Virginia Eatough

EverQuest—It’s Just a Computer Game Right? An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of Online Gaming Addiction

Over the last few years there has been an increasing interest in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs). These represent the latest Internet-only computer gaming experience consisting of a multi-player universe with an advanced and detailed world. One of the most popular (and largest) of these is Everquest. The data for this study were taken from a range of online gaming forums where individuals shared their experiences of playing EverQuest. Data were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), a method for analyzing qualitative data and meaning making activities. The study presents an IPA account of online gamers who perceive themselves to play excessively. The aim of the study was to examine how individuals perceived and made sense of EverQuest in the context of their lives. It is clear that the accounts presented by players and ex-players appear to be ‘addicted’ to EverQuest in the same way that other people become addicted to alcohol or gambling. Most of the individuals in this study appear to display (or allude to) the core components of addiction such as salience, mood modification, tolerance, conflict, withdrawal symptoms, cravings, and relapse.

I was like a wild wild person: Understanding feelings of anger using interpretative phenomenological analysis

This paper is concerned with illuminating how emotion (anger) and emotion-related phenomena such as feelings, thoughts and expressions appear to the individual person. In particular, it focuses on the role of feelings in emotion experience. It does this through the qualitative analysis of interview material from a single person case study using interpretative phenomenological analysis. The paper examines how the participant feels and experiences anger, the defining characteristics of anger episodes, and how the typical pattern of these episodes is disrupted by life-changes. The findings are examined in light of phenomenological ideas and the utility of these ideas for psychologys understanding of emotion argued for.

Online data collection from video game players: methodological issues.

The paper outlines the advantages and disadvantages of using the Internet to collect data concerning both online and offline gamers. Drawing from experience of a number of studies carried out online by the authors and by reviewing the available literature, the authors discuss the main issues concerning data collected from video game players. The paper examines a number of areas, including recruiting and utilizing participants, validity, suitable methods of data collection (i.e., questionnaire studies, online tests, participant observation, online interviews), and ethical issues. It is concluded that online research methods can be a useful way of examining the psychosocial aspects of video game playing.

The experience of living with Parkinson's disease: An interpretative phenomenological analysis case study

What are the lived experiences of an individual with a chronic degenerative disorder? The aim of this study is to address this question by exploring one individuals personal experience of living with Parkinsons disease. The study reports data from semi-structured interviews with a female participant which was analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Analysis established two super-ordinate themes which are described here. The first theme provides a detailed picture of the day to day experience of living with Parkinsons disease. The daily challenges faced by the Parkinsonian patient are varied and dynamic and they illuminate the complex interrelationship between mind and body. The second theme examines how living with Parkinsons disease has a severe impact on the individual sense of self and agency. Analysis conveys how the visible symptoms of Parkinsons disease disrupt the sense of an integrated and autonomous self.

Interpretative phenomenological analysis and embodied, active, situated cognition

We describe here some of the developing conversations between “third phase” cognitive science and phenomenological philosophy. Contributors to these conversations treat cognition as an embodied, active, and situated phenomenon. We argue that, despite much promise, proper engagement with the foundational phenomenological concept of a situated, meaning-making person has yet to be fully reflected in these conversations. We note that the outcomes of this dialogue have important implications for the field of phenomenological psychology. In particular, we demonstrate that one qualitative method, interpretative phenomenological analysis, can make a useful contribution to the ongoing developments in this field. We suggest that it can provide a valuable hermeneutic counterpoint to the primacy of empiricist methods. Through reference to sustained examples from research participants’ accounts of chronic pain, we show how qualitative phenomenological approaches, such as interpretative phenomenological analysis, can illuminate the importance of situating embodied personal experience in the context of meaning, relationships, and the lived world.

