Transcendental
Phenomenological Analysis and
Making Mobiles
Ron Chenail
Nova Southeastern University
Transcendental Phenomenological
Analysis
•
•
•
•
Many steps
Interrelated parts
Pragmatics and aesthetics
Can seem overly abstract and complex
Transcendental Phenomenological
Analysis Main Processes
Epoché
Synthesis
Variation
Bracketing
Reduction
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: Nonrepetitive, 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 coresearcher, 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 [Intuitivelyreflectively 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/inter
active/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/makeyourown
mobiles/
Contact Information
• Ron Chenail
• Nova Southeastern University, 3301 College
Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33314-7796 USA
• Email: ron@nova.edu