An introduction to Moustakas’s heuristic method

Kenny, Gerard

doi:10.7748/nr2012.04.19.3.6.c9052

Cited by 28 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…In the incubation phase, I discovered after seeing the gap in the detachment literature that I could find out more via a meaningful detachment; yet how often is painful, stress related rumination a feature in the suffering or stressed worker? This choice gives impetus to what Kenny (2012) calls the 'retreating from intense and focused attention on the question or data to engage in activities that are unrelated to research' (p. 8). This leads me to ask: do I or how do I retreat from the intensity of the issue?…”

Section: Immersion and Incubationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ‘tapestry’ of bricolage: Extending interdisciplinary approaches to psycho-spiritual self-care research

Devenish-Meares

2020

Methodological Innovations

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Interdisciplinary psycho-spiritual research into workplace stress and self-care is scant noting the fact that negative self-talk and harsh self-judgement stymie the search for inner meaning and self-care. To address this, this article uses an intuitive and reflection-oriented methodology to research self-care choices for the stressed and suffering worker. In particular, it breaks new ground because no workplace-based applied psycho-spiritual research uses bricolage, let alone the heuristic inquiry process which gives expression to it. Bricolage is a tapestry of ideas, themes and possibilities cobbled together to produce creative outcomes. It adapts and co-opts whatever information from whichever discipline that is necessary. This approach appears well suited to the subjective, intuitive nature of workplace stress and suffering and especially where interdisciplinary approaches to self-care are warranted. The heuristic inquiry process which is used for the first time for workplace self-care works intentionally with interior resources that may be unknown or fragmented and dialogues sensitively with inner ‘rules’ or patterns that may have become problematic. Incubation and reflective illumination produce tacit knowledge to augment healing intuition. This process is illustrated by an example. It is about a less intense focus that actively encourages tender, ‘standing apart’ from symptoms so as to allow perspectives to arise and the intuiting of transformative possibilities. From this, self-compassion, humility and meaningful detachment are re-affirmed as ways to pay self-kindly attention and address self-criticism and self-blame. The contribution of the study is threefold. First, it extends bricolage to workplace self-care by considering inner resistance and negative self-talk, both barriers to self-care. Second, it affirms the heuristic inquiry process as an intuitive method for self-care research. Third, and paradoxically, it shows that self-engagement, in a compassionate yet less intense way, can lead to self-care transformation. Finally, limitations to the study and possibilities for future research are discussed.

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Section: Immersion and Incubationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ‘tapestry’ of bricolage: Extending interdisciplinary approaches to psycho-spiritual self-care research

Devenish-Meares

2020

Methodological Innovations

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“…Choosing the theme is the first phase of a heuristic research design, called Initial Engagement. Moustakas believes that the first impulse must be profoundly rooted in the researcher's life (Kenny, 2012), one that is motivated by a strong desire to know the phenomenon to find an issue of personal significance that begins, preferably, with a personal experience. "The awakening of such a question comes through an inward clearing and an intentional readiness and determination to discover a fundamental truth regarding the meaning and essence of one's own experience and that of others" (Moustakas, 2001, p.265).…”

Section: The Experience Of Singing: An Example Of Heuristic Investigamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Heuristic investigations have been conducted by researchers in various countries and areas such as clinical psychology, education, anthropology, sociology, and medicine (Blau, Bach, Scott, & Rubin, 2013), as well as in counseling, art therapy and psychotherapy (Kenny, 2012). The Handbook of Humanistic Psychology: Leading edges in theory, research, and practice, describes pioneer methodologies that challenge "the hegemony of the natural science approach in psychology" (Schneider, Bugental, & Pierson, 2001, p.241).…”

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confidence: 99%

Researcher experience as an instrument of investigation of a phenomenon: An example of heuristic research

Brisola

Cury

2016

Estud. psicol. (Campinas)

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Heuristic investigation, one of the lesser-known qualitative research methods in Brazil, is presented as a phenomenological research design in an empirical study investigating the experience of singing. This article describes the six phases of the heuristic method: initial engagement, immersion, incubation, illumination, explication, and creative synthesis. The method was developed by Clark Moustakas (1923-2012), an American clinical psychologist who, together with other renowned scholars such as Carl R. Rogers and Abraham H. Maslow, also contributed to the birth of Humanistic Psychology. The heuristic inquiry is a unique method in which the lived experience of the researcher becomes the main focus of the study, and it is used as an instrument in the process of understanding a given phenomenon. This method recognizes the importance of intuition and tacit knowledge as elements that enable comprehending a phenomenon and its meanings.

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“…It has its origins in the phenomenological tradition, but goes fur ther as the researcher's experiences of the phenomenon are integral to the research. Kenny (2012) asserted that heuristic inquiry is a qualitative research method that has received little attention in nursing research, but should be used because it enables the researcher to uncover and acknowledge the researchers' and participants' personal exp eriences and validate self-knowledge. Heuristic means enabling people to discover or learn something for themselves (Moustakas 1990), and heuristic inquiry demands that researchers explore and analyse their own experiences to better understand the experiences of others.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing distributed leadership for learning and teaching quality: a multi-institutional study

Carbone

Evans

Ross

et al. 2017

Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management

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Distributed leadership has been explored internationally as a leadership model that will promote and advance excellence in learning and teaching in higher education. This paper presents an assessment of how effectively distributed leadership was enabled at five Australian institutions implementing a collaborative teaching quality development scheme called the Peer Assisted Teaching Scheme. The Scheme brings together expertise from teams of academics, coordinators, and institutional learning and teaching portfolio holders to the shared goal of enhancing learning and teaching quality. A distributed leadership benchmarking tool was used to assess the Scheme’s effectiveness, and we found that (i) the Scheme is highly consistent with the distributed leadership benchmarks, and that (ii) the benchmarking tool is easily used in assessing the alignment (or otherwise) of teaching and learning quality initiatives with distributed leadership benchmarks. This paper will be of interest to those seeking to assess implementations of distributed leadership to improve teaching quality and leadership capacity

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An introduction to Moustakas’s heuristic method

Abstract: Post Grad Dip, RN [Child], RGN, is a senior lecturer at the University of the West of England, Bristol UK Peer review This article has been subject to double-blind review and has been checked using antiplagiarism software Author guidelines www.nurseresearcher.co.uk

Cited by 28 publications

References 17 publications

The ‘tapestry’ of bricolage: Extending interdisciplinary approaches to psycho-spiritual self-care research

The ‘tapestry’ of bricolage: Extending interdisciplinary approaches to psycho-spiritual self-care research

Researcher experience as an instrument of investigation of a phenomenon: An example of heuristic research

Assessing distributed leadership for learning and teaching quality: a multi-institutional study

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