The Phenomenology of Everyday Life: Empirical Investigations of Human Experience

by Howard R. Pollio , Tracy B. Henley , Craig J. Thompson

• ISBN13: 9780521462051
• ISBN10: 0521462053
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-09-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The Phenomenology of Everyday Life presents results from a rigorous qualitative approach to the psychological study of everyday human activities and experiences. This book does not replace scientific observation with humanistic analysis, but provides an additional perspective on significant human questions. The qualitative approach this book employs is grounded in the philosophical traditions of existentialism and phenomenology, which use dialogue as their major method of inquiry. These traditions are especially well adapted to encompass and describe human events and activities. In addition, such events can be properly investigated only on the basis of a method sensitive enough to articulate the nuances of human experience and reflection. In this latter regard, it is important to note that insights deriving from literature and the humanities are equally revealing of the human world as those from experimental psychology, biology, or medicine.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
PART I: EXISTENTIAL PHENOMENOLOGY AND THE SCIENCE OF PSYCHOLOGY	1	(56)
1 The Nature of Human Experience	3	(25)
2 Dialogue as Method: The Phenomenological Interview	28	(29)
PART II: GROUNDING THE WORLD OF EVERYDAY LIFE	57	(98)
3 The Body as Lived: Themes in the Human Experience of the Human Body	61	(32)
4 Time in Human Life	93	(31)
5 The Human Experience of Other People	124	(31)
PART III: SELECTED TOPICS FROM EVERYDAY LIFE	155	(180)
6 Feeling Alone	157	(34)
7 Making Amends: The Psychology of Reparation	191	(36)
8 Love and Loving	227	(36)
9 Falling Apart	263	(35)
10 The Meanings of Death in the Context of Life	298	(37)
PART IV: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF EVERYDAY LIFE	335	(31)
11 Toward an Empirical Existential-Phenomenological Psychology	337	(29)
References	366	(25)
Name Index	391	(7)
Subject Index	398