Understanding More Fully: A Multimodal Hermeneutic-Phenomenological Approach

Abstract

This article shares a research methodology that we argue supports human science researchers in their aim to understand lived experiences more fully. Drawing on Merleau-Pontian thinking, the article outlines three dimensions of sense experience that underpin our approach: the felt-sense, aesthetic aspects of language, and visual imagery. We then detail this approach: the data-collection phase is a creative interviewing method, adapted from Imagery in Movement Method (Schneier 1989) and focusing technique (Gendlin 1997). This results in multimodal data: drawings, and bodily and verbal accounts, rich in imagery. The analysis is an expanded hermeneutic-phenomenology, and in this article we focus in particular on our method for interpreting visual data. Three examples taken from a case-study about feeling guilty are provided to illustrate the potential of the approach. The article concludes with some reflections on the impact of using a multimodal approach in human science research.

Keywords:

• focusing
• guilt
• metaphor
• multimodal
• phenomenology

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank “Edward” for sharing his story. We would also like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their very helpful comments.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Zoë Boden

Zoë Boden is a research fellow in the Department of Psychology at the University of Birmingham. Her research interests include feelings, emotions, and relationships, often in the context of mental health. She uses qualitative approaches, particularly hermeneutic-phenomenology, to explore phenomena such as guilt, connectedness, and trust. Together with Virginia Eatough, she has recently launched the Qualitative Approaches to Feelings and Emotions (QuAFE) research network (quafeblog.wordpress.com).

Virginia Eatough

Virginia Eatough is a lecturer in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Birkbeck University of London. Her primary research focus is the study of emotion and emotional experience from a phenomenological psychology perspective. In particular, she is interested in the role of feelings in emotional life. Primarily, she uses hermeneutic-phenomenological approaches as well as techniques that emphasize accessing the tacit pre-reflective dimensions of experience such as focusing and meditation. Other related and ongoing research interests include adult crying, alexithymia, living with chronic progressive illness such as Parkinson’s disease, and developing the relationship between phenomenological methods and neuroscience.