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Phenomenological Analysis

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Title: Phenomenological Analysis


1
Phenomenological Analysis
  • Schools of phenomenology have developed different
    approaches to data analysis.
  • Three frequently used methods for descriptive
    phenomenology are the methods of Colaizzi (1978),
    Giorgi (1985), and Van Kaam (1966), all of whom
    are from the Duquesne school of phenomenology,
    based on Husserls philosophy.

2
Phenomenological Analysis
  • The basic outcome of all three methods is the
    description of the meaning of an experience,
    often through the identification of essential
    themes.
  • Phenomenologists search for common patterns
    shared by particular instances.

3
Phenomenological Analysis
  • There are, some important differences among these
    three approaches.
  • Colaizzis method, for example, is the only one
    that calls for a validation of results by
    returning to study participants.
  • Giorgis analysis relies solely on researchers.
  • His view is that it is inappropriate either to
    return to participants to validate findings or to
    use external judges to review the analysis.
  • Van Kaams method requires that intersubjective
    agreement be reached with other expert judges.

4
Example of a study using Colaizzis method
  • Bondas and Eriksson (2001) studied the lived
    experiences of pregnancy among Finnish women.
  • Eighty interviews with 40 women, together with
    data from nonparticipant observations, were
    analyzed according to Colaizzis method.
  • The researchers extracted significant statements
    pertaining to the phenomena from transcriptions.

5
Example of a study using Colaizzis method
  • Meanings were formulated and organized into 10
    themes, which were clustered into 3 comprehensive
    categories and integrated into an exhaustive
    description.
  • The three broad categories were the perfect body,
    an altered mode of being, and striving for family
    communion (The act or an instance of sharing, as
    of thoughts or feelings).

6
A second school of phenomenology is the Utrecht
School.
  • Phenomenologists using this Dutch approach
    combine characteristics of descriptive and
    interpretive phenomenology.
  • Van Manens (1990) method is an example of this
    combined approach in which researchers try to
    grasp the essential meaning of the experience
    being studied.

7
  • According to Van Manen, thematic aspects of
    experience can be uncovered or isolated from
    participants descriptions of the experience by
    three methods
  • (1) the holistic approach
  • (2) the selective or highlighting approach
  • (3) the detailed or lineby- line approach.

8
  • In the holistic approach, researchers view the
    text as a whole and try to capture its meanings.
  • In the selective approach, researchers highlight
    or pull out statements or phrases that seem
    essential to the experience under study.
  • In the detailed approach, researchers analyze
    every sentence.

9
  • Once themes have been identified, they become the
    objects of reflection and interpretation through
    follow-up interviews with participants.
  • Through this process, essential themes are
    discovered.

10
  • In addition to identifying themes from the
    participants descriptions, Van Manen also calls
    for gleaning (the collection of leftover crops
    from farmers' fields after they have been
    mechanically harvested or on fields where it is
    not economically profitable to harvest. Often
    gleaning is practiced by humanitarian groups
    which distribute the gleaned food to the poor and
    hungry) thematic descriptions from artistic
    sources.

11
  • Van Manen urges qualitative researchers to keep
    in mind that poetry, literature, music, painting,
    and other art forms can provide a wealth of
    experiences that can be used to increase insights
    in the reflection process as the phenomenologist
    tries to interpret and grasp the essential
    meaning of the experience being studied.
  • These experiential descriptions in literature and
    art help challenge and stretch the
    phenomenologists interpretive sensibilities.

12
Example of a study using Van Manens method
  • Lauterbach (2001) used Van Manens method to
    investigate mothers experiences with the death
    of a wished-for baby.
  • Poetry, literature, mourning (state of sorrow
    over the death or departure of a loved one) art,
    and cemeteries (A place for burying the dead)
    were especially helpful in Lauterbachs
    interpretation of the mothers experiences.

13
  • For instance, Robert Frosts poem, Home Burial,
    and John Miltons poem, On the Death of a Fair
    Infant Dying of a Cough, were used in data
    analysis. Also, a painting by Charles Wilson
    Peale called Rachel Weeping, depicting a mother
    mourning the loss of her infant from smallpox in
    1772, and memorial art in cemeteries, provided
    insight

14
  • A third school of phenomenology is an
    interpretive approach called Heideggerian
    hermeneutics.
  • Diekelmann, Allen, and Tanner (1989) have
    described a seven-stage process of data analysis,
    the outcome of which is a description of shared
    practices and common meanings.

