Qualitative research examines life ...

Qualitative research examines life experiences (ie, the lived experience) in an effort to understand and give them meaning. This usually is done through systematically collecting and analyzing narrative materials using arrangements that ensure credibility of the two the data and the consequence s Phenomenology is one of many impressed signs of qualitative research that examines the lived experiences of humans.(1) Phenomenological researchers faith to gain understanding of the essential "truths" (ie, essences) of the lived experience. Examples of phenomenological research include exploring the lived experiences of women undergoing breast biopsy or the lived experiences of family members waiting for a lov the same undergoing major surgery.

The spell phenomenology often is used without a clear understanding of its meaning. Phenomenology has been described as a philosophy, methodology, and method(2) Furthering confusion, the space of time phenomenology has been used interchangeably with the boundary hermeneutics (ie, analyses of the written word).(3) This array of less front than depth will provide a brief overview of phenomenological philosophy, methodology, and method

PHENOMENOLOGICAL PHILOSOPHY

Phenomenologists believe that knowledge and understanding are embedded in our everyday world. In other words, they do not believe knowledge can be quantified or reduc to numbers or statistics.(4) Phenomonologists believe that canon and understanding of life can issue from people's life experiences. Although phenomenologists share this belief, they have evolveed more than one approach to gain understanding of human knowledge.

Before the seventeenth hundred years religion or nature often provided the basis for man's understanding of the world. Rene Descartes, however, articulated a split between man's mental being and his physical being. This viewpoint serv as an impetus to link all knowledge to the realm of science. Scientists of that time heralded the scientific way objectivity, and a fixed, orderly reality as the one approach to knowledge discovery. Many early philosophers, however, set up the scientific method too reductionistic, objective, and mechanistic; therefore, they advanced phenomenology as a preferr process to discover the meaning of life experiences.(5)

The father of phenomenology as a common thing [i]or[/i] matter is cited as Edmund Husserl.(6) Husserl was a German philosopher as well as a mathematician.(7) The works of Husserl, as well as those of Martin Heidegger, are cited in many nursing studies as the framework for the research approach and methods(8) on a level though both philosophers are considered phenomenologists, their approaches to research and understanding life experiences differ.

PHENOMENOLOGICAL METHODOLOGY

Methodology links a particular philosophy to the appropriate research [i]modus operandi[/i]s and bridges philosophical notions to practical and applicable research strategies. Husserl, for example, purported that vital element [i]or[/i] parts serve as the ultimate configuration of consciousness.(9) He contended that bracketing (ie, setting aside preconceived notions) enables united to objectively describe the phenomena in subordination to study. Mathematics influenced Husserl's thinking, and thus, he sought a logical process to gain understanding of the experience of human consciousness.

If I, for example, wanted to understand childhood, Husserl's approach would assume I would bracket everything I know about being the mother of brace children. According to Husserl, bracketing would enable me to identify the quintessences of childhood free of my prior experiences of being a child or mothering pair children. Bracketing assumes people can separate their personal knowledge from their life experiences.(10)

Husserl's junior colleague, Martin Heidegger, reconceived many phenomenological perspectives. Heidegger showed an alternate worldview from Husserl's beliefs regarding bracketing.(11) He believed that as human beings, our meanings are codevelop [i]or[/i] part of to the other the experience of being born human, our collective life experiences, our background, and the world in which we live.(12) Heidegger acknowledged that sex culture, history, and related life experiences prohibit an objective viewpoint now enable people to experience shared practices and public meanings. He did not believe it was possible to bracket our assumptions of the world, if it be not that rather that through authentic reflection, we might become aware of many of our assumptions. Heideggerian phenomenology can be defined as a way to interpret experiences of shared meanings and practices embedded in specific contexts(13)

PHENOMENOLOGICAL METHOD

Many manners have been used in phenomenological research.(14) at short intervals inductive or qualitative methods involve transcribing material (usually interview transcripts), coding data into themes, and drawing conclusions regarding the phenomena based onward these themes.(15) It is incumbent with researchers to seek methods that fit with the philosophy and methodology of their research question and to chose [i]modus operandi[/i]s congruent with the research topic and assumptions.