About Phenomenology
“Phenomenology is an interesting approach to studying people and people’s understanding, beliefs and interpretations of the world" (Ellis, 2016). Phenomenology “is a philosophy and a method, the aim of which is to better understand life experience” (Lien, Pauleen, Kuo, & Wang, 2014). The purpose of phenomenology is to take experiences and consciously think about and attempt to interpret the essence of these experiences (Connelly, 2015). The way that phenomenologists study this is to ask people about their experiences (Connelly, 2015). There are three main approaches to phenomenology which include descriptive phenomenology, existential phenomenology and phenomenological analysis (IPA) (Ellis, 2016).
The founder of phenomenology, Edmund Husserl (1859-1938), came up with the approach of descriptive phenomenology. Descriptive phenomenology "seeks only to describe the world from the point of view of the person experiencing a given phenomenon" (Ellis, 2016). In this sense, researchers are only concerned with the essence of a person's lived-experience and are forced to put their biases, prior knowledge and understanding of a topic aside (termed bracketing or epoching) to truly capture the person's understanding of a certain phenomenon (Ellis, 2016).
Martin Heidegger, Husserl's student, modified Husserl's approach, which is termed existential phenomenology. Existential phenomenology focuses on the way that a person interprets a lived-experience (interpretation of perception) rather than just a description of a person's point of view (perception) (Ellis, 2016).
Lastly, interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA), simply put, is the researcher's interpretation of the subject's interpretation of a lived-experience. This view has a lot of issues due to the fact that an interpretation of an interpretation is very subjective and hard to measure. Included in the interpretations, we can assume that language in and of itself is an interpretation. Therefore, the interpretations across languages, researchers and subjects is complex and can cause issues in research (Ellis, 2016).
Example of phenomenology research:
A Heidegger Approach
This first study focuses on recent postpartum women's perspectives on giving birth. A Heidegger approach was followed in that the information obtained in the study was interpreted by the researchers to conclude findings that postpartum women feel both fear and concern/anxiousness about giving birth through the process of birth itself. This analysis, through means of phenomenology, is important to understand so that any "mismatch" between evidence-base practices and what is really happening in hospitals during birth can be examined and changed to fit the lived-experiences of women going through the birthing process (Cavalcante, Moreira, Peñarrieta, & Pinheiro Barrêto, 2018).
The founder of phenomenology, Edmund Husserl (1859-1938), came up with the approach of descriptive phenomenology. Descriptive phenomenology "seeks only to describe the world from the point of view of the person experiencing a given phenomenon" (Ellis, 2016). In this sense, researchers are only concerned with the essence of a person's lived-experience and are forced to put their biases, prior knowledge and understanding of a topic aside (termed bracketing or epoching) to truly capture the person's understanding of a certain phenomenon (Ellis, 2016).
Martin Heidegger, Husserl's student, modified Husserl's approach, which is termed existential phenomenology. Existential phenomenology focuses on the way that a person interprets a lived-experience (interpretation of perception) rather than just a description of a person's point of view (perception) (Ellis, 2016).
Lastly, interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA), simply put, is the researcher's interpretation of the subject's interpretation of a lived-experience. This view has a lot of issues due to the fact that an interpretation of an interpretation is very subjective and hard to measure. Included in the interpretations, we can assume that language in and of itself is an interpretation. Therefore, the interpretations across languages, researchers and subjects is complex and can cause issues in research (Ellis, 2016).
Example of phenomenology research:
A Heidegger Approach
This first study focuses on recent postpartum women's perspectives on giving birth. A Heidegger approach was followed in that the information obtained in the study was interpreted by the researchers to conclude findings that postpartum women feel both fear and concern/anxiousness about giving birth through the process of birth itself. This analysis, through means of phenomenology, is important to understand so that any "mismatch" between evidence-base practices and what is really happening in hospitals during birth can be examined and changed to fit the lived-experiences of women going through the birthing process (Cavalcante, Moreira, Peñarrieta, & Pinheiro Barrêto, 2018).