Modified Van Kaam Analysis

Qualitative Methodology

Researchers analyze qualitative data in various ways to generate findings, but some analysis plans apply specifically to certain qualitative research designs. In phenomenology, the Modified Van Kaam approach, popularized by Moustakas, serves as the primary data analysis plan. This method stands out for its detailed analysis requirements.

Steps in the Modified Van Kaam Analysis

The Modified Van Kaam analysis includes several essential steps. First, researchers must step outside themselves through bracketing and imaginative variation, enabling them to examine the data from different perspectives. Next, they follow a structured process to analyze each interview. Finally, since each interview serves as its own dataset, researchers ensure a thorough and detailed analysis. For example, if you have ten participants, you will perform steps 1 through 6 for each participant.

Horizontalization:

  1. Treat all the data equally, no quote or excerpt is more important than any other. Begin preliminary coding by listing every relevant quote related to the experience or phenomenon.
  2. Reduction and elimination: This is when you take the list of every quote and begin to ask yourself two questions:
  3. (1) Is this quote important to the participant’s lived experience of the phenomenon?; and
  4. (2) Can this quote be reduced to its latent meaning? If you answer no to any of these questions, then the quote is eliminated. This helps separate the invariant constituents of the experience from redundant and ancillary information.

Thematize the Invariant Constituents:

  1. Take the excerpts that passed the two-question test, explore their latent meanings, and group them accordingly. The groupings form the themes that express the experience for each participant.

Checking the Themes Against the Data:

  1. After you have generated your themes, you begin to examine the themes against the dataset. This is to make sure that your themes are representative of the participant’s experience and help tell the participant’s story.
  2. Create Individual Textural Descriptions: For each participant, you will create individual textural descriptions. These are descriptions that utilize verbatim excerpts and quotes from the participant.
  3. Create Individual Structural Descriptions: Using imaginative variation is crucial for this step. For each participant, you create individual structural descriptions. These are descriptions that examine the emotional, social, and cultural connections between what participants say. This is where the primary interpretation of the data comes into play.
  4. Create Composite Textural Descriptions: In this step, you should create a table outlining all the themes from each participant. This will help you outline the reoccurring and prominent themes across all the participants, which is what you need. This composite description summarizes participants’ interviews and highlights common themes of their lived experiences.
  5. Create Composite Structural Descriptions: This is where you examine the emotional, social, and cultural connections of participants experiences across all the participants. This is where you describe common elements of their experiences. Maybe participants came from low socioeconomic backgrounds; maybe participants were from a certain race. Only the consideration of common elements matters, not their specifics. This is where you begin to conceptualize what elements factor the most into their experiences and what elements inform their experiences.
  6. Create a Composite Structural-Textural Description: This step is also referred to as a Synthesis. This is where you begin to merge both the textural and the structural to give a comprehensive understanding about the phenomenon. This is what boils down the lived experience of the phenomenon.

Length and Integrity in Modified Van Kaam Analysis

It is very common for the results section of a Modified Van Kaam analysis to be over a hundred pages. Despite the length, maintaining the integrity of participants’ voices is crucial, making this analysis plan ideal for phenomenological research. It provides a rich understanding of participants’ lived experiences of the phenomenon without altering their narrative, experiences, and stories. It allows qualitative researchers to deeply explore the participants’ lived experiences in order to understand the essence of the phenomenon through the voices of those who lived it.