Phenomenological Psychology Research Articles

Professional and Personality Competency in Prophetic Counseling: A Phenomenological Study of School Counselors

Balancing transcendental and worldly values through prophetic counseling is crucial for preventing mental disorders and addressing global socio-cultural challenges. Prophetic counseling focuses on spiritual and afterlife concerns, unlike traditional counseling which centers on worldly matters. The purpose of this study is to explore prophetic values and internalization experienced by counselors at school. This study is a qualitative research that used Descriptive Phenomenological Psychology. Data were obtained by interviewing 3 guidance and counseling teachers from Islamic schools. Data analysis was carried out by arranging the description and categorization based on the founding of the theme that intrigued and internalized the values of prophetic counseling at school. The result showed that prophetic in school counseling by the counselors was drawn into two aspects: professional competency, which is applied in approach, strategy, technique, or method of guidance and counseling, and personality competency, which tends to reflect their personality character. Internalization of prophetic values gradually occurred through the relationship of counselor-counselee in the guidance and counseling that have been turned into a method for adding new knowledge and improving counselor attitude and behavior.

Should psychology follow the methods and principles of the natural sciences? Introduction to the debate

This debate issue centers on the question of whether psychology should follow the methods and principles of the natural sciences. Answers to this question are often implicitly assumed but rarely explicitly debated among psychologists. This issue contains eight invited contributions by scholars whom we anticipated would have strong and divergent positions on the question. The articles present a broad range of perspectives, ranging from phenomenological psychology to cognitive neuroscience. They broadly line up with a “yes” or “no” answer to the question, four authors favoring a “yes” and four authors a “no” response, although nearly all authors advance more nuanced positions that challenge a simple classification. In this introduction, we first discuss the historical roots of the question and our motivation behind this specific formulation of it. Then we briefly summarize the contributions and place them in a broader context.

Imagination in Experiences of Visual Art: An Investigation in Phenomenological Psychology

Imagination in Experiences of Visual Art: An Investigation in Phenomenological Psychology

Death Wishes, Aging Patients, and Euthanasia

The authors are searchers in psychopathology and communicate here about the dead wishes in relation to euthanasia. In Europe, the question comes regularly up to know if the law should be changed concerning the prohibition of euthanasia. The health system obeys progressively a modern idea of comfort and the “good life”. The authors are psychotherapists and their methodology is based mainly on phenomenological psychology, psychoanalysis, and psychopathology. Statistics of the French Ministry of Health will support their statements. Different clinical experiences with young patients, aging patients, or near-to-death patients are crossed and compared to those marked by heavy experiences like rape or amputation. The unbearable nature of their suffering makes them ask frequently to stop the pain. They would prefer being dead. This contribution examinates this kind of demand to find a helpful position for the caregiver and the patient. We should consider that near-death patients may often be at the climax of anxiety and depression is likely to switch over to dementia. In asking to finish with life, this purpose may change one day to another – sometimes it just highlights the wish to see things changed. The position of society and the medical staff has a high influence as well. Asking for euthanasia shows the variety of the same words that have different meanings from a medical, psychological, or psychopathological viewpoint. The purpose is to consider these aspects with the patient’s demand.

Futbolcularda Kariyer Geçişleri

The aim of this study is to find out the career planning of football players who have ended their active sport life and the problems they encounter in line with these plans. In this study qualitative method was used and as a research design, psychological phenomenology approach, which is one of the phenomenological patterns, was preferred. The sample group of the study consists of 13 retired footballers determined with criterion sampling method.Online interviews were conducted with football players using semi-structured interview technique, lasting an average of 30 minutes. After the participants were informed in line with the principles of interview method, the interviews were recorded. Following this, the expressions of the footballers were written down and descriptive and content analysis method was applied on the texts. As a result of the analyses, it was found that the footballers stated that they preferred to continue their career as coach or to work in jobs other than football. Some of the players stated that they experienced financial, emotional and occupational disadvantages due to problems they encountered, that they had negative life satisfaction and they longed to return to their days as a footballer.

A Better Me? An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of the Experiences of Female Cancer Survivors' Heightened Preoccupation With 'Healthy Eating'.

