Researcher's reflexivity and qualitative methods in psychology

Abstract

Within academic psychology in the German-speaking countries qualitative methodology plays only a marginal role. Most researchers favour a quantitative methodological orientation with focus on experimental approaches and mathematical or statistical procedures of data analysis. Opposed to this orientation qualitative methodology often stands in epistemological traditions that pay attention to personal preconditions of the researcher and their influence on the research process. Of interest are subjective conceptions, interpretations and patterns of behaviour on the side of the research »objects« as participants in a social field. In the course of the research process the researcher becomes part of this social field as well. The subjective and interactive character of the research process in human sciences and its inter/-personal effects inside the epistemological system of subject, object, and research topic is seen as a source of knowledge in qualitative methodology. With the help of a research project on meditation groups we illustrate how the relationship of participation and parallel observation in a social field influences the course of knowledge production. We also demonstrate the effects of a research project on a researcher’s life.