Despite the importance and ubiquity of qualitative inquiry, a comprehensive account of its history in psychology has not been written. Phases and landmark moments of qualitative inquiry are evident in variations that range from informal, implicit, and unacknowledged practices to philosophically informed and scientifically sophisticated methodologies with norms and carefully specified procedures. After the founding of psychology in 1879, qualitative inquiries were conducted by Wilhelm Wundt, Sigmund Freud, and William James, who assumed their scientific status. During the 20th century, with a rising emphasis on hypothesis testing by means of quantification, psychologists continued to use qualitative practices but did not include them in general accounts of scientific research methods. Although Gordon Allport (1942) called for bold innovation and an increasingly rigorous accountability, a delay in the systematic development of qualitative methodology took place even as practices continued to yield fruitful research in work such as Flanagan (1954); Maslow (1954, 1959), and Kohlberg (1963). Only between the late 1960s and 1990 did phenomenologists, grounded theorists, discourse analysts, narrative researchers, and others articulate and assert the general scientific value, methodologies, and applicable tools of qualitative inquiry in psychology. Between the 1990s and the present, a revolutionary institutionalization of qualitative methods has taken place in publications, educational curricula, and professional organizations. Examples of ground breaking, well-known psychological research using qualitative methods have begun to be examined by research methodologists. The historical study of qualitative methods offers a treasure trove for the growing comprehension of qualitative methods and their integration with quantitative inquiry.
The current study investigated the lived experience of 12 parents of children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder in everyday cultural contexts in Goa, India. Narratives from parents collected between 2009 and 2010 were analyzed using the procedures of phenomenological psychology. Four temporal phases of parents’ experience emerged from these data. Findings showed that the earliest phase of the child’s life was a period of relative normalcy and social cohesion. In the second phase, the child’s behaviors began to disrupt the everyday social order, but parents viewed these unexpected behaviors as temporary. In the third phase, parents’ observations in public situations, along with assessments of others, led to a qualitative shift in which parents began to perceive that there was a persisting problem interfering with their child’s social and practical activities. In the fourth phase, parents grappled with developing their child’s capacities to meet existing practical opportunities in the local society, while attempting to reshape the social world to accommodate the abilities and limits of children like their own. Parents’ fundamental concerns throughout their journey were: learning to meet new and unfamiliar challenges as parents, caring for their child’s basic needs, and finding an engaging niche with a sense of belonging for their child in the everyday milieu. Both culture-specific and potentially universal levels of experience are delineated in the overall findings. Implications for culturally sensitive research and practice in India and other low- and middle-income countries are discussed.
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