Phenomenological research helps us understand what it is like to experience a specific situation or life event. By describing the stories of people who actually lived through a particular experience and their perceptions of it, your research can cut to the heart of what it was truly like.

It seeks to investigate the universal features of consciousness while avoiding assumptions about the external world, aiming to describe phenomena as they appear to the subject, and to explore the meaning and significance of the lived experiences.

An underlying assumption of phenomenology is that the subjective experience of individuals is valid and important, and that understanding the meanings of experiences, as perceived by the individual who experiences them, is key to developing knowledge on certain topics.

Broadly, phenomenology aims to understand existence through the way we experience the world. Phenomenologists blur the boundary between the perceiving mind/body/subject and the perceptible world/object, seeking to understand how each informs the other.

Why is Phenomenology Important? Phenomenology is like a magnifying glass for our lives. It might seem a little bit like daydreaming or getting lost in thought, but actually, it’s a serious tool for becoming more tuned into life.