Heuristic Research

Design, Methodology, and Applications

Clark Moustakas

• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc
• Year: 1990
• ISBN:
  9781506304984
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Sciences sociales
• Subtopic: Recherche scientifique et méthodologie

"A gem.... It is most definitely a work of major significance both historically and methodologically.... You?ve got a classic on your hands. As for me and some of my colleagues... you will have our personal and classroom orders the moment the book comes out."

--Mike Arons, West Georgia College

"The book is well-organized and the content is comprehensive. The writing is clear and well-referenced. The examples are excellent.... I teach a course annually on Research Methods and Theory. I would recommend the book to those students and... would also promote the book among evaluators. Dr. Moustakas is an eminent scholar with a unique and important perspective. I believe this book could become a classic like Polanyi?s book."

--Michael Quinn Patton, University of Minnesota

"The organization and content of this book is very good. The writing is excellent. Clarity is a strong point.... [This] book is... an important contribution to the growing interest and activity in phenomenological approaches to research.... For advanced undergraduate... and graduate courses and... as a resource book [for] professionals."

--Willard B. Frick, Albion College

"A powerful and much-awaited contribution to human science methodology by clearly presenting the conceptual foundations and core processes of the heuristic model. Heuristic Research is an intense and comprehensive book for researchers, mental health practitioners, and those who value self-discovery in the fullness of the moment.... He gracefully weaves well-chosen examples from research studies and relevant literature into his discussions, allowing us easy access to his ideas."

--Association of Humanistic Psychology

"The manuscript is well-conceived and thoughtfully organized. The timely use of concrete examples is a strong feature of the book in a field that is highly philosophical and theoretical.... I wholeheartedly endorse this book."

--Kevin MacNeil, Family Life Institute, Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada

"The contents of the book... are laid out with a clarity rarely seen in the humanistic psychology literature."

--Choice

"A strikingly original contribution to qualitative methodology by Clark Moustakas. It is distinguishable above all by the intensely personal character of the research."

--The Humanistic Psychologist

"This book gives a clear presentation of heuristic methodology as a systematic form of qualitative research. It includes an explanation of how heuristic inquiry works in practice and the actual process of conducting a human science investigation is described in detail."

--Bulletin de Methodologie Sociologique

"By calling attention to the meanings and uses of tacit knowing and intuition as we seek to formulate and address questions in psychology, Moustakas helps us recognize the importance of cultivating heuristic sources and the formidable challenge of doing so. His book also serves to remind us of the preconceptions of a field that largely acts as if such sources can be ignored or given very short shrift indeed."

--Contemporary Psychology

A first of its kind, Heuristic Research presents heuristic methodology as an organized and systematic form for investigating human experience. Moustakas clearly illustrates how heuristic concepts and processes form both the components of the research design and the basis for a methodology. The mechanics of how heuristic inquiry works in practice are discussed and, using a step-by-step approach, the actual process of conducting a human science investigation is thoroughly outlined. Moustakas carefully describes various applications of heuristic research, the phases of heuristic research, and how to analyze collected data. In addition, practical examples are provided to guide the reader through the research process. Clearly written and well organized, Heuristic Research is certain to interest researchers and students in evaluation, psychology, social psychology, gender studies, gerontology, family studies, and sociology.

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Introduction: Resources and Inspirations

“Heuristic” research came into my life when I was searching for a word that would meaningfully encompass the processes that I believed to be essential in investigations of human experience. The root meaning of heuristic comes from the Greek word heuriskein, meaning to discover or to find. It refers to a process of internal search through which one discovers the nature and meaning of experience and develops methods and procedures for further investigation and analysis. The self of the researcher is present throughout the process and, while understanding the phenomenon with increasing depth, the researcher also experiences growing self-awareness and self-knowledge. Heuristic processes incorporate creative self-processes and self-discoveries.