I feel like a scrambled egg in my head: An idiographic case study of meaning making and anger using interpretative phenomenological analysis

What does it feel like when ones meaning making is impoverished and threatens to break down? The aim of this study is to show how meaning making is achieved in the context of ones life and how this achievement is often a struggle for the individual. The study reports data from semi-structured interviews with a female participant, which was analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). This paper examines how cultural discourses and conventions are experienced and given meaning by the individual. First, the analysis demonstrates how dominant discourses are used to explain anger and aggression. These include hormones, alcohol, and the influence of past relationships on present action. Second, it examines how the participants meaning making is often ambiguous and confused, and how she variously accepts and challenges available meanings. Finally, the analysis demonstrates how meaning making can break down and the consequences of this for the individuals sense of self.

Reflecting on the Use of IPA with Focus Groups: Pitfalls and Potentials

Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) is a phenomenological, hermeneutic method for analysing semi-structured interview data, supported by a robust theoretical foundation and detailed practical procedures. The use of IPA with focus group data does not yet have the same status, and it should not be assumed that either theory or practice can remain unchanged when applied to focus groups. Two core features of IPA are discussed and problematized in the context of focus group work: the negotiation of part-whole relationships and the management of the interplay between real-time discursive and post-hoc thematic sense-making. With both these issues, practical solutions are offered from our own research on care. Although it is possible to adjust the IPA method for group data, there remain some profound theoretical and epistemological questions about whether the resultant focus on the group-individual dynamic and the discursive construction of experience represents too fundamental a shift from the idiographic and the psychological to be considered “true IPA.” However, working through these issues and attempting to move from either/ors to both/ands are seen as being true to the spirit of phenomenological enquiry.

Women, Anger, and Aggression An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

This study reports a qualitative phenomenological investigation of anger and anger-related aggression in the context of the lives of individual women. Semistructured interviews with five women are analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. This inductive approach aims to capture the richness and complexity of the lived experience of emotional life. In particular, it draws attention to the context-dependent and relational dimension of angry feelings and aggressive behavior. Three analytic themes are presented here: the subjective experience of anger, which includes the perceptual confusion and bodily change felt by the women when angry, crying, and the presence of multiple emotions; the forms and contexts of aggression, paying particular attention to the range of aggressive strategies used; and anger as moral judgment, in particular perceptions of injustice and unfairness. The authors conclude by examining the analytic observations in light of phenomenological thinking.

The personal experience of juvenile Huntington's disease: an interpretative phenomenological analysis of parents' accounts of the primary features of a rare genetic condition

There has been a paucity of research into the psychosocial impact of juvenile Huntingtons disease (JHD) on the child and the family. The study reported here is part of larger project that aimed to address this and investigate the social and health care needs of those affected by JHD. Ten semistructured interviews with the main caregiver(s) were carried out and were analyzed using the qualitative methodology interpretative phenomenological analysis. The main themes arising from the analysis are reported here: first becoming aware something is wrong; physical symptoms; speech and communication difficulties; behavioral problems; a slow but relentless process. These are discussed in relation to extant literature. We hope the article will be helpful to clinicians working with families where a child is affected by JHD and also contribute to the general literature on understanding symptoms in childhood illness.

The feel of experience: phenomenological ideas for organizational research

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to look at how phenomenology can be used to explore the meaning and experience of organizational life. It argues that phenomenology provides more than just themes or leitmotifs for post hoc analysis of narrative data; in its basic formulation, phenomenology is a way of thinking – a method – which illuminates the embodied, subjective and inter-subjective qualities of the life-world. Design/methodology/approach – The paper follows Husserls command to “go back to the things themselves” to access raw experience, asking ourselves, “what does experience mean phenomenologically?” We draw on the work of Merleau-Ponty to “flesh out” the embodied aspects of that phenomenological experience, outlining how the idea of a “field of presence” grounds our reflections in the here-and-now and gives our selfhood its coherence. Findings – The paper presents data on the diverse meanings of “experience” to suggest that phenomenological and organizational understandings can be differentia...