Transcendental Phenomenology

Transcendental phenomenology, founded by Edmund Husserl, is a qualitative method that seeks the universal essential structures — the invariant essences — of a consciously lived experience. By bracketing all assumptions and prior theories (epoché) and applying eidetic reduction, the researcher uncovers what an experience is in its purest, most fundamental form, independent of any particular context, culture, or individual biography. Clark Moustakas's 1994 adaptation made the method directly accessible to social-science researchers.