Descriptive or Interpretive? A Reflexive Framework for Methodological Choice and Bracketing in Phenomenology

A complete phenomenological study design explained step by step: finding participants, unstructured in-depth interviews, memoing and a simplified method for analyzing the data. Ideal for students planning their first phenomenological project.

Thomas Groenewald

A map of the big debates in phenomenological research: how strictly to define it, how much to interpret, what to do with the researcher's own assumptions, and whether it is science or art. Useful for choosing between descriptive and interpretive approaches.

Linda Finlay

A hands-on introduction to interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) co-written by its founder. It covers the method's roots, sampling, interviewing and step-by-step analysis of the data.

Igor Pietkiewicz and Jonathan A. Smith

A widely cited comparison of descriptive and hermeneutic phenomenology as research methodologies: their roots in Husserl, Heidegger and Gadamer, their assumptions and what kind of findings each produces.

Susann M. Laverty

A long introductory essay on what phenomenology offers human science research: its key concepts, its rejection of dogma and how its philosophy becomes a way of doing research.

Luigina Mortari and Massimiliano Tarozzi