Module: Research Methods in Psychology
Lecture 8: IPA 1
Outline for today’s session
Background and foundation of IPA
Comparing IPA to other methods
Discussion on the pre-recorded materials about IPA
There are some similarities on a technical level
Several of them use some kind of coding that doesn’t involve quantification,
but involves some kind of labelling.
Contains themes and central ideas
Key differences: what we look for and how that is done
Perspective summarised
IPA
Analysing subjective lived experience and sense-making through interpretation
It always analyses subjective lived experiences
Hermeneutics
To see the world through the eyes of the participants
Listening to other people’s lived experiences and drawing up analysis on
common themes
You need to have a certain level of open-mindedness to hear the participants
Every IPA tries to say something about the phenomena/phenomenon
experienced by people
More demanding
Method used by IPA is influenced by a philosophical background
The variability isn’t as great as thematic analysis
The themes that comes out of an IPA are experiential themes
Grounded theory
Building explanatory theory from raw data through constant comparative analysis
It’s about theory construction
It involves hypothesis
You are building some kind of explanation from the data upwards
Grounded theory is developed during the analysis
Analysis substantive theory a general theory
Differences and similarities to IPA:
- Both building from raw data/information
- Grounded theory causal explanation
- In IPA, the understanding you build may not be generalised, but
transferable to other people depending on how similar they are to your
participants.
Lecture 8: IPA 1
Outline for today’s session
Background and foundation of IPA
Comparing IPA to other methods
Discussion on the pre-recorded materials about IPA
There are some similarities on a technical level
Several of them use some kind of coding that doesn’t involve quantification,
but involves some kind of labelling.
Contains themes and central ideas
Key differences: what we look for and how that is done
Perspective summarised
IPA
Analysing subjective lived experience and sense-making through interpretation
It always analyses subjective lived experiences
Hermeneutics
To see the world through the eyes of the participants
Listening to other people’s lived experiences and drawing up analysis on
common themes
You need to have a certain level of open-mindedness to hear the participants
Every IPA tries to say something about the phenomena/phenomenon
experienced by people
More demanding
Method used by IPA is influenced by a philosophical background
The variability isn’t as great as thematic analysis
The themes that comes out of an IPA are experiential themes
Grounded theory
Building explanatory theory from raw data through constant comparative analysis
It’s about theory construction
It involves hypothesis
You are building some kind of explanation from the data upwards
Grounded theory is developed during the analysis
Analysis substantive theory a general theory
Differences and similarities to IPA:
- Both building from raw data/information
- Grounded theory causal explanation
- In IPA, the understanding you build may not be generalised, but
transferable to other people depending on how similar they are to your
participants.
