U3D1-68 - Pick a Methodology from the instructions below which you would use to design a qualitative study. Write and Demonstrate your understanding of methodology.

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Research Design and Methodology

In: Heuristic research : design, methodology, and applications

By: Clark Moustakas

Pub. Date: 2011

Access Date: April 20, 2018

Publishing Company: SAGE Publications, Inc.

City: Thousand Oaks

Print ISBN: 9780803938823

Online ISBN: 9781412995641

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412995641

Print pages: 38-58

This PDF has been generated from SAGE Research Methods. Please note that the

pagination of the online version will vary from the pagination of the print book.

http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412995641

Research Design and Methodology

In heuristic methodology one seeks to obtain qualitative depictions that are at the heart and

depths of a person's experience—depictions of situations, events, conversations, relationships,

feelings, thoughts, values, and beliefs. A heuristic quest enables the investigator to collect

“excerpts or entire passages from documents, correspondence, records and case histories”

(Patton, 1986, p. 187). The researcher gathers detailed descriptions, direct quotations, and

case documentations. Such qualitative methods enable the researcher to derive the raw

material of knowledge and experience from the empirical world.

QUALITIES OF HEURISTIC INQUIRY

Douglass and Moustakas (1985) compared qualitative research with the traditional paradigm,

noting that traditional empirical investigations presuppose cause-effect relationships while the

qualitatively oriented heuristic scientist seeks to discover the nature and meaning of the

phenomenon itself and to illuminate it from direct first-person accounts of individuals who have

directly encountered the phenomenon in experience. In the Douglass and Moustakas study,

heuristic inquiry was contrasted with phenomenological research as follows:

(1) Whereas phenomenology encourages a kind of detachment from the phenomenon

being investigated, heuristics emphasizes connectedness and relationship. (2)

Whereas phenomenology permits the researcher to conclude with definitive

descriptions of the structures of experience, heuristics leads to depictions of essential

meanings and portrayal of the intrigue and personal significance that imbue the

search to know. (3) Whereas phenomenological research generally concludes with a

presentation of the distilled structures of experience, heuristics may involve

reintegration of derived knowledge that itself is an act of creative discovery, a synthesis

that includes intuition and tacit understanding. (4) Whereas phenomenology loses the

persons in the process of descriptive analysis, in heuristics the research participants

remain visible in the examination of the data and continue to be portrayed as whole

persons. Phenomenology ends with the essence of experience; heuristics retains the

essence of the person in experience, (p. 43)

The focus in a heuristic quest is on recreation of the lived experience; full and complete

depictions of the experience from the frame of reference of the experiencing person. The

challenge is fulfilled through examples, narrative descriptions, dialogues, stories, poems,

artwork, journals and diaries, autobiographical logs, and other personal documents. The

heuristic process is congruent with Schopenhauer's (1966) reference to lyric poetry: the

Heuristic research : design, methodology, and applicationsPage 2 of 18

depicted is “also at the same time the depicter” (p. 248) requiring vivid perception, description,

and illustration of the experience.

A typical way of gathering material is through interviews that often take the form of dialogues

with oneself and one's research participants. Ordinarily, such an “interview” is not ruled by the

clock but by inner experiential time. In dialogue, one is encouraged to permit ideas, thoughts,

feelings, and images to unfold and be expressed naturally. One completes the quest when one

has an opportunity to tell one's story to a point of natural closing.

In his essay “Toward a Science of the Person,” Rogers (1969) describes his heuristic process.

He states that

wit e way you reach own internal frame of reference—I may “know” that I love or hate,

sense, perceive, comprehend. I may believe or disbelieve, enjoy or dislike, be

interested in or bored by. … It is only by reference to the flow of feelings in me that I

can begin to conceptualize an answer. … I taste a foreign dish. Do I like it? It is only

by referring to the flow of my experiencing that I can sense the implicit meanings. (p.

23)

The crucial processes in heuristics (once one understands the values, beliefs, and knowledge

inherent in the heuristic paradigm) are: concentrated gazing on something that attracts or

compels one into a search for meaning: focus on a topic or formulation of the question; and

methods of preparing, collecting, organizing, analyzing, and synthesizing data.

FORMULATING THE QUESTION

All heuristic inquiry begins with the internal search to discover, with an encompassing

puzzlement, a passionate desire to know, a devotion and commitment to pursue a question that

is strongly connected to one's own identity and selfhood. The awakening of such a question

comes through an inward clearing, and an intentional readiness and determination to discover

a fundamental truth regarding the meaning and essence of one's own experience and that of

others.

Polanyi (1969) has stated that “it is customary today to represent the process of scientific

inquiry as the setting up of a hypothesis followed by its subsequent testing. I cannot accept

these terms. All true scientific research starts with hitting on a deep and promising problem,

and this is half the discovery” (p. 118). Polanyi points to the imperative nature of the problem as

such: “To see a problem is to see something hidden that may yet be accessible. … It is an

engrossing possession of incipient knowledge which passionately strives to validate itself. Such

Heuristic research : design, methodology, and applicationsPage 3 of 18

is the heuristic power of a problem” (pp. 131–132).

Discovering a significant problem or question that will hold the wondering gaze and passionate

commitment of the researcher is the essential opening of the heuristic process. The question as

such (and the researcher's relationship to it) will determine whether or not an authentic and

compelling path has opened, one that will sustain the researcher's curiosity, involvement, and

participation, with full energy and resourcefulness over a lengthy period of time.

Feild (1979) emphasizes this value and the difficulty of achieving it:

What keeps you from asking a real question? … it had never occurred to me that the

majority of so-called questions I had asked before were merely spontaneous

pleadings. They were not really based on experience and study. Now, after years of

training, I could, as it were, feel the question within me, but for the life of me I could

not get it into the right words … finding the exact question can be a subtle and difficult

process. One word placed in one part of a sentence may produce an answer that in

another part of the sentence will produce something entirely different. We have to

learn to be so accurate with our questions that the answer is as clear and simple as

possible. (p. 18)

In order to design a heuristic research study that will reveal the meanings and essences of a

particular human experience in an accurate, comprehensive, and vivid way, it is essential that

the (1979) question be stated in simple, clear, and concrete terms. As Feild suggests, it is

necessary that the key words and phrases be placed in the proper order. The basic elements of

the search are found in the primary words stated in the ordering of the question. The question

as such should reveal itself immediately and evidently, in a way that one knows what one is

seeking. The question itself provides the crucial beginning and meaning, the nature of the

searcher's quest. The way in which the investigator poses the question will determine what

fundamental events, relationships, and activities will bear on the problem.

A passage from Kant's Critique (1929) further emphasizes the significance of the question, per

se:

To know what questions may reasonably be asked is already a great and necessary

proof of sagacity and insight. For if a question is absurd in itself and calls for an

answer where none is required, it not only brings shame on the propounder of the

question but may betray an incautious listener into absurd answers, thus presenting,

as the ancients said, the ludicrous spectacle of one man milking a he-goat and the

other holding a sieve underneath. (p. 97)

Heuristic research : design, methodology, and applicationsPage 4 of 18

Without the question itself having the qualities of simplicity, concreteness, specificity, and clarity

—as Kierkegaard exclaims in Concluding Unscientific Postscripts (1941)—it will lose itself into

vagueness and indeterminateness and “fantastically becomes a something that no existing

human being ever was or can be” (p. 169).

The question grows out of an intense interest in a particular problem or theme. The

researcher's excitement and curiosity inspire the search; associations multiply as personal

experiences bring the core of the problem into focus. As the fullness of the theme emerges,

strands and tangents of it may complicate an articulation of a manageable and specific

question. Yet this process of allowing all aspects to come into awareness is essential to the

eventual formulation of a clear question.

The heuristic research question has definite characteristics:

It seeks to reveal more fully the essence or meaning of a phenomenon of human experience.

It seeks to discover the qualitative aspects, rather than quantitative dimensions, of the

phenomenon.

It engages one's total self and evokes a personal and passionate involvement and active

participation in the process.

It does not seek to predict or to determine causal relationships.

It is illuminated through careful descriptions, illustrations, metaphors, poetry, dialogue, and

other creative renderings rather than by measurements, ratings or scores.

An effective question in heuristic inquiry upholds the characteristics and values of heuristic

research delineated above. Suggested steps in formulating the question include:

List all aspects of particular interests or topics which represent curiosities or intrigues. Do this

freely, jotting down questions and thoughts even if they are not complete.

Cluster the related interests or topics into subthemes.

Set aside any subthemes that imply causal relationships, and any that contain inherent

assumptions.

