‘Teaching’ depth: Reflections on the challenges and rewards of integrating depth psychology into research methodology

Abstract

AbstractThis article discusses how students enrolled in graduate level methodology courses can integrate key depth psychological values into the research process. As Coppin and Nelson (2005, p. 101) suggest, inquiry centered on the psyche asks researchers ‘to be fully involved with the opus on every level,’ both personal and archetypal, which ‘makes the work especially meaningful and especially arduous.’ This is equally true when teaching depth research and conducting depth research. To illustrate, we describe the personal challenges and rewards of being instructors and discuss three models, composite case examples, of integrating depth that have emerged in the classroom. In the first model, students begin by actively, rigorously separating their intellectual research pursuits from their depth experiences, either due to prior research education in non-depth oriented settings or due to a lack of understanding of how depth psychology applies to the research process. In the second model, the student chooses ...