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

Self-Esteem Research Problems and Issues 55they sometimes seem so excessively postmodern that their work lacksmethodological rigor: It demonstrates so much relativism that it is difficultto distinguish between psychological research and what might moreproperly be called literary criticism or even mere opinion, neither ofwhich is grounded in the scientific method. Rather, if we want to be genuinelyphenomenological, then we must stay with the thing itself, andself-esteem seems to be telling us that both scientific paradigms are necessaryif we wish to do that faithfully.One way of reaching this goal is to use a form of the phenomenologicalmethod I have referred to as “integrated description” (Mruk,1984, 1994). This approach is based on Giorgi’s more scientifically rigorousvision of phenomenological psychology in that it is a step-by-stepprocedure. However, integrated description is also designed to work withthe findings of psychology practiced as a natural science, so the result isa more balanced and comprehensive analysis, which may be just what weneed to research self-esteem most effectively. Integrated description is atwo-stage research process. First, it is necessary to identify the generalstructure of a phenomenon by using something like the step-by-step versionof the phenomenological method presented earlier. Then, it is possibleto proceed to the integration phase. This part of the process involvesidentifying what Jackson (1984) might call the “parts” of a phenomenon,which are often best determined quantitatively, and then fitting them intotheir respective places in the “whole” or general structure. I actuallybegan this work in Chapter 1, when the fundamental structure wasrevealed by analyzing the definitions and checking them against selfesteemas it is lived. In Chapter 5, I will use the general structure to forma theory of self-esteem and show where the self-esteem paradoxes, as wellas many significant findings of the field, fit into it in a way that leads topractical applications that are amenable to examination and verificationboth qualitatively and quantitatively.It is important to realize that this method of integrated descriptionmay be applied to any number of human phenomena. For instance, if wewere doing an integrated description of anxiety or an anxiety disorder, Iwould first attempt to find out what it means to be anxious by asking subjectsto describe their experiences and then develop a general structure of itin a step-by-step fashion. Next, I would examine more traditional researchon anxiety and show where those results fit into the structure. For example,because anxiety involves bodily sensations and states, I would have toshow where and how the biology of anxiety comes into play in “beinganxious.” Yet, anxiety also affects perception, so I would elaborate thedescription further by including findings on thinking patterns typicallyassociated with anxiety. Furthermore, because anxiety often affects aperson’s relationships with others, I would expand the phenomenology to