Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) is a qualitative research approach that examines how people make sense of, or give meaning to, a significant phenomenon. IPA researchers are interested in a detailed experiential and existential account of an individual’s experiences, meaning-making, cognition, and affect related to a significant phenomenon ( Smith et al., 2022 ). Significant phenomena that researchers and participants might explore can include phenomena that are health-related (such as receiving a medical diagnosis or living with a chronic or mental illness), workplace-related (such as being a health care worker), identity-related (such as becoming and being a parent), and emotional or affect-related (such as happiness or anger). Reviews of the IPA corpus have demonstrated that IPA studies have commonly described the lived experiences of participants contracting and living with a chronic or mental illness, pregnancy and other experiences related to reproduction, and experiences and identities in the workplace ( Brocki and Wearden, 2006 , Reid et al., 2005 , Smith, 2011a ). Because IPA has developmental roots in health psychology ( Smith, 1996 , 2004 ), it is not surprising that the investigation of health-related experiences has been a common theme, including experiences related to chronic and mental illnesses, reproduction, and health care or therapy utilization. Although IPA has been heavily utilized in health fields, it has been and continues to be used in other fields including education, the humanities, and management ( Reid et al., 2005 , Smith, 2011a , 2017 ). Although IPA has developmental roots in health psychology that date to the 1990s, IPA has theoretical roots that began much earlier. IPA has three theoretical foundations that underlie the research process—phenomenology, hermeneutics, and idiography.