Among a variety of qualitative research designs and methods, phenomenology is recognized as the one, focusing on the meaning of human experiences through new insights being developed. Edmund Husserl was a pioneer in using phenomenological methods and removing subjectivity blocks to study conscious experiences (Levitt, 2016). With time, phenomenology was introduced as a philosophy, an approach, and a research method in such fields as education, nursing, and psychology (Katsirikou & Lin, 2017).
Its main features include the description of meanings in human experiences, the evaluation of subjectivity and consciousness, and the investigation of coexistence between a person and a group of people. Katsirikou and Lin (2017) underline that humanitarian and intellectual goals are usually set in phenomenological studies. For example, Suryani, Allenidekania, and Rachmawati (2018) use phenomenology to identify and understand the level of comfort children could experience at the end of life. Decision-making preferences, teaching practices in online learning communities are also suitable research topics for this design.
As well as other qualitative and quantitative research methods, phenomenology is characterized by specific data collection and analysis techniques. In qualitative studies, the goal is to interpret what has been observed, which may be a challenging task for novice researchers (Newman, 2016). To be applied in phenomenological methods, qualitative data can be obtained from interviews, diaries, or participant observations. As soon as a phenomenon is identified, and enough information is gathered, it is necessary to analyze data.
Interviews have to be transcribed to divide the material into meaningful sections. The phenomenological analysis aims to examine the correlation between an object and an experience itself (Katsirikou & Lin, 2017). Open coding or the Colaizzi method can be used to reveal the required themes and define a variety of relationships between variables (Suryani et al., 2018). The benefit of phenomenology is the possibility of its combination with other methods, either qualitative or quantitative.
References
Katsirikou, A., & Lin, C. S. (2017). Revealing the “essence” of things: Using phenomenology in LIS research. Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Libraries, 2(4), 469-478.
Levitt, H. M. (2016). Chapter 12: Qualitative methods. In J. C. Norcross, G. R. VandenBos, D. K. Freedheim & B. O. Olatunji (Eds.), APA handbook of clinical psychology: Theory and research (Vol. 1) (pp. 335-348). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Web.
Newman, M. (2016). Research methods in psychology (2nd ed.). San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education.
Suryani, R. L., Allenidekania, A., & Rachmawati, I. N. (2018). Phenomenology study on nurses’ experiences in understanding the comfort of children at the end-of-life. Indian Journal of Palliative Care, 24(2), 162-166.