Look at all the remaining subthemes and continue to consider them thoughtfully until one

basic theme or question emerges as central, one that passionately awakens your interest,

concern, and commitment.

Formulate it in a way that specifies clearly and precisely what it is that you want to know.

Recent questions developed for heuristic studies have included: What is the experience of

growing up in a fatherless home? What is the experience of being sensitive? How do people

Heuristic research : design, methodology, and applicationsPage 5 of 18

perceive and describe the experience of synchronicity? What meanings are inherent in the

precognitive dream experience? What is the experience of writing poetry? What is the

experience of really feeling connected with nature? How do people perceive and describe the

experience of rhythm in significant relationships?

When a genuine question has been formulated, then, as Pearce (1971) explains, “If you hold

and serve the question … and you really believe in your question, it will be answered; the

break-point will arrive when you will suddenly be ‘ready’. Then you must put your hand to the

plow and not look back; walk out onto the water unmindful of the waves” (p. 108).

The heuristic researcher is not only intimately and autobiographically related to the question

but learns to love the question. It becomes a kind of song into which the researcher breathes

life not only because the question leads to an answer, but also because the question itself is

infused in the researcher's being. It creates a thirst to discover, to clarify, and to understand

crucial dimensions of knowledge and experience.

Solving a problem means finding one's way. Like swimming, skiing, or playing the piano, it

requires practice. To be able to swim one must enter the water, and to become a problem solver

one learns to solve problems (Polanyi, 1962).

In heuristic research, the openness of the researcher in elucidating the question, clarifying its

terms, and pointing to its directions provides the essential beginnings of the discovery process.

From there, as Kierkegaard (1965) has so aptly stated, the researcher must strive to be humble

and not hold a single presupposition, so as to be in a position to learn the more.

EXPLORING AND ANSWERING THE QUESTION

Having formulated the question and defined and delineated its primary terms and meanings,

the next step is a careful and disciplined organization of methods for preparing to conduct the

study. This step is followed by construction of methods and procedures to guide a collection of

data that will illuminate an answer to the question. After the data are collected, they must be

organized and presented in a way that depicts and illustrates the themes, meanings, and

essences of the experience that has been investigated.

Methods of heuristic research are open-ended. They point to a process of accomplishing

something in a thoughtful and orderly way that guides the researcher. There is no exclusive list

that would be appropriate for every heuristic investigation, but rather each research process

unfolds in its own way. Initially, methods are envisioned and constructed that will guide the

research through the preparation phase and facilitate the collection and analysis of data. They

Heuristic research : design, methodology, and applicationsPage 6 of 18

facilitate the flow of the investigation and aim toward yielding rich, accurate, and complete

depictions of the qualities or constituents of the experience. Keen (1975) has remarked that

“The goal of every technique is to help the phenomenon reveal itself more completely than it

does in ordinary experience. This goal may be stated as to uncover as many meanings as

possible and their relations to one another as the phenomenon presents itself in experience” (p.

41).

As long as the method is congruent with responsible ethical concerns, any course that a

researcher's ingenuity is capable of suggesting is an appropriate method for scientific

investigation (Bridgman, 1950). Every method or procedure, however, must relate back to the

question and facilitate collection of data that will disclose the nature, meaning, and essence of

the phenomenon being investigated. This means methods and procedures that will yield

accurate and vivid dimensions of the experience—situations, events, relationships, places,

times, episodes, conversations, issues, feelings, thoughts, perceptions, sense qualities,

understandings, and judgments.

Bridgman (1950) has emphasized that “science is what scientists do … there are as many

scientific methods as there are individual scientists” (p. 83). The purpose of a method of

scientific inquiry is to obtain an answer to the problem at hand. The working scientist, Bridgman

observes, “is not consciously following any prescribed course of action, but feels complete

freedom to utilize any method or device whatever which in the particular situation … seems

likely to yield the correct answer” (p. 83). The heuristic researcher constructs methods that will

explicate meanings and patterns of experience relevant to the question, procedures that will

encourage open expression and dialogue.

Methods of Preparation

Common methods of preparation include immersion in the topic or question, going wide open

to discover meanings in everyday observations, conversations, and published works. This

requires that the researcher be alert to signs or expressions of the phenomenon, willing to

enter a moment of the experience timelessly and live the moment fully. It requires “a tacit and

passionate contribution of the person knowing what is being known,” as Polanyi (1962)

emphasizes, and this “is no mere imperfection, but a necessary component of all knowledge”

(p. 312).

