Phenomenological Research Guidelines

by Dr. Janet Waters

Research Method:
The goal of qualitative phenomenological research is to describe a "lived experience" of a phenomenon. As this is a qualitative analysis of narrative data, methods to analyze its data must be quite different from more traditional or quantitative methods of research.

Data collection:
Any way the participant can describe their lived phenomenal experience can be used to gather data in a phenomenological study. You can use an interview to gather the participants' descriptions of their experience, or the participants' written or oral self-report, or even their aesthetic expressions (e.g. art, narratives, or poetry). Try to be as non-directive as possible in your instructions. Unlike a survey or questionnaire, in a phenomenological study you would ask participants to describe their experience of, for example, "riding on a BC Ferry", without directing or suggesting their description in any way. However, do encourage your participant to give a full description of their experience, including their thoughts, feelings, images, sensations, memories - their stream of consciousness - along with a description of the situation in which the experience occurred. You may need to ask for clarification of details on the self-report or interview. If so, your follow up questions should again ask for further description of the detail, without suggesting what you are looking for.

Data analysis:
The first principle of analysis of phenomenological data is to use an emergent strategy, to allow the method of analysis to follow the nature of the data itself. For example, artistic depictions of experience would have to be approached differently from narratives or interview data. In all cases, however, the focus is on an understanding of the meaning of the description. To get at the essential meaning of the experience, a common approach is to abstract out the themes. These are essential aspects "without which the experience would not have been the same". In a narrative, consider aspects such as the physical surroundings, the objects, the characters or aspects of the characters (e.g. their relationship), the social interactions between the different characters (or groups), the type of activity, the outcome, the descriptive elements, or the time reference. If the narrative would keep its essential meaning even when various of these aspects are changed, then those aspects are not part of the essential theme. Only those elements that can't be changed without losing the meaning of the narrative contribute to the theme. For example, in a description of "the experience of riding on a BC Ferry", some essential themes (without which the experience would not be the same) might include shared themes of spectacular scenery, stunningly awful coffee, tasteless but expensive ferry food, & brief but moderately strong boredom. You couldn't substitute an Ontario ferry in Great Lakes scenery, or riding on a cruise ship through B.C. waters (with the food in cruise ship buffets) or even a plane trip & still retain the essence or meaning of the lived experience of "riding on a B.C. ferry". Once you have

fully abstracted & presented the themes you see as essential to this experience (as described by your respondents), you will be able to present the unique experience in a way that is understandable (& recognizable to anyone who has had the experience). It would also be clear how this experience would differ from other, similar experiences (for example, in the mid 70's I once took a Greek public ferry not intended for tourists. The experience included similar themes of spectacular scenery, awful food & boredom, but the profound differences between the toilet facilities of the B.C. & the Greek ferries of that era make the experience of riding each very different. Differences with other similar experiences would therefore need to be made clear in any themes analysis). Translate those specific elements which do contribute essentially to the meaning into an abstract form of the concept (e.g. translate "Spirit of British Columbia" into "a B.C. ferry", unless it has to be that particular ferry to convey an essential meaning). Try to remain congruent with the meaning of the participant's description (For example, a ferry from Vancouver to Vancouver Island would be different from the ferry to Bowen Island or the Sunshine Coast, especially in length of time, so you would have to make it clear if the experience is one that would be had on any B.C. ferry, or only on the Sunshine Coast one). In abstracting the themes from an artistic product, a similar process of reflection would be used to determine what the art means, & what elements of the art, or statements or behaviour of the participant are particularly significant, qualitatively. Similarly, the abstract category of which these concrete elements are particular examples would then be determined. (For example, depictions of volcanoes erupting, explosions, violent figures, weapons, the colour red, etc. might all be concrete examples of the theme of anger), in consideration of the participant's meaning making. In the theme analysis, meanings do rely on socio-cultural & linguistic or artistic context; often you must in a sense go beyond the words to the context "given with" the narrative or art. However, don't interpret excessively. If the meaning isn't clear, you shouldn't read into the description of the experience beyond the evident meaning. Avoid, for example, psychodynamic interpretations of symbolism (for example, that the ferry trip represents a "transitional state of consciousness, a journey across the surface of the Unconscious"), unless the participant has explicitly told you this is part of their meaning or understanding of the experience. Usually, there are two types of themes, collective themes that occur across the group of participants, as in the BC Ferry example above, & individual themes that are unique to one or a few individual participants. For example, individual themes of riding on the ferry could include for some of your participants visits to the children's section, the gift shop, or video games. Some individuals might enjoy ferry food, or find the trip to be like a cruise. If so, note these individual differences. As well as a theme analysis, you could also do a content analysis of the narrative or the art. (See the guidelines for content analysis for further information).

Presentation of your results:

The standard APA style lab report can be used to present the results of your phenomenological study. As usual, in the Introduction, briefly review past research & theory in your topic question (e.g. summarize current research on your topic of travel experiences). Use APA referencing style to cite your sources. Then in the Methodsection, present a general description of your participants (number, mean ages, gender, occupation, etc.) in the Participants section, any materials or equipment you may have used in the Materials section (though usually that would only be the question you asked your participants, or any art supplies you may have provided), & in theProcedure section, note that your general research strategy was a qualitative or phenomenological study. In the Results section of the report, present your findings, that is, the themes of the descriptions of the participants' experience. Label & define your theme, with examples of narratives that illustrate your theme. You may wish to directly quote from the narratives for each theme to illustrate it. In the Discussion section, relate to theories presented in the Introduction, or develop your discussion from the themes you have found. As your goal in phenomenological research is to describe your participants' lived experience, in this section, you can expand on the themes & relate them to similar experiences you have found discussed or described by your sources. Of course, phenomenological data & your theme analysis is subjective, so your ability to generalize is limited. Janet Waters

1. METHODS OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH: PHENOMENOLOGICAL RESEARCH Charisse Gennevieve Ballad Ralph Julius Bawalan

2. AT A GLANCEWhereas a narrative study reports the life of a single individual, a phenomenological study describes the meaning of several individuals of their lived experience.

