This unique text provides a broad introduction to qualitative analysis together with concrete demonstrations and comparisons of five major approaches. Leading scholars apply their respective analytic lenses to a narrative account and interview featuring “Teresa,” a young opera singer who experienced a career-changing illness. The resulting analyses vividly exemplify what each approach looks like in action. The researchers then probe the similarities and differences among their approaches; their distinctive purposes and strengths; the role, style, and subjectivity of the individual researcher; and the scientific and ethical complexities of conducting qualitative research. Also included are the research participant's responses to each analysis of her experience. A narrative account from another research participant, “Gail,” can be used by readers to practice the kinds of analysis explored in the book.

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

Review
"This text addresses one of the most frequently asked questions in qualitative analysis: what is the difference between phenomenology, grounded theory, discourse analysis, narrative research, and intuitive inquiry? Not only do the authors explain the theory that underlies each approach, but they also illustrate its application and the resultant findings, making the book a worthy text for a qualitative methods course. As an added bonus, the authors present the participant's reaction to the results of the five different analyses and discuss the ethical implications in terms of letting the participant speak for herself, issues of confidentiality, and tensions around interpretation of data. I would definitely use this book in my advanced qualitative research course.“ - Donna M. Mertens, Department of Educational Foundations and Research, Gallaudet University, USA ”A powerful, richly nuanced, brilliantly innovative pedagogical intervention into the field of qualitative inquiry. This book is clearly written, grounded in case materials, and very accessible to students. The narrative is driven by the voices and insights of preeminent scholars, each an expert in one of five ways of doing qualitative analysis. This book represents the most innovative approach to date for teaching qualitative analysis. It will provide a starting place for the next generation of students who want to learn how to be well-grounded qualitative inquirers." - Norman K. Denzin, College of Communications Scholar, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

Frederick J. Wertz, Department of Psychology, Fordham University, Bronx, NY, USA, Kathy Charmaz, Department of Sociology, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, CA, USA, Linda M. McMullen, Department of Psychology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, Ruthellen Josselson, School of Psychology, The Fielding Graduate University, Santa Barbara, CA, USA, Rosemarie Anderson, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, Palo Alto, CA, USA and Emalinda McSpadden, doctoral candidate, Department of Psychology, Fordham University, Bronx, NY, USA