Advanced Phenomenological Research Methodology and Thematic Analysis Study Guide to Being Unsettled

Methodological Frameworks in Phenomenological Research

Giorgi and Giorgi’s ( $2003$ ) Approach * Descriptive: The method emphasizes providing a detailed description of the lived experience. * Practice of the Epoché / Focus on Intentionality: This involves the researcher setting aside (bracketing) their biases and preconceptions to focus entirely on the intentional relationship between the consciousness and the object of experience. * Structural Results: The goal is to arrive at the essential structure of the phenomenon. * Taking up data from a Psychological Perspective: The analysis is specifically conducted through a psychological lens rather than a purely philosophical one.
Garza’s ( $2007$ ) Approach * Co-constitution of Phenomena: Recognizes that the researcher and the phenomenon are mutually involved in the creation of meaning. * Intentionality and the Lifeworld: Focuses on how individuals are inextricably linked to their world through intentional consciousness. * Existential and Hermeneutic Character: Emphasizes the interpretive and existence-based nature of understanding human experience.
Churchill’s ( $2022$ ) Six-Step Method * 1. Epoché: Bracketing natural attitude and assumptions. * 2. Intuition: Engaging with the data to see the phenomenon as it presents itself. * 3. Reduction: Moving from the specific instance to the essential characteristics. * 4. Intentional Analysis: Examining the "how" and "what" of the experience. * 5. Imaginative Variation: Testing different attributes of the phenomenon to determine which are essential (without which the phenomenon would not be what it is). * 6. Synthesis: Integrating the insights into a cohesive description.
Key Academic Readings and References * Sokolowski * von Eckartsberg * Garza * Churchill * Giorgi ( $1985$ , $2003$ , $2009$ )

Fundamental Criteria and Directives for Phenomenological Research

Basic Requirements for Phenomenological Inquiry * For research to be considered truly phenomenological, it must perform three core tasks: * Practice the epoché. * Focus on intentionality. * Create structural results.
Specific Focus (Erfragte) * Projecting-Understanding: A concept derived from Heidegger ( $1927/1962$ ) regarding how individuals project possibilities onto their world. * In-order-to Motives: Action-oriented motivations as discussed by Churchill ( $2022$ ). * Sartre’s Three Moments of the Body: An analytical focus on the existential experience of embodiment.

Experiential Data Collection and Participant Prompting

Data Access and Collection Strategy * Access is gained through written responses followed by iterative follow-up questions to deepen the description.
The Situational Prompt (Adapted from Garza, $2004$ ) * Objective: To capture a detailed, narrative-style description of the experience of being "unsettled." * Verbatim Prompt: "Describe a specific situation in which you were engaging with social media about the Covid pandemic and felt upset, rattled, shaken, or unsettled. Describe the situation as completely as possible. Describe this situation like a story with a beginning, middle and end, how you came to be on social media, how this experience affected your understanding of yourself, others and the world as well as your future and possibilities. How did this situation conclude or resolve for you?"

Phenomenologically-Inspired Reflexive Thematic Analysis (PRTA)

Procedural Framework (Landrum & Garza, $2022$ ; Landrum & Davis, $2023$ ) * Step 1: Familiarize yourself with your data: Deep immersion in the participant responses. * Step 2: Generate initial codes / Identify the moments: * Use the "explication guiding question." * Identify "moments" as non-independent parts of the whole experience. * Step 3: Collate moments into themes: * Involves searching for, revising, and naming themes. * Step 4: Thematizing Intentionality: * Transforming the participant's "naïve expressions" (raw data) into specialized language that describes the psychological themes of the phenomenon. * Step 5: Produce the narrative result: * Describe the "structure" of the phenomenon. * Includes a thematic map and a thematic narrative.

Thematogenesis as a Hermeneutic Enterprise

Scientific Inquiry as Interplay * The creation of themes is a hermeneutic process that balances deductive and inductive methods.
Deductive Aspects (Braun and Clarke, $2006$ , $2022$ ) * Refers to the "Approach" as an "attuned" way of being present to the data (fore-having). * Phenomenological deductive frameworks include: * Noema and Noesis * Care * Expression * "In-order-to" motives * van den Berg’s " $4$ corners" ( $1972$ )
Inductive Aspects * Relates to the data as it appears or "presents itself" in light of the chosen approach. * What the researcher "uncovers" is enframed by the methods of seeking.