3. PHENOMENOLOGICAL RESEARCH Identification of a shared experience Attempt to locate universal nature of an experience Attempt to identify shared experience among various individuals experiencing shared phenomena Attempt to locate essence of an experience What was experienced and How he/she experienced it.

4. PHENOMENOLOGY The study of the lived experiences of persons Experience is a conscious process The development of [interpretations] of the essences of these experiences

5. WHY DO IPA? IPA considers phenomenological inquiry as an INTERPRETATIVE process IPA is concerned with trying to UNDERSTAND what it is like from the point of view of the participants PARTICIPANT: trying to make sense of their personal and social world RESEARCHER: trying to make sense of the participant

6. METHODS Purposive sampling (homogenous sample) Research Question Involve issues and experiences of considerable significance to the participant/s Sample/Recruitment of Participants Snowball sampling Data Collection Semistructured, one-on-one interviews

7. METHODS 8. ANALYSIS Iterative, complex, and creative In practice, the analysis for phenomenological studies is fluid, iterative, and multi - directional. Stages of Analysis: Initial Second Third Final

9. INITIAL STAGE Read the whole transcript more than once Record some observations and reflections about the interview experience in a separate reflexive notebook Textual Analysis

10. INITIAL STAGE 11. INITIAL STAGE 12. SECOND STAGE Return to the transcript to transform the initial notes into emerging themes Main task: To formulate concise phrases that contain enough particularity to remain grounded in the text and enough abstraction to offer conceptual understanding

13. SECOND STAGE

14. SECOND STAGE 15. THIRD STEP examining the emerging themes and clustering them together according to conceptual similarities. The task at this stage is to look for patterns in the emerging themes and produce a structure that will be helpful in highlighting converging ideas.

16. FINAL STEP In the final stage a table of themes is produced. The table shows the structure of major themes and sub-themes. An illustrative data extract or quote is presented alongside each theme, followed by the line number, so that it is possible to check the context of the extract in the transcript.

17. MOVING ON The next step in projects involving more than one participant consists of moving to the next case and repeating the process for each participant. Inevitably the analysis of the first case will influence further analysis. In following the steps rigorously for each case separately, it is important to keep an open mind to allow new themes to emerge from each case.. Once all transcripts have been analysed and a table of themes has been constructed for each, a final table of themes is constructed for the study as a whole In the process of constructing the final table, the tables of themes for each participant are reviewed and, if necessary, amended and checked again with the transcript.

18. NARRATIVE It is sensible to take the superordinate themes one by one and write them up in that order. The writing style reflects the IPA approach to analysis, beginning with a close reading grounded in participants accounts before moving towards a more interpretative level. The narrative account

should aim to be persuasive and to mix extracts from participants own words with interpretative comments. In this way it is possible to retain some of the voice of the participant and at the same time to enable the reader to assess the pertinence of the interpretations.

19. PRESENTING THE RESEARCH The final report starts with an introduction that describes what the project is about and outlines the rationale for the project. The introduction also explains the rationale for using IPA and describes the stages in the process Following the introduction, in IPA studies the literature review is quite short as the primary research questions are phenomenological and the process is inductive rather than theory-driven. It is recognised that during the analysis issues may arise that were not anticipated at the outset. These will be picked up at a later stage by engaging with literature in the Discussion section.

20. PRESENTING THE RESEARCH In a typical IPA study the next section provides a step-by-step guide to the actual method used in the research, including details of participants, data collection method and the process of analysis. This is followed by presentation of the analysis in narrative form which includes detailed extracts from participants accounts. In the final section, the discussion shifts the focus towards a wider context of a dialogue with existing literature, complementing, illuminating or problematising other perspectives in the literature. The reader is then able to engage in the process of considering the study in relation to their professional and personal experience as well as the relevant literature. The discussion and conclusion may point towards applications in practice and provide suggestions for further research.

21. IN SUMMARY 1. Identification of a common or shared experience of a phenomenon a. Desire to have a better understanding of the phenomena, more than a narrative account of ones experience. Researcher hopes to better understand Z more than subjects a,b,c,d interpretation of Z. Their interpretation of Z is necessary

for a better understanding of the essence of Z. 2. The Phenomena is identified 3. Bracket researcher bias and interpretation 4. Data Collection:

22. PROCEDURAL STEPS Best sample sizes range from 5-25 participants 5. Questioning: a. Two Essential Research Questions: What have you experienced in terms of the phenomena? What contexts or situations have typically influenced or affected your experience of the phenomenon? b. Best Practices in Questioning: 1. Questions should draw from a common theme 2. Questions should urge participants to identify the affect the phenomenon had on their lived experiences. 3. Questions should seek to identify the importance of interpreting the experience in a unique way

23. PROCEDURAL STEPS 6. Data Analysis: a. Horizonalization: attempt to understand participant experience. b. Clusters of Meaning: Unification of interpretations into themes. 7. Unified Descriptive Account: a. Unification of textural descriptions into one description b. Unification of structural descriptions into one description 8. Presentation of the Invariant Structure: a. Combination of unified textural and structural descriptions.