ADVANTAGES
The advantages of phenomenological research is that it can provide deeper and more insightful results. This is because, unlike recording results in statistics only, phenomenological studies can add levels of detail that can contribute to the sureness of the statistics.
An example of this is the assassination of JFK. JFK was assassinated by a man named Lee Harvey Oswald who was situated in a building at the rear of JFK. There were hundreds of witnesses who claimed they either heard or saw the bullets that assassinated JFK come from that direction of Lee Harvey Oswald. However 22 of those people also claimed to have smelt gunpowder smoke. The gun Lee Harvey Oswald used wasn’t an automatic rifle so this description of gun smoke (despite being in the majority) is enough to start a new line of inquiry into the possibility of a second shooter with an automatic rifle (McLaren 2013). This is the advantage of phenomenological research. It allows the participants to add details and reason. If in a quantitative research 22 people say they didn’t believe Lee Harvey Oswald was the shooter then the next question begs- why? Phenomenological research can uncover these reasons by allowing the participants to freely describe their experiences. In this case, even their sense of smell is revealing.
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This kind of openness that phenomenological research encourages can open up new line of inquiries that had not been initially considered (McLaren 2013).
Another advantage is that it doesn’t prescribe an answer to the participant which means that the participant may feel more engaged with their contribution. For this reason there is a lot of scope to report back on and allows the researcher to gather more evidence to support their inquiry. It is better to have more information than you need and scale down and have a restricted amount and need to begin another research method to find more (Occupy 2014).
Phenomenological research is also very relatable and humanizes research. Many people can relate to the descriptions of the experiences offered by participants and as a result can empathise or even see themselves in that experience despite not being there. This is particularly good for historical archives of experiences, many museums often decorate their exhibits with descriptions of experiences by those who were there as a way to insight empathy and understanding. Many industries, from television journalists to Police officers use phenomenological research in a way that gives it exposure, in a way that other research methods can’t (Adeoti & Adeyeri 2012).
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Another advantage is that typically this type of research is small in scale and therefore low in cost (Occupy 2014).