Definition:  Methods employed to collect non-numerical data such as text, speech, and stories.

            Description.  Qualitative assessors typically observe individuals or present them with open-ended queries designed to elicit samples of the phenomenon in question.  This material is subjected to a coding scheme designed to organize it conceptually.

As examples of qualitative assessments that could be of use to vocational counseling, Goldman (1992) described the Life Line and the Vocational Card Sort (VCS).  For the Life Line, clients first draw a line vertically along a sheet of paper and then begin to list important life events along the line chronologically.  The VCS consists of a set of cards containing occupational names that the client sorts in two stages.  First, the cards are sorted into three piles:  occupations the person would consider, would not consider, and those for whom the person has doubts.  Next clients take the piles, beginning with the No category, and sorts them into smaller piles containing similar reasons the person would not consider them.  This exploration process enables counselor and client to get an in-depth sense of the factors important to the client’s career decision-making. For a video about values sorting, try this.

Story characteristics are the broad range of concepts proposed to describe and evaluate the types, structures, purposes, and forms of narratives.  Angus and McLeod (2004) described chronicles or reports (i.e., stories with no sense of drama or purpose) and cultural narratives (stories of the good life). Life stories may include components that are incompatible with each other, indicating the presence of multiple, fragmented identities.

Stories usually do not encompass all of a person’s life experiences, and some of the excluded experiences may be important to a healthy sense of self. Some types of dysfunction may be evident by the absence of key story elements (Anderson, 2004), while other important life experiences may contradict the dominant story. For example, a therapist in training who sees himself as a natural helper may find it difficult to accept feedback from a supervisor who tells him that he has poor listening skills. One method for ascertaining what has been excluded or distorted in client narratives is to evaluate the story’s coherence or organization (Angus & McLeod, 2004). Narrative characteristics have also been associated with depression (e.g., difficulty relating specific story elements in descriptions of positive experience), borderline personality disorder (overwhelming emotion and extreme judgments), autism (absence of emotion and agency), and trauma (disorganized and fragmented story elements) (Meier, 2012). Researchers have also begun to assess narrative characteristics related to stress (e.g., Dohrenwend, 2006; Graci & Fivush, 2016).

For a general review of narratives and narrative assessment in educational settings, watch this.