Abstract
Research in the field of psychodrama is rich with descriptions of experiences and case illustrations; however viewed through the lens of research many prove to be methodologically weak. This paper aims to introduce and propose Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) as a valuable instrument for psychodrama research. For the purposes of this paper, the method will be described as three broad elements: the epistemological position; some guidelines for conducting research and an example of using IPA in psychodrama research. Studies using IPA bring an in-depth understanding and sense-making of the experiences of participants in various psychodrama groups, they reveal the therapeutic change process and the personal meaning of therapeutic outcomes.
The paper concludes with a discussion on the potential for IPA to contribute to the field of psychodrama research, directions for its use and its limitations. Whilst acknowledging that psychodrama research primarily needs experimentally conducted designs to achieve the mainstream standards of the scientific community, there is a need to increase the rigor of qualitative studies. Therefore this article is meant to act as a catalyst for more studies using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, the robustness of which will be useful for psychodrama research.
Zusammenfassung
Im Bereich der Psychodrama-Forschung gibt es zahlreiche Fallstudien und Kasuistiken; betrachtet man diese jedoch durch deine reine Forschungsperspektive erscheinen sie methodologisch schwach zu sein. Der vorliegende Beitrag möchte die Interpretative Phänomenologische Analyse (IPA) als valides Instrument für die Psychodrama-Forschung vorstellen und vorschlagen. Zu diesem Zweck wird die Methode in Form dreier Elemente beschrieben: die erkenntnistheoretische Position, einige Richtlinien zur Durchführung von Forschung und ein konkretes Beispiel wie mithilfe von IPA Psychodrama-Forschung aussehen kann. Studien, die auf IPA basieren, fördern ein vertiefendes Verständnis und stellen einen Sinnzusammenhang der Erfahrungen der Teilnehmenden in unterschiedlichen Psychodramagruppen her; sie offenbaren außerdem den therapeutischen Prozess und die persönliche Bedeutung der therapeutischen Wirkung.
Der Beitrag schließt mit einer Diskussion, inwiefern das Potential der IPA zu Psychodrama-Forschung beitragen kann, wie sie angewandt werden kann und welche Beschränkungen es gibt. Auch wenn man anerkennt, dass Psychodrama-Forschung in erster Linie experimentell durchgeführte Forschungsdesigns benötigt, um den Mainstream-Standards der wissenschaftlichen Gemeinschaft zu genügen, gibt es auch einen steigenden Bedarf an qualitativen Studien. Aus diesem Grund ist dieser Beitrag auch als Katalysator für mehr Studien mit der IPA gedacht, deren Stärke für Psychodrama-Forschung im allgemeinen hilfreich sein kann.
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Notes
IPA website established by the founder of the method, Jonathan Smith to provide a corpus of data on published research studies, and UK and international contacts.
The name of research participants were changed for anonymity reasons.
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Dima, G., Bucuță, M. The method of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis in psychodrama research. Z Psychodrama Soziom 15 (Suppl 1), 69–81 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11620-015-0296-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11620-015-0296-7