Abstract
The author suggests that phenomenological methodology differs from traditional methodologies both in purpose and procedure. The task of a phenomenological researcher is to “see” the logic or meaning of an experience, for any subject, rather than to discover causal connections or patterns of correlation. The nature of the task demands extensive study of a small sample, allowing the subjects to speak for themselves and to reveal the logic of their experience as lived. The author reviews verification procedures relevant to phenomenological studies and discusses the limitations inherent in phenomenological research.
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References
Some particularly interesting studies done at Duquesne University are collected in Giorgi, A.; Fisher, W. F.; and Von Eckartsberg, R., eds.,Duquesne Studies in Phenomenological Psychology, vol. 1. Pittsburgh, Duquesne University Press, 1971.
Husserl, E.,Ideas: General Introduction to Pure Phenomenology, W. R. B. Gibson, trans. New York, Collier Books, 1962.
One of the best explications of the text can be found in Kohàk, B.,Idea and Experience. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1978.
See, for example, Schutz, A.,The Phenomenology of the Social World, G. Walsh and F. Lehnert, trans. Evanston, Illinois, Northwestern University Press, 1967; Gurwitsch, A.,Studies in Phenomenology and Psychology. Evanston, Illinois, Northwestern University Press, 1966; and Merleau-Ponty, M.,Phenomenology of Perception, C. Smith, trans. New York, Humanities Press, 1962.
Husserl,Ideas, op. cit. W. R. B. Gibson, trans., §1–3.
The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology, D. Carr, trans. Evanston, Illinois, Northwestern University Press, 1970, §7.
Husserl,Ideas, Op. cit. W. R. B. Gibson, trans., §2.
Ibid., §31–32.
Minkowski, E., “Findings in a Case of Schizophrenic Depression,” B. Bliss, trans. In May, R.; Angel, E.; and Ellenberger, H. F., eds.,Existence: A New Dimension in Psychiatry and Psychology. New York, Basic Books, 1958.
Spradley, J. P.,Participant Observation. New York, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1979.
Ibid, p. 14.
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Dukes, S. Phenomenological methodology in the human sciences. J Relig Health 23, 197–203 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00990785
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00990785