steps proposed by Graneheim and Lundman [ 13 ]: (1) Implementing the entire interview immediately after each interview, (2) Reading the entire text several times to get an overall understanding of its content, (3) Determining semantic units and basic codes, (4) Classifying primary codes in more comprehensive categories, and (5) Determining the main theme of categories.

Interviews were recorded and transcribed using Word software, followed by iterative readings for content understanding. Semantic units were identified based on study objectives, and primary codes were derived. The initial codes were categorized, and the main and sub-themes were determined. Data management was facilitated by MAXQDA10 software.

It is noteworthy that the researcher, aimed to maintain objectivity during the coding process by closely aligning the codes with the data, and setting aside personal biases and preconceptions.

Trustworthiness

The following strategies were used to establish the trustworthiness of Study [ 14 ] Credibility was achieved through trust-based communication and prolonged engagement with the participants and the data and by providing a lot of time for data collection. Dependability was ensured by checking the consistency between quotes and codes/subthemes by the research team and two external observers familiar with qualitative research. In addition, confirmability was established by presenting the quotes extracted from each interview and returning the text of several interviews to a number of participants and applying their opinions, Transferability was enhanced by selection of participants with maximum diversity in terms of age, gender, work experience, educational level and position and detailed description of the research process, participant characteristics, and study context. In addition, quotes were expressed directly by providing each participant’s quote (P).

Ethical considerations

The Joint Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery, and Rehabilitation of Tehran University of Medical Sciences approved this study with the ethics code IR.TUMS.FNM.REC.1400.187. The study objectives were explained to the participants at the beginning of the interviews. Due to the disapproving nature of professional misconduct and the sensitivity of the issue, the possibility of voluntary participation, confidentiality, and anonymity of individuals and their organizations were guaranteed. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants. Transcripts were securely stored in an encrypted file on a personal computer and destroyed following data analysis to further protect the confidentiality of participants.

The outcomes of professional misconduct by nurses were categorized into four main themes and 11 sub-themes (Table  2 ).

Physical outcomes

Data analysis indicated that patients were the primary individuals affected by professional misconduct by nurses and experienced more harm than other parties. One of the most critical outcomes of misconduct is the physical impact on patients. This theme is subdivided into two aspects: critical threat and undermining of patient safety.

Critical threat to patients

The participants’ experience showed that professional misconduct by nurses exposes patients to critical and adverse events such as death, disability such as leg amputation, and critical injuries such as pneumothorax, finger gangrene, tissue necrosis, burns, bleeding, and falls.

“ The patient was critically ill and we announced the CPR code ten minutes after the shift was handed over. We checked and noticed that they hadn’t inserted an IV line for him. It was impossible to do it with a blood pressure of 65. We finally inserted the intravenous) IV (, but it was in vain…” (Participant 9).

Weakening patients’ safety

According to the participants’ experiences, in addition to critical injuries, less life-threatening injuries such as mouth sores and infections could occur following professional misconduct by nurses. There was also the possibility of unwanted side effects. Yet most of these complications may not appear right away and be noticed after discharge from the hospital.

“ One of the colleagues, as she said, made a potion, combined several antibiotics into the Microset, and injected it into the patient .” (Participant 14).

This theme shows that considering the physical aspect, professional misconduct by nurses ultimately leads to a decrease in the quality of care and safety and delays the treatment process.

Psychological outcomes

Based on data analysis, professional misconduct by nurses affects psychological aspects in addition to physical dimensions. This outcome may involve not only patients but also their families and nurses. This theme includes the psycho-emotional responses of patients and their families, moral distress, and edification of nurses.

Psycho-emotional responses of patients and their families

Nurses’ experiences showed that professional misconduct sometimes caused psycho-emotional reactions in the patient or their companions. These side effects were reported as crying, feeling abandoned, distrust, dissatisfaction, cursing, aggression, objection, reporting to the authorities, and complaints.

“ At the beginning of the outbreak, a patient suspected of being infected with coronavirus was hospitalized in the ward and was left in the room; the door was closed. She was ordered not to get out of the room because she could spread the coronavirus to other patients; she was crying all the time.” (Participant 11).

Moral distress of nurses

Sometimes, the repercussions of professional misconduct by a nurse affect both the perpetrator and the cooperating and witnessing nurse. The participants stated that, at times, they experienced various emotional reactions, including discomfort, remorse, guilt, and even psychological complications and quitting work after committing misconduct. In addition, the colleagues of a nurse who is the perpetrator of the misconduct may express regret, discomfort, and anger upon witnessing this situation.

“ I know that catheterization is a sterile procedure, and I’m fully aware of it, but at that moment, there may not be a betadine or a sterile set or gloves. I may not do it correctly and scientifically as I should, which is really sad. Most of the time, we feel guilty.” (Participant 10).

Cautionary tale

According to some participants’ experiences, the effect of a nurse’s encounter with a colleague’s misconduct depended on the morale and personality of the witnessing nurse. By witnessing misconduct and its negative outcomes for the patient and the nurse committing it, the nurse may learn never to commit such misconduct. According to the famous quote, “A man profits more by the sight of an idiot than by the orations of the learned,” it should also be instructive and improve patient care quality.

