1. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis Kathryn Kinmond Manchester Metropolitan University

2. Objectives
To situate IPA within the broader context of qualitative research
To introduce the theoretical underpinnings of IPA
To describe the appropriate research questions, sampling & data collection methods
To describe analytic process
To offer the opportunity to do some IPA
To offer some suggestions for emphasis in teaching
To offer some suggestions for supervising IPA projects

3. IPA within qualitative research
IPA is a qualitative approach
IPA is a specific qualitative approach……
IPA uses a small purposive sample
IPA analyses themes
IPA engages in ‘in-depth’ study & creates ‘thick data’

4. IPA as a specific qualitative approach
So what makes it distinct?
When should it be used?

5. IPA as a specific qualitative approach
“The central objective of IPA is to understand what personal & social experiences mean to the people who experience them” (Shaw, 2010 p178)

6. Example research question
Key features
Suitable approach
What are the main experiential features of being abused?
Note the focus on the common structure of ‘abuse’ as an experience.
Phenomenology
How do people who have been abused make sense of it?
Note the focus on personal meaning and sense-making in a particular context with a particular experience.
Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA)
What sorts of story structures do people use to describe abusive events?
Note the focus on how narrative relates to sense-making (e.g. via genre, structure, tone or imagery).
Narrative psychology
What factors influence how people manage abuse?
Note the willingness to develop an explanatory level account (factors, impacts, influences, etc.).
Grounded theory
How do people talk about ‘being abused’ in close relationships?
Note the focus on interaction over and above content, and the caution about inferring anything about anger itself.
Discursive psychology
How is ‘abuse’ constructed in incident reports from Social Services?
Note the willingness to use a range of data sources, and the focus on how things ‘are understood’ according to the conventions of a particular setting.
Foucauldian discourse analysis
Interpretative phenomenological analysis
Personal lived experience at case study level
Grounded theory
Bottom up grounded theory of social phenomenon
Discourse analysis
Socio-linguistic resources drawn upon/ work done in conversation
Narrative analysis
How life course is constructed as a story

7. IPA as a specific qualitative approach
An experience of ‘existential import’
‘Experience-close’ rather than experience per se
How the participant makes sense of the experience
The meaning of the experience to the participant
(Smith & Larkin, 2009)

8. An example
Sandra, mother and carer of two adult sons (one who is married) with major learning disabilities and now, also to her husband following his recent stroke.
Experiences of ‘existential import’ which Sandra is struggling to make sense of.

9. A personal example
Consider a personal experience of ‘existential import’.
How are you thinking about it, feeling about it, making sense of it?

10. Assumptions of IPA
“Human beings are sense making creatures & therefore the accounts [they] provide will reflect their attempts to make sense of what is happening to them”
But……..
“Access to experience always depends on what Ps tell us about that experience… The researcher needs to interpret that account in order to understand that experience” (Smith et al., 2009)

11. Aims of IPA Dual Aim - To provide:
an in-depth exploration of people’s lived experiences
a close examination of how people make sense of these experiences

12. Theoretical underpinnings of IPA: Phenomenology
A philosophical approach to the study of experience
Concerned with what the experience of being human is like
Concerned with what the experience of being human is like - as individuals, how do we perceive & talk about objects & events.
This is in contrast to:
The attempt to produce an objective statement about the object or event in itself
Examining the event or object in terms of pre-existing conceptual or scientific criteria

13. Key phenomenological philosophers
Husserl – emphasised ‘going back to the things themselves’; carefully examining the experience as an individual psychological process
Heidegger – concerned with the ontological question of existence itself & with the practical activities & relationships through which the world appears to us
Merleau-Ponty – focused on subjectivity & embodiment
Sartre – “existence comes before essence” (1948 p26); we are always ‘becoming’

14. Theoretical underpinnings of IPA: Hermeneutics
The theory of interpretation
Concerned with people as interpreting & sense-making individuals
IPA’s aim is achieved through interpretative activity on the part of the researcher
Research is a dynamic process & the researcher has an active role
Researcher aims to assume an insider perspective (Conrad, 1987) – to stand in the shoes of the participant

