There is no shortage of research methods that are easily applied to the study of everyday human experience. How, though, does one attempt to study extraordinary human experiences ultimate values and meanings, peak experiences, transcendence, and heightened awareness, among others? Authors William Braud and Rosemarie Anderson introduce a series of transpersonal research methods that are intended to help researchers develop new ways of knowing and methods of inquiry. While these methods will be of particular interest to researchers in transpersonal psychology, humanistic psychology, or transpersonal studies applied to traditional fields, the authors argue that these approaches with their emphasis on developing intuition, empathy, self-awareness can benefit anyone involved in the research enterprise. With its solid grounding in transpersonal studies and extensive coverage of qualitative approaches without ignoring quantitative approaches, Transpersonal Research Methods for the Social Sciences will be an invaluable addition to the libraries of researchers across many disciplines, as well as a supplement in research methods courses.
The authors explain and discuss a series of transpersonal research methods designed to help researchers develop new ways of investigating extraordinary human experiences of a subjective nature.
Research approaches in the field of transpersonal psychology can be transformative for researchers, participants, and the audience of a project. This book offers these transformative approaches to those conducting research across the human sciences and the humanities. Rosemarie Anderson and William Braud first described such methods in Transpersonal Research Methods for the Social Sciences (1998). Since that time, in hundreds of empirical studies, these methods have been tested and integrated with qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-method research designs. Anderson and Braud, writing with a contribution from Jennifer Clements, invite scholars to bring multiple ways of knowing and personal resources to their scholarship. While emphasizing established research conventions for rigor, Anderson and Braud encourage researchers to plumb the depths of intuition, imagination, play, mindfulness, compassion, creativity, and embodied writing as research skills. Experiential exercises to help readers develop these skills are provided.
Introduction to Transpersonal Psychology: Bridging Spirit and Science provides an accessible and engaging introduction to this complex and evolving field. Adopting a modular approach, the book systematically relates key themes of Transpersonal Psychology to three major areas within psychology: general psychology, experimental psychology, and clinical psychology. Covering a wide range of topics including transpersonal states of consciousness, biological foundations, research methods, and cognition, the book also features extensive discussion of transpersonal theorists and the impact of their work on our understanding of psychological concepts. The book also introduces contemporary developments in the field and anticipates future advances such as feminist perspectives and cross-cultural approaches alongside practical experiments designed to give transpersonal theories and concepts psychological roots. A critical evaluation of both mainstream and transpersonal theories and research is applied throughout to foster analytical skills and encourage critical and scientific thinking about humanity’s nature as spiritual creatures and ways to educate for personal and social transformation. Accompanied by an online instructor’s manual, this book will be an essential companion for all students of Transpersonal or Humanistic Psychology, or those interested in applying transpersonal ideas to mainstream psychological research.
Focused on exploring human experience from an authentic researcher perspective, Heuristic Inquiry: Researching Human Experience Holistically presents heuristic inquiry as a unique phenomenological, experiential, and relational approach to qualitative research that is also rigorous and evidence-based. Nevine Sultan describes a distinguishing perspective of this research that treats participants not as subjects of research but rather as co-researchers in an exploratory process marked by genuineness and intersubjectivity. Through the use of real-life examples illustrating the various processes of heuristic research, the book offers an understanding of heuristic inquiry that is straightforward and informal yet honors its creative, intuitive, and poly-dimensional nature.
The concept of “chaos”, and chaos theory, though it is a field of study specifically in the field of mathematics with applications in physics, engineering, economics, management, and education, has also recently taken root in the social sciences. As a method of analyzing the way in which the digital age has connected society more than ever, chaos and complexity theory serves as a tactic to tie world events and cope with the information overload that is associated with heightened social connectivity. The Handbook of Research on Chaos and Complexity Theory in the Social Sciences explores the theories of chaos and complexity as applied to a variety of disciplines including political science, organizational and management science, economics, and education. Presenting diverse research-based perspectives on mathematical patterns in the world system, this publication is an essential reference source for scholars, researchers, mathematicians, social theorists, and graduate-level students in a variety of disciplines.