“ Misconduct by a colleague can influence the nurse seeing it and make them improve, that is, not perform that wrong deed. Due to a written warning to a few colleagues because of the rapid infusion of antibiotics, the others learned and are now very careful .” (Participant 10).

This theme showed that professional misconduct by nurses might harm patients not only physically but also mentally and occasionally cause psychological problems for the nurses. It should be noted that, besides all the negative outcomes, professional misconduct by nurses has a positive consequence, which is a cautionary tale of other nurses and, subsequently, efforts to improve care.

Financial outcomes

Data analysis showed that another outcome of professional misconduct by nurses was the financial outcomes that could affect the patient or nurse. This theme includes two subthemes: ‘imposing costs on the patient’ and ‘financial loss of the nurse.’

Imposing costs on the patient

According to the obtained data, additional costs are imposed on the patient due to adverse events and unwanted complications caused by the reduced care quality resulting from professional misconduct by nurses. These costs may be related to increased length of hospital stay and the need for additional procedures or medication.

“ Unfortunately, some colleagues don’t observe the principles of sterile technique when dressing, which can cause the patient to return with an infection at the surgery site and need to take intravenous antibiotics such as Ciprofloxacin and Clindamycin and be hospitalized for a few days, all of which impose an additional cost to the patient.” (Participant 11).

The financial loss of the nurse

Several participants’ experiences showed that the nurse might experience legal issues such as warnings, reprimands, and referrals to the administrative violations department following committing misconduct, which, especially if repeated, could negatively affect the process of recruiting the training nurses or changing their employment status, in-service promotion process when being appointed to a position until retirement. Based on the participants’ experiences, addressing misconduct might have financial outcomes for the nurse who committed it. These financial damages included a deduction of salary and wages, no further promotion after warning, reprimand and its negative impact on salary, and incurring damages.

“Our nurse colleague hadn’t paid attention to the warmer’s temperature. The mask on the baby’s nose was almost burnt and caused nasal necrosis. The baby’s family pursued it. The nurse was fined to pay the damages. ” (Participant 8).

This theme generally indicated the financial damages resulting from professional misconduct by nurses, which might affect patients and nurses.

Organizational outcomes

Professional misconduct by nurses has negative outcomes not only for individuals but also for the organization. This theme includes the subthemes of normalization of misconduct, chaos in the organization, waste of the organization’s resources, and reputational damage to the organization.

The normalization of misconduct

Participants stated that one of the organizational outcomes of misconduct was its normalization for the perpetrator, modeling, and contagion of misconduct to other colleagues, leading to the normalization of erroneous conduct in the organization.

“M isconduct possibly affects others as well, as it is considered a routine, as they think somebody did it, and there was no problem. Now, in ward X, it has become routine that vital signs aren’t monitored and are only recorded .’ (Participant 10).

Chaos in the organization

The data analysis showed that due to professional misconduct by nurses, colleagues might be forced to compensate for their colleague’s misconduct by carrying out the medical orders for the maltreated patient. As a result, nurses usually avoided working shifts together with that nurse. There might also be turmoil, chaos, arguments, protests, complaints, and even physical encounters between patients and their companions with the medical staff or colleagues.

“ My colleague’s work burden falls on my shoulders, so I should also manage her duty. For example, in my shift, I followed up on a medicine that had to be prepared in the previous shift and made a prescription for the patient; the patient prepared it but growled at me because the medicine was expensive. The doctor talked to me as if I was the one who hadn’t done it while it hadn’t been followed up in the previous shift .” (Participant 19). “ Colleagues who impatiently do the patient’s tasks get angry at the patient. The patient or the companion asks one question or two; upon the third question, they conflict with the patient’s companion. We have a code called code 44 for a security guard, which is often announced during their shifts.” (Participant 19).

Waste of the organization’s resources

After analyzing the data, it was revealed that due to the professional misconduct by nurses, the patient might need a transfer to the intensive care unit or more specialized centers, additional procedures, such as debridement, intubation, dialysis, surgery, re-surgery, or cancellation of surgery, increased hospital stay, and re-hospitalization. By jeopardizing the quality and safety of patient care, these cases lead to complications, and managing them can impose additional costs on the hospital. Some participants believed that failure to provide optimal care caused the patient’s condition to aggravate and the nurse’s workload to increase.

“ The patient, who was just discharged from the operating room, was bleeding badly. The nurse hadn’t followed up or informed the doctor. The patient was transferred to the ICU due to severe bleeding and was treated for approximately 15–16 days. He was operated on twice .” (Participant 14).

In addition, nurses’ professional misconduct directly leads to the waste of resources and equipment.

“ For example, in the COVID-19 situation, when the equipment and supplies were scarce from the beginning, they rationed it for the wards. A male colleague poured Septicidine. Well, it was wasted. It could be used in the COVID-19 ward .” (Participant 7).

Reputational damage to the organization

According to the data analysis, professional misconduct could lead to damage to the reputation and credibility of the nursing profession and loss of public trust in nurses and healthcare organizations in general.