15. Theoretical underpinnings of IPA: Double hermeneutic
Dual interpretation process
“the participants are tying to make sense of their world; the researcher is trying to make sense of the participants trying to make sense of their world.” (Smith & Osborn, 2003: 51)
Access to the participant’s experience depends on, & is complicated by, the researcher’s own conceptions
These processes are necessary in order to make sense of that other personal world through a process of interpretative activity

16. Theoretical underpinnings of IPA: Idiography
Focus on the particular rather than the universal/general
Relating to the study of the individual who is seen as unique.
Idiographic studies work at the individual level to make specific statements about those individuals
Contrasts with nomothetic – which makes claims at the universal or population level is concerned with establishing general laws of human behaviour

17. Basic principles of IPA: a summary
Inductive – rejects the hypothesis in favour of open-ended questions
Idiographic – works at the individual level
Assumes agency to the individual
Individuals actively interpret their experiences & their world (in fact we can’t not interpret)
It is concerned with understanding individuals’ lived experiences & how they make sense of those experiences
It is data-driven (bottom-up) – prioritises participants’ accounts
Research is a dynamic process – the researcher is active in the research
(Shaw,2009)

18. Planning an IPA project: research questions
Directed towards phenomenological material & focus on people’s understandings of their experiences
Open, exploratory questions
Focus on significant issues in life:
Identity, sense of self
Hot cognition – current issues, emotive, dilemmatic
Cool cognition – longer term, reflection across life course
Not focus on causes, differences or consequences – as a hypothesis would
Some examples:
How do gay men think about sex & sexuality (Flowers et al 1997)
Notter (2001) investigated the experience of living with stoma.
Kinmond et al., (2003) explored the meaning of living with diabetic foot ulceration
Beasley (2009) explored the experience of self-haring and fire-setting for women in a forensic unit
Kinmond & Haire (current study) exploring the experience of living with a partner post stroke

19. Planning an IPA project: sampling
Small sample sizes because of the case-by-case, idiographic approach to analysis
Number of Ps depends on:
Researcher’s commitment to the case study level of analysis
The richness of the individual cases
Decisions about comparison/contrasting cases
The pragmatic restrictions one is working under
Data collection needs to focus on experience & recognise multiple influences on that experience

20. Planning an IPA project: research tool
Need to collect detailed stories, thoughts & feelings……so:
Semi-structured interviews are most-used
But other methods have been used
Postal questionnaires
dialogue
Focus groups
Observations
Focus groups
Observations
NB there are additional complications when using these methods

21. Planning an IPA project: constructing the questions
Open, expansive questions to facilitate a detailed account of the experience being investigated.
Minimum input from interviewer
Start with a question which allows the P to recount a descriptive episode
Move to more analytical questions later

22. Example questions (Smith et al., 2009)
Descriptive – please could you tell me what you do in your job?
Narrative – can you tell me about how you came to get the job?
Structural – what are the stages involved in dispatching orders?
Contrast – what are the main differences between a good & bad day at work?
Evaluative – how do you feel after a bad day at work?
Circular – what do you think your boss thinks about how you do your job?
Comparative – how do you think your life would be if yu worked somewhere else?
Prompts – can you tell me a bit more about that?
Probes – what do you mean by ‘unfair’?

23. What not to ask……(Smith et al., 2009)
Over-empathic questions (eg. I can imagine your job is quite boring – is that right?)
Manipulative questions (eg. You’ve described your job as repetitive. Is it even worse than that?)
Leading questions (eg. So, I don’t suppose you’d say your job is rewarding?)
Closed questions (eg. So you’ve been working here for five years then?)

24. Transcription
Formatting [line numbers, margins, line-spacing] for workable transcripts;
Transcribe the whole tape
Transcribe only major prosodic features (e.g. SIGHS/LAUGHS; interruptions and overlaps; ums and ahhs) - not lengths of pauses etc.
Anonymise as you go.