15
Example of a study using Van Manens method
  • 1. All the interviews or texts are read for an
    overall understanding.
  • 2. Interpretive summaries of each interview are
    written.
  • 3. A team of researchers analyzes selected
    transcribed interviews or texts.
  • 4. Any disagreements on interpretation are
    resolved by going back to the text.
  • 5. Common meanings and shared practices are
    identified by comparing and contrasting the text.
    ?????? ?????? ????.
  • 6. Relationships among themes emerge.
  • 7. A draft of the themes along with exemplars
    from texts are presented to the team.
  • Responses or suggestions are incorporated into
    the final draft.

16
  • Example of a Heideggerian hermeneutical analysis
  • Foley, Minick, and Kee (2000) explored the
    experiences of military nurses as they engaged in
    advocacy during a military operation, and
    described their shared practices and common
    meanings.
  • The hermeneutical analysis used the seven stages
    described by Diekelmann and colleagues.
  • The stories of the 24 interviewed nurses revealed
    one constitutive pattern safeguardingand four
    related themes advocating as protecting,
    advocating as attending the whole person,
    advocating as being the patients voice, and
    advocating as preserving personhood.

17
  • Pollio, Henley, and Thompson (1997) propose
  • another method for conducting a hermeneutic
    phenomenological study.
  • Their method begins with bracketing.
  • Their bracketing is not, however, viewed as a
    subtractive process of removing ones
    presuppositions, but instead as a positive
    process, a way of seeing.
  • Instead of suspending preconceived notions, as
    described by Husserl, Pollio, and colleagues call
    for researchers to apply a world view. ??? ?? ???
    ????? ??? ??? ? ?? ???? ???? ??? ??? ????? ?????
    ????? ?????????? ???? ? ???? ???? ?? ??? ?????
    ??????? ? ????? ??????.???? ?? ????? ???????
    ??????? ? ??? ????? ????? ? ????? ? ????? ???????
    ???????? ?????? ???? ??? ??????.

18
  • Pollio and colleagues method begins with a
    bracketing interview.
  • The researcher is the first person to be
    interviewed about the topic under study, which
    raises his or her awareness of presuppositions (a
    supposition made prior to having knowledge).
  • Once interviews have been conducted and
    transcribed, the hermeneutic circle begins.
  • This is an interpretive process of continuously
    relating a part of the text (the transcribed
    interview) to the whole of the text.
  • Pollio and colleagues described three types of
    interpretation group, idiographic (particular),
    and nomothetic (general).

19
  • In group interpretation, a transcript is read
    aloud.
  • Meanings and relationships among meanings are
    discussed.
  • After one transcript is interpreted, the
    remaining transcripts are usually interpreted by
    the primary researcher.
  • At certain times the researcher goes back to the
    group with idiographic descriptions and
    nomothetic themes.
  • The group provides feedback on whether the
    descriptions and themes are supported by the
    data.
  • Each transcript is interpreted in the context of
    all
  • other interview transcripts.

20
  • Figure 23-4 provides aschematic summary of Pollio
    and colleagues intervie process (p. 587) in the
    nursing research book

21
F I G U R E 2 3 . 4 Schematic summary of Pollio
and colleagues interview Choose topic Self as
focus Participant as focus Research community as
focus Text as focus (Hermeneutic
analysis part-to-whole dialectic) All (most)
analyses are done within context of research
group Perform bracketing interview Interview
participants Transcribe interviews Read for
meaning units Cluster initial thematic
meaning Develop thematic structure Present
structure to research group Report findings to
participants Prepare final report Read for sense
of whole
22
  • Example using Pollio and colleagues method
  • Secrest (2000) investigated the quality of life
    of primary support persons of stroke survivors.
  • Before data collection, the researchers
    bracketing (A series or group of brackets
    brackets, collectively) interview occurred.
  • Once it was transcribed, the bracketing interview
    was analyzed by the research group.
  • In-depth interviews were next conducted with 10
    participants.