“ Sometimes we refer the patient to a certain hospital, but they say they wouldn’t go there even if they die. They believe whoever is referred to that hospital won’t stay alive .” (Participant 13).

This theme revealed outcomes of misconduct that threatened and affected the healthcare organization.

In the present study, nurses’ experiences regarding the outcomes of professional misconduct were investigated. The results showed that this phenomenon had widespread outcomes in different dimensions and levels, including patients, nurses, and healthcare organizations. In line with the present study, researchers concluded in a systematic review that unprofessional conduct included multidimensional issues and serious outcomes concerning patient safety, nurses, colleagues, managers, and healthcare organizations [ 6 ].

One of the significant outcomes of professional misconduct is physical outcomes, which can critically threaten patients’ health and life or jeopardize their safety. In a review, the threat to patients’ safety has been identified as the main reason for adopting disciplinary measures against nurses [ 15 ]. In addition, in a qualitative study, various unsafe practices leading to physical harm to patients have been identified and classified [ 16 ]. In line with the present study, Rooddehghan et al. (2018) reported that missed nursing care could lead to the elimination or postponement of scheduled therapies, which causes serious life threats, complications, and, as a result, patient dissatisfaction [ 17 ]. Professional misconduct in health care can jeopardize patients’ safety, health, and well-being [ 5 , 18 , 19 ]. Since the main goal of health care is to provide quality and safe care to patients, the physical outcomes of professional misconduct by nurses are considered the most important outcomes, and their prevention is absolutely vital.

Another consequence of professional misconduct by nurses is its psychological effects on patients and nurses. Healthcare workers’ misconduct can cause psychological harm to patients, including anxiety, feeling insulted, and fear [ 18 ]. Moreover, misconduct demonstrates the violation of patients’ human rights and dignity [ 7 ]. Since the quality of services provided to patients is an important component of their satisfaction [ 20 ], professional misconduct can reduce patient satisfaction by negatively affecting the quality of care. Nurses charged with professional misconduct face a variety of outcomes, including psychological, physical, and mental suffering [ 21 ]. Furthermore, observing misconduct can lead to moral and emotional distress, sympathy for patients, and increased negative emotions such as distress, sorrow, guilt, bias, and negative stigma in fellow nurses [ 18 , 22 ]. These nurses may to leave their positions and may experience anxiety, sleep disturbances, and uncertainty in dealing with their colleagues [ 16 ]. In general, professional misconduct can cause psychological problems not only for patients but also for nurses, which supports the need for prevention and corrective action.

Unprofessional conduct is a complex phenomenon that impacts nurses’ practice [ 6 ]. In the present study, it was found that professional misconduct could serve as edification for other nurses. In other words, misconduct by colleagues can serve as a cautionary tale to assist nurses in improving their performance. In this regard, studies have shown that unsafe practices by colleagues and related complaints can provide an opportunity for nurses to strengthen their abilities by focusing more on themselves and being more attentive, and contribute to professional development and increased patient safety [ 16 , 23 ]. Therefore, it seems that, when encountering colleague misconduct, nurses can use negative experiences in the organization and enhance their skills and precision in order to improve professional conduct and patient safety.

Other outcomes of professional misconduct by nurses obtained in the present study were financial outcomes that could affect patients and nurses. In line with this finding, a study shows that unsafe practices can impose additional costs on patients [ 24 ]. The financial losses of nurses caused by professional misconduct can be related to legal outcomes such as restrictions, suspension, revocation of professional license, or finement [ 15 , 25 , 26 ]. It can be concluded that, regarding economic issues, professional misconduct by nurses can harm the patients and even the nurses.

Professional misconduct by nurses has outcomes not only for patients and nurses but also for the healthcare organization. These outcomes include issues such as the normalization of misconduct, chaos in the organization, waste of the organization’s resources, and reputational damage to the organization. These issues can reduce the organization’s efficiency and cause concerns about the safety and quality of services provided by nurses. Professional misconduct is often initiated by one individual; however, it can spread quickly, change the organization’s dominant values, norms, and behaviors, and become established [ 27 ]. These disciplinary processes affect the nursing profession, and these impacts become more significant in retaining nurses, particularly in global staffing shortage conditions [ 25 ]. In addition, professional misconduct in health care can jeopardize the quality of nurses’ teamwork [ 5 ], increase colleagues’ workload [ 22 ], and threaten the organization’s long-term credibility and ultimate sustainability by deviating the organization from achieving its main goals [ 10 ]. Misconduct in health care can cause patients and the general public to mistrust medical affairs and damage the reputation of the nursing profession and the organization [ 24 , 28 , 29 ]. Jeopardizing satisfactory standards of practice is a clear violation of nursing ethics, norms, and laws, particularly public trust in nurses and the nursing profession as a whole [ 30 ]. To prevent these challenges, the organization can create a safety culture, develop protocols to report misconduct, and encourage and support nurses. These measures can prevent misconduct, help increase public trust in the nursing profession, and improve the working conditions of nurses.

The present study had several limitations. At first, some participants had doubts about the confidentiality of their names and institutional information in the study. This concern was resolved by assuring them about the anonymity and confidentiality of the information. This research was conducted qualitatively, and therefore, the generalizability of the findings is limited.

