The lived experience of remembering a ‘good’ interview: Micro-phenomenology applied to itself
Katrin Heimann, Hanne Bess Boelsbjerg, Chris T. Allen, Martijn van Beek, Christian Suhr, Annika Lübbert, Claire Petitmengin
Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences September 10, 2022 DOI: 10.1007/s11097-022-09844-4 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Auto-ethnographic qualitative study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 5 |
| Population | Experienced researchers of micro-phenomenology |
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Keywords | Phenomenology philosophy Interview Interpretative phenomenological analysis Lived experience Phenomenological method Ethnography Photo elicitation Epistemology Qualitative research Psychoanalysis Social science |
| Citations | 17 |
| Key findings | Interviewed researchers judge the quality of a micro-phenomenological interview in part based on a connection or contact between interviewer and interviewee. |
Abstract
Micro-phenomenology is an interview and analysis method for investigating subjective experience. As a research tool, it provides detailed descriptions of brief moments of any type of subjective experience and offers techniques for systematically comparing them. In this article, we use an auto-ethnographic approach to present and explore the method. The reader is invited to observe a dialogue between two authors that illustrates and comments on the planning, conducting and analysis of a pilot series of five micro-phenomenological interviews. All these interviews asked experienced researchers of micro-phenomenology to browse their memories to identify one successful and one challenging instance of working with micro-phenomenology. The interview then focused on this reflective task to investigate whether applying the method to itself might reveal quality criteria. The article starts by presenting a shortened and edited version of the first of these interviews. Keeping the dialogue format, we then outline the micro-phenomenological analysis procedure by demonstrating its application to part of this data and corresponding passages of other interviews. We focus on one unexpected finding: interviewed researchers judge the quality of an interview in part based on a connection or contact between interviewer and interviewee. We discuss these results in the context of the means and intentions of the method and suggest avenues for future research.
Comparable studies
Other qualitative studies on philosophy of mind, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qualitative thematic analysis of the phenomenology of near-death experiences Cardiac arrest survivors | 2018 | Qualitative study | n = 34 |
| Phenomenology and Sequelae of 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine Use Psychiatrists who had taken MDMA | 1992 | Qualitative study | n = 20 |
| A phenomenology of meditation-induced light experiences: traditional buddhist and neurobiological perspectives American Buddhist practitioners | 2014 | Qualitative study | |
| Evoking the ineffable: The phenomenology of extreme sports. Extreme sports participants across three continents, including BASE jumping, big wave... | 2017 | Qualitative study | n = 15 |
| Phenomenology and content of the inhaled N, N-dimethyltryptamine (N, N-DMT) experience. Naturalistic inhaled N,N-DMT experiences posted to the r/DMT Reddit community | 2022 | Qualitative analysis | n = 3,778 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 3
- La neurofenomenología en la segunda década del siglo XXI: una revisión sistemática Revista Académica Internacional de Educación Física April 6, 2026
- Phenomenology and temporality in psychopathology: Calibrating qualitative phenomenological methods according to the timescale of subjective reports June 19, 2023
- Micro-Phenomenology as a Method for Studying User Experience in Human-Computer Interaction International Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems April 25, 2025
Cites 5
- Guiding the study of brain dynamics by using first-person data: Synchrony patterns correlate with ongoing conscious states during a simple visual task Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences January 22, 2002
- Microcognitive science: bridging experiential and neuronal microdynamics. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 2013
- On the Veiling and Unveiling of Experience: A Comparison Between the Micro-Phenomenological Method and the Practice of Meditation Journal of Phenomenological Psychology August 12, 2021
- How something can be said about telling more than we can know: on choice blindness and introspection. Consciousness and Cognition December 2006
- Describing one’s subjective experience in the second person: An interview method for the science of consciousness November 29, 2006