First-Person Methods: Toward an Empirical Phenomenology of Experience

Abstract

In the history of psychology, first-person methods, such as introspection, have come into disrepute in favor of the experimental approach. Yet the results of first-person research - such as the famous studies provided by Maurice Merleau-Ponty in his Phenomenology of Perception - have indeed produced knowledge subsequently ascertained by neuroscientific research. The purpose of this book is to assist readers in developing first-person methods as a rigorous approach. It is designed to assist researchers in the field of education to develop their competencies in the first-person approach. Concrete examples, descriptions, precepts, and possible findings are provided to guide readers in their inquiries. Surrounding the inquiries, reflective commentaries assist readers to become reflexively aware of what they are doing and thereby come to bring into discourse the methods they have used. That is, readers are assisted in developing research praxis by experiencing first-person methods first hand and then to become reflexively aware of the method as method.