According to the results of this study, it is revealed that the outcomes of professional misconduct in the nursing field affect not only patients and nurses but also the healthcare organization. The outcomes of professional misconduct have diverse and widespread dimensions. Physically, professional misconduct can lead to a critical threat to patients or jeopardize their safety. Psychologically, it can create psychological responses in patients and nurses or become an edification for other nurses. Financially, it might impose costs on patients and financial losses for nurses. Organizational effects include the normalization of misconduct, chaos in the organization, waste of resources, and damage to the dignity and credibility of the organization. To prevent these complications, there is a need for programs and management measures to deal with professional misconduct and ensure the provision of safe, quality, and compassionate care to patients. To reduce serious outcomes, further studies in diverse nursing communities are required.

Data availability

Availability of data and materials: Data are available by contacting the corresponding author.

Abbreviations

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation

Intravenous

Intensive care unit

Coronavirus disease 2019

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Acknowledgements

The research team appreciates the School of Nursing and Midwifery of Tehran University of Medical Sciences.

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

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Shokoh Varaei

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Nahid Dehghan Nayeri

School of nursing & midwifery, Nursing and Midwifery Care Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Leila Sayadi

Department of Medical-Surgical, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Ardabil University of Medical Sciences, Ardabil, Iran

Mehraban Shahmari

School of Nursing and Midwifery, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran

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Study conception and design: ShV, NDN, and AGh; Drafted the article: AGh, NDN,LS,MSh and ShV; Critical revision of the article: NDN,LS,MSh and ShV; Approved the version to be published: AGh, NDN,LS,MSh and ShV.

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Varaei, S., Nayeri, N.D., Sayadi, L. et al. Outcomes of professional misconduct by nurses: a qualitative study. BMC Nurs 23 , 200 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-024-01859-3

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Chapter 7: Nonexperimental Research

Qualitative research, learning objectives.

• List several ways in which qualitative research differs from quantitative research in psychology.
• Describe the strengths and weaknesses of qualitative research in psychology compared with quantitative research.
• Give examples of qualitative research in psychology.

What Is Qualitative Research?

This textbook is primarily about  quantitative research . Quantitative researchers typically start with a focused research question or hypothesis, collect a small amount of data from each of a large number of individuals, describe the resulting data using statistical techniques, and draw general conclusions about some large population. Although this method is by far the most common approach to conducting empirical research in psychology, there is an important alternative called qualitative research. Qualitative research originated in the disciplines of anthropology and sociology but is now used to study many psychological topics as well. Qualitative researchers generally begin with a less focused research question, collect large amounts of relatively “unfiltered” data from a relatively small number of individuals, and describe their data using nonstatistical techniques. They are usually less concerned with drawing general conclusions about human behaviour than with understanding in detail the  experience  of their research participants.

Consider, for example, a study by researcher Per Lindqvist and his colleagues, who wanted to learn how the families of teenage suicide victims cope with their loss (Lindqvist, Johansson, & Karlsson, 2008) [1] . They did not have a specific research question or hypothesis, such as, What percentage of family members join suicide support groups? Instead, they wanted to understand the variety of reactions that families had, with a focus on what it is like from  their  perspectives. To address this question, they interviewed the families of 10 teenage suicide victims in their homes in rural Sweden. The interviews were relatively unstructured, beginning with a general request for the families to talk about the victim and ending with an invitation to talk about anything else that they wanted to tell the interviewer. One of the most important themes that emerged from these interviews was that even as life returned to “normal,” the families continued to struggle with the question of why their loved one committed suicide. This struggle appeared to be especially difficult for families in which the suicide was most unexpected.

The Purpose of Qualitative Research

Again, this textbook is primarily about quantitative research in psychology. The strength of quantitative research is its ability to provide precise answers to specific research questions and to draw general conclusions about human behaviour. This method is how we know that people have a strong tendency to obey authority figures, for example, or that female undergraduate students are not substantially more talkative than male undergraduate students. But while quantitative research is good at providing precise answers to specific research questions, it is not nearly as good at  generating  novel and interesting research questions. Likewise, while quantitative research is good at drawing general conclusions about human behaviour, it is not nearly as good at providing detailed descriptions of the behaviour of particular groups in particular situations. And it is not very good at all at communicating what it is actually like to be a member of a particular group in a particular situation.

But the relative weaknesses of quantitative research are the relative strengths of qualitative research. Qualitative research can help researchers to generate new and interesting research questions and hypotheses. The research of Lindqvist and colleagues, for example, suggests that there may be a general relationship between how unexpected a suicide is and how consumed the family is with trying to understand why the teen committed suicide. This relationship can now be explored using quantitative research. But it is unclear whether this question would have arisen at all without the researchers sitting down with the families and listening to what they themselves wanted to say about their experience. Qualitative research can also provide rich and detailed descriptions of human behaviour in the real-world contexts in which it occurs. Among qualitative researchers, this depth is often referred to as “thick description” (Geertz, 1973) [2] . Similarly, qualitative research can convey a sense of what it is actually like to be a member of a particular group or in a particular situation—what qualitative researchers often refer to as the “lived experience” of the research participants. Lindqvist and colleagues, for example, describe how all the families spontaneously offered to show the interviewer the victim’s bedroom or the place where the suicide occurred—revealing the importance of these physical locations to the families. It seems unlikely that a quantitative study would have discovered this detail.

