Working Between Worlds: Qualitative Methods and Social Psychology

We invite social psychologists in the United States to join with psychologists in other countries and with researchers in other disciplines to include qualitative approaches in their research repertory. Several classic studies in social psychology used field-based qualitative approaches, yet in recent decades, these ways of working have been on the margins of American social psychology. We explore what a qualitative stance offers and entails, giving examples from our own and others' research. The relentless attention that qualitative workers have given to issues of bias, subjectivity, and research ethics prompts us to consider how such issues are always present in research, regardless of its methods.