25. Doing the analysis: an iterative & inductive cycle (Smith, 2007)
stage 1: Identify themes in the first case; list your ‘stream of consciousness’ words, comments and initial ideas in the left hand margin of the transcript.
stage 2 – In the right hand margin the extracted words, comments and ideas (already listed in the LH margin) should be transformed into emergent theme titles in concise phrases which aim to capture the essential quality of what was found in the text.
stage 3 – List the emergent themes separately to the transcript and examine them for connections between them and also themes which are not convergent. This Clustering of themes should be checked against the original transcript to ensure that they hold true against what the interview.
Direct quotes from the transcript should be attached to each theme to ensure that the original meaning of the theme is not lost in the interpretation.
Identify themes in the first case
This involves lots of reading & re-reading
Phase 1 – Read the transcribed interview several times. List your ‘stream of consciousness’ words, comments and initial ideas in the left hand margin of the transcript. Such extractions reflect anything that seems interesting or significant in a context of the interview and also acknowledging also any personal awareness of the literature base.
Phase 2 – In the right hand margin the extracted words, comments and ideas (already listed in the LH margin) should be transformed into emergent theme titles in concise phrases which aim to capture the essential quality of what was found in the text.
Phase 3 – List the emergent themes separately to the transcript and examine them for connections between them and also themes which are not convergent. This Clustering of themes should be checked against the original transcript to ensure that they hold true against what the interview.
Direct quotes from the transcript should be attached to each theme to ensure that the original meaning of the theme is not lost in the interpretation.
Devise a table of themes which identifies the thematic clusters
Phase 4 – Compare the emergent themes to see which share commonality or again which contradicted each other. These are then formulated into super-ordinate themes and sub-ordinate themes.

26. Theme Clusters – looking for connections
stage 4 – Compare the emergent themes to see which share commonality or again which contradicted each other. These are then formulated into super-ordinate themes made up of sub-ordinate themes.
Create a table of master themes
NB: Ensure each theme is represented by data in the transcript to avoid researcher bias

27. Continuing with Other Cases
Continue with other cases
Start with the master themes from case 1 & look for further evidence in case 2
Be ready for new themes to emerge in case 2
The process is cyclical: go back case 1 to see if they are represented there also
Be prepared to go over the phases of analysis several times, going back over transcripts & rethinking theme clusters

28. Writing Up This is the final stage of analysis
The aim is to translate your themes into a narrative account
Deciding which themes to focus on requires you to be selective
The choice is not purely based on prevalence but also on the richness of particular passages that highlight the theme & how the theme illuminates other aspects of the account (Shaw, 2009)

29. Tips for emphasis in teaching
IPA is about individuals’ experiences
IPA is interpretative –we want participants to reflect on & interpret their experiences in the interview & we want to interpret them in the analysis
Interviews are analysed on a case-by-case basis (there may only one case – a case study)
Doing IPA is a creative process – the active interpretative role of the researcher is valued
An IPA analysis usually reveals something about participants’ meaning-making processes & how an event or state impacts on identity (Shaw, 2009)

30. Tips for supervising IPA projects
Awareness of the time necessary – much longer than a quantitative project
Guidance & support for student in analysis stage
watch for over-cautious analysis (too descriptive) / over-interpretative analysis / mis-directed analysis (difficulties with focusing on sense-making).
Care in managing the word limit - not being overwhelmed; deciding what to cut.
Use of the first person
Need to achieve some visible level of reflexivity

31. Useful references
Forrester, M. (ed) (2010) Doing qualitative research in Psychology. London. Sage.
Langride, D. (2007). Phenomenological Psychology: theory, research and method. Harlow, Pearson.
Moran, D (2000) Introduction to Phenomenology. Routledge.
Smith, JA, Flowers, P, Larkin, M (2009) Interpretative phenomenological analysis: Theory, Method, Research. London: Sage.
Smith, J.A. & Eatough, V. (2006) Interpretative phenomenological analysis. In Breakwell, G.M, Hammond, S., Fife-Schaw, C., & Smith, J.A. (Eds.) Research Methods in Psychology. 3rd Edition. London: Sage.
Smith, J.A. & Osborn, M. (2003) Interpretative phenomenological analysis. In J.A. Smith (Ed) Qualitative Psychology: a practical guide to research methods. London: Sage.