The cousin word of heuristics is eureka, exemplified by the Greek mathematician Archimedes’ discovery of a principle of buoyancy. While taking a bath, he experienced a sudden, striking realization—the “aha” phenomenon—and ran naked through the streets shouting “eureka!” The process of discovery leads investigators to new images and meanings regarding human phenomena, but also to realizations relevant to their own experiences and lives.

As an organized and systematic form for investigating human experience, heuristic research was launched with the publication of Loneliness (Moustakas, 1961) and continued in my explorations of Loneliness and Love (Moustakas, 1972) and The Touch of Loneliness (Moustakas, 1975). Other works influencing the development of heuristic methodology included Maslow’s (1956, 1966, 1971) research on self-actualizing persons and Jourard’s (1968, 1971) investigations of self-disclosure. Also of significance in the evolution of heuristic concepts are Polanyi’s elucidations of the tacit dimension (Polanyi, 1964, 1966, 1969), indwelling and personal knowledge (Polanyi, 1962); Buber’s (1958, 1961, 1965) explorations of dialogue and mutuality; Bridgman’s (1950) delineations of subjective-objective truth; and Gendlin’s (1962) analysis of meaning of experiencing. Rogers’ work on human science (Coulson & Rogers, 1968; Rogers, 1969, 1985) added theoretical and conceptual depth to the heuristic paradigm presented in Individuality and Encounter (Moustakas, 1968) and Rhythms, Rituals, and Relationships (Moustakas, 1981). Phenomenological underpinnings of heuristics were developed in Phenomenology, Science, and Psychotherapy (Moustakas, 1988).

As part of my own heuristic process in creating this work, I gathered before me the relatively recent investigations for which I served as research guide. These included the inner world of teaching (Craig, 1978); transforming self-doubt into self-confidence (Prefontaine, 1979); shyness (MacIntyre, 1983); self-reclamation (Schultz, 1983); being sensitive (McNally, 1982); being inspired (Rourke, 1984); return to Mexican-American ethnic identity (Rodriguez, 1985); the mystery of everyday life (Varani, 1985); feeling unconditionally loved (Hawka, 1986); the psychologically androgynous male (Clark, 1988); synchronicity (Marshall, 1987); feeling connected to nature (J. Snyder, 1989); growing up in a fatherless home (Cheyne, 1989); rejecting love (R. Snyder, 1988); precognitive dreams (M. Potts, 1988); interaction rhythms in intimate relations (Shaw, 1989); and the experience of writing poetry (Vaughn, 1989).

Along with the above works, I brought together my personal notes and spontaneous self-reflective writings for study and analysis. I also reviewed heuristic literature and reexamined my seminar outlines and presentations on heuristic design and methodology. I returned to lyric poetry, autobiography, and biography. I engaged in an immersion process, open and receptive to the nature of discovery, welcoming alternating rhythms of concentrated focus and inventive distraction. I searched within my knowledge and experience for deepened and extended awareness that would further illuminate structures and essences of heuristic discovery. I found particular meaning in studies that exemplified the heuristic paradigm and provided practical methods and procedures for its operational effectiveness in investigating human experience.

The heuristic process is a way of being informed, a way of knowing. Whatever presents itself in the consciousness of the investigator as perception, sense, intuition, or knowledge represents an invitation for further elucidation. What appears, what shows itself as itself, casts a light that enables one to come to know more fully what something is and means. In such a process not only is knowledge extended but the self of the researcher is illuminated. Descartes’ assertion accurately describes the perspective of the heuristic researcher: No one can convince me “that I am nothing as long as I think myself to be something . . . I am, I exist, every time it is pronounced by me, or mentally conceived, it necessarily is true,” (Descartes, 1977).

From the beginning and throughout an investigation, heuristic research involves self-search, self-dialogue, and self-discovery; the research question and the methodology flow out of inner awareness, meaning, and inspiration. When I consider an issue, problem, or question, I enter into it fully. I focus on it with unwavering attention and interest. I search introspectively, meditatively, and reflectively into its nature and meaning. My primary task is to recognize whatever exists in my consciousness as a fundamental awareness, to receive and accept it, and then to dwell on its nature and possible meanings. With full and unqualified interest, I am determined to extend my understanding and knowledge of an experience. I begin the heuristic investigation with my own self-awareness and explicate that awareness with reference to a question or problem until an essential insight is achieved, one that will throw a beginning light onto a critical human experience.

In the process of a heuristic search, I may challenge, confront, or even doubt my understanding of a human concern or issue; but when I persist in a disciplined and devoted way I ultimately deepen my knowledge of the phenomenon. In the heuristic process, I am personally involved. I am searching for qualities, conditions, and relationships that underlie a fundamental question, issue, or concern.

In heuristic investigations, I may be entranced by visions, images, and dreams that connect me to my quest. I may come into touch with new regions of myself, and discover revealing connections with others. Through the guides of a heuristic design, I am able to see and understand in a different way.

If I am investigating the meaning of delight, then delight hovers nearby and follows me around. It takes me fully into its confidence and I take it into mine. Delight becomes a lingering presence; for awhile, there is only delight. It opens me to the world in a joyous way and takes me into a richness, playfulness and childlikeness that move freely and effortlessly. I am ready to see, feel, touch, or hear whatever opens me to a fuller knowledge and understanding of the experience of delight.

In heuristics, an unshakable connection exists between what is out there, in its appearance and reality, and what is within me in reflective thought, feeling, and awareness. It is I the person living in a world with others, alone yet inseparable from the community of others; I who see and understand something, freshly, as if for the first time; I who come to know essential meanings inherent in my experience. I stand out within my experiences and in the entire domain of my interest and concern. Moffitt (1971, p. 149) captures this kind of seeing and knowing in his poem “To Look At Any Thing”:

 

To look at any thing

If you would know that thing,

You must look at it long:

To look at this green and say

“I have seen spring in these

Woods,” will not do—you must

Be the thing you see:

You must be the dark snakes of

Stems and ferny plumes of leaves,

You must enter in

To the small silences between

The leaves,

You must take your time

And touch the very place

They issue from.

 

In Moffitt’s sense, as a researcher I am the person who is challenged to apprehend the meaning of things and to give these meanings ongoing life. I provide the light that guides the explication of something and knowledge of it. When I illuminate a question, it comes to life. When I understand its constituents, it emerges as something solid and real.

Emphasis on the investigator’s internal frame of reference, self-searching, intuition, and indwelling lies at the heart of heuristic inquiry. An example of the opening of a heuristic search may be found in Roads’ Talking With Nature (1987).

Before anything else could become part of his knowledge, Roads entered into a dialogue with trees, plants, animals, birds, and the earth. He heard nature speak to him, “Help yourself. If you wish to tell the story of our connection, then write from the point of contact which you are” (p. 1). Roads responded: “How can we write of unseen realities, hint of unheard concepts, or even demonstrate the practicality of inner truths, without disturbing the slumbering Self within?” (p. 22). The answer: “Let go and fall into the river. Let the river of life sweep you beyond all aid from old and worn concepts. I will support you. Trust me. As you swim from an old consciousness, blind to higher realities beyond your physical world, trust that I will guide you with care and love into a new stream of consciousness. I will open a new world before you. Can you trust me enough to let go of the known and swim in an unknown current?” (p. 26).

It is just this swimming into an “unknown current” that is so striking in heuristic beginnings. The dawning of awareness may be refreshing and peaceful, or it may be disturbing and even jarring. Whatever the effect, the heuristic process requires a return to the self, a recognition of self-awareness, and a valuing of one’s own experience. The heuristic process challenges me to rely on my own resources, and to gather within myself the full scope of my observations, thoughts, feelings, senses, and intuitions; to accept as authentic and valid whatever will open new channels for clarifying a topic, question, problem, or puzzlement.

I begin the heuristic journey with something that has called to me from within my life experience, something to which I have associations and fleeting awarenesses but whose nature is largely unknown. In such an Odyssey, I know little of the territory through which I must travel. But one thing is certain, the mystery summons me and lures me “to let go of the known and swim in an unknown current.”