When I began to study loneliness it became the center of my world. Every event, every feature

of my existence appeared to me to be connected with loneliness. I found loneliness everywhere

in my waking life—for instance, as a crucial component of hospitalized children separated from

their families, or as an inherent quality of making decisions that impacted importantly on other's

Heuristic research : design, methodology, and applicationsPage 7 of 18

lives. It became a significant focus of the people with whom I met in therapy—whatever their

presenting problems—and of my reflections on my own life. I recognized loneliness as a

necessary condition of solitude and creativity. My dreams were filled with lonely awakenings

and encounters. I walked the streets at night and noticed especially isolated stars, clouds,

trees, and flowers. I was once confronted and threatened with arrest by municipal police, who

told me that I was violating a local ordinance and that solitary middle-of-the-night sojourns were

forbidden. On one occasion I was actually escorted home with rotating, flaring lights

illuminating my every step. Throughout the early days of my investigations, loneliness was the

mainstream of my life and colored everything else, influencing the meaning of everything else.

This kind of personal, private immersion provides the initial essential preparation for discovering

the nature and essence of a particular experience. Another example of such immersion is

presented in Blau's (1980) study of anger:

The more I continue to read and speak to people with whom I come in contact, the

more my interest and curiosity piques. When I experience anger, I am aware that my

innate, fundamental expression has been colored by years of suppression and is not

diverted into other affects and forms of behavior … my essential connection with anger

has been tampered with and is now entangled in layers of ingested messages. I want

to recontact and connect with my natural experience of anger. To do so, I need to look

directly at the experience itself; not just my thought processes, bodily aspects of this

emotion, or the specific behaviors that are emerging. I must consider the full and

complete experience to arrive at a deeper more genuine understanding, (p. 14)

Methods of preparation in heuristic research include:

Developing a set of instructions that will inform potential co-researchers of the nature of the

research design, its purpose and process, and what is expected of them.

Locating and acquiring the research participants, developing a set of criteria for selection of

participants—for example, age, sex, socioeconomic and education factors, ability to articulate

the experience, cooperation, interest, willingness to make the commitment, enthusiasm, and

degree of involvement.

Developing a contract. which includes time commitments, place, confidentiality, informed

consent, opportunities for feedback, permission to tape record, permission to use material in

a thesis, dissertation, and/or other publications, and verification of findings.

Considering ways of creating an atmosphere or climate that will encourage trust, openness,

and self-disclosure.

Using relaxation/meditation activities to facilitate a sense of comfort, relaxation, and at-

Heuristic research : design, methodology, and applicationsPage 8 of 18

homeness.

Constructing a way of apprising co-researchers during the “collection of research data” phase

of the importance of immersion and intervals of concentration and respite. George Kelly's

(1969) guidance is helpful here:

Each person who participates should at some point be apprised of what the

“experimenter” thinks he is doing, and what he considers evidence of what. It is of

equal importance to ask what the “subject” thinks is being done, and what he

considers evidence of what. Since this can change during the course of the

experiment, it is appropriate to ask “subjects” what their perception of the experimental

design was at each important juncture in the experience. (p. 56)

Appendices A and ? at the end of this chapter provide examples of instructions and agreements

for use with co-researchers.

Methods of Collecting Data

A typical way of gathering material in heuristic investigations is through extended interviews that

often take the form of dialogues with oneself and one's research participants. Ordinarily, such

“interviews” are not ruled by the clock but by inner experiential time. In genuine dialogue, one is

encouraged to permit ideas, thoughts, feelings, and images to unfold and be expressed

naturally. The inquiry is complete only when the individual has had an opportunity to tell his or

her story to a point of natural closing. At such a time, the primary investigator is ready to locate

and interview others. Although in theory it is possible to conduct heuristic research with only

one participant, a study will achieve richer, deeper, more profound, and more varied meanings

when it includes depictions of the experience of others—perhaps as many as 10 to 15 co-

researchers, often met for extensive, long interviews.

Patton (1980, pp. 197–198) presents three basic interviewing approaches that are employed in

collecting qualitative data appropriate for heuristic research:

The informal conversational interview that relies on a spontaneous generation of questions

and conversations in which the co-researcher participates in a natural, unfolding dialogue

with the primary investigator.

The general interview guide that outlines a set of issues or topics to be explored that might be

shared with co-researchers as the interview unfolds, thus focusing on common information to

be sought from all co-researchers.

