A
PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF
THE
EXPERIENTIAL METHOD
Sunnie
D. Kidd
Table
of Contents
What
is Experiential Method
Description
of Application
Applying
the Experiential Method
Select
a Topic
Write
the Researcher’s Presuppositions
Developing
a Researcher’s Statement
Select
Participants
Collecting
Written or Verbal Descriptions
Experiential
Expressions
Questions
to Guide the Dialogue
Conducting
Interviews
Experiential
Expressions
Arriving
at Themes
Thematic
Amplification
Reflective
Synthesis
Postscript
Appendix
A
Appendix
B
Appendix
C
A
PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF
THE
EXPERIENTIAL METHOD
1. It is a research methodology designed
to examine experiences, phenomena and situations from a qualitative
perspective.
2. One of the major critiques of
qualitative research is that the projects are all over the place (meaning that
the research methodologies used lack the ability to focus on the specific
relevant aspects of the topic).
3. The Experiential Method is a way to
maintain a focal point of interest in qualitative research without wandering
aimlessly into areas that are not related to the topic.
4. It is especially helpful and effective
when attempting to investigate topics that do not easily lend themselves to
quantitative approaches (when one is not
trying to measure differences or to validate hypotheses or to establish rates
or regulate behaviors).
5. The Experiential Method is a structured
methodology not a loosely knit series of interviews.
6. Research findings emerge directly from what has been shared by and discussed with participants (clarified, refined and verified for accuracy) and then put into a wider, wholistic framework and put into dialogue with existing theory/research.
Description of
Application
1. Right and Wrong: Only one main problem:
Imposing your own interpretation on what is being shared by participants rather
than listening and hearing what participants are sharing.
Applying
the Experiential Method
Select a Topic
Write the Researcher’s Presuppositions
Developing a Research Statement
Select Participants (P)
Biographical Outline of P#1
(presentation in write up)
Written Description of P#1
Biographical Outline of P#2
(presentation in write up)
Written Description of P#2 (this
example is using only two participants)
Identification
of Experiential Expressions (EE’s)
Questions to
Guide the Dialogue for P#1
Questions to
Guide the Dialogue for P#2
Interview #1
with P#1 (transcription is included in
Appendices)
Interview #1
with P#2 (transcription is included in
Appendices)
Review EE’s to
ensure applicability for each Participant and revise as needed
Emerging
Themes (list EE’s for P#1 and P#2 beneath a common set of themes)
Listing of Themes
Thematic
Amplification (include selected EE’s and interview excerpts)
Reflective Synthesis (include a few
select EE’s and/or interview excerpts, dialogue with existing theory found in earlier
Literature Review)
Postscript (include reflection on
researcher’s presuppositions and suggestions for future research)
References
Appendices
(transcription of interviews)
Select
a Topic
1. For the small project select a topic
that is something everyone has experienced.
2. Select a topic of interest to you
(something you would like to know more about).
3. For larger research projects you should
select a topic that is:
• Relevant
to the field of interest
• Timely
(item of contemporary interest)
• Helpful
in terms of one’s own professional advancement
• Is of personal interest (because you will be dedicating a lot of time
and energy to it and if you are interested in it and like it, you will find it is easier to complete and will be done more quickly)
Write the
Researcher’s Presuppositions
1. Regardless of which topic you select to
research, you already know something about it. You may believe you know a lot
about it (or little), you may feel that you understand much about it (or
little) and you may already have had some experience with it (or perhaps not).
Either way, you do have thoughts, feelings, attitudes and beliefs about
something that is already known and to some extent, familiar.
2. These are called one’s
“presuppositions.”
3. Before beginning any part of your
research, find 30 minutes in a relaxed, quiet setting to sit down and write out
everything you already think you know and understand about your topic. Include
as much detail as possible and also include what you anticipate that the
findings of your study will reveal.
4. The researcher’s presuppositions are an
extremely important aspect of your study because they present any of your own
biases right up front. They will be placed at the beginning of your study so
that anyone who reads it will know what your own biases and/or beliefs were at
the time you conducted the work.