Essentially, in the heuristic process, I am creating a story that portrays the qualities, meanings, and essences of universally unique experiences. Through an unwavering and steady inward gaze and inner freedom to explore and accept what is, I am reaching into deeper and deeper regions of a human problem or experience and coming to know and understand its underlying dynamics and constituents more and more fully. The initial “data” is within me; the challenge is to discover and explicate its nature. In the process, I am not only lifting out the essential meanings of an experience, but I am actively awakening and transforming my own self. Self-understanding and self-growth occur simultaneously in heuristic discovery. Buber (1961) has brought to life the heuristic power of telling a story in the right way and the concurrent shift in one’s life and being. The story of a crucial human experience must be told in such a way that in itself it enables self-transformation, as in Buber’s tale of the lame grandfather who, while imitating the way in which his holy Baal Shem would hop and dance while praying, suddenly himself began to hop and dance and was dramatically cured of his lameness.

To capture the resources and powers of telling one’s story, one engages the full range of self-resources. One draws out all that is present in context and content in an active and lively unfolding drama, and brings one’s knowledge and experience into poetical depictions. Heuristic research is a demanding process. It requires “rigorous definition, careful collection of data, and a thorough and disciplined analysis. It places immense responsibility on the researcher.” (Frick, 1990, p. 79). In heuristic research the investigator must have had a direct, personal encounter with the phenomenon being investigated. There must have been actual autobiographical connections. Unlike phenomenological studies in which the researcher need not have had the experience (e.g., giving birth through artificial insemination), the heuristic researcher has undergone the experience in a vital, intense, and full way—if not the experience as such, then a comparable or equivalent experience. For example, Nancy Bernthal (1990) studied the experience of first-time parenthood with an adopted foreign child. Bernthal investigated the topic using heuristic methodology, on the basis of first-time parenthood of her own “natural birth” child.

The heuristic research process is not one that can be hurried or timed by the clock or calendar. It demands the total presence, honesty, maturity, and integrity of a researcher who not only strongly desires to know and understand but is willing to commit endless hours of sustained immersion and focused concentration on one central question, to risk the opening of wounds and passionate concerns, and to undergo the personal transformation that exists as a possibility in every heuristic journey.

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Heuristic Concepts, Processes, and Validation

Heuristic inquiry is a process that begins with a question or problem which the researcher seeks to illuminate or answer. The question is one that has been a personal challenge and puzzlement in the search to understand one’s self and the world in which one lives. The heuristic process is autobiographic, yet with virtually every question that matters personally there is also a social—and perhaps universal—significance.

Heuristics is a way of engaging in scientific search through methods and processes aimed at discovery; a way of self-inquiry and dialogue with others aimed at finding the underlying meanings of important human experiences. The deepest currents of meaning and knowledge take place within the individual through one’s senses, perceptions, beliefs, and judgments. This requires a passionate, disciplined commitment to remain with a question intensely and continuously until it is illuminated or answered.

CONCEPTS AND PROCESSES OF HEURISTIC RESEARCH

Identifying with the Focus of Inquiry

Through exploratory open-ended inquiry, self-directed search, and immersion in active experience, one is able to get inside the question, become one with it, and thus achieve an understanding of it. Salk (1983) has called this kind of identification with the focus of the investigation “the inverted perspective” and has described the process as follows:

In order to understand what follows it will be necessary for me to refer to certain effects of inverted perspective which I have found valuable in my scientific work and which I have also used as a device to understand the human condition. I do not remember exactly at what point I began to apply this way of examining my experience, but very early in my life I would imagine myself in the position of the object in which I was interested. Later, when I became a scientist, I would picture myself as a virus, or as a cancer cell, for example, and try to sense what it would be like to be either. I would also imagine myself as the immune system, and I would try to reconstruct what I would do as an immune system engaged in combating a virus or cancer cell . . . Before long, this internal dialogue became second natu...