Self-Esteem Research, Theory, and Practice Toward a Positive ...

50 SELF-ESTEEM RESEARCH, THEORY, AND PRACTICEIf anything, a phenomenological approach is even more rigorous thana traditional approach because it tries to account for more of the phenomenon.. . . Traditional psychology has avoided the major psychologicalissues by either ignoring the peculiarly human phenomena or byreducing them to such an extent to fit the strict scientific method thatthey were no longer recognizable. A phenomenological approach tohuman phenomena insists that the phenomenon cannot be essentiallydistorted. . . . From a phenomenological viewpoint measuring a phenomenonis not the same as determining its meaning. These are twoseparate perspectives that must be balanced in every research. (Giorgi,1971, p. 14)Like its natural science counterpart, the phenomenological methodinvolves a step-by-step approach to collecting observations of experience,analyzing them, and presenting findings in a way that can be confirmedor challenged by others who replicate the steps.A related misconception, Giorgi noted, is that phenomenological psychologyis sometimes thought to be largely speculative. Although developingtheories from one’s analysis and findings is always speculative insome sense, phenomenological analysis itself is a disciplined activitybound by identifiable rules. The most important of these is that researchmust remain faithful to the phenomenon, which is captured by the phenomenologicaladage of making sure that a phenomenon is described in away that allows the experience to “show itself from itself in the very wayin which it shows itself from itself” (Heidegger, 1927/1962). We cannotsimply impose description on a phenomenon as an operational definitionmight do, because a phenomenological description must arise from thething itself. This means that phenomenological psychology is not antidata,which is another misconception. In fact, the descriptive power ofthis approach may be capable of handling more diverse forms of data thanits natural scientific counterpart, a feature that is particularly importantfor dealing with the diverse methods and findings concerning self-esteem.Similarly, Giorgi (1984) stated that phenomenological psychology is notanti-traditional, “Rather it is willing and able to dialog with traditionalpsychology” (p. 14), which is an important part of integrated description.(To give credit where it is due, I should mention that Giorgi was one of myprofessors in graduate school and that I first learned how to do phenomenologicalresearch using his method.)Of course, the nature and merits of psychology envisioned as ahuman science versus natural science is a topic that is discussed in greatdepth. Those who are interested in understanding more of this approachare invited to do so by investigating Giorgi’s work already cited, as well asthat of Heidegger (1927/1962), Husserl (1954/1970a), Gurwitsch (1964),and Merleau-Ponty (1945/1962). The basic point is really quite simple: