Essentials of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis is a step-by-step guide to a research method that investigates how people make sense of their lived experience in the context of their personal and social worlds. It is especially well-suited to exploring experiences perceived as highly significant, such as major life and relationship changes, health challenges, and other emotion-laden events. IPA studies highlight convergence and divergence across participants, showing both the experiential themes that the participants share and the unique way each theme is manifested for the individual.

About the Essentials of Qualitative Methods book series: Even for experienced researchers, selecting and correctly applying the right method can be challenging. In this groundbreaking series, leading experts in qualitative methods provide clear, crisp, and comprehensive descriptions of their approach, including its methodological integrity, and its benefits and limitations. Each book includes numerous examples to enable readers to quickly and thoroughly grasp how to leverage these valuable methods.

Undertaking qualitative research in psychology can seem like a daunting and complex process, especially when it comes to selecting the most appropriate approach for your project. This book provides a comprehensive and practical introduction to the key approaches in qualitative psychology research from a world-leading group of academics and researchers.

This Fourth Edition features timely updates that reflect the most current practice in the field.

Undertaking qualitative research in psychology can seem like a daunting and complex process, especially when it comes to selecting the most appropriate approach for your project. This book provides a comprehensive and practical introduction to the key approaches in qualitative psychology research from a world-leading group of academics and researchers.

This Fourth Edition features timely updates that reflect the most current practice in the field.

The book provides a well-structured guide to methods, containing a range of qualitative approaches (for example, semi-structured interviews, grounded theory, discourse analysis) alongside a reworking of quantitative methods to suit contemporary psychological research. A number of chapters are also explicitly concerned with research as a dynamic interactive process. The internationally respected contributors steer the reader through the main stag