Getting at experience: An outline of interpretative phenomenological analysis as a qualitative psychology methodology

Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) allows researchers to explore the participants' experiences, the meaning they gave to those experiences, and the underlying psychological processes. IPA recognizes this as involving a double hermeneutic where the participant is trying to make sense of what is happening to them and the researcher is then trying to make sense of the participant's sense making. IPA has now become one of the best known and most widely used qualitative approaches in psychology. After a first decade of development in the United Kingdom, IPA has become an integral part of the research landscape in health psychology and in clinical psychology, and is increasingly being used in other disciplines. It has helped to raise the awareness of a generation of researchers to what qualitative psychology can contribute, and it has enriched the repertoire of methodological practices available for addressing important issues in health. With the growing interest in IPA, we think it is now timely and valuable to offer a French introduction to this approach. The aim of this paper is to introduce to the French-speaking scientific community the foundations of IPA, the different steps involved in a research project and finally the avenues for developing the approach. This paper begins with a general overview of the theoretical foundations of IPA and its place in the scientific landscape in psychology. This is followed by a step-by-step guide to carrying out an IPA study. This begins with an outline of the structure and the content of the data collection process, and the conduct of the interview as well as the alternative frameworks to face-to-face interview and the recommended sample size. We have paid special attention to the analysis cycle and to the communication, assessment and scope of findings. To carry out good IPA requires grasping its core sensibilities. First, IPA has a commitment to an analysis which moves beyond the descriptive to the interpretative, but an interpretative grounded in the close reading of the participant's account. Second, IPA is strongly idiographic, beginning with the close analysis of each case and only then moving to a second level of analysis of the patterning of convergences and divergences within the corpus. Finally, the article discusses various issues arising from the approach and concludes with some thoughts on the issue of language and on future developments like the contribution of single cases, studies of dyadic and group dynamics and the continued involvement of IPA within mixed methods designs. (C) 2016 Societe Francaise de Psychologie. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.