week 12

Phenomenology

I must admit that when I heard the word phenomenology I was a bit apprehensive
about the topic. I believed phenomenology was definitely not for me. I thought I was not prepared
for conducting such studies and I did not see alink with my track and phenomenology either.
after reading the suggested text for class I was less apprehensive, yet did not quite understand the
concept very well.

After discussion in class I totally changed my mind about phenomenology.
It does not seem threatening to me anymore.l In fact, I like the approach
of studying experiences. In fact, I feel very attracte dto this kind of study now.

It is interesting to study an experience as it was lived through.
But, it is hard to have your interviewe try to describe the experience as it
was without adding personal analisys of the situation.

The idea of conducting interviews and searching for data that is usable seems
exciting to me and more human than the types of study where charts, graphs and
numbers are involved. I enjoy a more philosophycal aporach to research.
In part it seems more pshychological as well, for it focuses on the understanding of
an experience.

I wondered whether phenomenology is based on behavioral issues only and I guess
in part it is since when describing and experience you are talking about behavior.

I also thouoght about ethmography wen discussing phenomenology and found out that
the difference lies on the purpose of the study. Phenomenology is focused on the experience
as lived while ethnographic studies can be more holistic.

A difficult aspect about conducting phenomenological studies is to focus on the experience
and not on the people. The people are important, for they are the one who describe what happened.
Yet, it is the "what happened- teh experience" that we are interested in.
So when conducting interviews, you have the responsability as as researcher to focus on the experience
and lead the person describing teh experience back to the issue in question when the ocnversation
leads to other aspects [which is bound to happen regularly since we are people talking about their experiences].

We want the description of the experience in a pre-reflective manner, therefore we must interview our participants
right after the experience.
I also asked myself if observing the experience would work better. It would mean less interruptions of stranding off.
Interviews are crucial for this type of sudy, rather than observation since the observer cannot understand what
the person is experiencing by mere observation.

Another aspect of phenomenology that I enjoy is the fact that it is honest in that it says that there is a problem or situation and yet even through study, we might never get to fully know what teh experience was. It leaves room for change, new research and findings. While some people migt find this a bit not reliable and without purpose, I believe it is more open and honest than other types of research.
I know you run the risk of having people play with you and not be totally honest about their experience. But most of the time they are honest and the best you can do is hope that they are honsetly contributing with the study.
Plus, we were told in class that as you become a more experienced researcher you may be able to recognize who
is being honest and who is not, therfore enabling you to separate usable data to the one that is not.