IPA can sound intimidating, but it’s essentially a qualitative approach to one thing: understanding how people make sense of important experiences. This beginner’s guide explains what IPA is, when it fits a qualitative PhD, what “interpretative” really means, and how the analysis process works in practice.

A strong qualitative PhD proposal isn’t about sounding clever - it’s about clarity, coherence, and a realistic plan. This guide walks you through a simple four-part structure (introduction, foundations, methodology, feasibility) and shows you how to make your research problem, approach, and contribution easy for reviewers to say yes to.