The standardized open-ended interview that consists of carefully worded questions that all

research participants will be asked.

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Of the three methods, the conversational interview or dialogue is most clearly consistent with

the rhythm and flow of heuristic exploration and search for meaning. Dialogue is the preferred

approach in that it aims toward encouraging expression, elucidation, and disclosure of the

experience being investigated. Jourard (1968) has shown that self-disclosure elicits disclosure;

there may be moments in the interview process when the primary investigator shares an

experience that will inspire and evoke richer, fuller, more comprehensive depictions from the co-

researcher.

Dialogue involves cooperative sharing in which co-researchers and primary researchers open

pathways to each other for explicating the phenomenon being investigated. This means

receiving the other as a partner, accepting and affirming the other person. The persons in the

heuristic interview must be willing to say freely what they think and feel relevant to the research

question, and what emerges in their awareness when the phenomenon becomes the focus of

their attention and concentration. Although general questions may be formulated in advance,

genuine dialogue cannot be planned. Jourard (1968) has borrowed from Buber's writings to

emphasize that “dialogue is like mutual unveiling, where each seeks to be experienced and

confirmed by the other. … Such dialogue is likely to occur when the two people believe each is

trustworthy and of good will” (p. 21). Buber (1965) expands on the values of dialogue:

Where the dialogue is fulfilled in its being, between partners who have turned to one

another in truth, who express themselves without reserve and are free of the desire for

semblance, there is brought into being a memorable common fruitfulness which is to

be found nowhere else. At such times, at each such time, the word arises i n a

substantial way between men who have been seized in their depths and opened out

by the dynamic of an elemental togetherness. The interhuman opens out what would

otherwise remain unopened. (p. 86)

In heuristic interviewing, the data generated is dependent upon accurate, empathic listening;

being open to oneself and to the co-researcher; being flexible and free to vary procedures to

respond to what is required in the flow of dialogue; and being skillful in creating a climate that

encourages the co-researcher to respond comfortably, accurately, comprehensively, and

honestly in elucidating the phenomenon.

Questions that a primary researcher might ask about a co-researcher include:

What does this person know about the experience being studied?

What qualities or dimensions of the experience stand out for the person? What examples

are vivid and alive?

Heuristic research : design, methodology, and applicationsPage 10 of 18

What events, situations, and people are connected with the experience?

What feelings and thoughts are generated by the experience?

What bodily states or shifts in bodily presence occur in the experience?

What time and space factors affect the person's awareness and meaning of the

experience?

Has the person shared all of the significant ingredients or constituents of the experience?

In the process of exploring these questions with research participants, the heuristic researcher

is affected as Weber (1986) emphasizes:

We cannot and should not be unaffected by what is said, unless of course we are

either not listening or are simply denying what we feel under the false and smug cloak

of scientific objectivity. … On the contrary it is only in relating to the other as one

human being to another that interviewing is really possible … when the interviewer

and the participant are both caught up in the phenomenon being discussed. (p. 68)

The researcher must keep in mind throughout the process that the material collected must

depict the experience in accurate, comprehensive, rich, and vivid terms. In heuristic research,

depictions are often presented in stories, examples, conversations, metaphors, and analogies.

The interview should be tape-recorded and later transcribed. The basic data for illuminating the

question and providing a basis for analysis of constituents, themes, and essences of the

experience come from transcriptions and notes taken immediately following the interview.

To supplement the interview data, the heuristic researcher may also collect personal

documents. Diaries, journals, logs, poetry, and artwork offer additional meaning and depth and

supplement depictions of the experience obtained from observations and interviews.

Methods of Organizing and Synthesizing Data

Transcriptions, notes, and personal documents are gathered together and organized by the

investigator into a sequence that tells the story of each research participant. Essential to the

process of heuristic analysis is comprehensive knowledge of all materials for each participant

and for the group of participants collectively. The task involves timeless immersion inside the

data, with intervals of rest and return to the data until intimate knowledge is obtained.

Organizing and analyzing heuristic data during the immersion and incubation process may take

many forms. Clark (1988), in his study of the psychologically androgynous male, describes a

five-month process during which the core themes and patterns of his research gradually began

to emerge and take shape. He listened to the interview tapes for several weeks before

Heuristic research : design, methodology, and applicationsPage 11 of 18

beginning to take notes on them; his detailed notes included extensive quotations and

descriptions of material gathered during the interview, as well as their effects on the co-

researchers.

