The lived experience of remembering a ‘good’ interview: Micro‐phenomenology applied to itself

TY - JOUR

T1 - The lived experience of remembering a ‘good’ interview:

T2 - Micro‐phenomenology applied to itself

AU - Heimann, Katrin

AU - Boelsbjerg, Hanne Bess

AU - Allen, Chris

AU - Beek, Martijn van

AU - Suhr, Christian

AU - Lübbert, Annika

AU - Petitmengin, Claire

PY - 2023/2

Y1 - 2023/2

N2 - 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 arti- cle, 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 plan- ning, 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 appli- cation 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.

AB - 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 arti- cle, 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 plan- ning, 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 appli- cation 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.

KW - Micro-phenomenology

KW - cognitive science

KW - phenomenology

KW - first person method

KW - second person method

KW - subjective experience

KW - relationality

KW - interview quality

U2 - 10.1007/s11097-022-09844-4

DO - 10.1007/s11097-022-09844-4

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 36644374

SN - 1568-7759

VL - 22

SP - 217

EP - 245

JO - Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences

JF - Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences

IS - 1

ER -