This also helps you as researcher,
be aware of your own thoughts and preferences while conducting the study.
Developing a
Research Statement
1. Composing the research statement (to
which participants will spontaneously write responses for about 30-45 minutes)
is extremely important, because it is your initial access point to the topic
and will elicit information that will serve as the foundation for the entire
study.
2. The research statement and the later questions
to guide the dialogue are aspects that center the focus of the study on what
you want to research. Examples of
research statements:
Please describe one of your most humorous experiences.
Please describe a situation in which
you felt uncomfortable.
Please
describe your experience of being creative as a spiritual practice.
Please describe your experience of
inspiration in work and life.
Select
Participants
1. Mini-project, brief description.
2. Depending on what you have already been
told, for a mini project you may want to select 2-3 participants.
3. Select participants who are readily
accessible to you who can find the time to provide you with written or verbal
descriptions.
Collecting
Verbal or Written Descriptions
1. Write out your research statement on a
blank piece of paper. Give it to participants (on individual basis) and ask
them to write spontaneously for 30 - 45 minutes in response to your statement.
2. Collect the written statements and
begin the review.
Experiential
Expressions
Questions to
Guide the Dialogue
1. After becoming familiar with the
written descriptions you will find that there are points that need
clarification, elaboration and more detail.
2. You will also find points in the
description which point to more implicit information, items which seem
important in marking a significant aspect of the topic of study or which if
elaborated will yield a clearer and deeper understanding.
3. Jot these items down as questions to
guide your interview. (mark the copy on the written description for easy
reference).
4. Some questions should be broad in
scope, others more specific. Asking participants to “tell me more about…” is a
way to solicit more information without imposing on the other.
This is not the “Oprah” or “Donahue”
type interview (not sensationalistic). But a learning experience. Leave things
open ended, bring it back into focus by returning to the questions to guide the
dialogue.
5. Develop your list of items to guide
your dialogue with your participants.
6. Take the written description, your list
of questions, tape recorder (and extra tape) with you to the interview.
Conducting
Interviews
1. For a mini-project do a 20 minute
interview for each participant.
2. For other research projects these are
an extremely important aspect of the study.
3. Arrange for 1-2 hour interview (there
will be follow up interviews).
4. Tape (to be transcribed)
• Familiarity
with recorder
• Inform
participants that their interviews will be recorded
• No
set # of interviews (depends on how much is learned)
• Quiet,
comfortable setting at participants’ convenience
5. Non-obtrusive.
6. The researcher should freely enter into
dialogue with participant but should the interview begin to wander, the
research brings it back into focus on the topic by returning to the questions
to guide the dialogue.
7. Remain flexible to explore items which come up during the discussion to follow any content which seems essential to the study; gain keep things open ended so the participant is not trying to second guess what you want to hear.
See Appendix A
for in-depth elucidation
1. We all learn to recognize preferred styles of expression in other people—both in writing in speech and even in the professional writing styles of writers.
• For example,
people that work closely
with other people— become acquainted with the styles of their
co-workers—to the point that they can identify them
• By
the end of the year, most teachers can pick out
a written piece
of work by
a student just
by reading it (without having to see the name of the
person). If you receive a letter from
a friend, you know who it is by having read it and can truly picture it in our
mind’s eye
• How
do we do that?
What makes a
style unique and identifiable? How do
you learn to identify another person’s “style?”
• Think
about that for a while—identifying Experiential Expressions is much the same.
It is learning to identify a style (although you may not know the participant
at all—the time you spend with it, reading it, reflecting upon it and what the
person is trying to convey...and noticing “who” that person is, how it fits
into that person’s)
• This methodology is
based on how
human beings organize information, come to understanding and to arrive
at “what something means”
2. Beginning with a description of an
experience provides the researcher (and eventually any reader) with an initial
“glimpse” of not only the phenomenon being investigated (the “what”) but
specific information about the person(s) from whom the information will be
gathered (the “who”).