Data Collection and Analysis in Qualitative Research

As with correlational research, data collection approaches in qualitative research are quite varied and can involve naturalistic observation, archival data, artwork, and many other things. But one of the most common approaches, especially for psychological research, is to conduct  interviews . Interviews in qualitative research can be unstructured—consisting of a small number of general questions or prompts that allow participants to talk about what is of interest to them–or structured, where there is a strict script that the interviewer does not deviate from. Most interviews are in between the two and are called semi-structured interviews, where the researcher has a few consistent questions and can follow up by asking more detailed questions about the topics that do come up. Such interviews can be lengthy and detailed, but they are usually conducted with a relatively small sample. The unstructured interview was the approach used by Lindqvist and colleagues in their research on the families of suicide survivors because the researchers were aware that how much was disclosed about such a sensitive topic should be led by the families not by the researchers. Small groups of people who participate together in interviews focused on a particular topic or issue are often referred to as  focus groups . The interaction among participants in a focus group can sometimes bring out more information than can be learned in a one-on-one interview. The use of focus groups has become a standard technique in business and industry among those who want to understand consumer tastes and preferences. The content of all focus group interviews is usually recorded and transcribed to facilitate later analyses. However, we know from social psychology that group dynamics are often at play in any group, including focus groups, and it is useful to be aware of those possibilities.

Another approach to data collection in qualitative research is participant observation. In  participant observation , researchers become active participants in the group or situation they are studying. The data they collect can include interviews (usually unstructured), their own notes based on their observations and interactions, documents, photographs, and other artifacts. The basic rationale for participant observation is that there may be important information that is only accessible to, or can be interpreted only by, someone who is an active participant in the group or situation. An example of participant observation comes from a study by sociologist Amy Wilkins (published in  Social Psychology Quarterly ) on a university-based religious organization that emphasized how happy its members were (Wilkins, 2008) [3] . Wilkins spent 12 months attending and participating in the group’s meetings and social events, and she interviewed several group members. In her study, Wilkins identified several ways in which the group “enforced” happiness—for example, by continually talking about happiness, discouraging the expression of negative emotions, and using happiness as a way to distinguish themselves from other groups.

Data Analysis in Quantitative Research

Although quantitative and qualitative research generally differ along several important dimensions (e.g., the specificity of the research question, the type of data collected), it is the method of data  analysis  that distinguishes them more clearly than anything else. To illustrate this idea, imagine a team of researchers that conducts a series of unstructured interviews with recovering alcoholics to learn about the role of their religious faith in their recovery. Although this project sounds like qualitative research, imagine further that once they collect the data, they code the data in terms of how often each participant mentions God (or a “higher power”), and they then use descriptive and inferential statistics to find out whether those who mention God more often are more successful in abstaining from alcohol. Now it sounds like quantitative research. In other words, the quantitative-qualitative distinction depends more on what researchers  do  with the data they have collected than with why or how they collected the data.

But what does qualitative data analysis look like? Just as there are many ways to collect data in qualitative research, there are many ways to analyze data. Here we focus on one general approach called  grounded theory  (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) [4] . This approach was developed within the field of sociology in the 1960s and has gradually gained popularity in psychology. Remember that in quantitative research, it is typical for the researcher to start with a theory, derive a hypothesis from that theory, and then collect data to test that specific hypothesis. In qualitative research using grounded theory, researchers start with the data and develop a theory or an interpretation that is “grounded in” those data. They do this analysis in stages. First, they identify ideas that are repeated throughout the data. Then they organize these ideas into a smaller number of broader themes. Finally, they write a  theoretical narrative —an interpretation—of the data in terms of the themes that they have identified. This theoretical narrative focuses on the subjective experience of the participants and is usually supported by many direct quotations from the participants themselves.

As an example, consider a study by researchers Laura Abrams and Laura Curran, who used the grounded theory approach to study the experience of postpartum depression symptoms among low-income mothers (Abrams & Curran, 2009) [5] . Their data were the result of unstructured interviews with 19 participants.  Table 7.1  shows the five broad themes the researchers identified and the more specific repeating ideas that made up each of those themes. In their research report, they provide numerous quotations from their participants, such as this one from “Destiny:”

Well, just recently my apartment was broken into and the fact that his Medicaid for some reason was cancelled so a lot of things was happening within the last two weeks all at one time. So that in itself I don’t want to say almost drove me mad but it put me in a funk.…Like I really was depressed. (p. 357)

Their theoretical narrative focused on the participants’ experience of their symptoms not as an abstract “affective disorder” but as closely tied to the daily struggle of raising children alone under often difficult circumstances.

