Phenomenology and Psychological Research

This book is both a theoretical justification of a phenomenological and human scientific approach to psychological research and a presentation of findings in the areas of cognitive, clinical, and social psychology.The book is important because it is the most sustained statement to date about a phenomenological approach to psychological research along with original findings to compare with mainstream psychology in crucial areas of psychology: cognitive, clinical, and social psychology.Phenomenology and Psychological Research is further clarification of the phenomenological approach to psychological research along with examples of application in four different content areas: learning and thinking (both examples of alternative approaches to cognitive processes), self-deception (clinical psychology), and criminal victimization (social psychology). As such, it gives the reader who is merely curious about the possibilities of phenomenological approaches a good opportunity to evaluate its fruitfulness, whereas those who are already sympathetic to the approach will find a greater articulation of the theory behind the procedures. Lastly, the reader will find in this study an example of a descriptive and qualitative approach to psychological research that claims to meet both phenomenological and human scientific criteria. It is one of the first books to make such a claim about psychological research.