• When
we speak or write, we reveal something about ourselves
3. Experiential Expressions are the ground
of the study. They are a “jumping off” point that provide a way to:
• Gain an initial access to personal
meaning (style, attitude,
belief and personal value system)
• Provide
ground for developing
questions to gather more information and correct, clarify
or enhance what has already been learned
4. When a person describes a personal
experience it is always described in a situation—a context. Therefore you will
receive information about the circumstances that led to the experience, how the
person lived through it, the way it ended and how it “remains with them.”
5. Beginning the review process—Work on
one description at a time.
• Read the description all the way
through, start to finish. Get the “big
picture”
• Re-read it again several times, more
slowly...more thoroughly and not only look at what has been said but begin to
identify what is important to the person who wrote it and how it has been lived
and expressed
• Begin to ask yourself, what is it
about this experience that is meaningful for this person and how is this
experience lived by this person, what does it say about who this person is?
• Make several copies of the
description to use to identify EE’s description slowly and begin to underline
what seems important to the meaning of the experience as it is has been shared
by the participant(s)
• Re-read it again, see if your EE’s
make sense. If not, change them. Perhaps some parts seem to “fit together” to
make a single thought or short sequence or complete a thought. That is fine to
do. They can be “linked”
• As
you will see
when you do
this, sometimes it seems
as if an entire paragraph is important. Go ahead and underline it. As
you progress through the identification process, it begins to “jell” right
before your eyes
• Each time you go through the
description, you see different things. So do not be afraid to change your underlining (typically
they change until you are finally “satisfied” and until they are shared with
participants who validate/or suggest changes)
• Once
EE’S are identified, number them sequentially.
For example:
Participant
#1 EE#1 = P#1EE1
Participant
#1 EE#2 = P#1EE2
Participant
#2 EE#1 = P#2EE1
Participant
#3 EE#1 = P#3EE1
• EE’s are always italicized...if you
have lifted a phrase or part of the sentence, put an ellipsis (...) in front
and at the end (if needed). If you “splice” phrases together, enter an ellipsis
between the two phrases to connect them
• Once you have identified your EE’s
and listed them, you can share them with the participant(s)
• You are now ready to develop your
questions for the first interview (using information gained from the
description)
Arriving
at Themes
1. Once the EE’s for each participant have
been numbered sequentially, you are ready to identify themes.
2. Group EE’s together into batches which
seem to “go together” in meaning—they refer to the same thing, illustrate a
common core of meaning, refer to the same aspect of the experience as other
participants have mentioned. Begin to notice that particular events, feelings,
values and responses re-occur throughout the all of the descriptions.
3. Bear in mind while going through this
is that you have several participants who have described the same experience.
Although you have as many different contexts (situations) within which that
experience arose, you will find points of similarity—and points that
distinguish them from each other.
Now is the time to look for the
commonalties.
There are several ways to do this:
• If
you are using a computer do a “cut and paste”
• You may want to list the EE’s (always keeping them numbered, that is P#1EE1) Copy your lists
• Separate
EE’s (cut them into single units)
• Begin to arrange EE’s by likeness
(which ones refer strictly to the situation—tell where participants were, what
they were doing—describes context)
• Arrange EE’s together that speak about what one felt like, what something meant for the participants, what they were thinking—that is—EE’s that refer to the content, the thematic content
• Not every EE will “fit” in the pattern which begins to emerge—but include as many as possible
• Once they are organized—begin to look for what they say about the experience, something that is an “overarching” umbrella under which these particular EE’s would “fit”
• Try out a theme—mull it over, think
about it. You may decide to modify it
to better express what has been seen
4. Remember while doing this that you are looking for very broad themes, ones that reflect a significant part of the whole.
5. After themes are identified list EE’s
under the most appropriate theme (some may fit more than one theme).
Thematic
Amplification
See Appendix B
for in-depth elucidation
1. Thematic amplification is a way to
bring together all of the information that has been gathered. Writing this
section is done as follows:
2. Begin with first theme:
• Review
the original written/verbal description(s)
• Look
at the EE’s
• Re-read
the questions asked during the interview-discussion
• Review
the interview(s)
• Review
the grouping of EE’s
3. Begin to bring the information together
into a narrative to illustrate how the theme emerged (from the EE’s which are
cited to tie the narrative down with EE’s). This allows readers to see how the
researcher came to the theme and to understand more fully what the phenomenon
means.
