Phenomenological Analysis

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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).

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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.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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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.

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• 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

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• 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.

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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.
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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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. ??? ?? ???
  ????? ??? ??? ? ?? ???? ???? ??? ??? ????? ?????
  ????? ?????????? ???? ? ???? ???? ?? ??? ?????
  ??????? ? ????? ??????.???? ?? ????? ???????
  ??????? ? ??? ????? ????? ? ????? ? ????? ???????
  ???????? ?????? ???? ??? ??????.

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• 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).

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• 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.

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

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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
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• 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.

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• 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.

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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

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• 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.

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• 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

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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?).

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• 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 ).

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• 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.

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• 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

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• 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?

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• 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?

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• 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.

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• 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.