Relevance. The motivation for this work stems from the fact that there are an insufficient number of tools in the Russian psychology that are suitable to investigate the content of human goals.

Objective. Development of a new method for investigating the content of human goals.

Methods. The method of incomplete sentences; clinical conversation; a modification of the projective technique of R. Emmons "Assessment of Personal Aspirations".

Results. A modification of the method of R. Emmons "Assessment of Personal Aspirations" is carried out. The changes made in the proposed version concern not only the incomplete sentences presented to the respondent for their completion, but also the scales of evaluation of personal aspirations (goals): their content, sequence of presentation, and the assessments used. For the analysis of human goals the following 17 scales are introduced: importance, clarity, difficulty, effort, the ability to focus, the degree of enthusiasm, joy, frustration, success in recent times, the probability of success, the influence of circumstances, control over one’s actions, progress, importance for one’s family, the degree of social utility, support, external-internal cause. The estimates of the proposed scales use six-point graduation: from 0 to 5. All the innovations made in the methodology are justified and the necessity of their implementation is shown. The author's interpretation of the data obtained includes: analysis of the content of the selected aspirations (goals) and their classification, which consists in revealing regularly reproduced goals, analog goals and development goals; analysis of the goals by separate scales on the basis of the respondent's evaluation judgments and by the connection of scales with each other; assessment of the influence of the goals on each other, which becomes harmonious or disharmonious. The approbation of the method and possible spheres of its application are discussed.

Conclusions. The declared method is correct, has a great potential for expanding the interpretation and allows one to better understand both the content of the goals and the means for achieving them.

Th is article discusses the fundamental principles of qualitative research: contextual sensitivity, understanding, interpretative reconstruction and refl exivity. Th e principle of contextual sensitivity focuses on qualitative research study of the phenomenon in its socio-cultural and dialogical setting, and the principle of understanding — the study of subjective values and meaning in the positions of the various groups. Th e principles of interpretation of refl exivity give an answer to the question about the methodological tool for qualitative research — how to connect data and formulated analytical synthesis, validity assessment which involves tracking and monitoring impact of refl exive attitudes of the researcher. Th ese principles are formulated on the basis of theoretical analysis and practical experience with qualitative methods and prove the relevancy of combining them into a single methodological approach that is implemented in various directions and strategies of qualitative data analysis. Th e authors emphasize conceptual unity of qualitative research and the underlying common methodology.