| Element | Narrative Method | Phenomenological Method |
| Philosophical Roots |
It is concerned with epistemology and participants and researchers are separate. The stories are seen from the past, present, and future in a continuous way and expected to change with time. |
It concerns itself with both ontology and epistemology where participants and researchers are separate and stories The stories are seen from the past/present/future but integrated in the present time. |
| Basic assumptions | An assumption is made on human experiences where it is viewed in a narrative form | The assumption is that different narratives and methods can be used to assess the overall structure of experience. |
| Terminology differences | The narrative method is derived from “narration” which implies stories told by individuals. | The term “phenomenology” implies attempts to identify, isolate, formalize, and produce an analysis of a phenomenon in question. |
| Means by which data is collected and material is gathered | Data is collected by subjects describing their experiences. The focus is on the experience in a story-like fashion. | Data is collected by analyzing the experiences lived by the subject. The inquirer collects data from persons that have experienced the phenomenon and develops a composite description (Creswell, 2013). |
| Purposes | The purpose of the narrative method is to identify human experiences and examine stories depending on how and what is narrated. | The purpose of the phenomenological method is to assess the structures of experience. It aims to identify, isolate, formalize, and produce an analysis of the phenomenon in question. |
| Specific challenges unique to each methodology | The researcher needs to collect extensive information about a participant and understanding their content. This can be challenging since it would need a keen eye. | Identifying participants in the study can be challenging as those that are chosen should have experienced the phenomenon in question. This calls for bracketing personal experiences which can be challenging. |
| Ethical differences in the client-participant relationship. | The narrative method involves a deep inquiry of someone’s life and there could be ethical issues regarding whether certain stories are personal and unethical to explore. | The analysis of different phenomenon can come up with disturbing conclusions and this raises the ethical question of whether the findings can be shared with participants. |
Summary of Chart
From the analysis of the chart, one of the essential features that stands out between the two methods of research is in the data collection. In the narrative method, data is usually collected by analyzing one or two individuals and reliance is done on the stories. In the phenomenological method, data is collected from stories of different individuals. It can accommodate a wider range of data such as narration, ethnographic observations, and field notes. From the analysis, the phenomenological method involves the gathering of several experiences regarding a certain phenomenon and one of the methods of data collection could be through the use of narrations. On the other hand, the narrative method solely relies on stories from one or two individuals. The narrative method could thus involve an analysis of concepts from classical rhetoric and semiotics (Feldman et al., 2004).
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The other major difference between the two approaches is in their purpose and philosophical underpinnings. Narrative research focuses on human experiences in a less structural way. The aim is to view human experiences in a narrative form by shedding light on the connection of various elements and the experiences of different individuals. Phenomenological research can make use of narratives to assess structures of experience. They tried to produce a proper analysis of a specific phenomenon through identifying, isolating, and formalizing it.
Analysis of the Use of the Different Methods in the Research
These qualitative designs would be appropriate in the analysis of the topic which examines the relationship between acculturation and adaptation of immigrants in the United States. Narrative research method will be useful in the study since it will be used to provide data regarding the stories of various immigrants (Andrews et al., 2013). The use of narrative method will entail having a small number of participants that are immigrants and their personal stories investigated. The personal stories will be used to construct their process of adaptation by the immigrants to the United States. The analysis of the adaptation process in the stories will be used to present the findings regarding whether acculturation has taken place or not. The stories given through the narrative method will be analyzed to identify how immigrants adapted to their daily life and activities. The overall life of the immigrants from analysis of the narrations will be used to show whether they changed their cultures through acculturation.
The phenomenological method can also be implemented in the research. One of the strengths in the design is that it will examine the phenomenon and issues that individuals are currently living with and experiencing in their daily lives. The research will involve immigrants that are still going through the process of acculturation and adaptation. Phenomenological research could be used by analyzing the quotes from individuals being studied to come up with conclusions (Groenewald, 2004). However, one of the challenges with this approach is that the method can be easily misinterpreted since it uses an interpretive description
The phenomenological method will encounter several challenges since it will require a huge number of participants in order to properly analyze the phenomenon (Giorgi, 2010). It will be difficult to find a significant number of immigrants so as to effectively analyze the phenomenon of acculturation and adaptation. Additionally, the topic requires a close analysis of a few personal stories of immigrants which can be difficult to examine under the phenomenological method. The narrative method would thus provide the best method of analysis of the data.
References
Andrews, M., Squire, C., & Tamboukou, M. (Eds.). (2013). Doing narrative research . Sage.
Creswell, J. W., & Poth, C. N. (2017). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches . Sage publications.
Feldman, M. S., Sköldberg, K., Brown, R. N., & Horner, D. (2004). Making sense of stories: A rhetorical approach to narrative analysis. Journal of public administration research and theory , 14 (2), 147-170.
Giorgi, A. (2010). Phenomenological psychology: A brief history and its challenges. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology , 41 (2), 145-179.
Groenewald, T. (2004). A phenomenological research design illustrated. International journal of qualitative methods , 3 (1), 42-55.