The end of treatment is known to be a particularly challenging time for many cancer survivors as they transition to coping with their condition independently. They may engage in health behaviours, such as implementing drastic dietary changes to manage the side effects of treatment they have undergone or as a way to assuage their anxiety. Understanding cancer survivors' heightened preoccupation with healthy eating is therefore fundamental to our understanding of the psychological phenomenology of cancer. This study explored how people who have developed a heightened preoccupation with healthy eating after a cancer diagnosis make sense of this change. Eight participants were recruited through social media. They each engaged in a semi-structured interview over Zoom concerning their changed relationship with food following cancer. Their accounts were then analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). The article focuses on four group experiential themes arising from the analysis: Open and Enlightened About Food, Becoming a Better Me?, Developing a New Passion for Nutrition, and Becoming Consumed by Food. The themes that arose from the analysis speak to the experience of becoming a 'better' person from having lived through cancer and developed a new relationship with food. Instead of seeing illness as a loss, several of the participants reported a positive shift linked to having developed an interest in healthy eating, something which became central to their identity. However, others experienced their new engagement with healthy eating as a preoccupation that engulfed them. These findings are discussed in light of existing theory and research, and their clinical implications are outlined. Areas for future research are also suggested.

Analisis Sistem Berpikir Fenomenologis dalam Pemikiran M.A.W. Brouwer: Studi Islam terhadap Buku Psikologi Fenomenologis

The book entitled "Psychological Phenomenology" contains many things related to the discussion of phenomenology which are packaged in more depth. In this research, the researcher wants to explore the scope of what is included in the study of phenomenology and study leading phenomenological figures and their theories that influence the phenomenological thinking of M.A.W. Brouwer. The aim of this research is to provide more in-depth knowledge regarding the thoughts of a M.A.W. Brouwer and his substance regarding phenomenological studies from his point of view. In this research, researchers used a type of library research (Library Research). The object of this research is a book by M.A.W. Brouwer entitled Phenomenological Psychology and several supporting literature to strengthen the reference material for this research. This research activity consists of reading book texts, reading several other reading materials regarding the main characters of the research and identifying the ideas of the characters' thoughts so that it becomes a research unit that is informative but also philosophical. The results of this research explain that although M.A.W. Brouwer never considered himself a phenomenologist and had a theory regarding phenomenology, but much of the substance of his thinking tended to analyze many figures to become a source of knowledge for him.

Целевые детерминанты как фактор интеграции человека с окружающим миром

Background. One of the trends in the development of modern psychology is an increasing interest in the study of context within the principle of contextuality as recognition of the influence of context factors on psychological phenomenology. The focus on studying the context, once designated by G.M. Andreeva as a fundamental principle of the new paradigm of social psychology, is currently the methodological principle of all psychological science and modern personality psychology. Objectives. The goal of the study consists in theoretical and empirical substantiation of the concept of purpose as a parameter for describing a person’s relationship with the outside world. Study Participants. The total sample included 350 people (45.9% women and 53.8% men). Young people took part in the survey (84.8% aged 17 to 25 years). Method. To describe a person’s life goals and the characteristics of the purpose setting, a survey form was created. The form recorded the significance of goals in the main areas of a person’s life, satisfaction with their implementation, an assessment of the possibilities for achieving these goals in the current life situation, etc. (40 points). The “Potential for Self-Change” technique (V.R. Manukyan, I.R. Murtazina, N.V. Grishina); “Test of existential motivations” (A. Langle); “Time Perspective Questionnaire” (F. Zimbardo) were used to assess personal factors. Cluster analysis was used to process the data in this study. Results. The data obtained confirmed the contextual nature of a person’s goals, their connection with the spatiotemporal coordinates of the context, the most important role of goals as a factor in organizing a person’s relationship with the outside world, with the meaningfulness of life. Depending on the presence or absence of significant goals in a person, the expressiveness of the goal orientation, types of relationships with the outside world are identified — focus on pre-adaptive change, readiness for adaptive change, unpreparedness for change. Conclusion. The results obtained confirmed the effectiveness of describing the purpose regulation of human activity as a language for describing the relationship of an individual with the outside world. The most important prospect in the further development of this research direction is the description of the integrity of an individual as a form of a person’s relationship with the world.

