Qualitative research in counseling psychology

The Counseling Psychologist
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Qualitative Research in Counseling Psychology : Conceptual Foundations
Susan L. Morrow The Counseling Psychologist 2007 35: 209 DOI: 10.1177/0011000006286990 The online version of this article can be found at: http://tcp.sagepub.com/content/35/2/209

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Qualitative Research in Counseling Psychology:
Conceptual Foundations
Susan L. Morrow
University of Utah
Beginning with calls for methodological diversity in counseling psychology, this article addresses the history and current state of qualitative research in counseling psychology. It identifiesthe historical and disciplinary origins as well as basic assumptions and underpinnings of qualitative research in general, as well as within counseling psychology. It identifies the foundational elements of qualitative research, including its purposes and goals, paradigmatic bases, and underlying characteristics. Finally, it locates qualitative research in counseling psychology in the researchgenre and explores the promise that this form of research holds for counseling and psychotherapy research as well as counseling psychology’s multicultural and social justice agenda.

Counseling psychologists have been in the forefront in psychology in calling for expanded methodological diversity, in particular qualitative research methods, to adequately explore the depth and complexity of the humanexperience (Gelso, 1979, 1984; Goldman, 1976; Hill & Gronsky, 1984; Hoshmand, 1989; Howard, 1983; Morrow & Smith, 2000; Neimeyer & Resnikoff, 1982; Polkinghorne, 1984, 1991a, 1991b). Counseling psychology has, among the disciplines of psychology, led the way in qualitative inquiry in dissertation research, program curriculum, and overall acceptance of qualitative methods, although this shift hasbeen and still is quite limited in scope (Kopala, Suzuki, Goldman, & Galdi, 1997; Martens & Haase, 2006 [TCP special issue, part 2]; Rennie, Watson, & Monteiro, 2002; Ponterotto, 2005a, 2005c; Weston & Gore, 2006 [TCP, special issue, part 2]). Nonetheless, qualitative research methods continue to grow in credibility as counseling psychology researchers recognize its relevance to the paradigms thatcharacterize the field (e.g., constructivism; Ponterotto, 2005a). Qualitative methods are particularly suited to counseling psychology research for a number of reasons, including the growing interest of students in conducting research that is congruent with paradigms and methods that are more closely related to practice, the relevance of qualitative approaches to multicultural counseling andpsychology, and the advantages of methodological diversification and expansion to psychology (Ponterotto, 2005a). McLeod (2001) noted that “many counsellors and psychotherapists are drawn towards qualitative inquiry because they can recognise its potential” (p. viii). The 1990s and early part of the 21st century have seen a proliferation of
THE COUNSELING PSYCHOLOGIST, Vol. 35 No. 2, March 2007209-235 DOI: 10.1177/0011000006286990 © 2007 by the Division of Counseling Psychology.

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THE COUNSELING PSYCHOLOGIST / March 2007

qualitative studies published in The Counseling Psychologist (e.g., Beckstead & Morrow, 2004; Pope-Davis et al., 2002; Utsey, Gernat, & Hammar, 2005) and Journal of Counseling...