A Phenomenological Investigation of the Lived Experience of Psychopathology

Author(s):  
Russell M. Harris ◽  
Russell A. Bors

We collected personal documents from various participants on the topic of "a personal experience in which you observed or experienced psychopathology." The protocols were "topical autobiographical" personal documents, which we analyzed using the procedures set forth by van Kaam, to describe—rather than attempting to explain—lived experiences. Subsequently, 15 protocols obtained from an undergraduate class in psychopathology at the University of Regina were analyzed. We feel that both the methodology used and our findings reveal a new way of viewing psychopathology, showing the inadequacy of reducing psychopathology to diagnostic labels. We found that the fullness of the pathological experience can only be understood through elucidating experienced interpersonal dynamics. Consequently, both an essential and a situational quality is evidenced, revealing the inadequacy of theories in which either the existence of psychopathology or its subjective character are denied.

2021 ◽  
pp. 107780042110268
Author(s):  
Yvonna S. Lincoln ◽  
Christine A. Stanley

With seven cases drawn from both personal experience and informal interviews with colleagues from other research-intensive universities, we attempt to demonstrate the forms institutionalized discrimination and systemic oppression can take and if it is supported by policies or procedures encoded into an institution’s rules and regulations. We suggest heuristics for reexamining such procedures to more fully address such inherent biases. We proffer a qualitative methodological approach not only to explore the lived experiences of faculty of color but also to explore the latent as well as manifest meanings of these experiences for the faculty involved, which are frequently neither obvious nor transparent to both non-minority faculty and those responsible for carrying out institutional policies and regulations. Finally, we offer some criticisms of qualitative research in this arena to which organizational researchers must attend.


2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajul G. Joshi ◽  
John Chelliah ◽  
Veera Ramanathan

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to stir the deliberation on understanding grassroots innovation (GI) phenomenon through the lived experience approach and attempt to address the existing void in current literature. Design/methodology/approach – This paper outlines a human science research approach for studying the subjective reality embedded in the GI phenomenon. Such an approach provides a better and more bottom-up understanding of the underlying individual and interpersonal dynamics shaping the GI. Findings – This study provides a richer understanding of the underlying individual and interpersonal dynamics shaping the GI phenomena. This may serve as an aid for future research on scaling, managing GI and developing entrepreneurial capabilities of the grassroots innovators (GIrs). The study also confirms that no single unilateral theory can fully explain the lived experiences of the GIrs at the ideation, opportunity recognition, prototyping and scaling stage of GI. Rather, it is quintessential to have an integrated holistic perspective for understanding GI. This study also highlights the importance of hermeneutic phenomenology in pro-poor innovation research and practice in the near future. Research limitations/implications – This paper’s main limitation is whether the findings can be generalized in a wider context. The authors acknowledge this limitation. However, the purpose of this study is not to generalize the findings but rather provide a contextual understanding of what constitutes the lived experiences of GI. The authors recommend that a future study covering greater number of GIrs across India be undertaken to gain a better appreciation of the bigger picture. Originality/value – Systematic approaches for tapping into GI are conspicuously non-existent and hence a contextual understanding through the proposed holistic lens will assist in thriving of the GI phenomena in South Asian countries such as India.


2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-34
Author(s):  
Catherine Glover

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how British cycling brand Rapha innovatively embeds stories throughout its touchpoints and in its garments. Design/methodology/approach Using narrative inquiry methodology and subjective personal introspection, it analyses published brand texts, cycling apparel, primary interviews and lived experience to establish a key story theme and the role, form, value and continuity of stories in the brand’s canon. Findings It claims that Rapha’s texts reveal evidence of a specific story plot, the “Quest” (Booker, 2015), which acts as a structural editorial device and provides a rich lexicon that taps into a transformative personal experience. The study proposes that the brand’s employees identify themselves with quester values that define the brand’s essence, providing a coherent message and magnifying the agency in Rapha’s stories. Research limitations/implications This inquiry offers insight into a single consumer brand, yet it is the material manner in which stories are embedded within the brand offerings plus how lived experiences are recounted through structured storytelling that are of significance to wider practice and understanding. Originality/value It brings together industry, academic and personal insight to Rapha’s storytelling praxis to illustrate how storied content can be used to transmit values, purpose and passion to its audience.


2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 32-39
Author(s):  
LaNada War Jack

The author reflects on her personal experience as a Native American at UC Berkeley in the 1960s as well as on her activism and important leadership roles in the 1969 Third World Liberation Front student strike, which had as its goal the creation of an interdisciplinary Third World College at the university.


2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-49
Author(s):  
Tzu-Hui Chen

This narrative aims to explore the meaning and lived experiences of marriage that a unique immigrant population—“foreign brides” in Taiwan—possesses. This convergence narrative illustrates the dynamics and complexity of mail-order marriage and women's perseverance in a cross-cultural context. The relationship between marriage, race, and migration is analyzed. This narrative is comprised of and intertwined by two story lines. One is the story of two “foreign brides” in Taiwan. The other is my story about my cross-cultural relationship. All the dialogues are generated by 25 interviews of “foreign brides” in Taiwan and my personal experience.


