For my master's dissertation I will be using semi-structured interviews to ask five people (with an established mindfulness of dream and sleep/lucid dreaming practice) to talk about their experiences of using lucid dreaming for self development or psychological healing.
My understanding of IPA so far is that it is best used for exploring the meaning and impact of life events or experiences from the perspective of the participant - would this cover people's experiences of using a particular practice? Or might a thematic analysis (eg. Braun and Clarke) be most appropriate? The focus on understanding the experience from the perspective of the participant feels important to me. Thank you.
Elizabeth - IPA is a phenomenological methodology. Thematic analysis is not a methodology. It is a method/design approach to qualitative data analysis alone. You could have both in your study. IPA has its own data analysis steps - aligned more with hermeneutics - but it is acceptable to use an IPA framework and adopt Braun and Clark's step-wise thematic analysis. Here is a link to a useful article that uses both IPA analysis and thematic analysis for the same set of collected data. It is more complex through - and your suggested sample size is probably too small to generate a sub-set.
Article Analysing one dataset with two qualitative methods: The dist...
Elizabeth - IPA is a phenomenological methodology. Thematic analysis is not a methodology. It is a method/design approach to qualitative data analysis alone. You could have both in your study. IPA has its own data analysis steps - aligned more with hermeneutics - but it is acceptable to use an IPA framework and adopt Braun and Clark's step-wise thematic analysis. Here is a link to a useful article that uses both IPA analysis and thematic analysis for the same set of collected data. It is more complex through - and your suggested sample size is probably too small to generate a sub-set.
Article Analysing one dataset with two qualitative methods: The dist...
Phenomenological methodology would provide an in-depth exploration of the participants' dream experiences, so it could be a good choice. Below are some articles from Google Scholar that might be helpful!
You could also use grounded theory to analyze the specific themes and categories of the dreamers' experiences; this is a trusted qualitative method and could also yield valuable insight.
Dream intensity scale: Factors in the phenomenological analysis of dreams.
CKC Yu - Dreaming, 2010
Are you dreaming?: a phenomenological study on understanding lucid dreams as a tool for introspection in virtual reality
A Kitson, T Schiphorst, BE Riecke
By IPA, I assume you mean Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, and the best source on this method is Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis: Theory, Method and Research, by Smith, Flowers, and Larkin.
In general, I would consider 5 interviews to be too "thin" for Thematic Analysis, but you would have to look closely at IPA to determine what kind of interviewing procedures would work best with a small sample.
In the upper right corner, there is a small arrow pointing down. I'm not sure, but that might allow you to edit your posting.
Interpretative phenomenological analysis obviously is a possibility. But I would also check Grounded Theory Methodology. You could also have a look at the work of Norman K. Denzin. Do not loose your time, go ahead for a quick (but well informed) decision.
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