Metamorphosis, the theme of this book, derives from the Ancient Greek language and refers to a transformative process that often includes disintegration and reintegration, on the route to conscious living with self, community and the world. This collection proposes that engagement with the sacred is what makes research and practice transpersonal, the sacred ‘other’ that lives both within and beyond us as individuals and unique cultures. The transpersonal approach is distinctive in that it regards the potential metamorphosis of all those involved in research and professional practice a core value. This volume engages the audience in professional, practical, as well as inquiry-related topics that reflect the diverse nature of the transpersonal studies field, and extend an experience of metamorphosis to the reader. The book moves scholarship forward in an innovative and creative way with relevant themes that not only honour the sacred, but lend a transpersonal paradigm to scientific and professional methods and models.
Founded in the 1960s, transpersonal psychology is a subdiscipline of psychology that has been dedicated to the study of exceptional human experiences and functioning inclusive of ancient and indigenous spiritual and mystical traditions. While initially holding tremendous promise to expand psychological science and practice beyond the purview of conventional psychology, the field has encountered a variety of challenges that its advocates have recognized as compromising its progress. Among the most pervasive of these challenges has been controversy and disagreement regarding the place of science in transpersonal psychological inquiry and practice. Even though some efforts have been made by scholars in the field to address the challenges, these efforts have been largely piecemeal in nature, involving articles or chapters in books that express the viewpoints of individual scholars without a fulsome consideration of multiple perspectives of people throughout the world who identify as members of the subdiscipline. This book is the first in the history of the field to bring together the voices of respected members of the transpersonal psychological community to specifically discuss the relation of transpersonal psychology to science in order to find ways of helping the subdiscipline move forward in a productive manner. This volume includes invited chapters from a broad array of international experts in transpersonal psychology who proffer interesting and sometimes conflicting perspectives regarding how science fits within the subdiscipline. The book ends with a chapter written by the editors that summarizes and highlights the main points of issue shared by the expert contributors and offers concrete recommendations for how transpersonal psychology can improve itself as a field of inquiry and professional practice.
THE WILEY-BLACKWELL HANDBOOK OF Transpersonal Psychology "The new Handbook of Transpersonal Psychology is a necessity today. Many transpersonal psychologists and psychotherapists have been waiting for such a comprehensive work. Congratulations to Harris Friedman and Glenn Hartelius. May this book contribute to an increasingly adventurous, creative, and vibrant universe." —Ingo B. Jahrsetz, President, The European Transpersonal Association "The Handbook of Transpersonal Psychology is an outstanding, comprehensive overview of the field. It is a valuable resource for professional transpersonal practitioners, and an excellent introduction for those who are new to this wide-ranging discipline." —Frances Vaughan, PhD. Psychologist, author of Shadows of the Sacred: Seeing Through Spiritual Illusions "Finally, the vast literature on transpersonal psychology has been collected in what is clearly the essential handbook for psychologists and others who have either too apologetically endorsed or too critically rejected what undoubtedly will define psychology in the future. If you are not a transpersonal psychologist now, you will be after exploring this handbook. No longer can one dismiss the range of topics confronted by transpersonal psychologists nor demand methodological restraints that refuse to confront the realities transpersonal psychologists explore. This is a marvelous handbook—critical, expansive, and like much of what transpersonal psychologists study, sublime." —Ralph W. Hood Jr., University of Tennessee, Chattanooga With contributions from more than fifty scholars, this is the most inclusive resource yet published on transpersonal psychology, which advocates a rounded approach to human well-being, integrating ancient beliefs and modern knowledge. Proponents view the field as encompassing Jungian principles, psychotherapeutic techniques such as Holotropic Breathwork, and the meditative practices found in Hinduism and Buddhism. Alongside the core commentary on transpersonal theories—including holotropic states; science, with chapters on neurobiology and psychometrics; and relevance to feminism or concepts of social justice—the volume includes sections describing transpersonal experiences, accounts of differing approaches to healing, wellness, and personal development, and material addressing the emerging field of transpersonal studies. Chapters on shamanism and psychedelic therapies evoke the multifarious interests of the transpersonal psychology community. The result is a richly flavored distillation of the underlying principles and active ingredients in the field.
