What research method focuses on individuals' subjective, first-person experiences?

The selected answer, phenomenology, is a qualitative research method that prioritizes understanding individuals' subjective experiences from their own perspectives. In the realm of psychology, phenomenology seeks to grasp how people interpret and make sense of their experiences, focusing on their feelings, thoughts, and perceptions in relation to specific life events or phenomena.

This method is highly valuable in clinical psychology, as it can provide deep insights into the human experience, including emotions, motivations, and the meaning individuals assign to their own lives. By emphasizing first-person accounts, phenomenology allows researchers to capture the richness and complexity of human experiences, which quantitative approaches may overlook due to their focus on numerical data and statistical analysis.

In contrast, other methods such as the quantitative approach and statistical inference involve measuring and analyzing data using numerical metrics, which do not inherently capture the subjective nature of individual experiences. Experiential analysis, while somewhat related, is more focused on examining particular experiences rather than the broader understanding of subjective experience that phenomenology provides. Thus, phenomenology is the most fitting choice for a research method centered on individuals' subjective, first-person experiences.