The Quantitative-Qualitative “Debate”

Given their differences, it may come as no surprise that quantitative and qualitative research in psychology and related fields do not coexist in complete harmony. Some quantitative researchers criticize qualitative methods on the grounds that they lack objectivity, are difficult to evaluate in terms of reliability and validity, and do not allow generalization to people or situations other than those actually studied. At the same time, some qualitative researchers criticize quantitative methods on the grounds that they overlook the richness of human behaviour and experience and instead answer simple questions about easily quantifiable variables.

In general, however, qualitative researchers are well aware of the issues of objectivity, reliability, validity, and generalizability. In fact, they have developed a number of frameworks for addressing these issues (which are beyond the scope of our discussion). And in general, quantitative researchers are well aware of the issue of oversimplification. They do not believe that all human behaviour and experience can be adequately described in terms of a small number of variables and the statistical relationships among them. Instead, they use simplification as a strategy for uncovering general principles of human behaviour.

Many researchers from both the quantitative and qualitative camps now agree that the two approaches can and should be combined into what has come to be called  mixed-methods research  (Todd, Nerlich, McKeown, & Clarke, 2004) [6] . (In fact, the studies by Lindqvist and colleagues and by Abrams and Curran both combined quantitative and qualitative approaches.) One approach to combining quantitative and qualitative research is to use qualitative research for hypothesis generation and quantitative research for hypothesis testing. Again, while a qualitative study might suggest that families who experience an unexpected suicide have more difficulty resolving the question of why, a well-designed quantitative study could test a hypothesis by measuring these specific variables for a large sample. A second approach to combining quantitative and qualitative research is referred to as  triangulation . The idea is to use both quantitative and qualitative methods simultaneously to study the same general questions and to compare the results. If the results of the quantitative and qualitative methods converge on the same general conclusion, they reinforce and enrich each other. If the results diverge, then they suggest an interesting new question: Why do the results diverge and how can they be reconciled?

Using qualitative research can often help clarify quantitative results in triangulation. Trenor, Yu, Waight, Zerda, and Sha (2008) [7] investigated the experience of female engineering students at university. In the first phase, female engineering students were asked to complete a survey, where they rated a number of their perceptions, including their sense of belonging.  Their results were compared by the student ethnicities, and statistically, the various ethnic groups showed no differences in their ratings of sense of belonging.  One might look at that result and conclude that ethnicity does not have anything to do with sense of belonging.  However, in the second phase, the authors also conducted interviews with the students, and in those interviews, many minority students reported how the diversity of cultures at the university enhanced their sense of belonging. Without the qualitative component, we might have drawn the wrong conclusion about the quantitative results.

This example shows how qualitative and quantitative research work together to help us understand human behaviour. Some researchers have characterized quantitative research as best for identifying behaviours or the phenomenon whereas qualitative research is best for understanding meaning or identifying the mechanism. However, Bryman (2012) [8] argues for breaking down the divide between these arbitrarily different ways of investigating the same questions.

Key Takeaways

• Qualitative research is an important alternative to quantitative research in psychology. It generally involves asking broader research questions, collecting more detailed data (e.g., interviews), and using nonstatistical analyses.
• Many researchers conceptualize quantitative and qualitative research as complementary and advocate combining them. For example, qualitative research can be used to generate hypotheses and quantitative research to test them.
• Discussion: What are some ways in which a qualitative study of girls who play youth baseball would be likely to differ from a quantitative study on the same topic? What kind of different data would be generated by interviewing girls one-on-one rather than conducting focus groups?
• Lindqvist, P., Johansson, L., & Karlsson, U. (2008). In the aftermath of teenage suicide: A qualitative study of the psychosocial consequences for the surviving family members. BMC Psychiatry, 8 , 26. Retrieved from http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-244X/8/26 ↵
• Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures . New York, NY: Basic Books. ↵
• Wilkins, A. (2008). “Happier than Non-Christians”: Collective emotions and symbolic boundaries among evangelical Christians. Social Psychology Quarterly, 71 , 281–301. ↵
• Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research . Chicago, IL: Aldine. ↵
• Abrams, L. S., & Curran, L. (2009). “And you’re telling me not to stress?” A grounded theory study of postpartum depression symptoms among low-income mothers. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 33 , 351–362. ↵
• Todd, Z., Nerlich, B., McKeown, S., & Clarke, D. D. (2004) Mixing methods in psychology: The integration of qualitative and quantitative methods in theory and practice . London, UK: Psychology Press. ↵
• Trenor, J.M., Yu, S.L., Waight, C.L., Zerda. K.S & Sha T.-L. (2008). The relations of ethnicity to female engineering students’ educational experiences and college and career plans in an ethnically diverse learning environment. Journal of Engineering Education, 97 (4), 449-465. ↵
• Bryman, A. (2012). Social Research Methods , 4th ed. Oxford: OUP. ↵
• Research Methods in Psychology. Authored by : Paul C. Price, Rajiv S. Jhangiani, and I-Chant A. Chiang. Provided by : BCCampus. Located at : https://opentextbc.ca/researchmethods/ . License : CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike

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Revolutionizing the Study of Mental Disorders

March 27, 2024 • Feature Story • 75th Anniversary

At a Glance:

• The Research Domain Criteria framework (RDoC) was created in 2010 by the National Institute of Mental Health.
• The framework encourages researchers to examine functional processes that are implemented by the brain on a continuum from normal to abnormal.
• This way of researching mental disorders can help overcome inherent limitations in using all-or-nothing diagnostic systems for research.
• Researchers worldwide have taken up the principles of RDoC.
• The framework continues to evolve and update as new information becomes available.

