Transcendental Phenomenological Analysis and

Making Mobiles

Ron ChenailNova Southeastern University

Transcendental Phenomenological Analysis

• Many steps• Interrelated parts• Pragmatics and aesthetics• Can seem overly abstract and complex

Transcendental Phenomenological Analysis Main Processes

Epoché

Bracketing

ReductionVariation

Synthesis

Epoché and Bracketing

• Setting aside prejudgments• Opening the research interview with an

unbiased, receptive presence• Continuing this process throughout the

analytical process

Phenomenological Reduction

• Horizonalization: Every statement has equal value

• Delimited Horizons or Meanings: Horizons that stand out as invariant qualities of the experience

• Invariant Qualities and Themes: Non-repetitive, non-overlapping constituents clustered into themes

Phenomenological Reduction

• Individual Textural Descriptions: An integration, descriptively, of the invariant textural constituents and themes of each research participant

• Composite Textural Description: An integration of all of the individual textural descriptions into a group or universal textural description

Imaginative Variation

• Vary Possible Meanings• Vary Perspectives of the Phenomenon: From

different vantage points, such as opposite meanings and various roles

• Free Fantasy Variations: Consider freely the possible structural qualities or dynamics that evoke the textural qualities

Imaginative Variation

• Construct a list of structural qualities of the experience

• Develop Structural Themes: Cluster the structural qualities into themes

• Employ Universal Structures as Themes: Time, space, relationship to self, to others; bodily concerns, causal or intentional structures

Imaginative Variation

• Individual Structural Descriptions: For each co-researcher, integrate the structural qualities and themes into an individual structural description of the experience

• Composite Structural Description: An integration of all of the individual structural descriptions into a group or universal structural description

Synthesis

• Synthesis of Composite Textural and Composite Structural Descriptions

• Intuitively-reflectively integrate the composite textural and composite structural descriptions to develop a synthesis of the meanings and essences of the phenomenon or experience

• Present findings

How To Make a Mobile

• The Secret: Start from the bottom and work to the top. [Reduction to Synthesis]

• There are many ways to design a work of hanging sculpture, and as many materials, [Many types of phenomenology]

• but the assembly is always the same: start from the bottom [But the steps are basically the same].

Select and Arrange the Pieces [Reduction and Textual Description]• Find, create the shapes you wish [Horizonalization & Delimited Horizons].

•Lay them on a large piece of paper and arrange them [Invariant Qualities and Themes].

•Draw lines connecting the bottom or end pieces [Individual and Composite Textual Descriptions].

Begin Connecting the Pieces [Imaginative Variation]• Start with the small end pieces first [Individual Structural Descriptions].

•Then connect the middle systems together [Composite Structural Descriptions]

Balance the Top [Synthesis]•The top bar is last [The Essence].

•Connect the middle systems to the top bar [Intuitively-reflectively integrate the composite textural and composite structural descriptions].

•Balance [Quality control].

•Hang your new creation [Present your results]

Make Your Own Virtual Mobile

Go to the US National Gallery of Art Mobile Maker and have fun!http://www.nga.gov/education/classroom/interactive/mobile.htm

Credits

• Transcendental Phenomenological Analysis slides excerpted from Moustakas, C. (1994). Phenomenological research methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

• Color mobile slides are from Konrad's Mobiles http://www.konrads.com/

• How to make a mobile slides excerpted from "Interactivity Kit" by Timothy Rose. Retrieved January 24, 2010, from http://www.mobilesculpture.com/makeyourownmobiles/

Contact Information

• Ron Chenail• Nova Southeastern University, 3301 College

Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33314-7796 USA• Email: ron@nova.edu