Naturalistic Inquiry provides social scientists with a basic but comprehensive rationale for non-positivistic approaches to research. It confronts the basic premise underlying the scientific tradition that all questions can be answered by employing empirical, testable, replicable research techniques. The authors maintain that there are scientific facts that existing paradigms cannot explain, and argue against traditional positivistic inquiry. They suggest an alternative approach supporting the use of the naturalistic paradigm.

Positivism and the naturalist paradigm -- Is the naturalistic paradigm the genuine article? -- Constructed realities -- The disturbing and disturbed observer -- The only generalization is : there is no generalization -- Is causality a viable concept? -- Is being value-free valuable? -- Doing what comes naturally -- Designing a naturalistic inquiry -- Implementing the naturalistic inquiry -- Establishing trustworthiness -- Processing naturalistically obtained data -- Case reporting, member checking, and auditing.