President George H. W. Bush proclaimed  the 1990s “ The Decade of the Brain  ,” urging the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and others to raise awareness about the benefits of brain research.

“Over the years, our understanding of the brain—how it works, what goes wrong when it is injured or diseased—has increased dramatically. However, we still have much more to learn,” read the president’s proclamation. “The need for continued study of the brain is compelling: millions of Americans are affected each year by disorders of the brain…Today, these individuals and their families are justifiably hopeful, for a new era of discovery is dawning in brain research.”

Still, despite the explosion of new techniques and tools for studying the brain, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), many mental health researchers were growing frustrated that their field was not progressing as quickly as they had hoped.

For decades, researchers have studied mental disorders using diagnoses based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)—a handbook that lists the symptoms of mental disorders and the criteria for diagnosing a person with a disorder. But, among many researchers, suspicion was growing that the system used to diagnose mental disorders may not be the best way to study them.

“There are many benefits to using the DSM in medical settings—it provides reliability and ease of diagnosis. It also provides a clear-cut diagnosis for patients, which can be necessary to request insurance-based coverage of healthcare or job- or school-based accommodations,” said Bruce Cuthbert, Ph.D., who headed the workgroup that developed NIMH’s Research Domain Criteria Initiative. “However, when used in research, this approach is not always ideal.”

Researchers would often test people with a specific diagnosed DSM disorder against those with a different disorder or with no disorder and see how the groups differed. However, different mental disorders can have similar symptoms, and people can be diagnosed with several different disorders simultaneously. In addition, a diagnosis using the DSM is all or none—patients either qualify for the disorder based on their number of symptoms, or they don’t. This black-and-white approach means there may be people who experience symptoms of a mental disorder but just miss the cutoff for diagnosis.

Dr. Cuthbert, who is now the senior member of the RDoC Unit which orchestrates RDoC work, stated that “Diagnostic systems are based on clinical signs and symptoms, but signs and symptoms can’t really tell us much about what is going on in the brain or the underlying causes of a disorder. With modern neuroscience, we were seeing that information on genetic, pathophysiological, and psychological causes of mental disorders did not line up well with the current diagnostic disorder categories, suggesting that there were central processes that relate to mental disorders that were not being reflected in DMS-based research.”

Road to evolution

Concerned about the limits of using the DSM for research, Dr. Cuthbert, a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Minnesota at the time, approached Dr. Thomas Insel (then NIMH director) during a conference in the autumn of 2008. Dr. Cuthbert recalled saying, “I think it’s really important that we start looking at dimensions of functions related to mental disorders such as fear, working memory, and reward systems because we know that these dimensions cut across various disorders. I think NIMH really needs to think about mental disorders in this new way.”

Dr. Cuthbert didn’t know it then, but he was suggesting something similar to ideas that NIMH was considering. Just months earlier, Dr. Insel had spearheaded the inclusion of a goal in NIMH’s 2008 Strategic Plan for Research to “develop, for research purposes, new ways of classifying mental disorders based on dimensions of observable behavior and neurobiological measures.”

Unaware of the new strategic goal, Dr. Cuthbert was surprised when Dr. Insel's senior advisor, Marlene Guzman, called a few weeks later to ask if he’d be interested in taking a sabbatical to help lead this new effort. Dr. Cuthbert soon transitioned into a full-time NIMH employee, joining the Institute at an exciting time to lead the development of what became known as the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) Framework. The effort began in 2009 with the creation of an internal working group of interdisciplinary NIMH staff who identified core functional areas that could be used as examples of what research using this new conceptual framework looked like.

The workgroup members conceived a bold change in how investigators studied mental disorders.

“We wanted researchers to transition from looking at mental disorders as all or none diagnoses based on groups of symptoms. Instead, we wanted to encourage researchers to understand how basic core functions of the brain—like fear processing and reward processing—work at a biological and behavioral level and how these core functions contribute to mental disorders,” said Dr. Cuthbert.

This approach would incorporate biological and behavioral measures of mental disorders and examine processes that cut across and apply to all mental disorders. From Dr. Cuthbert’s standpoint, this could help remedy some of the frustrations mental health researchers were experiencing.

Around the same time the workgroup was sharing its plans and organizing the first steps, Sarah Morris, Ph.D., was a researcher focusing on schizophrenia at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. When she first read these papers, she wondered what this new approach would mean for her research, her grants, and her lab.

She also remembered feeling that this new approach reflected what she was seeing in her data.

“When I grouped my participants by those with and without schizophrenia, there was a lot of overlap, and there was a lot of variability across the board, and so it felt like RDoC provided the pathway forward to dissect that and sort it out,” said Dr. Morris.

Later that year, Dr. Morris joined NIMH and the RDoC workgroup, saying, “I was bumping up against a wall every day in my own work and in the data in front of me. And the idea that someone would give the field permission to try something new—that was super exciting.”

