Jonathan Alan Smith

Birkbeck, University of London · Department of Psychological Sciences

Background Around 30,000 emergency laparotomies are performed annually in the UK. Over half are in people aged ≥ 65 years and a third are frail. Frailty and its association with 90-day mortality is well documented. Longer-term mortality risk has been less extensively studied, despite clear implications for person-centred care. We aimed to estimate...

This chapter outlines new methods with which to understand an autistic ‘phenomenology’ which is representative of the diversity of autistic people. A neurodiverse research team works in co-production. Diverse autistic (and some comparator non-autistic) individuals undertake individual interviews using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, to un...

Objective Evaluate the cognitive, behavioural and affective processes involved in therapeutic change for young people with epilepsy and mental health difficulties receiving an integrated mental health intervention. Methods As part of a mixed methods convergent design, qualitative data were gathered in parallel to quantitative data at two timepoint...

Background Recent advances mean that formal clinical trials of solid organ xenotransplantation are increasingly likely to begin and patients requiring a kidney transplant could be the first participants. Healthcare workers and healthcare students constitute the current and future workforce that will influence public opinion of xenotransplantation....

Background: early intervention for people diagnosed with bipolar disorder has been identified as a priority, but little is known about how existing early intervention services are experienced by this group or could be tailored to their needs. Aims: this study examined the experience of early intervention in psychosis (eiP) services for people diagn...

Grieco’s discussion about the importance of attending to ‘areas of conflict between the clinician, the patient and the family in their views of illness’ is relevant in contemporary critical dialogue about crisis, disruption and emergence in health and social care research (1996, p. 1).In the absence of a cure, the biomedical explanation of dementia...

Introduction Older people living with frailty are at high risk of adverse clinical outcomes following emergency laparotomy, including early death, hospital readmission and functional decline. Despite this, there is a paucity of literature exploring patient experience of surgery in this group, particularly following hospital discharge. As a result,...

Background Chronic pain (CP) can be a disabling condition with impacts that affect the sense of identity of those who live with it. This article idiographically describes the longitudinal evolution of the sense of self of participants following their referral to a pain management service and participation in a pain management programme (PMP). Meth...

Introduction Older people living with frailty are at high risk of adverse clinical outcomes following emergency laparotomy, including early death, hospital readmission and functional decline. Despite this, there is a paucity of literature exploring patient experience of surgery in this group, particularly following hospital discharge. There is ther...

This research explores the experience of looking at art, specifically that of viewing a single painting. Five participants each selected a previously unseen painting from a selection provided and were interviewed about their experiences as they viewed it. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to explore the idiographic detail of t...

This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. At this time, we cannot add information about unpublished articles in this handbook, however the table of contents will continue to grow as additional articles pass through the review process and are added to the site. Please note...

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is characterised by significant symptom diversity and complexity. The unpredictability of the symptoms and the emotional and cognitive facets of the disease have a significant impact on the patients’ quality of life, relationships and other significant areas of living. Psychological interventions have been found to have mode...

Background Optimal intervention for people diagnosed with bipolar disorder (BD) is seen as a priority within early intervention psychosis services. This is the first study to explore the experience of first-episode psychotic mania and its aftermath for people diagnosed with BD, and the potential implications for treatment. Method Semi-structured i...

Aim: Early intervention for people diagnosed with bipolar disorder is a priority, but little is known about how recovery from first episode psychotic mania is experienced by this group. This study aimed to explore the experience of recovery from first episode psychotic mania for people diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Methods: Semi-structured in...

Background Current evidence suggests that autistic individuals are at high risk for becoming and remaining in a cycle of homelessness. Key risk factors for homelessness disproportionately affect autistic people; however, we have limited understanding of how to best support autistic individuals accessing services. This gap in the evidence base is pa...

Chronic pain is a common, profoundly disabling and complex condition whose effects on identity may explain the distress experienced by those affected by it. This paper concerns a study exploring how the relationship with pain and sense of self evolved following participation in a pain management program (PMP). Participants were interviewed at three...

Accounts by those seeking asylum are often challenged by the Home Office (HO) because of apparent inconsistencies and lack of credibility. Yet the ability to disclose everything at initial interview can be impacted by many factors. This study explores how applicants experienced interviews with the HO and its effects. Semi-Structured interviews were...

