ABSTRACT
Qualitative methods have a certain therapeutic value for researchers who contribute to occupational health psychology (OHP). These methods help researchers understand the lived experiences of people confronting problems at work, particularly problems that could adversely affect workers’ health. Because OHP researchers sometimes get so intensely caught up in research design and data handling, they can lose sight of the purpose behind their research, which is, ultimately, to improve the health of workers. One can observe the value of qualitative observational methods in Peter Chen’s (2007) short autobiographical piece. He wrote about a colleague who had just been laid off. Chen listened to the “colleague give voice to his frantic emotions and disbelief” while the two of them walked through the company parking lot on the day the colleague lost his job. Within 30 minutes, the colleague was experiencing a stomachache. Chen wrote, “I felt ashamed and guilty that evening because I just realized that I have been ignoring the true meaning behind the stress data that I have enjoyed analyzing and publishing!” (p. 1).
