In phenomenological research, the lived experiences of the audience are studied to gain a deeper understanding of the way humans think. So, phenomenological research is a type of qualitative research that is based on the assumption that the spirit of anything depends upon how the audience experiences it. Here, the everyday experiences of human beings are investigated. These experiences encompass the beliefs, feelings, and perceptions of humans about phenomena. Only their views matter, while placing the researcher’s personal perceptions aside. Consequently, there is in-depth investigation in phenomenological research rather than broad investigation in quantitative research.
Types of phenomenological research
This discussion highlights two approaches to phenomenology.
1. Hermeneutic phenomenology
This style of phenomenology focuses on lived experiences and the interpretation of life’s text. This research involves a dynamic interplay of scientific efforts. First, the phenomenon of interest is chosen by the researchers. After that, they ponder key themes that define the essence of life experiences. Then, they write a description of the phenomenon. After that, they interpret the meaning of their experiences.
2. Empirical, transcendental or psychological phenomenology
Phenomenology is more focused on the description of the lived experiences of the participants. Additionally, they focus on “bracketing,” which means that the researchers set aside their personal experiences as much as possible and take a fresh perspective on the phenomenon under investigation.
Secondly, the technique of transcendental phenomenology identifies the phenomenon, brackets out one’s own experiences, and collects information from multiple people who have encountered the phenomenon. The researcher then analyzes the data and distills it down to themes. Lastly, a textual description of the person’s experiences, a structural description of their experiences, and a combination of both are developed by the researcher to convey the overall spirit of the experience.
Steps to conduct phenomenological research
The researcher needs to follow the underlying steps.
1. Identifying the issue
The optimum problem for this form of research is one in which the common experiences of individuals are understood.
2. A studyable phenomenon is identified, such as fury, professionalism, what it means to be underweight, or what it means to be a wrestler.
3. In this step, the broad philosophical assumptions of interpretive phenomenology are recognized by the researcher. Hence, it is important to bracket out oneself for a description of the views of participants about a phenomenon.
4. Data is collected from the people who have experienced that phenomenon. Furthermore, the data collection takes place through in-depth interviews and multiple interviews with the participants. Additionally, observations can also be used to collect data. Similarly, taped conversations and formally written answers to the questions are also used for data collection in this interpretive phenomenology.
5. Lastly, two broad questions are asked of the respondents, followed by open-ended questions. These two broad questions are important for the textual description and the structural description of the experiences.
6. Data analysis
The researchers check the data and identify the sentences that provide an understanding of how participants experience the phenomenon. This process is called horizonalization. After that, researchers then create meaning clusters from these significant sentences into themes.
7. The use of these statements and themes enables the researchers to write the participants’ descriptions in the form of textual descriptions. Textual descriptions are used to write a description of the circumstances that influenced how the phenomenon was seen by the participants. This is referred to as creative variation or structural description.
8. Last, researchers employ these textual and structural descriptions to create a composite description of the phenomenon known as essential invariant structure.
Purpose of phenomenological research
Obtaining an insight into the feelings of the audience about the topic of the study is the basic aim of phenomenological research. In this interpretive phenomenology, reality is represented by the viewpoints of the audience. Thus, their viewpoints enable the researcher to form conclusions regarding a phenomenon. These conclusions may complement or deny the researcher’s previous viewpoint about a phenomenon.
In this interpretive phenomenology, the researcher assumes that a universal principle is used by people to make sense of their experiences. In this interpretative phenomenological analysis, the participants’ feelings, perceptions, and beliefs are interpreted for clarification of the spirit of the phenomenon under investigation. But the researchers’ own feelings are bracketed.
 Characteristics of phenomenological research
- The researcher is required to describe the lived experiences of the audience and then reflect on those experiences in their own words in light of theories.
- The other characteristic of phenomenological research is that it is descriptive in nature. The researcher tries to accurately describe the phenomenon. In interpretative phenomenological analysis, the researcher describes what the phenomenon means for a particular group of people.
- Lastly, the researcher aims to describe what people think about certain phenomena, he or she is required to set aside his or her prejudices about the phenomenon.
Data collection methods in phenomenological research
The following data collection methods are used in phenomenological research: They are Participant observation, interviews, conversations with participants, analysis of personal text, Action research, and focus meetings.
Advantages of phenomenological research
The following are the advantages of the phenomenological research method:
- First, the lived experiences of humans are investigated in this type of interpretative phenomenological analysis.
- Second, this research is used to broaden knowledge regarding certain phenomena.
- This research provides an understanding of a single phenomenon.
- Rich data is available for the researchers about a certain phenomenon.
- This type of research helps in the development of new theories.
- Last, due to the use of bracketing, original data is available for the concerned people.
Disadvantages of phenomenological research
- First, the biased attitude of the researcher may affect the results of the interpretative phenomenological analysis.
- Establishment of validity and reliability may be difficult in this research approach.
- Pure bracketing can become a challenge for the researcher.
- Expression of the views of the participants may become difficult due to many factors, such as lack of rapport, etc.
- Data analysis in phenomenological research may be time-consuming.