Christopher L. Heavey

The phenomena of inner experience

This study provides a survey of phenomena that present themselves during moments of naturally occurring inner experience. In our previous studies using Descriptive Experience Sampling (DES) we have discovered five frequently occurring phenomena--inner speech, inner seeing, unsymbolized thinking, feelings, and sensory awareness. Here we quantify the relative frequency of these phenomena. We used DES to describe 10 randomly identified moments of inner experience from each of 30 participants selected from a stratified sample of college students. We found that each of the five phenomena occurred in approximately one quarter of sampled moments, that the frequency of these phenomena varied widely across individuals, that there were no significant gender differences in the relative frequencies of these phenomena, and that higher frequencies of inner speech were associated with lower levels of psychological distress.

Telling what we know: describing inner experience

It is claimed that psychological science can obtain accurate reports about peoples inner experience. We reconsider three criticisms of introspection: Nisbett and Wilsons critical review of introspection, the failure of introspectionists to agree about imageless thought, and Skinners behavioral position. We show that rather than dismissing introspection, these criticisms point the way towards technical improvements in the methods used to produce accurate descriptions of inner experience. One such method, Descriptive Experience Sampling, is described and used as an example to illustrate our conclusion that, although exploring inner experience is not trivially easy, it can provide important knowledge for many areas in cognitive science.

Exploring inner experience : the descriptive experience sampling method

Written for the psychologist, philosopher, and layperson interested in consciousness, Exploring Inner Experience provides a comprehensive introduction to the Descriptive Experience Sampling (DES) method for obtaining accurate reports of inner experience. DES uses a beeper to cue participants to pay attention to their experience at precisely defined moments; participants are then interviewed to obtain high-fidelity accounts of their experience at those moments. Exploring Inner Experience shows (a) how DES uncovers previously unknown details of inner experience; (b) how the implications of this method affect our understanding of inner experience and the human condition more generally; (c) how DES avoids the traps that destroyed the introspections of the previous century; (d) why DES reports of inner experience should be considered reliable and valid; and (e) how to use the DES method. This book will be basic reading for all psychologists, philosophers, and students interested in consciousness, as well as anyone who is seriously concerned with understanding the human condition.(Series B)

Prevention of marital dysfunction: behavioral approaches and beyond.

Marital dysfunction is a significant problem in the U.S., with far-ranging effects on the mental health, physical health, and economic well-being of people who experience it. In addition, marital discord and divorce appear to have adverse effects on children. This review describes the historical roots of current prevention programs and critically reviews marriage preparation programs that have been examined in the peer-reviewed literature. The results of 13 studies suggest that behaviorally oriented, skills-based marriage preparation programs can lead to behavioral changes that may help prevent the emergence of marital dysfunction. Whereas there has been modest improvement in the methodology of the program evaluations, suggestions for continued improvements are made. Ways to enhance the effectiveness of marriage preparation programs using the principles of prevention are described.

Toward a phenomenology of inner speaking

Inner speaking is a common and widely discussed phenomenon of inner experience. Based on our studies of inner experience using Descriptive Experience Sampling (a qualitative method designed to produce high fidelity descriptions of randomly selected pristine inner experience), we advance an initial phenomenology of inner speaking. Inner speaking does occur in many, though certainly not all, moments of pristine inner experience. Most commonly it is experienced by the person as speaking in his or her own naturally inflected voice but with no sound being produced. In addition to prototypical instances of inner speaking, there are wide-ranging variations that fit the broad category of inner speaking and large individual differences in the frequency with which individuals experience inner speaking. Our observations are discrepant from what many have said about inner speaking, which we attribute to the characteristics of the methods different researchers have used to examine inner speaking.

