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In the interpretive phenomenology method of research, investigators identify a phenomenon (a reality or experience) that can be described as people "live" the experience. The investigators have individuals speak about the experience and describe it as they go through it. The period may be a single interview or multiple interviews, but the individual's exact words and expressions are the focus of data collection. The value of this approach is that it gives insight into an experience that is not understood, occurs rarely or in a widely scattered population, or the descriptions available seem to have little in common. Other phenomenological studies published recently dealt with the experience of weight gain with psychotropic medications (Usher, Park, & Foster, 2012) and the experience of living with HIV with a comorbid condition (Farrell & Comiskey, 2013).
Helvig and Minick (2013) studied the experience of being an adolescent with migraines. While migraines are...