4. As you begin to tie the information
together which relates specifically to a particular theme, you may also want to
refer to how it relates to the other themes, how it assists in forming an
overall pattern or picture.
5. As you work through the narrative, you
will be pulling together bits and pieces from information provided by all
participants. Turn to the interviews for information that comes from the
dialogues. Information gained during the interviews provides a much broader
scope and deeper, richer content.
6. Not only do you cite specific EE’s to
illustrate and demonstrate what you have said but you also pull specific
excerpts from interview/discussions, statements that amplify what is initially
seen in the EE’s.
7. Repeat this procedure for each theme.
8. After you have written up the Thematic
Amplification, you will have not only the structure of the study (the pattern,
the picture, the schemata/image) but the fuller, richer, human experience—its
meaning for human beings and how it is organized in consciousness.
9. Embedded within the Thematic
Amplification are the values which guide the actions of your participants and
reveal who they are as persons, as well as what was found and how it was given
in expression.
Reflective
Synthesis
See Appendix C
for in-depth elucidation
1. The
Reflective Synthesis provides the findings of the study.
2. It conveys the essence of the
phenomenon studied. It is not supposed to be the definition of a phenomenon.
Rather it is inclusive write up of what has been found.
3. In preparation for writing the
Reflective Synthesis the researcher again reviews all that has been done up to
this point. Whereas the Thematic Amplification aims to include “more,” now the
focus narrows to “zero in” on universal aspects while maintaining the
particular as well. The Reflective Synthesis includes selected EE’s and a very
few excerpts from interviews, ones which make what is being said especially
clear and easily seen by other. These EE’s and/or excerpts will tie down the
findings by illustrating concretely what has been learned.
4. The focus of the Reflective Synthesis,
although somewhat of a contradiction in words here, becomes more “abstract” and
is written in a way that ties the major aspects (thematic content) together
into an overall pattern and picture of what has been revealed. This is the
point at which the researcher discusses any “uniquities.”
5. The Reflective Synthesis includes:
• The personal meanings which reveal
the true “humanness” of the participants (what this experience means for human
beings)
• The
structure of the phenomenon (what is)
• The cultural and social values (which
guide human action and the development of personal meaning and identity
Postscript
1. The postscript is added to provide a
space for three main purposes:
·
To discuss the
strengths / weaknesses of the study
·
To suggest
projects for future research
· For the researcher to reflect on the presuppositions of the study (what the researcher anticipated finding) and what was actually found
Basically, it is what you, as researcher, have learned from doing the study.
Appendix A
This Experiential Method gains access
to the dynamics of self-meaning constitution.
This is revealed in one’s expression and description of an experience,
of a phenomenon. The first Dynamic
Movement is identifying Experiential Expressions. These expressions are personally significant
and provide a nexus of meaning within a contextual matrix. Experiential Expressions provide access to
the qualities of experience and display its meaning for a particular person. Each of these Experiential Expressions,
itself to itself, is a nexus of meaning.
Spontaneously written or verbal
experiential descriptions contain guiding leitmotifs of meaning that remain
throughout as Experiential Expressions.
They are a nexus of meaning that remain significant through time. Experiential Expressions stand out. From these leitmotifs of meaning, themes
emerge and strengthen the significance of who and what one is. Experiential Expressions are existentially
beyond now.
People express the meaning of
experience within lived subjectivity and its impact upon
self-understanding. First identifying
Experiential Expressions offers an opening onto the primordial ground of
personal meaning. The person’s ongoing
experience of immediate consciousness of self-in-action is recognizable and
identifiable.
Experiential Expressions provide a
ground for further amplification. This
is a way to continue staying-with the meaning of the experience as it is, an
immediate given, at the same time to intensify, dilate and expand that which is
expressed through focused attention.
This allows the
researcher to remain open to possible meaning by staying-with the wholeness
of experience rather than reducing meaning to data by use of analysis. Data-ism
reduces experience to theoretical abstractions.
