psychology phenomenology descriptive qualitative methods

Assignment 1 Phenomenological psychology focuses on the subjective experiences of individuals. The “founder” of phenomenology, Edmund Husserl presented a cohesive methodology and philosophical framework that laid the foundation for phenomenological psychology. One of the greatest challenges of phenomenological psychology is differentiating between the unique subjective experiences and perceptions of individuals and the need to discern an objective, shared reality.

Phenomenological psychology is almost easier to define by what it is not: it is not about using the scientific method to study human behavior, and it is not about studying personality or psychoses. Rather, phenomenological psychology is about understanding the nature of reality itself, through an evaluation of both individual and collective human psychological experience.

Husserl set forth principles for ontology in psychology as well as epistemology, which can be especially useful when studying the divergent experiences of those with psychotic disorders like schizophrenia, whose sense of reality is radically different from their peers and yet theoretically no less “real,” (Wertz, 2005). Besides Husserl, the primary contributors to the evolution of phenomenological psychology include Amadeo Giorgi, who clearly explicated the contributions of existential philosophy to phenomenological psychology, claiming that, “phenomenological thought is important for all aspects of psychology,” (p. 6).

Thus, phenomenological psychology intended to fuse the principles of existential philosophy and the need to search for deeper meanings in the human experience with the need for systematic, qualitative methods for the study of those experiences and psychic phenomena. A more humanistic direction was taken by Carl Rogers. Although known primarily for his contributions to humanistic psychology, Rogers also veered towards phenomenology as a method in some of his research on human relationships and the mutual construction of social meaning (Moreira, 2010).

There are tremendous benefits in the theoretical viewpoint of phenomenology, but its abstraction and lack of scientific methodologies make it limited in scope and application. References Giorgi, A. (1971). Duquesne Studies in Phenomenological Psychology. DOI: 10.5840/dspp197114 Moreira, V. (2010). From person-centered to humanistic-phenomenological psychotherapy. Peson-centered and experiential psychotherapies 11(1): 48-63. Scalambrino, F. (n.d.). Phenomenological psychology. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://www.iep.utm.edu/phen-psy/ Wertz, F.J. (2005). Phenomenological research methods for counseling psychology. Journal of Counseling Psychology 52(2): 167-177.

Assignment 2 Qualitative methods like those used in descriptive phenomenological psychology can provide empirical results. In fact, one of the aims of the descriptive phenomenological method is to locate a verifiable, empirical truth based on an analysis of data. As Broome (2011) puts it, descriptive phenomenology is “an alternative epistemology for human science research,” (p. 2).

Relying on the collection of subjective data from subjects, researchers have a unique way of knowing and insight into the human experience—both as it pertains to the individual construction of meaning and to the collective construction of identity and shared reality. However, the descriptive phenomenological method is different from other qualitative methods. The distinguishing feature of descriptive phenomenology is a total lack of presuppositions.

Rather than starting from a premise, hypothesis, or theoretical framework regarding what the researcher expects to find, descriptive phenomenology calls upon the researcher to encounter, collect, and assess the data on its own terms. Whether or not it is possible to be completely objective is another matter; the researcher must take care to embrace the complexity of human experience and acknowledge that “consciousness manifests very differently from physical phenomena,” (Giorgi, Giorgi & Morley, 2017, p. 177).

Whereas the quantitative methods of data collection and analysis are appropriate for measuring and calculating the physical phenomena—which can be quantifiable—the qualitative methods of data collection and analysis are uniquely suited for dealing with the less tangible, more nebulous, and yet equally as important and significant phenomena associated with perception and cognition. The descriptive phenomenological approach will seem.