23
  • Selected transcripts from the 10 interviews were
    read aloud to members of the research group and
    were analyzed, comparing the part of a transcript
    with its whole, and the whole transcript with
    other transcripts.
  • Through this interpretive process, three theme
    emerged fragility (quality of being easily
    damaged or destroyed), vigilance (the process of
    paying close and continuous attention
    "wakefulness, watchfulness) , and
    loss/responsibility.

24
Example of a PhenomenologicalAnalysis
  • Beck (1998) conducted a descriptive
    phenomenological study of the experience of panic
    disorder in new mothers.
  • The purposive sample consisted of six women who
    had experienced their initial onset of panic
    disorder in the postpartum period.
  • Each mother participated in an in-depth interview
    in which she described her experiences living
    with panic after delivery. All interviews, which
    lasted from 50 minutes to 2 hours, were
    audiotaped and transcribed

25
  • Colaizzis (1978) method was used to analyze
    verbatim transcripts.
  • After reading the transcripts, Beck extracted
    significant statements, formulated their
    meanings, and categorized statements into theme
    clusters.
  • The findings were then integrated into an
    exhaustive (performed comprehensively and
    completely) description of the phenomenon of
    postpartum panic and validated by two mothers who
    had participated in the study.

26
  • During the early stage of data analysis, Beck
    initially identified eight themes.
  • After further deliberation (planning something
    carefully and intentionally) she combined two
    preliminary themes with other themes.
  • Beck concluded that the following six themes
    described the essence of the experience of
    postpartum panic

27
  • 1. The terrifying physical and emotional
    componeof panic paralyzed women, leaving them
    feeling totally out of control.
  • 2. During panic attacks, womens cognitive
    functioning abruptly diminished between attacks,
    women experienced a more insidious decrease in
    cognitive functioning.
  • 3. During the attacks, women feverishly struggled
    to maintain their composure (A calm or tranquil
    state of mind), leading to exhaustion.
  • 4. Because of the terrifying nature of panic,
    preventing further attacks was paramount in the
    lives of the women.

28
  • 5. As a result of recurring panic attacks,
    negative changes in womens lifestyles ensued (To
    take place subsequently), lowering their
    self-esteem and leaving them to bear the burden
    of disappointing both themselves and their
    families.
  • 6. Mothers were haunted (having or showing
    excessive or compulsive concern with something)
    by the prospect (the possibility of future
    success) that their panic could have residual
    effects on themselves and their families.
  • As depicted in these six themes, panic permeated
    (pass through) all aspects of a mothers life as
    she struggled to fulfill her maternal role.

29
  • Analysis of Focus Group Data
  • Focus group interviews yield rich and complex
    data that pose special analytic challenges.
  • Indeed, there is little consensus about the
    analysis of focusgroup data, despite its use by
    researchers in several qualitative research
    traditions.

30
  • Unlike data from individual interviews, focus
    group interviews are very difficult to
    transcribe, partly because there are often
    technical problems. For example, it is difficult
    to place microphones so that the voices of all
    group members are picked up with equal clarity,
    particularly because participants tend to speak
    at different volumes.
  • An additional issue is that, because of the group
    situation, it is inevitable that several
    participants will speak at once, making it
    impossible for transcriptionists to discern
    everything being said.

31
  • A major controversy in the analysis of focus
    group data is whether the unit of analysis is the
    group or individual participants.
  • Some writers (e.g., Morrison-Beedy,
    Côté-Arsenault, and Feinstein, 2001) maintain
    that the group is the proper unit of analysis.
  • Analysis of group-level data involves a scrutiny
    (A close, careful examination or study) of
    themes, interactions, and sequences within and
    between groups.
  • Others, however (e.g., Carey and Smith, 1994
    Kidd and Parshall, 2000), argue that analysis
    should occur at both the group level and the
    individual level.

32
  • Those who insist that only group-level analysis
    is appropriate argue that what individuals say in
    focus groups cannot be treated as personal
    disclosures because they are inevitably
    influenced by the dynamics of the group.
  • However, even in personal interviews individual
    responses are shaped by social processes, and
    analysis of individual-level data (independent of
    group) is thought by some analysts to add
    important insights.
  • Carey and Smith (1994) advocate a third level of
    analysisnamely, the analysis of individual
    responses in relation to group context (e.g., is
    a participants view in accord with or in
    contrast to majority opinion, and how does that
    get expressedor suppressed?).