After immersing himself in the tape and notes of each co-researcher, Clark developed a portrait

of each participant's experience and later contacted them for feedback on the portraits. He

received a positive response from each co-researcher affirming the accuracy of his depiction of

their experiences. Three offered additional examples and qualities that they viewed as

important; these were included in the final construction of their portraits.

As Clark continued to immerse himself in the data, he found it helpful to develop a diagram on

which he placed the core qualities of being a psychologically androgynous male. The diagram

was a kind of androgyny map which gave him a viewable panorama of over 200 components of

the experience of the psychologically androgynous male. Clark utilized a color-coding system

to cluster related ideas into a system of quadrants. He recounts the process in the following:

“Some individual aspects of the experience appeared in more than one quadrant, but each

quadrant represented a unique thematic matrix of closely connected components of

psychological androgyny. The process of watching these quadrants take shape was

fascinating” (p. 94).

When the androgyny map was complete, Clark spent several weeks alternately immersing

himself in the phenomenon and engaging in other activities of work, play, and rest, noting that

“during this time many shifts occurred in my perception of the map, and I began to note themes

and relationships between ideas which had not been apparent previously” (p. 95).

Once knowledge of the question has been expanded and the investigator has lived with this

knowledge for awhile, at some point an illumination will occur that facilitates the understanding

and explication of essential qualities and themes. The insight or illumination is followed by a

comprehensive explication of the core themes developed into an individual depiction of each

research participant's experience. The individual depiction may include descriptive narrative,

examples, and verbatim exemplary material drawn from the tape-recorded interview. It also may

include verbatim conversations, poetry, and artwork. From the totality of individual depictions a

composite depiction of the experience is constructed; then the heuristic researcher returns to

the transcription of the tape-recorded interviews and the individual depictions constructed

earlier. Through immersion and analysis of the individual data, two or three exemplary portraits

are developed, profiles that are unique to the individuals yet characterize the group as a whole.

Finally, the heuristic researcher develops a creative synthesis, an original integration of the

Heuristic research : design, methodology, and applicationsPage 12 of 18

material that reflects the researcher's intuition, imagination, and personal knowledge of

meanings and essences of the experience. The creative synthesis may take the form of a lyric

poem, a song, a narrative description, a story, or a metaphoric tale. In this way the experience

as a whole is presented, and, unlike most research studies, the individual persons remain

intact.

OUTLINE GUIDE OF PROCEDURES FOR ANALYSIS OF DATA

In the first step in organization, handling, and synthesizing, the researcher gathers all of the

data from one participant (recording, transcript, notes, journal, personal documents, poems,

artwork, etc.).

The researcher enters into the material in timeless immersion until it is understood.

Knowledge of the individual participant's experience as a whole and in its detail is

comprehensively apprehended by the researcher.

The data is set aside for awhile, encouraging an interval of rest and return to the data,

procedures which facilitate the awakening of fresh energy and perspective. Then, after

reviewing again all of the material derived from the individual, the researcher takes notes,

identifying the qualities and themes manifested in the data. Further study and review of the

data and notes enables the heuristic researcher to construct an individual depiction of the

experience. The individual depiction retains the language and includes examples drawn from

the individual co-researcher's experience of the phenomenon. It includes qualities and

themes that encompass the research participant's experience.

The next step requires a return to the original data of the individual co-researcher. Does the

individual depiction of the experience fit the data from which it was developed? Does it

contain the qualities and themes essential to the experience? If it does, the researcher is

ready to move on to the next co-researcher. If not, the individual depiction must be revised to

include what has been omitted or deleted, and what are or are not essential dimensions of

the experience. The individual depiction may also be shared with the research participant for

affirmation of its comprehensiveness and accuracy and for suggested deletions and

additions.

When the above steps have been completed for one research participant, the investigator

undertakes the same course of organization and analysis of the data for each of the other

research participants until an individual depiction of each co-researcher's experience of the

phenomenon has been constructed.

