Transcendental Phenomenology
Phenomenological research is the study of lived experience, the study of the world as we immediately experience it directly or before reflection. Phenomenology seeks to gain a deeper understanding of the meaning of everyday experiences. and asks, “What is this experience like?’ and “How did individuals and groups of people experience the phenomena”?
Design Attributes:
Life History Oral History (Creswell, 2013) Narrative Interviews Personal Accounts/Narratives (single event or episode) Lived Experience
Sampling
Non-probability Sampling Purposeful/Criterion Sampling
Data Collection (Methods)
In depth, semi-structured interviews Personal Documents/Artifacts Conversations Participant observation Focus-group meetings Participants’ journals
Instrumentation/Data sources
Participants are asked two broad, general questions (Moustakas, 1994): What have you experienced in terms of the phenomenon? What contexts orsituations have influenced or affected your experiences of the phenomenon?
Researcher is the instrument.
Data Analysis
Techniques: van Kaam (and Modified van Kaam)Stevick-Collazzi-Keen (and Modified Stevick-Collazzi-Keen) (Moustakas, 1994)
Epoche (bracketing) Development of significant statements and clusters of meaning Textural & Structural Description. Compose a complete description of the “essence” of the phenomenon (Moustakas, 1994).
Warnings
Leading Interview Questions Researcher Bias/Interpretation Engender participants’ full descriptions of experience, using all five senses, where applicable
Recommended Resources:
Adams, C., & Manen, M. (2008). Phenomenology. In L. Givens (Ed.), The SAGE encyclopedia of qualitative research methods. (pp. 615-620). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Giorgi, A. (1997). The theory, practice, and evaluation of the phenomenological method as a qualitative research procedure. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 28(2)
Giorgi, A. (2012). The descriptive phenomenological psychological method. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 43, 3-12.
Husserl, E. (2012). Ideas: General introduction to pure phenomenology. Florence, KY: Taylor & Francis Group.
Moustakas, C. (1994). Phenomenological research methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Polkinghorne, D.E. (1989). Phenomenological research methods. In R.S. Valle & S. Halling (Eds.), Existential-phenomenological perspectives in psychology (pp. 41-60). New York: Plenum
van Manen, M. (1990). Researching lived experience: Human science for anaction sensitive pedagogy. Albany: State University of New York Press.