This Essay Will Demonstrate My Knowledge and Understanding of the Contribution to Qualitative Research to Psychology Through the Discussion of Published Qualitative Research.

This essay will demonstrate my knowledge and understanding of the contribution to qualitative research to Psychology through the discussion of published qualitative research. Firstly, what is qualitative research and how does this differ from qualitative research? According to Smith “Qualitative analysis is concerned with describing the constituent properties of an entity” whereas “Qualitative analysis is involved in determining how much of the entity there is” (Smith et al., 2008 p.1) Quantitative research is any data that is in numerical from such as statistics, percentages etc. Quantitative research compels a drop of phenomena to numbers for statistical analysis. This type of research is mostly interested in adding the number of incidents, the size, or amount of connections between individuals, objects or things, rather than interpreting a person’s social experience. The process of measurement is central to quantitative research because it provides the fundamental connection between empirical observation and mathematical expression of quantitative relationships. The object of quantitative research is to develop and employ mathematical theories or hypothesis pertaining to the phenomena. (Smith et al., 2008) Qualitative research presents a more deep informative interpretation of the social phenomena under examination through collection of data from real-life verbal reports – for example, interview transcripts or written accounts therefore interpreting what a piece of text means or what a person is saying in an interview rather than finding the statistical properties of it. This interpretation or analysis is then expressed through comprehensive tidings of participant’s experiences insights and perceptions of phenomena. Qualitative researchers try to figure out human emotional behaviours and the meaning of events (Smith et al 2008).
According to Smith “Qualitative approaches in Psychology are generally engaged with experiencing, describing and

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