Personal Narrative Approach to Inquiry, Essay Example

Mareck argues that qualitative and quantitative psychology cannot always be used simultaneously to generate results. Ultimately, some studies can be done in a manner that produces a numerical representation of phenomena, while others can merely be descripted. Many researchers believe that using a combination of these analytical methods will improve the quality of the results, while this is not always the case. Researchers attempt to combine these computational methods and in the process, mistakenly try to covert qualitative data to quantitative data and vice versa. It is important for psychologists to only use the methods that will help them obtain meaningful results, and in most cases this will involve choosing to do a qualitative only or quantitative only analysis.

According to Bochner, a “personal narrative approach to inquiry” determines how a researcher views qualitative data. This is related to the observation project because it provides the researcher with concise details that pertain to his or her view on the observation. This information could be used to generate qualitative results. In my particular project, I was able to use this method to develop an understanding of the behaviors of individuals based on my own personal thoughts about their activities.

It can be possible to manage complexities and unforeseen events by considering the possibilities of an interview prior to conducting it. The results of the interviews revealed that different individuals had very different thoughts, including a tendency to respond to some questions and not to others. It is therefore important to provide these questions in a manner that allows for the interviewer to quickly detect the interviewee’s emotions and to change the questions or how they are phrased to elicit better answers.