The individual depictions as a group, representing each co-researcher's experience, are

gathered together. The researcher again enters into an immersion process with intervals of

rest until the universal qualities and themes of the experience are thoroughly internalized and

Heuristic research : design, methodology, and applicationsPage 13 of 18

understood. At a timely point in knowledge and readiness, the researcher develops a

composite depiction that represents the common qualities and themes that embrace the

experience of the co-researchers. The composite depiction (a group depiction reflecting the

experience of individual participants) includes exemplary narratives, descriptive accounts,

conversations, illustrations, and verbatim excerpts that accentuate the flow, spirit, and life

inherent in the experience. It should be vivid, accurate, alive, and clear, and encompass the

core qualities and themes inherent in the experience. The composite depiction includes all of

the core meanings of the phenomenon as experienced by the individual participants and by

the group as a whole.

The heuristic researcher returns again to the raw material derived from each co-researcher's

experience, and the individual depictions derived from the raw material. From these data, the

researcher selects two or three participants who clearly exemplify the group as a whole. The

researcher then develops individual portraits of these persons, utilizing the raw data,

individual depictions and autobiographical material that was gathered during preliminary

contacts and meetings, contained in personal documents, or shared during the interview. The

individual p o r t r a i t s s h o u l d b e p r e s e n t e d i n s u c h a w a y t h a t b o t h t h e p h e n o m e n o n

investigated and the individual persons emerge in a vital and unified manner.

The final step in heuristic presentation and handling of data is the development of a creative

synthesis of the experience. The creative synthesis encourages a wide range of freedom in

characterizing the phenomenon. It invites a recognition of tacit-intuitive awarenesses of the

researcher, knowledge that has been incubating over months through processes of

immersion, illumination, and explication of the phenomenon investigated. The researcher as

scientist-artist develops an aesthetic rendition of the themes and essential meanings of the

phenomenon. The researcher taps into imaginative and contemplative sources of knowledge

and insight in synthesizing the experience, in presenting the discovery of essences—peaks

and valleys, highlights and horizons. In the creative synthesis, there is a free reign of thought

and feeling that supports the researcher's knowledge, passion, and presence; this infuses

the work with a personal, professional, and literary value that can be expressed through a

narrative, story, poem, work of art, metaphor, analogy, or tale.

This presentation of heuristic research design and methodology has embraced beliefs, values,

theory, concepts, processes, and methods that are essential to an understanding and conduct

of heuristic research and discovery. Additional parameters of heuristics may be found in the

chapter on “Heuristic Research” in Individuality and Encounter (Moustakas, 1968), in “Heuristic

Methods of Obtaining Knowledge” in Rhythms, Rituals, and Relationships (Moustakas, 1981),

and in the article “Heuristic Inquiry” (Douglass & Moustakas, 1985).

Heuristic research : design, methodology, and applicationsPage 14 of 18

CREATING THE RESEARCH MANUSCRIPT

Once heuristic interviews have been completed, transcribed, organized, depicted, and

synthesized, the research is nearing completion. At this point, it is time to present the research

process and findings in a form that can be understood and utilized. The following outline for

the manuscript, a guide for presentation of the work of an heuristic investigation, is offered as

one way of bringing together an experience that has profoundly affected the investigator and

which holds possibilities for scientific knowledge and social impact and meaning.

Introduction and Statement of Topic and Question

Out of what ground of concerns, knowledge, and experience did the topic emerge? What

stands out as one or two critical incidents in your life that created the puzzlement, curiosity,

passion to know? Does the topic have social relevance? How would new knowledge contribute

to your profession? To you as a person and as a learner? State your question and elucidate

each of the key terms.

Review of the Literature

Discuss the computer search, databases, descriptors, key words, and years covered. Organize

the review to include an introduction that presents the topic reviewed and its significance; an

overview and discussion of the methodological problems; methods that describe what induced

you to include the published study in your review and how these studies were conducted;

themes that cluster into patterns and which organize the presentation of findings; and

conclusions that summarize core findings relevant to your research that differentiate your

investigation from those in the literature review with regard to the questions, models,

methodology, and knowledge sought.

Methodology

List and discuss methods and procedures developed in preparing to conduct the study, in

collecting the data, and in organizing, analyzing, and synthesizing the data.

Presentation of Data

Include verbatim examples illustrating the collection of data and its analysis and synthesis.

Discuss thematic structures and illustrate them, in addition to the themes themselves. Include

depictions of the experience as a whole, and exemplary portraits that are vivid, comprehensive,

and accurate. In the presentation of data include individual depictions, a comprehensive

depiction, two or three exemplary individual portraits, and a creative synthesis.

