Conceptual, Theoretical, and Methodological Issues in Inferring Subjective Emotion Experience Recommendations for Researchers

Abstract

Abstract: In recent years, researchers in a variety of disciplines have outlined broad methodological strategies for approaching the scientific study of conscious experience, advocating the systematic inclusion of phenomenological data in ongoing research and the use of findings at the phenomenal level to constrain investigations at other, more objective levels of analysis (Baars, 1988; Chalmers, 1999, 2004; Flanagan, 1992; Varela, 1996). The proposals differ in the details, but they share the common theme that new and better self-report methods will be required to advance our understanding of experience. Compared with the apparent fine-grained nature of phenomenal experience, our measures of it remain crude. Varela (1996) lamented that the advancement of the field of consciousness studies may be hindered by a reticence on the part of traditional investigators to take phenomenological investigation seriously, especially when it comes to an investigation of their own conscious states.