33
  • For those who wish to analyze data from
    individual participants, it is essential to
    maintain information about what each person
    saida task that is impossible to do if
    researchers are relying solely on audiotapes.
    Videotapes, as supplements to audiotapes, are
    sometimes used to identify who said what in focus
    group sessions. More frequently, however,
    researchers have several members of the research
    team in attendance at the sessions, whose job it
    is to take detailed field notes about the order
    of speakers and about significant nonverbal
    behavior, such as pounding (A heavy blow) or
    clenching of fists, crying, aggressive body
    language, and so on.

34
  • Many focus group researchers agree, regardless of
    their position on the unit of analysis, on the
    benefit of certain methods of enhancing data
    quality and analytic rigor (Strictness or
    severity, as in temperament, action, or
    judgment).
  • First, it is usually recommended that member
    checking occur in situ (in the original or
    natural place or site) . That is, moderators
    develop a summary of major themes or viewpoints
    in real time, and present that summary to focus
    group participants at the end of the session for
    their feedback.

35
  • Especially rich data often emerge from
    participants reactions to those summaries.
  • Second, postsession debriefings are critical.
  • Team members who were present during the session
    meet immediately afterward to discuss issues and
    themes that arose.

36
  • During these debriefings, which should be tape
    recorded, team members also share their views
    about group dynamics, such as coercive (having
    great power or force or potency or effect) group
    members, censoring (To examine ) of controversial
    opinions, individual conformity to group
    viewpoints, and discrepancies between verbal and
    nonverbal behavior.

37
  • Transcription quality is especially important in
    focus group interviews Emotional content as well
    as words must be faithfully recorded because
    participants are responding not only to the
    questions being posed (To assume or hold a
    particular position or posture) but also to the
    experience of being in a group.
  • Field notes, debriefing notes (report of a
    mission or task), and verbatim transcripts
    ideally must be integrated to yield a more
    comprehensive transcript for analysis.

38
  • Example of integrating focus group data
  • Morrison-Beedy and her co-authors (2001) provided
    several examples of integrating data across
    sources from their own focus group research.
  • For example, one verbatim quote was, It was no
    big deal. This was supplemented with data from
    the field notes that the womans eyes were cast
    downward as she said this, and that the words
    were delivered sarcastically (ironic ).

39
  • The complete transcript for this entry, which
    includes researcher interpretation in brackets,
    was as follows
  • It was no big deal. (said sarcastically, with
    eyes looking downward). It really was a very big
    deal to her, but others had not acknowledged
    that.

40
  • Because of group dynamics, focus group analysts
    must be sensitive to both the thematic content of
    these interviews, and also to how, when, and why
    themes are developed.
  • Some of the issues that could be central to focus
    group analysis are the following

41
  • Does an issue raised in a focus group constitute
    a theme or merely a strongly held viewpoint of
    one or two members?
  • Do the same issues or themes arise in more than
    one group?
  • If there are group differences, why might this be
    the casewere participants different in
    background characteristics and experiences, or
    did group processes affect the discussions?

42
  • Are some issues sufficiently salient (having a
    quality that thrusts itself into attention) that
    they are discussed not only in direct response to
    specific questions posed by the moderator, but
    also spontaneously emerge at multiple points in
    the session?
  • Do group members find certain issues both
    interesting and important?

43
  • Some focus group analysts, such as Kidd and
    Parshall (2000), use quantitative methods as
    adjuncts (Added or connected in a subordinate or
    auxiliary capacity) to their qualitative
    analysis.
  • Using NUDIST they conduct such analyses as
    assessing similarities and differences between
    groups, determining coding frequencies to aid
    pattern detection, examining codes in relation to
    participant characteristics, and examining how
    much individual members contributed.

44
  • They use such methods not so that interpretation
    can be based on frequencies, but so that they can
    better understand context and identify issues
    that require further critical scrutiny and
    interpretation.
  • Focus group data are sometimes analyzed according
    to the procedures of a formal research tradition,
    such as grounded theory.
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