Summary, Implications, and Outcomes

Heuristic research : design, methodology, and applicationsPage 15 of 18

Summarize your study in brief, vivid terms from its inception to its final synthesis of data. Now

that your investigation has been completed, how in fact do your findings differ from findings

presented in your literature review? What future studies might you or others conduct as an

outcome of your research? (Suggest a design in some detail for one or two future studies.)

What implications of your findings are relevant to society? To your profession? To you as a

learner and as a person? Write a brief, creative close that speaks to the essence of your study

and its significance to you and others.

CLOSING COMMENTS

Heuristic research is a demanding and lengthy process. Once one enters into the quest for

knowledge and understanding, once one begins the passionate search for the illumination of a

puzzlement, the intensity, wonder, intrigue, and engagement carry one along through ever

growing levels of meaning and excitement. A unique, temporal rhythm has awakened in one's

absorption and sustaining gaze, a rhythm that must take its own course and that will not be

satisfied until a natural closing occurs and a sense of wonder has fulfilled its intent and

purpose. In Rourke's study of inspiration (1984), she points to the ways in which the knowledge

obtained has enriched her life and that of others. Her kinship with the sea moved her to create

a synthesis that energizes the possibilities of inspiration:

O sea that is known

Yet unfolding as mystery,

I live in you yet,

You fill my being.

A power I choose

not to resist,

A light dispelling

all darkness

exposing possibilities

of what can be.

You connect the fragments

of my experiences

enabling the flow

of my dynamic spirit,

transforming my limitations

into a highway of hope.

Transcending all that

Heuristic research : design, methodology, and applicationsPage 16 of 18

is mundane,

I can not see that

better part of life.

You thrill me, enliven me,

reveal to me

all that I can be

charging me with courage

to be what I am

I am who I am.

I am inspired. (pp. 182–183)

Heuristic research processes include moments of meaning, understanding, and discovery that

the researcher will hold and savor. Feelings, thoughts, ideas, and images that have been

awakened will return again and again. A connection has been made that will remain forever

unbroken and that will serve as a reminder of a lifelong process of knowing and being. Polanyi

(1962) touches on this relationship: “Having made a discovery, I shall never see the world again

as before. My eyes have become different; I have made myself into a person seeing and

thinking differently. I have crossed a gap, the heuristic gap, which lies between problem and

discovery” (p. 143).

APPENDIX A: INSTRUCTIONS TO RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS

Date_______________

Dear_______________,

Thank you for your interest in my dissertation research on the experience of_______________. I

value the unique contribution that you can make to my study and am excited about the

possibility of your participation in it. The purpose of this letter is to reiterate some of the things

that we have already discussed and to secure your signature on the participation-release form

which you will find attached.

The research model I am using is a qualitative one through which I am seeking comprehensive

depictions or descriptions of your experience. In this way I hope to illuminate or answer my

question:_______________? The terms of my question, as I am u s i n g t h e m , m e a n

_______________, _______________, and_______________.

Through your participation as a co-researcher, I hope to understand the essence of the

phenomenon as it reveals itself in your experience. You will be asked to recall specific episodes

Heuristic research : design, methodology, and applicationsPage 17 of 18

or events in your life in which you experienced the phenomenon we are investigating. I am

seeking vivid, accurate, and comprehensive portrayals of what these experiences were like for

you; your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, as well as situations, events, places, and people

connected with your experience. You may also wish to share personal logs or journals with me

or other ways in which you have recorded your experience—for example, in letters, poems, or

artwork.

I value your participation and thank you for the commitment of time, energy, and effort. If you

have any further questions before signing the release form or if there is a problem with the date

and time of our meeting, I can be reached at _______________. (Telephone Number)

Sincerely,

APPENDIX B: PARTICIPATION-RELEASE AGREEMENT

I agree to participate in a research study of _______________, as described in the attached

narrative. I understand the purpose and nature of this study and am participating voluntarily. I

grant permission for the data to be used in the process of completing a Ph.D. degree, including

a dissertation and any other future publication. I understand that my name and other

demographic information which might identify me will not be used.

I agree to meet at the following location __________________ on the following date

____________ for an initial interview of 1½ to 2 hours, and to be available at a mutually agreed

time and place for an additional 1 to 1½-hour interview, if necessary. I also grant permission for

the tape recording of the interview(s).

http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412995641.d21

Heuristic research : design, methodology, and applicationsPage 18 of 18

http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412995641.d21