Researching the Arts Therapies

Taking a dramatherapist's perspective, this text looks at methods of researching the arts therapies, and how particular definitions off research affect our understanding and practising of arts therapies. The author divides the approaches into four categories: quantitative research, qualitative research, action research, and art-based research; evaluates these approaches and argues that the theoretical or philosophical understanding of what research actually is has an effect on what we think research can be used for. The text proposes that research always involves a trade-off between two kinds of inaccuracy, numerical and experiential, which correspond to the imprecise fit of the way we think about life and life itself.