Integrating Phenomenology and Critical Realism in Qualitative Research in Psychology

This article reviews key theoretical assumptions and principles from phenomenological philosophy and psychology, as well as critical realism, to provide further rationale, grounds for, and substantiation of the importance of the transcendental reduction in phenomenological qualitative research in psychology. The transcendental dimension of experience is considered as a fruitful source of understanding the meaning of the psychological, in its conjunction with and relation to objective reality, and the philosophy of critical realism. The application of these ideas to phenomenologically informed, empirical psychological qualitative research methods is considered, particularly as they relate to the integration of subjectivity and objectivity. This is further accomplished by exploring and clarifying how the issues of interpretation, epoch & eacute;, and reduction used in the qualitative research literature, relate to realist concerns about objectivity. Ideas from critical realism, in turn, provide further rationale for this integrative position. The outcome of the analysis points to the importance of the transcendental and phenomenological psychological reductions for best accessing and achieving comprehensive meaning in qualitative research in psychology in relation to "real" human experience.