Training people to use micro-phenomenological self-inquiry can improve their ability to describe the fine details of headache experiences, including distinguishing the sensation of pain from the experience of suffering. Thirteen untrained subjects met twice in one week to investigate their headache experiences using this method. Their reports became richer, as shown by more categories described and more words needed for accurate description. The method allows deep focus on single moments of experience but may miss broader contextual meanings. The authors suggest the approach could be useful in clinical settings with initially untrained subjects for describing specific experiences and answering complex phenomenological questions.
Micro-phenomenology is a technique for improving first-person reports of experience, typically conducted with a second-person interviewer. A self-inquiry format, using a guiding document without an interviewer, offers time and cost advantages but its reliability for untrained subjects was unknown. This study attempted to replicate a previous experiment that tested whether micro-phenomenology increases report reliability. The replication failed. Possible explanations include a methodological weakness in the original study, ineffectiveness of the self-inquiry format used here, or that micro-phenomenological self-inquiry requires training. The authors conclude that the self-inquiry format is insufficient for conducting micro-phenomenological studies and that training is necessary.