СУБЪЕКТНО-БЫТИЙНЫЙ ПОДХОД В ИССЛЕДОВАНИИ ЛИЧНОСТИ: МЕТОДОЛОГИЯ И ПЕРСПЕКТИВЫ РАЗВИТИЯ

The paper presents an analysis of the historical development of the subjective-existential approach to personality at Kuban State University. This review examines the most influential psychological concepts and theories that shaped the emergence and evolution of the subjective-existential approach within the broader field of subjective approach, over more than the past 50 years. It specifically focuses on the contribution of the Department of Personality Psychology and General Psychology at Kuban State University. It highlights the significant contributions of Soviet scholars, including B. G. Ananyev, S. L. Rubinstein, A. N. Leontiev, A. V. Brushlinsky, L. I. Antsyferova, and K. A. Abulkhanova, and of those who today determine the design of the subjective approach (V. V. Znakov, E. A. Sergienko, N. E. Kharlamenkova). The subjective approach has exerted a powerful influence upon the development of contemporary methodological discourse, particularly in the creation of a structural-dynamic model of personality as a subject of being/existence. The paper outlines the main theoretical and methodological provisions of the subjective-existential approach, which provides a panoramic vision of the studied reality and an interpretation of human psychological phenomenology from an axiological and existential perspective. The approach is based on the concepts of subjectivity, the unity of the individual and their being, and the individual's striving towards authenticity of being. It is proposed that the primary function of man is to be a subject of diverse existential domains, in which he asserts himself as a personality through the reorganization of these domains. The practical implementation of the subjective-existential approach to personality is exemplified by the investigations of researchers at Kuban State University. Their work concretizes and develops some ideas of the psychology of the subject and harmoniously integrates explanatory constructs and novel theoretical models within the humanistic traditions of psychological science. The potential of the subjective-existential approach to elucidate the procedural nature of diverse phenomenology is illustrated. The efficacy of this approach for addressing a number of fundamental problems in psychological science and acute social issues of our time, which are inextricably linked to global challenges of our time - bifurcation processes and social transitivity - is substantiated.

BEYOND CAUSAL EXPLANATIONS: the understanding of suicide from the perspective of existential phenomenological psychology

This article is about suicide on the Phenomenological Existential Psychology perspective. The question that guides this study is: how does the Phenomenological Existential Psychology understands and analyses the suicide subject? The general goal of the article is to discuss the matter of the suicide under the heideggerian Phenomenological Existential Psychology’s view. The specific goals are: contextualize the suicide matter; to understand the finitude, death and autonomy categories; and analyse the discussion of moralization, blaming and pathologizing of the suicide. This is a narrative literature review that attempts to describe the development of such theme, through the analysis of scientific production. Starting with a statistical analysis and the different ways of understanding of the suicide, this article attempted to reach a deeper reflection about the existential matters about the phenomenon. Going through reflections about the meaning of finitude, using some ideas, such as anguish, freedom and choice, and also aspects involving matters of cause and motive. Lastly, we attempted to deepen the interpretations of traditional labelers that that remains about the ways of understanding the behavior of putting an end to one’s own life. With an emphasis for the moralizing view, of blaming and pathologizing. We hope that the discussions made can favor a point of view that encompasses the subjectivity and complexity of each existence regarding suicide.

Addressing the autism mental health crisis: the potential of phenomenology in neurodiversity-affirming clinical practices.

The neurodiversity movement has introduced a new era for autism research. Yet, the neurodiversity paradigm and the autism clinic remain largely unconnected. With the present work, we aim to contribute to filling this lacuna by putting forward phenomenology as a foundation for developing neurodiversity-affirming clinical interventions for autism. In the first part of this paper, we highlight that autistic people face a severe mental health crisis. We argue that approaches focused on reducing autistic 'symptoms' are unlikely to solve the problem, as autistic mental health is positively correlated with autism acceptance and perceived quality of support provided, not necessarily with lack of 'symptomatologic severity'. Therefore, the development and dissemination of neurodiversity-affirming clinical interventions is key for addressing the autism mental health crisis. However, therapists and researchers exploring such neurodiversity-affirming practices are faced with two significant challenges. First, they lack concrete methodological principles regarding the incorporation of neurodiversity into clinical work. Second, they need to find ways to acknowledge rightful calls to respect the 'autistic self' within the clinic, while also challenging certain beliefs and behaviors of autistic clients in a manner that is sine qua non for therapy, irrespective of neurotype. In the second part of the paper, we introduce phenomenological psychology as a potential resource for engaging with these challenges in neurodiversity-affirming approaches to psychotherapy. In this vein, we put forward specific directions for adapting cognitive behavioral and interpersonal psychotherapy for autism.