This Experiential Method is a synthesis rather than an analysis.
Experiential Expressions illustrate the
person’s experience and meaning. They
are short expressions or single sentences that convey qualitative dimensions of
how one experiences a given situation.
Experiential Expressions may include statements regarding feeling,
belief and attitude.
Experiential Expressions reveal a developing pattern of meaning that is interwoven throughout the description. They display thematic content that reveals personal meaning. Experiential Expressions speak the way a person has taken up meaning through choice and action. Experiential Expressions display primordial meaning within a contextual matrix that is specific to the person. Meaning and value arise and can be seen within this contextual matrix. Staying-with the immediate given retains the meaning of the experience as it comes into expression.
Meaning is interwoven into the ongoing
continuity of personal life.
Experiential Expressions bring to the forefront founding, self-meaning
constitution and the expression of that meaning in the wider social
context. Experiential Expressions reveal
thematic content. This thematic content
emerges into a pattern of related meaning and displays a personal choice by a
self-in-action.
Emergent Experiential Themes express
prominent aspects of a given experience.
This is a contextual matrix that comes from and remains consistent
within experience. Experiential
Expressions may relate to one or another theme but are placed where thematic
content is consonant with the mood, tone and gestural meaning of the
theme. When gathered into affinitive
groupings of meaning, Experiential Expressions reveal an image/scheme of the
person and display universal aspects found in others’ experiences of the same
phenomenon.
After obtaining the spontaneously
written or verbal experiential description the researcher reads it as if
reading a story for the first time, from beginning to end, straight
through. The researcher’s stance is one
of openness and receptivity, to let the significance of the experience
described stand forth and to allow the meaning, for the subject, to be
disclosed. After reflection upon this
initial reading and how the description struck the researcher, it is then
re-read more slowly a second and even third or fourth time. This re-reading opens up the description,
meaning begins to stand out, as the researcher becomes familiar-with the
expression and uniqueness of the
subject’s description. The guiding question of the researcher
is: how and what does this phenomenon
mean for this who, this person?
As the researcher reads and re-reads
the description, there will be significant expressions that seem to call
together meaning and to identify expressions of the subject. The significant aspects of the experience as
consistent similarities will come forward to the researcher’s notice. Experiential Expressions may include
statements regarding feeling, belief and attitude. This may include short expressions or single
sentences that identify the experience within the subject’s description. These Experiential Expressions express
positive, negative, discrepant or consonant meaning. They stand out as significant in the
description. Within this contextual
matrix Experiential Expressions display further continuity of experience. After underscoring Experiential Expressions
in the description, the researcher, in turn, re-reads the description a number
of times, reviewing those expressions which have already been identified,
remaining open to ones which may become apparent as the researcher gains
familiarity with the subject’s expression.
Within this contextual matrix
Experiential Expressions begin to reveal a relation to one another, a
connection that is recognizable and identifiable. They begin to show how meaning is lived and
what that meaning is for the subject.
Themes emerge from the affinitive grouping of Experiential Expressions,
these themes are written down and the Experiential Expressions are written
beneath them. These Emergent
Experiential Themes tend to coalesce and gather together in likeness of
expression. This sustains the
originality, spontaneity, liveliness and vitality of the initiating
expression. In this way, the research is
staying-with the ground from which meaning arises.
Thematic Amplification, the second
Dynamic Movement is an expansion of the nexus of meaning found in each of these
Experiential Expressions. Amplifying
themes means that the researcher brings into focused attention details that
contribute to the self-meaning constitution in action and experience. Amplifying is a way to bring to the forefront
meaning which is in experience and which is, at the same time, the ground for
its possibility.
Thematic Amplification works somewhat like time-lapsed photography where slowing down time reveals that which cannot be seen in a single grasp. In microphotography, for example, a whole world can be seen within another. This shows how an increased intensity of attention by the researcher reveals what an experience is and means in relation to a self-in-action. The researcher begins with and continues staying-with the tonal qualities of meaning which continuously give