Spurred on by the fact that I'm studying for a Doctorate in Philosophy, I decided it would be a good idea to widen my philosophical knowledge. My ontology is interpretivism, and my epistemology is constructivism, so suddenly changing my philosophical stance would be at best a problem, and at worst a route to cocking up my degree, but there are many, many philosophical schools of thought, and it is wise to look at any links to my research, no matter how tenuous.
While looking through Peter Gibson's brilliant 'Philosophy: A Degree in a Book', I stumbled across Phenomenology and was immediately struck with its links to grounded theory research.
Phenomenology is a relatively new school of thought, emerging as it did in the 20th century, and in its most basic form, it studies conscious experience as experienced from the first person point of view.
What links it so well to grounded theory research is how it studies the structure of various types of experiences, ranging from perception, thought, memory, imagination, emotion, desire, embodied action, and social and linguistic activity. Phenomenologists are interested in the 'how' rather than the 'what' of our experiences, and it makes sense for me to engage with it at some level because of its focus on the lived experience. Phenomenology can help me to describe and understand a particular kind of experience. It can help to explore and understand how experiences are embodied, and it allows me to introduce and integrate existential themes such as space, time, self, and others - themes that have cropped up repeatedly as part of my pilot interview process.
But how does it link to Grounded Theory?
According to ChatGPT, which I am shamelessly copying and pasting here, "phenomenology and grounded theory are both qualitative research methodologies, and while they have distinct purposes and approaches, are linked in several key ways:
1. Philosophical Foundations
Phenomenology is rooted in existential and transcendental philosophy, primarily associated with Edmund Husserl and later expanded by Martin Heidegger. Its goal is to explore and describe lived experiences to uncover the essence of a phenomenon.
Grounded Theory, developed by Glaser and Strauss, is more pragmatic and seeks to develop theory directly grounded in empirical data, often guided by symbolic interactionism.
Link: Both methodologies emphasize understanding human experiences from the perspective of participants. Grounded theory often incorporates phenomenological insights to inform the interpretation of participants’ experiences.
2. Focus on Subjectivity
Phenomenology focuses deeply on subjective lived experiences, aiming to describe the what and how of phenomena as they appear to individuals.
Grounded Theory, while aiming to build theories, also involves exploring the perspectives, meanings, and processes that participants experience.
Link: Grounded theory researchers may rely on phenomenological insights to explore subjective experiences in their initial stages, as they begin coding and conceptualizing data.
3. Data Collection Techniques
Both methodologies use similar methods, such as in-depth interviews, open-ended questions, and observational techniques.
Phenomenology emphasizes detailed descriptions of participants’ lived experiences.
Grounded Theory focuses on iterative data collection, where data analysis informs ongoing sampling (theoretical sampling).
Link: The overlap in techniques allows phenomenological perspectives to enrich the early stages of grounded theory research, particularly when trying to understand participants’ lived contexts before abstracting concepts.
4. Analytical Overlap
In phenomenology, data analysis involves thematic coding to identify essences and meanings.
Grounded Theory uses coding (open, axial, and selective coding) to build categories and relationships, leading to theory development.
Link: A phenomenological analysis can sometimes inform the early coding phases of grounded theory, helping to uncover key themes before abstracting them into a conceptual framework.
5. Complementary Applications
Researchers may use phenomenology to explore the essence of a phenomenon and then apply grounded theory to develop a broader theoretical framework.
For instance, understanding the essence of “grief” through phenomenology could lead to a grounded theory study on how individuals process grief over time.
Link: Phenomenology can provide foundational insights that grounded theory expands upon, moving from description to theory generation.
To summarise, while phenomenology aims to describe and grounded theory aims to explain, both share a focus on understanding human experiences and can complement one another in research. Phenomenological insights often also serve as a basis for the initial understanding in grounded theory studies."