Qualitative psychology of the Brentano school and its inspirations (another look at empirical qualitative research)

This article explores a psychological tradition inspired by or originating from Franz Brentano and which played a vital role in the development of qualitative empirical psychology. This was the psychology of acts with a focus on the analysis of mental phenomena and a first-person perspective. Brentano’s psychology directly influenced the emergence of the main schools of European psychology in the first half of the 20th century: the Würzburg School, Gestalt psychology, phenomenological psychology, the Dorpat School, and the Lvov–Warsaw School. These schools cultivated a psychology of mind and consciousness par excellence, the theoretical and methodological assumptions of which effectively inhibited reductionist tendencies. The aim of this article, however, is not so much to reconstruct the historical achievements but rather to indicate their relevance for contemporary qualitative psychology, which can be seen in a broader perspective than simply as an alternative to quantitative research.

Neurodiversity and psychotherapy—Connections and ways forward

AbstractThis critical review examines the connections between the neurodiversity paradigm and psychotherapy for autistic individuals. Clinical data indicates that autistic people face a deep and multifaceted mental health crisis, which neurodiversity‐affirming psychotherapy is ideally posed to address. Nonetheless, there are substantial challenges for tailoring psychotherapeutic schemes to autistic clients. The importance of phenomenological psychology in overcoming these challenges is highlighted, and a related proposal is briefly developed.

The Struggle to Distinguish Transcendental Phenomenology and Psychology

This article addresses Husserl’s attempt to differentiate between transcendental phenomenology and eidetic psychology. The thesis is: The distinction remained problematic so that Husserl’s analyses are often valuable contributions to psychology that, however, are mistaken to be epistemology. It is shown how and why the confusion of epistemological and psychological investigations harbors the danger of a psychologism. The article shows how becoming conscious of consciousness leads to a kind of reduplication of the world and why this led Husserl to give psychology an epistemological priority. On the other hand, it considers where and how the concern of epistemology and psychological investigations on the genesis of consciousness can be methodologically separated. Finally, it offers perspectives on how Husserl’s psychological contributions can be made fruitful for the project of a phenomenological psychology.

Phenomenological Attitude in Descriptive Phenomenological Psychological Research

Phenomenological approach is one of the leading approaches in the practice of qualitative psychological research. Two perspectives can be distinguished in it: descriptive phenomenology and interpretive phenomenology. A researcher intending to apply a phenomenological strategy is expected to be able to practice the phenomenological attitude, which plays a key role both in the process of data collection and analysis. This article focuses on the field of descriptive phenomenology based on E. Husserl’s philosophy and represented by A. Giorgi and F. Wertz in the context of phenomenological psychology. The purpose of the article is to reveal the essential characteristics of the phenomenological attitude, to unfold theoretical emphases and to provide certain practical insights for those researchers who decided to conduct a descriptive phenomenological study. Literature analysis is used to achieve the goal. The phenomenological attitude is described using two contexts – E. Husserl’s phenomenological philosophy and the phenomenological psychology based on its assumptions – briefly presenting both, revealing their connections and distinguishing features.