The five original RDoC domains of functioning were introduced to the broader scientific community in a series of articles published in 2010  .

To establish the new framework, the RDoC workgroup (including Drs. Cuthbert and Morris) began a series of workshops in 2011 to collect feedback from experts in various areas from the larger scientific community. Five workshops were held over the next two years, each with a different broad domain of functioning based upon prior basic behavioral neuroscience. The five domains were called:

• Negative valence (which included processes related to things like fear, threat, and loss)
• Positive valence (which included processes related to working for rewards and appreciating rewards)
• Cognitive processes
• Social processes
• Arousal and regulation processes (including arousal systems for the body and sleep).

At each workshop, experts defined several specific functions, termed constructs, that fell within the domain of interest. For instance, constructs in the cognitive processes domain included attention, memory, cognitive control, and others.

The result of these feedback sessions was a framework that described mental disorders as the interaction between different functional processes—processes that could occur on a continuum from normal to abnormal. Researchers could measure these functional processes in a variety of complementary ways—for example, by looking at genes associated with these processes, the brain circuits that implement these processes, tests or observations of behaviors that represent these functional processes, and what patients report about their concerns. Also included in the framework was an understanding that functional processes associated with mental disorders are impacted and altered by the environment and a person’s developmental stage.

Preserving momentum

Over time, the Framework continued evolving and adapting to the changing science. In 2018, a sixth functional area called sensorimotor processes was added to the Framework, and in 2019, a workshop was held to better incorporate developmental and environmental processes into the framework.;

Since its creation, the use of RDoC principles in mental health research has spread across the U.S. and the rest of the world. For example, the Psychiatric Ratings using Intermediate Stratified Markers project (PRISM)   , which receives funding from the European Union’s Innovative Medicines Initiative, is seeking to link biological markers of social withdrawal with clinical diagnoses using RDoC-style principles. Similarly, the Roadmap for Mental Health Research in Europe (ROAMER)   project by the European Commission sought to integrate mental health research across Europe using principles similar to those in the RDoC Framework.;

Dr. Morris, who has acceded to the Head of the RDoC Unit, commented: “The fact that investigators and science funders outside the United States are also pursuing similar approaches gives me confidence that we’ve been on the right pathway. I just think that this has got to be how nature works and that we are in better alignment with the basic fundamental processes that are of interest to understanding mental disorders.”

The RDoC framework will continue to adapt and change with emerging science to remain relevant as a resource for researchers now and in the future. For instance, NIMH continues to work toward the development and optimization of tools to assess RDoC constructs and supports data-driven efforts to measure function within and across domains.

“For the millions of people impacted by mental disorders, research means hope. The RDoC framework helps us study mental disorders in a different way and has already driven considerable change in the field over the past decade,” said Joshua A. Gordon, M.D., Ph.D., director of NIMH. “We hope this and other innovative approaches will continue to accelerate research progress, paving the way for prevention, recovery, and cure.”

Publications

Cuthbert, B. N., & Insel, T. R. (2013). Toward the future of psychiatric diagnosis: The seven pillars of RDoC. BMC Medicine , 11 , 126. https://doi.org/10.1186/1741-7015-11-126  

Cuthbert B. N. (2014). Translating intermediate phenotypes to psychopathology: The NIMH Research Domain Criteria. Psychophysiology , 51 (12), 1205–1206. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.12342  

Cuthbert, B., & Insel, T. (2010). The data of diagnosis: New approaches to psychiatric classification. Psychiatry , 73 (4), 311–314. https://doi.org/10.1521/psyc.2010.73.4.311  

Cuthbert, B. N., & Kozak, M. J. (2013). Constructing constructs for psychopathology: The NIMH research domain criteria. Journal of Abnormal Psychology , 122 (3), 928–937. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0034028  

Garvey, M. A., & Cuthbert, B. N. (2017). Developing a motor systems domain for the NIMH RDoC program.  Schizophrenia Bulletin , 43 (5), 935–936. https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbx095  

Insel, T. (2013). Transforming diagnosis . http://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/director/2013/transforming-diagnosis.shtml

Kozak, M. J., & Cuthbert, B. N. (2016). The NIMH Research Domain Criteria initiative: Background, issues, and pragmatics. Psychophysiology , 53 (3), 286–297. https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.12518  

Morris, S. E., & Cuthbert, B. N. (2012). Research Domain Criteria: Cognitive systems, neural circuits, and dimensions of behavior. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience , 14 (1), 29–37. https://doi.org/10.31887/DCNS.2012.14.1/smorris  

Sanislow, C. A., Pine, D. S., Quinn, K. J., Kozak, M. J., Garvey, M. A., Heinssen, R. K., Wang, P. S., & Cuthbert, B. N. (2010). Developing constructs for psychopathology research: Research domain criteria. Journal of Abnormal Psychology , 119 (4), 631–639. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020909  

• Presidential Proclamation 6158 (The Decade of the Brain) 
• Research Domain Criteria Initiative website
• Psychiatric Ratings using Intermediate Stratified Markers (PRISM)  
• Roadmap for Mental Health Research in Europe (ROAMER)