Q

BASIC DEFINITION Describe meaning

for several individuals of their lived experiences of a concept or phenomenon.

What presents to us in conscious experience

PHENOMENON

Object of perception or something perceived or experienced,

especially an object as it is apprehended by the human senses

as opposed to an object as it

intrinsically is in itself

A MORE DETAILED LOOK

Phenomenology is not interested in modern science’s focus on simplification and reducing phenomena to abstract laws.

Examines how people describe things and experiences through their senses.

SOCI 407/807 Strategies of Social Research: Qualitative Methods

2/28/11

Existentialism and Phenomenology These become the two dominant

schools of philosophy in continental Europe in the 20th century.

Existentialism starts from the proposition that there is no spiritual realm above the material world of experience.

The obvious fact of injustice in such a world, however, produces anxiety and alienation, and leads to the inevitable conclusion that the world is absurd.

Phenomenology, starting with the work of Edmund Husserl, operates from the

premise that an entire view of the world can be constructed from the basic

observable phenomena of consciousness. These phenomena are not necessarily

confined to the data of sensory experience.

CENTRAL CONCERN OF PHENOMENOLOGY

Concerned about experience and man

The phenomenologist’s world is not the world of constructs or models but the world as lived by man

PHENOMENOLOGY HISTORY

Edmund Husserl This philosophy draws

heavily on the writings of this German mathematician, which were expanded by Heidegger, Sartre, and Merleau-Ponty.

Clark Moustakas Is a major name in

phenomenology today

HUSSERL’S PHENOMENOLOGY He used Epoche

Literally means “bracketing”, the primary step in the phenomenological method

Before the investigator begins to investigate anything, he has to “hold in abeyance” his natural attitude towards the object he is investigating

NATURAL ATTITUDE Those that may bring prejudices, biases, and

explicit knowledge that may affect the result of his investigation, “to see the world with new eyes”

He used Eidetic ReductionReducing the ability to recall or reproduce

things previously seen, with startling accuracy, clarity, and vividness, or to reduce the experience into essence

PHENOMENOLOGY: PHILOSOPHICAL UNDERPINNINGS

Constructivist: To understand people’s lived experiences with a

phenomenon (socially constructed realities). Return to traditional task of philosophy

From “scientism” to a broader search for wisdom Philosophy without presuppositions

Suspend judgments about what is real, the natural

attitude toward a phenomena (i.e. Bracketing) Intentionality of consciousness Refusal of the subject-object dichotomy

Reality of phenomena is only understood by the

experience of the individual (constructivist)

the study of the physical and natural

world and phenomena,

especially by using systematic

observation and experiment

to believe that a particular thing is

true before there is any proof of it

FIELDS OFTEN USING PHENOMENOLOGY

1. Social Sciences

2. Health Sciences

3. Psychology

4. Nursing

5. Education

6. Phenomenology is well-suited to studying research questions involving affective, emotional, and often intense human experiences.

PHENOMENOLOGY FOCUS Focus on a concept or phenomenon

Love, anger, betrayal, happiness, caring, undergoing coronary bypass surgery, what it means to be/experience being underweight, and so on

To reduce individual experience with a phenomenon to a description of the universal essence

To derive inner meaning Essence: core meanings, mutually understood

through a commonly experienced phenomenon

TYPES OF PHENOMENOLOGY

I. Hermeneutical Phenomenology Reflecting on lived experiences

with interpretation by the researcher.

II. Transcendental Phenomenology Focus less on the researcher’s

interpretation and more on the describing experiences of participants.

Relating to or consisting in

the interpretation of

texts

Independent of human

experience of phenomena but within the range

of knowledge

UNITS OF ANALYSIS1. Primarily People2. Art and Literature3. Poetry4. Biographies5. Novels6. Diaries7. Music

PHENOMENOLOGY METHODS1. Determine Phenomenology is best approach

for research question/objective2. Identify the phenomenon to study3. Recognize the philosophical assumptions of

phenomenology4. Describe researcher’s own experiences with

phenomenon5. Collect data about experiences with

phenomenon6. Develop a composite description of

experiences What and how experienced

ASSIGNMENT1. Read the various philosophies concerning

happiness in Chapter 16.2. Which of these philosophies about happiness

you agreed with? Why? Which one you don’t agreed with? Why? (essay form-original)

3. Relate these philosophy of human happiness to Rick Warren’s concept of a “Purpose Driven Life” in Chapter 15. (essay form-original)

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