Reflective & Empirical Methods

1. Reflective & Empirical Methods Norm Friesen March, 2006

2. Reflective & Empirical Methods • Reflection: thinking about the question and the phenomenon in a way that opens up its various aspects and dimensions. • Empirical: sources of vicarious experience (from: Max van Manen, www.phenomenologyonline.com)

3. Reflective & Empirical • Reflective: • Thematic, Guided Existential, Collaborative, Linguistic, Exegetical, Hermeneutic Interview • Empirical: • Describing, Gathering, Interviewing, Observing, Fictional, Imaginal(from: Max van Manen, www.phenomenologyonline.com)

4. Thematic Reflection Themes: • the constellations that make up the universes of meaning we live through. By the patterns and light of these themes we can navigate and explore such universes. • Themes are heuristic. They are means "to get at" the phenomenon we are addressing.(from: Max van Manen, www.phenomenologyonline.com)

5. Reflection: Guided Existential • Lived Time: speeds up, slows down; e.g. of bank machine experience • Lived Space: we are the space we’re in; e.g. of different architectural spaces • Lived Body: Body as anchorage, way of being, as “object” of observation • Lived Relation: relational “distance,” atmosphere, intensity, disconnection(from: Max van Manen, www.phenomenologyonline.com)

6. Linguistic Reflection • Etymological: histories of words often have rich, life-world significances (experiential residue) • Conceptual: understanding differences in meaning in words & expressions. • E.g. “Dog” • (from: Max van Manen, www.phenomenologyonline.com)

7. Dog-eat dog, underdog, Top dog, bottom dog

8. lap dog teacher's pet

9. Cur, pariah, bitch, dogsbody "you dirty dog,” flea bag mongrel, mutt, gone to the dogs

10. Dog tired

11. Exegetical • critical, sensitive, and creative reading of related texts: • Prevailing theories and constructions as a “foil” for what you are searching for in phenomenological research • Prevailing theories and constructions can also point to phenomenological insights • Creative, Accidental, Serendipitious sources (video example)(from: Max van Manen, www.phenomenologyonline.com)

12. Other forms of Reflection • Collaborative: as in this session, with others working together • Insight-cultivating: from philosophy and other sources(from: Max van Manen, www.phenomenologyonline.com)

13. Phenomenological Interview • an interpretive conversation wherein both partners reflectively orient themselves to the interpersonal or collective ground that brings the significance of the phenomenological question into view • Keep the question open(from: Max van Manen, www.phenomenologyonline.com)

14. Phenomenological Interview • Not structured; can list general questions or beginning script • Close to the phenomenon, if possible • Ask for reminiscences & speculation • Steer away from explanation • ASK: “what did you feel” not “what did you think” • Comfortable location; follow-up interviews

15. Empirical Methods: Describing • start with your own experience • the patterns of meaning of one's own experiences are also the possible experiences of others, and therefore may be recognizable by others (from: Max van Manen, www.phenomenologyonline.com)

16. Gathering • Describe the experience as much as possible as you live(d) through it. • Describe the experience from the inside, as it were-almost like a state of mind • Focus on a particular example or incident of the object of experience • Try to focus on an example of the experience which stands out for its vividness, or as it was the first time(from: Max van Manen, www.phenomenologyonline.com)

17. Observing • Close and participatory observation • E.g. participate in the child’s world • Similar to the attitude of the author who is always on the look-out for stories to tell, incidents to remember(from: Max van Manen, www.phenomenologyonline.com)

18. Imaginal experiences • Non-discursive artistic material as transformed experience • E.g. experience of space in nature(from: Max van Manen, www.phenomenologyonline.com)