The "Four Corners of There" Framework

Van den Berg’s ( $1972$ ) Dimensions of the Lifeworld * The phenomenon is constituted by the intertwining of four specific "corners": * Temporality: The lived experience of time. * Space: The lived experience of one's environment/place. * Body: The lived experience of physicality and embodiment. * Social World: The lived experience of others and relationships.
The Role of Care and Intentionality * A phenomenon is the intertwining of these corners by the individual's "care" or intentionality. * Phenomenology involves articulating these relations and interpreting these understandings. * Data transformation involves articulating how a participant's care informs the lived meaning of these four corners.

Data Case Study: Being Unsettled on Social Media during COVID-19

Initial Extraction of Moments and Codes * Data Excerpt: "[social media] have been relatively inundated with various theories, rants, and PSAs about all things to do with COVID- $19$ " * Codes: Pervasive, New world. * Data Excerpt: "negative emotions across the board and on either side of debate" * Codes: Adversarial, Confrontation. * Data Excerpt: "the topic that made me feel the most upset was that of the vaccine, and on a larger scale, the lack of a respectful dialogue" * Codes: Lost peer standing and valued dialogue. * Data Excerpt: "a complete dismissal of opinions or chance for conversation if someone doesn't immediately agree with someone else." * Codes: Adversarial, Dismissed, Unrecognized.
Developing the Theme: New Transformed World/Reality * Description: Being unsettled via social media during COVID entails an experienced qualitative and discontinuous transformation of the world. * Characteristics: * The world is encountered as unwelcoming and unresponsive to previous ways of engagement. * Defined by confrontation and adversarial relations; battle lines are drawn. * Participants feel caught between being true to themselves and being accepted by others, viewing these two aims as incompatible.
Supporting Evidence for World Transformation * "I was frustrated that I felt that I couldn't say what I wanted to even when (seemingly) everyone else could…" * "Everything has become black and white, right or left…"

Thematic Collation and Professional Synthesis

Comparison of Researcher (DrL) vs. Student Proposed Themes * DrL / Class Themes: Discrepancy between self-for-self and self-for-other; Lived Loss; World as battlefield; Chasm/Rupture; Hierarchy; Dejected/rejected/ejected. * Student Themes: Self as victim; Unswayed/standing firm; Hopeless/Helpless; Held captive/trapped; Displaced; Outsider/isolated/alone; Hostile/defensive.
Final Collation: Defining the "Unsettled" State * Characterized by: Chasm, rupture, disconnect, discrepancy, deprivation, loss, hopeless, powerless, battle lines, acrimonious, and contentious.

Structural Analysis of the "Structure of the Phenomenon"

Thematic Map Dynamics * The World as it had been / The one she longs to return to: Embraced, accepted, safe, yearning, self she aims to be. * Lived Temporal Discontinuity: A break between the "before" and the "now." * The World as foreign/unwelcoming: Dismissed, rejected, hostile, deprivation, trapped. * The Fissure: The world is ruptured along invisible lines of fissure; others transition from "peers" to "adversaries." * Self-Negotiation: The choice between a "True self" (alone, debased, voiceless, placeless) and a "False self" (the price of admission to the ruptured world).
Figure $1$ : The Experience of Being Unsettled * The experience is defined as a "Rupture" between what "Has Been" and what "Will be." * The goal is to restore a state that is Settled, Secure, Sound, Solid, and Incorporated. * Restoration involves "Reclaiming" by restoring or re-settling.

The Three Phases of Experience: Rupture, Recollection, Resolution

1. Rupture * Occurs across dimensions of self, relationships, standing, and temporality. * Participants feel pulled between an acceptable path and a disconcerting place. * Lauren: "…I couldn't say what I wanted to even when… everyone else could, simply because I hold unpopular opinions." * Dana: "I was very hesitant to post anything about COVID- $19$ because it had become so politicized…" * Samantha: "…I was even more irritated that my friends didn’t care and would put me and the $6$ other people I had invited in danger."
2. Recollection * The rupture exposes the past and predicted future from the vantage point of an uncertain "now." * The person becomes a "witness" rather than an "agent"; they are passive observers of their own detachment. * Samantha: "…it just sucks when you picture doing something for so long and then something out of your control ruins it." * Willow: "…What the [heck] is going on with this country?"
3. Resolution * Fractured aspects of self and world are woven back together through a new understanding. * Does not imply a return to the original state or a perfect harmony, but rather giving the rupture a specific place in one's history. * Metaphor: Japanese art form kintsugi (repairing broken pottery with gold, highlighting the cracks). * Mirabel: "I know I do not have to let myself become upset… I can disagree without becoming angry." * Dana: "I did my best to patch up the comment section and smooth things over…"