Doing Qualitative Research in Psychology

Looking to use qualitative methods in psychology research? This book takes a unique approach to showing readers how.

Its expert contributors use the same dataset to illustrate six commonly used qualitative approaches, including thematic analysis, interpretative phenomenological analysis and narrative analysis. Demonstrating the nuances of these different approaches, the book offers clear guidelines on how to actually do qualitative analysis. 

This fully-updated third edition:

• Includes new chapters surveying contemporary qualitative research methods and diving deeper into discourse analysis and discursive psychology
• Adds a new focus group dataset and chapter on this popular method of data collection
• Enables students to engage in qualitative research that is theoretically-informed, ethical, reflexive and of high quality.

This book is the perfect companion for any undergraduate or postgraduate student conducting qualitative research in psychology.

Cath Sullivan (CPsychol, SFHEA) is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Lancashire, UK. She has taught qualitative research methods and supported other lecturers in teaching qualitative methods for over twenty years. Cath is a former Chair of the HEA’s Special Interest Group on the Teaching of Qualitative Methods at Undergraduate Level and was on the committee of the Qualitative Methods in Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society for 10 years. Her published work includes qualitative research papers and pieces about qualitative methodology. She is joint editor of Doing Your Qualitative Psychology Project (Sage, 2023).

Sarah Riley is a Professor of Critical Health Psychology, at Massey University, Aotearoa New Zealand. She has a long history of teaching qualitative research methods and supervising undergraduate and postgraduate students using these methods in their research projects.  She has published widely, including on qualitative methods, and is a former chair of the Qualitative Methods in Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society and International Society for Critical Health Psychology. With Cath Sullivan, she co-edited Doing Your Qualitative Psychology Project (Sage, 2023) and also led a team at Massey to create the first open-access textbook in critical health psychology, Critical Health Psychology: Foundations, Approaches and Applications (2025) available on Pressbooks). She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, supporting other academics in their teaching journey, and in 2024 was awarded the Vice Chancellor Teaching Excellence Award at her University.