“They were here, and they still matter”: A qualitative study of bereaved parents legacy experiences and perceptions

Background: Legacy building interventions are used in pediatric healthcare settings to help families cope with difficult healthcare experiences and typically reserved for intentional use at or near the end of a child’s life. However, little is known about how bereaved families perceive the concept of legacy that these practices are meant to address. Emerging research challenges the view of legacy as a standardized, handheld keepsake item but rather as a summation of qualities and experiences that affect those left behind. Therefore, more research is needed. Aim: To explore the legacy perceptions and experiences of bereaved parents/caregivers in an effort to inform legacy-oriented interventions in pediatric palliative care. Design: In this qualitative, phenomenological study grounded in social constructionist epistemology, bereaved parent/caregivers completed a semi-structured interview about their legacy perceptions and experiences. The interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using an inductive, open coding approach grounded in psychological phenomenology. Setting/participants: Participants were parents/caregivers and one adult sibling of children (ages 6 months–18 years) that died between 2000 and 2018 at a children’s hospital in the Southeastern United States and spoke English as their primary language. Results: Sixteen parents/caregivers and one adult sibling were interviewed. Participants’ responses converged across three themes: (1) definitions of legacy, including traits and characteristics, impacts on others, and the child’s enduring presence; (2) manifestations of legacy, such as tangible items, experiences, traditions, and rituals, and altruism; and (3) factors perceived to affect legacy experiences, including characteristics of the child’s death and one’s personal grief process. Conclusion: Bereaved parents/caregivers define and experience their child’s legacy in ways and manifestations that conflict with current legacy building interventions used in pediatric healthcare settings. Thus, an immediate shift from standardized legacy-oriented care to individualized assessment and intervention is needed to provide high-quality patient- and family-centered pediatric palliative care.

Pure and Other Phenomenologically Oriented Psychology

Abstract This paper inquires into the necessity and limits of what Edmund Husserl calls a “pure” phenomenological psychology. It argues that there may be merit to this notion as a kind of philosophical psychology, the notion of purity in clinical psychology would unnecessarily limit the kinds of factors that the psychologist must take into account in understanding and treating most of the psychological conditions the therapist faces. The paper suggests that phenomenological psychology nonetheless has value in providing a counter-balance to naturalistically inclined psychology that for its part neglects the meaning of various life events for the agent and can serve as means of critical reflection on the operative concepts guiding psychological practice. It can also help correct a deterministic tendency in modern psychology that does not take seriously enough human beings’ capacity for self-reflection and for self-responsibility that can often serve as key elements in psychological therapy and healing.

The Relevance of the Phenomenological Method of Epoché and Reduction for Psychology

Abstract Husserl’s (2023) “Paradox of the Psychological Reduction,” with support and elucidation from Husserl’s published writings, shows the necessity of employing the phenomenological epoché and reduction in order to perform valid psychological research. The relationship between the transcendental and psychological reductions, including their closeness, differences, and peculiar identity are explored. Although necessary, the phenomenological method does not guarantee true psychological knowledge but rather requires a reflexive, self-critical, self-corrective historical process that confronts and overcomes naturalistic prejudice and other misguiding assumptions and dogma as well as superficial and flawed research performances. Phenomenological psychology and philosophy are inseparable, in a bidirectional relationship that informs the socio-cultural sciences including empirical psychology and all disciplines that study persons, communities, human artifacts, and humanity. The implications and relevance of phenomenological method are spelled out in light of the history and contemporary challenges of psychology.

The Psychological Epoché and the Promise of Humanistic Psychology

Abstract In this paper, I contend that the narrative presented in Husserl’s recently translated Text 7 is a strikingly clear affirmation and vindication of the psychological adaptation of phenomenology developed by Amedeo Giorgi. I argue that Giorgi’s methodological advocacy of the epoché makes good sense when considered in the context of the history of humanistic psychology. A review of Carl Rogers’s and Abraham Maslow’s attempts to revision psychology shows that they each, in their own way, argued for a turn away from all-out objectivism in research, toward what phenomenologists would refer to as the being-in-the-world-with-others that permeates the relationship between researcher and research participants. But neither could envision or develop a methodological procedure for the researcher to simultaneously suspend their habitual way of making judgements and forming conclusions in that relationship. Instead, they advocated for the extension of a humanized therapeutic clinical presence of openness, acceptance, and affirmation in psychological research. Thus, a Husserlian approach to phenomenological psychology was not only a desirable addition to humanistic thought, it was sorely needed for humanistic psychology to fulfill its research promise. Giorgi, more than any other thinker of his time, provided this addition. It is further argued that Giorgi’s contribution remains highly relevant, though underappreciated.

Second Wind: Understanding How Academics from the Philippines Adjust to Retirement

Second Wind: Understanding How Academics from the Philippines Adjust to Retirement