The changing character of phenomenological psychology.

Abstract

The methodologies of Husserlian and contemporary phenomenological psychology are compared. The Husscrlian project was an a priori, descriptive, intuitive inquiiy into the universal, necessary structures of intentional phenomena. Contemporary phenomenological psychology, examined here through a review of contemporary psychological articles and methodological sources, includes four types of methods: empirical, hermencutic, traditional and experimental. Phenomenological psychology continues to attempt to describe the essences of experiences. However, in contrast to the Husserlian phase, the current stage of the movement is characterized by the inclusion of the experience of a group of subjects in addition to that of the researcher, the use of hermeneulic rather than descriptive methods, existentialism as an interpretive guide, and the use of empirical as well as a priori evidence for the gcneralizability of descriptions. Kssentialism as a central tenet of phenomenological psychology is criticized in light of anthropological evidence.

Rogers and Heidegger: Is a gathering for a new view of the self possible?

“…With regard to this, we have stated our opinion, in agreement with Pagès, that Rogers is a phenomenologist. Unfortunately, this question cannot be addressed in depth in this paper, but it has been addressed by other scholars in the field (Klein & Westcott, 1994;McDonald & Wearing, 2013).…”

The Researcher as Experimental Subject: Using Self-Experimentation to Access Experiences, Understand Social Phenomena, and Stimulate Reflexivity

“…Phenomenological psychology, for instance, lived for many decades far outside mainstream psychology producing Husserlian self-studies on the nature of experiential phenomena, yet has in the last decade attracted increased attention and elicited loud debate concerning whether an objective approach to understanding the mind can (and should) involve first-person research (for discussions on the historical trajectory of 20 th century phenomenological psychology, see Giorgi, 1998;Klein & Westcott, 1994). Some proponents vigorously defend the practice and legitimacy of autophenomenology (e.g., Marbach, 2007;Varela & Shear, 1999) in contrast to others who advocate a more guarded approach that seeks to verify first-person experience via third-person data (Dennett's heterophenomenology; Dennett, 2007), while others point out that variants of introspective reports (e.g., self-report questionnaires) are ubiquitous throughout psychology as it is, and that the domains of emotion, attitude, memory, and developmental research attest to this fact (Wilson, 2003).…”

A Phenomenological Investigation of the Role of Guilt in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

“…Moustakas (1988) states that the task of this phase is in " .. (Colaizzi, 1978). Others, however (e.g., Klein & Westcott, 1994;Osborne, 1994), have suggested that the stability of universal referents may vary as a function of cultural and social differences, and that claims of "universality" must be carefully supported, or deliberately avoided. In my case, while I did engage in the eidetic process, this phase did not yield any new understandings beyond those already captured in the core themes.…”