DISS hermeneutic phenomenology

• Hermeneutic phenomenology (simplified)


  The study of lived experiences by interpreting them through language
• Phenomenology


  • The study of experiences
  • Aims to understand the complexity of lived experiences
  • Reality is not separate from our own perception and interpretation of it (subjectivity)
  • Contrasts with the scientific method which considers reality as objective
• Hermeneutics


  • The study of interpretation
  • Seeks to understand what texts are not saying, which are open to interpretation
  • Allows meanings to be disclosed in the experiences and thoughts found in the person's consciousness and interpreting them through language
  • Involves a hermeneutic cycle of reading, interpreting, and reading again to gain more meaning
• Phenomenology is different from the natural sciences because the natural sciences attempt to find concrete laws that govern reality wherein the person is just another object in nature
• Phenomenology is not only a tool or a research method but an entirely different way of approaching knowledge
• The same hermeneutic movement is found in the scientific process: gathering information, formulating methodology, designing data collection, making sense of data, and discussing new findings in relation to previous literature
• Hermeneutic cycle


  More and more meaning is made as more repetitions in the cycle occur
• Hermeneutic movement in the scientific process

  1. Gather information to create a review of related literature

  2. Formulate a methodology from what we have learned

  3. Design a methodology for gathering data

  4. Make sense of the data

  5. Discuss our new findings in relation to the previous related literature we have reviewed before
• Hermeneutic phenomenology


  Takes a new approach in making sense of the social world by combining phenomenology and hermeneutics
• Applications of hermeneutic phenomenology

  • Psychology as a method for qualitative research
  • Education research
  • Sociology
• Hermeneutic phenomenological method


  • Removal of preconceptions
  • Collecting lived experiences
  • Reflecting on the experiences gathered
  • Writing and discussing the reflection of the lived experience
• Epoché


  The elimination of everything that limits us from perceiving things without any presuppositions
• Anecdotes


  Help researchers look for the relationship between living and thinking, the situation in memory, and the reflection taking place
• Interviews and observation in phenomenology

  Gather the subject's experience of the object or phenomenon being studied
• Hermeneutic reflection


  Requires a rigorous reflective and analytic process to grasp the meaning of the phenomenon being studied
• Themes


  Overarching themes determined by reflecting on salient points from the subject's anecdotes and interviews
• Writing the fourth phase

  Unify the themes gathered from the hermeneutic and phenomenological method to provide a rich and in-depth description of the individuals' lived experiences through language
• Hermeneutics


  The study of interpretation
• Phenomenology


  The study of experiences
• Hermeneutic phenomenology


  The study of lived experiences by interpreting them through language
• Hermeneutic phenomenology


  • Veers away from the natural sciences by studying human subjectivity, which is the state of belonging to reality as perceived rather than independent of the human mind
  • The natural sciences aim to find laws that govern the objects in the world, but hermeneutic phenomenology aims to explain experiences by studying our relationship with them
• Disciplines where hermeneutic phenomenology can be applied

  • Social sciences
  • Psychology
  • Sociology
  • Pedagogy (the practice of teaching)
• Phases of the hermeneutic phenomenological method

  • First Phase: Removal of Preconceptions
  • Second Phase: Collecting Lived Experiences
  • Third Phase: Reflecting on the Experiences Gathered
  • Fourth Phase: Writing and Discussing the Reflection of the Lived Experience
• The phenomenological approach is different from the natural sciences.
• Hans-Georg Gadamer argued that meaning can only be made by interpreting texts.
• In the first phase of the hermeneutic phenomenological method, preconceptions are removed.
• Collecting lived experiences involves anecdotes, which are written accounts of people's experiences.
• The synthesis in the fourth phase must make the reader experience a form of epiphany.
• Phenomenon to analyze


  1. Removal of Preconceptions

  2. Collecting of Lived Experiences

  3. Themes Gathered

  4. Reflecting on the Lived Experience