EWU Laboratory for
New Phenomenology

This project utilizes Quantitative Phenomenology to identify latent patterns in thought related to intrapsychic conflict by asking participants to tell stories in response to a series of pictures that form a stalwart and popular projective psychological assessment. In addition to the scientific benefits, this project holds the potential to develop a commercially viable automated scoring program specific to this psychological assessment.

This project uses Quantitative Phenomenology to produce an in-depth analysis of each major common theme in messages submitted by participants, while investigating potential correlates of thematic variation and comfort with sending such messages. This project collaborates with METI International, a global organization composed of scientists established in their fields, and involves its board in its planning and dissemination.

This project assesses thoughts about interpersonal dynamics as contextualized by current personal adjustment. It enhances both basic and applied understanding of the Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank-2, a popular projective psychological assessment consisting of the written completion of 40 sentence stems. This project uses Quantitative Phenomenology to derive objective, reliable, and valid norms, and also holds commercial potential in addition to its scientific merits.

This project assesses multicultural identities through the intersection of national and ethnic or racial cultural identification. It produces normative scores for the Orthogonal Cultural Identification Scale (OCIS) according to contemporary ethnic and racial U.S. Census categories, and also with respect to American national culture generally. Quantitative Phenomenology is applied to open-ended questions asking participants to define key terms on the OCIS, such as what a “way of life,” “success,” or “traditions” means for them in terms of their selected ethnic or racial identities, as well as for American national cultural identification.

This project seeks to better understand the ecological, social, and spiritual influences on perceived differences between common everyday experiences as compared to relatively rare and transformative peak or ecstatic experiences, in which a person experiences a profound alteration in perceptions of oneself, others and the cosmos. Quantitative Phenomenology is used to assess variation in thoughts about the self, others, and the cosmos contingent on the ecology in which the experience occurs.

This project uses Quantitative Phenomenology to analyze the archived annual narrative reports of Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) from the 20th Century, in order to identify patterns of impact on and integration with the local communities surrounding it, across its decades of existence. This project actively involves both the non-profit Friends of Turnbull NWR and the federal staff in its planning and dissemination, as well as collaboration with the Office of the Archivist at EWU’s JFK Library.