¶ … learning for you in considering these materials. What variations in research approach to your dissertation topic might be suggested by them? What encouragement, related reading, or other ideas can you suggest? "Experience" is a term increasingly bandied about in academic circles, partially in relation to the present interest in phenomenology among social scientists. Many attempts have been made to define the term over time, from a cultural studies and social anthropology standpoint. But, scholars usually bring up this subject without any description of what is really meant by it. Even those scholars who have, earlier, discussed this issue could not come to any consensus with regard to defining 'experience'. A focus on experience of a sensory nature raises the methodological question of how to comprehend others' experiences considering experience's complexity. It is not possible to peek into their mind or underneath their skin for thinking or feeling the way others do. Likewise, one cannot become another individual's eyes if one wishes to see things from their point-of-view. It is also not possible to follow others' mental processes from vague emotional or physical sensations to the reflection they may engage in. At best, one can feel the way others do via one's limited personal ability of empathizing with their experiences. In view of the above unavoidable limitations, one task would...

Scholars have mentioned diverse kinds of experiences which may be studied using a variety of techniques. Some techniques such as questionnaires and interviewing display increased likelihood to disclose the clear reflective processes capable of granting a clear form and coherence to experience. Meanwhile, other techniques such as carefully observing day-to-day interactions and videotaping are capable of capturing the usually pre-reflective, actual progressing of social conduct. On a broad level, I am in agreement with the above distinction, but drawing from participatory and joint visual anthropological research tradition, I would divide the techniques and adopt a somewhat divergent approach. The first subdivision comprises of techniques which urge individuals to ponder over, and subsequently define, what they experienced to researchers. The other subdivision is composed of techniques which offer research scholars a chance to have a similar experience and apply the sensory-embodied information they possess as the base from which assumptions are made about others' experiences. As a large part of human communication utilizes images, use of visuals by cultural researchers for learning about and representing the experiences of other individuals is an appropriate approach (Pink, 2008).
The mixed methods study design developed into a novel research model, and is widely believed to be one of the consequences of the qualitative/quantitative model wars. From the fifties to mid-seventies, the quantitative positivist model was prevalent. During the mid-seventies, the…