Author(s):  
Lise Kouri ◽  
Tania Guertin ◽  
Angel Shingoose

The article discusses a collaborative project undertaken in Saskatoon by Community Engagement and Outreach office at the University of Saskatchewan in partnership with undergraduate student mothers with lived experience of poverty. The results of the project were presented as an animated graphic narrative that seeks to make space for an under-represented student subpopulation, tracing strategies of survival among university, inner city and home worlds. The innovative animation format is intended to share with all citizens how community supports can be used to claim fairer health and education outcomes within system forces at play in society. This article discusses the project process, including the background stories of the students. The entire project, based at the University of Saskatchewan, Community Engagement and Outreach office at Station 20 West, in Saskatoon’s inner city, explores complex intersections of racialization, poverty and gender for the purpose of cultivating empathy and deeper understanding within the university to better support inner city students. amplifying community voices and emphasizing the social determinants of health in Saskatoon through animated stories.


2019 ◽  
pp. 4-23
Author(s):  
Ariadna Rodríguez-Teijeiro ◽  
Raimundo Otero-Enríquez ◽  
Laura Román-Masedo

This paper presents, within the framework of the Degree in Sociology of the University of A Coruña (Spain), an evaluation system based on a methodological triangulation that has enabled an in-depth analysis of the different dimensions of the Degree Practicum. Namely, we have achieved some conclusions about: (a) the students' perception of the adequacy between the Practicum, the Degree and the "sociological activity" of the internship centers; (b) the students’ evaluation of skills, learning results and the "sociological vocation" of the centers; and (c) the students’ appraisal of features of the Practicum related to personal experience. From these evidences, improvement measures of this particular subject are illustrated. Such measures may be of interest within the scope of the academic management of the Degrees in Sociology.


Impact ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (10) ◽  
pp. 18-20
Author(s):  
Akimichi Takemura

Shiga University opened the first data science faculty in Japan in April 2017. Beginning with an undergraduate class of 100 students, the Department has since established a Master's degree programme with 20 students in each annual intake. This is the first data science faculty in Japan and the University intends to retain this leading position, the Department is well-placed to do so. The faculty closely monitors international trends concerning data science and Artificial Intelligence (AI) and adapt its education and research accordingly. The genesis of this department marks a change in Japan's attitudes towards dealing with information and reflects a wider, global understanding of the need for further research in this area. Shiga University's Data Science department seeks to produce well-trained data scientists who demonstrate a good balance of knowledge and skills in each of the three key areas of data science.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 670-671
Author(s):  
Phillip Clark ◽  
Margaret Perkinson

Abstract Gerontology is a unique field of scientific inquiry, because it embodies both professional and personal dimensions of experience and poses questions for its researchers. How does our work help us understand our own personal experience of aging? How does the reality of growing older change our teaching and research? As gerontologists, we embody two narratives of the aging experience, one academic and professional (with its dependence on theory and scientific research), the other intimately personal (with its own lived experience and practical insight acquired over the life course). How this dynamic unfolds is as personal as each of us as individuals, and embodies our own disciplinary backgrounds; yet collectively it has implications for how we approach an understanding of what it means to grow old. This symposium explores different facets of this dynamic from four perspectives of different individuals and differing disciplines. The first paper assesses the limitations of both quantitative and qualitative research paradigms in revealing the deeply idiosyncratic nature of personal aging. The second develops the metaphor of “double agent of aging” to characterize the two narratives of professional and personal aging. The third uses Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development to weave together the professional, practical, and personal dimensions of gerontology. Finally, the last develops the metaphor of arcs and stages in conceptualizing a gerontological career. The symposium concludes with recommendations for the integration of theoretical, practical, and personal insights into teaching, research, and service in a way that embraces, enhances, and extends the field of gerontology.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 334 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyoun S. Kim ◽  
David C. Hodgins ◽  
Benjamin Kim ◽  
T. Cameron Wild

Using a transdiagnostic perspective, the present research examined the prominent indicators of substance (alcohol, cocaine, marijuana, tobacco) and behavioral (gambling, video games, sex, shopping, work, eating) addictions nominated by people with lived experiences. Specifically, we aimed to explore whether the perceived most important indicators nominated were consistent across the 10 addictions or differed based on the specific addiction. Additionally, we explored gender differences in the perceived most important indicators across addictive behaviors. A large online sample of adults recruited from a Canadian province (n = 3503) were asked to describe the most important signs or symptoms of problems with these substances and behaviors. Open-ended responses were analyzed among a subsample of 2603 respondents (n = 1562 in the past year) who disclosed that they had personally experienced a problem with at least one addiction listed above. Content analyses revealed that dependence (e.g., craving, impairments in control) and patterns of use (e.g., frequency) were the most commonly perceived indicators for both substance and behavioral addictions, accounting for over half of all the qualitative responses. Differences were also found between substance and behavioral addictions regarding the proportion of the most important signs nominated. Consistent with the syndrome model of addiction, unique indicators were also found for specific addictive behaviors, with the greatest proportion of unique indicators found for eating. Supplemental analyses found that perceived indicators across addictions were generally gender invariant. Results provide some support for a transdiagnostic conceptualization of substance and behavioral addictions. Implications for the study, prevention, and treatment of addictions are discussed.


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