Looking from within: Comparing first-person approaches to studying experience

Summary

Psychological research relies heavily on self-report and behavioral measures collected by an experimenter, but first-person methods that capture subtle facets of subjective experience are less common. Without these measures, fundamental aspects of psychological phenomena remain inaccessible to theory. This article reviews established first-person methods, compares them on relevant dimensions, and helps researchers select suitable methods for studying subjective experience. Integrating first-person perspectives can complement and enrich third-person research.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Abstract Fostering our understanding of how humans behave, feel and think is a fundamental goal of psychological research. Widely used methods in psychological research are self-report and behavioral measures which require an experimenter to collect data from another person. By comparison, first-person measures that assess more subtle facets of subjective experiences, are less widely used. Without integrating such more subtle first-person measures, however, fundamental aspects of psychological phenomena remain inaccessible to psychological theorizing. To explore the value and potential contribution of first-person methods, the current article aims to provide an overview over already established first-person methods and compare them on relevant dimensions. Based on these results, researchers can select suitable first-person methods to study different facets of subjective experiences. Overall, the investigation of psychological phenomena from a first-person perspective can complement and enrich existing research from a third-person perspective.