Phenomenology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Phenomenology - Essay Example According to these authors, the concerns were whether measurement, categorisation or statistical indexes that characterises the quantitative research approaches were adequate to understand a person, in its entirety; and the ability of such research paradigms to adequately explain or predict human experience (Van der Zalm and Bergum, 2000). Phenomenology, a research paradigm that in its pure form is a qualitative research approach that seek to make explicit, the implicit structure and meaning of the human experience, provided the answer to these research concerns (Sanders, 1982). In phenomenology, the human subjective experience that is obviously missing or ignored in objective scientific research approaches became a core point. ... Therefore, the phenomenological researcher is saddled with the responsibility of investigating the contents of 'conscious phenomena, both objective and subjective, or consciousness itself' (Sanders, 1982 p353). However, it must be noted, that phenomenology is a broad research approaches with several varying, and at times contradictory philosophies and approaches, but in the simplest and basic form, is defined as a qualitative method of research based on the grounds that reality consists of objects and events as they are experienced or understood in human consciousness, and the rejection of anything outside the human consciousness (American Heritage Dictionary, 2006). As a result, Embree (1997) identified the following widely accepted features of the phenomenological paradigm: the rejection of unobservable matters and grand systems erected in speculative thinking; rejection of naturalism (or objectivism and positivism), which is a worldview growing from modern natural science and technology since the Renaissance; emphasis on extracting the essence from human experiences and the value of what is known as epoch and eidetic reduction to the validity of phenomenological research (Sanders, 1982; Embree, 1997). While appreciating the several strands of opinions and approaches within phenomenology school of thought, the purpose of this paper is to provide an evaluation of phenomenology as a research approach. Therefore, this paper will provide an overview of major features of phenomenological research approach. To achieve this purpose, the paper will be structured as follows; the next section will provide a concise definition and history of the phenomenology school of