IPAAbout IPANews and eventsReferencesDiscussion groupUK Regional contactsInternational contacts

Doing good IPA

There is now a large corpus of published IPA. These two papers offer guidance on how to evaluate it and how to conduct high quality IPA;  I would also encourage people to use these papers to evaluate other clusters of work using IPA. 

Smith, JA. (2011) Evaluating the contribution of interpretative phenomenological analysis. Health Psychology Review, 5, 9-27.

Smith, JA. (2011) Evaluating the contribution of interpretative phenomenological analysis: a reply to the commentaries and further development of criteria. Health Psychology Review, 5, 55-61. 

This next paper looks at quality in a different way- discussing the value of the potent instance in IPA:

Smith, JA. (2011) ‘We could be diving for pearls’: the value of the gem in experiential qualitative psychology. Qualitative Methods in Psychology Bulletin, 12, 6-15.

Papers evaluated as good examples of IPA in the field of illness experience according to the criteria in the first paper above.

(Hopefully people will find it useful to look at these whatever their field of interest as a way of seeing what makes an excellent piece of work)

 

Arroll, M.A., & Senior, V. (2008). Individuals’ experience of chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis: An interpretative phenomenological analysis. Psychology & Health, 23, 443-458.

Borkoles, E., Nicholls, A.R., Bell, K., Butterly, R., & Polman, R.C.J. (2008). The lived experiences of people diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in relation to exercise. Psychology & Health, 23, 427_441.

Bramley, N., & Eatough, V. (2005). The experience of living with Parkinson’s disease: An interpretative phenomenological analysis case study. Psychology & Health, 20, 223_235.

Chapman, E., Parameshwar, J., Jenkins, D., Large, S., & Tsui, S. (2007). Psychosocial issues for patients with ventricular assist devices: A qualitative pilot study. American Journal of Critical Care, 16, 72-81.

Dickson, A., Knussen, C., & Flowers, P. (2007). Stigma and the delegitimation experience: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of people living with chronic fatigue syndrome. Psychology & Health, 22, 851_867.

Dickson, A., Knussen, C., & Flowers, P. (2008). ‘That was my old life; it’s almost like a pastlife now’: Identity crisis, loss and adjustment amongst people living with chronic fatigue syndrome. Psychology & Health, 23, 459_476.

French, D.P., Maissi, E., & Marteau, T.M. (2005). The purpose of attributing cause: Beliefs about the causes of myocardial infarction. Social Science & Medicine, 60, 1411_1421.

Marriott, C., & Thompson, A.R. (2008). Managing threats to femininity: Personal and interpersonal experience of living with vulval pain. Psychology & Health, 23, 243_258.

Murray, C.D., & Rhodes, K. (2005). ‘Nobody likes damaged goods’: The experience of adult visible acne. British Journal of Health Psychology, 10, 183_202.

Osborn, M., & Smith, J.A. (1998). The personal experience of chronic benign lower back pain: An interpretative phenomenological analysis. British Journal of Health Psychology, 3, 65_83.

Reynolds, F., & Lim, K.H. (2007). Contribution of visual art-making to the subjective wellbeing of women living with cancer: A qualitative study. Arts in Psychotherapy, 34, 1_10.

Senior, V., Smith, J.A., Michie, S., & Marteau, T.M. (2002). Making sense of risk: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of vulnerability to heart disease. Journal of Health Psychology, 7, 157-68.

Smith, J.A., & Osborn, M. (2007) Pain as an assault on the self: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of the psychological impact of chronic benign low back pain. Psychology & Health, 22, 517-34.

Turner, A., Barlow, J., & Ilbery, B. (2002). Play hurt, live hurt: Living with and managing osteoarthritis from the perspective of ex-professional footballers. Journal of Health Psychology, 7, 285_301.