Descriptive Experience Sampling Demonstrates the Connection of Thinking to Externally Observable Behavior

Cognitive models of psychotherapy assume a connection between thinking and behavior but have examined that connection with the use of only retrospective reports of thinking. However, such retrospective reports may not be trustworthy. Descriptive experience sampling (DES), a nonretrospective procedure for examining inner experience (thinking, feelings, etc.), has demonstrated links between thinking and behavior in some psychiatric populations but not yet in general. Here, DES was used to compare 7 undiagnosed individuals who share an externally observable characteristic (high rate of speech) to 7 normal-speech-rate individuals. High-speech-rate individuals had fewer instances of simple inner speech, more instances of complex inner experiences, fewer feeling experiences, and more “just doing” experiences, thus demonstrating a connection between inner experience and external behavior, and that DES is useful for exploring inner experience.

Interobserver reliability of descriptive experience sampling

The descriptive experience sampling (DES) method is a procedure for providing descriptions of the inner experience of individuals. Although analytic arguments for its reliability are found, there have been no conventional interobserver reliability studies of the method. We took a stratified random sample of 10 participants and obtained 6 DES samples from each. Two interviewers independently interviewed the participants and rated them on the presence or absence of 16 characteristics of inner experience, 5 of which occurred frequently enough to analyze separately. The single-sample interobserver-reliability kappas for those 5 characteristics ranged from .52 to .92 (median 0.76). Spearman–Brown adjustment showed that reliabilities for typical 19-sample averages would range from .92 to .98, comparable to highly reliable questionnaires.

Toward a Phenomenology of Feelings

Our understanding of emotion cannot be complete without an understanding of feelings, the experiential aspect of emotion. Despite their importance, little effort has been devoted to the careful apprehension of feelings. Based on our apprehension of many randomly selected moments of pristine inner experience, we present a preliminary phenomenology of feelings. We begin by observing that often feelings occur as directly experienced phenomena of awareness; however, often no feelings are present in experience, or if they are present, they are too faint to be observed by a process intended to observe them. Feelings range from vague to distinct and sometimes do, but other times do not, include bodily sensations. When bodily sensations are present, there is a wide range of clarity and location of these sensations. Sometimes people experience multiple distinct feelings and sometimes people experience one feeling that is a mix or blend of different feelings. We also discuss what feelings are not, including instances when feelings do not appear to be present, despite evidence suggesting the presence of underlying emotional processes (e.g., behavioral evidence of emotion). These instances of emotion but not feeling lead us to speculate that experiencing feelings is a skill developed over time through an interaction of interpersonal and intrapersonal events.

Descriptive Experience Sampling: A Method for Exploring Momentary Inner Experience

Descriptive Experience Sampling (DES) is a method developed to provide high fidelity accounts of pristine inner experience. A DES investigator gives a subject a random beeper to take into her natural environments. When the beep sounds, the subject jots down notes about her ongoing experience. The subject repeats this process, typically collecting about six moments of experience in a sampling day. Within 24 hours the investigator interviews the subject. During this expositional interview subject and investigator collaborate to develop high fidelity accounts of each sampled moment of experience. This process is repeated over a number of days until an idiographic description of the subjects inner experience has been developed. DES is open-ended, qualitative, and minimally retrospective. Because of the close examination of brief moments of experience, DES is capable of providing highly detailed accounts of inner experience. We summarize some important DES results and contrast DES with the methods of van Manen and Moustakas.

Mixed Emotions: Toward a Phenomenology of Blended and Multiple Feelings:

After using descriptive experience sampling to study randomly selected moments of inner experience, we make observations about feelings, including blended and multiple feelings. We observe that inner experience usually does not contain feelings. Sometimes, however, feelings are directly present. When feelings are present, most commonly they are unitary. Sometimes people experience separate emotions as a single experience, which we call a blended feeling. Occasionally people have multiple distinct feelings present simultaneously. These distinct multiple feelings can be of opposite valence, with one pleasant and the other unpleasant. We provide examples that inform theories of emotions and discuss the important role observational methodology plays in the effort to understand inner experience including feelings.