Since the onset of COVID-19, the provision of psychotherapy services has shifted online. Thus, telepsychotherapy has been the focus of much research to document therapists' experiences; however, it has been mainly quantitative. In the Indian context, no known empirical research has focused on the implications of this transition on psychotherapists....

Becoming a parent creates a new phase in adult development where the creation of a family brings new meanings and relational dimensions to one’s life. For people who are involuntarily childless, however, the absence of children can have a multifaceted impact on their everyday lives. Although extensive studies concerning childlessness have been cond...

This work explores the meaning-making activities described by participants as they viewed a well-known painting. Research into aesthetic engagement has implicated an array of cognitive, affective, and perceptual processes. Types and aspects of artworks and of viewers have been investigated and a wide range of contextual factors have been identified...

Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) is a well-established qualitative approach developed to investigate individuals' lived experiences. In trying to understand lived experience. It is concerned with the particular experiences that individuals have and their meaning making that occurs in relation to those experiences. IPA is collaborative...

What is it like to look at a painting? Research into art viewing raises challenging considerations. Factors concerning the artwork, the viewer, the role of context, as well as conceptualisation of the response and how to measure it, present a wealth of complexity. Although such a topic might arguably lend itself to qualitative exploration, work of...

This qualitative study examines the possible long-term impact of multisystemic therapy (MST) as young people experience the transition from adolescence to young adulthood. MST is an intensive intervention aimed at reducing antisocial behavior among young people. Interviews were conducted with 32 young people aged 16 to 22 years at their 48-month fo...

This qualitative study examines the possible long-term impact of multisystemic therapy (MST) as young people experience the transition from adolescence to young adulthood. MST is an intensive intervention aimed at reducing antisocial behavior among young people. Interviews were conducted with 32 young people aged 16 to 22 years at their 48-month fo...

Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) is a qualitative approach to psychological research with epistemological roots in phenomenology, hermeneutics and idiography. IPA involves an in-depth focus on phenomena from the perspective of the lived experience of participants who are considered in their social and personal contexts. IPA has a stro...

Existing guidance on evaluating the quality of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) research has provided criteria to assess work as good, acceptable or unacceptable. Given that IPA has become a well-established member of the qualitative methods repertoire, we think it is valuable now to focus in much more detail on the particular qualiti...

While considerable research has focused on medicalized infertility for women living with involuntary childlessness, far less attention has been placed on men. This exploratory study focuses on four British men using data collected through semi-structured interviews. The data were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis, and four ove...

This article presents findings of a Ph.D. case study that uses interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to elicit a deep understanding of lived experience within the context of a ‘craft-encounter’ shared by an adult carer with her mother, who has dementia. Recent studies have evaluated the health and well-being benefits of participatory craft...

Background: COVID-19 and the resultant lockdowns have caused a global discomposure. Out of a plethora of ramifications of this unusual state, mental health problems are becoming a serious concern. Considering the peculiarity of the situation, encapsulation of the lived experiences of people affected by COVID-19 may lead us towards a better understa...

Background Multisystemic therapy is a manualised treatment programme for young people aged 11–17 years who exhibit antisocial behaviour. To our knowledge, the Systemic Therapy for At Risk Teens (START) trial is the first large-scale randomised controlled trial of multisystemic therapy in the UK. Previous findings reported to 18 months after baselin...

Background The Systemic Therapy for At Risk Teens (START) trial is a randomised controlled trial of multisystemic therapy (MST) compared with management as usual (MAU). The present study reports on long-term follow-up of the trial (to 60 months). Objectives The primary objective was to compare MST and MAU for the proportion of young people in each...

Study question: What is it like for women to be involuntarily childless in midlife? Summary answer: Involuntarily childless women may be suffering from prolonged grief due to its ambiguous and intangible nature; however, they are also striving to find ways of dealing with their internal pain in order to live with their loss. What is known alrea...

Huntington's disease (HD) is an inherited neurodegenerative disorder characterized by motor problems, cognitive impairment, and mood disturbances. Given the emotional elements of both HD itself and the testing process for it, psychological interventions may be helpful for those families impacted by HD. A stand-alone genetic counseling narrative gro...

To inform the development of interventions to increase uptake and adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART), we explored perceptions of ART in semi-structured interviews with 52 men and women from UK black African and black Caribbean communities. Verbatim transcripts were analyzed using framework analysis. Perceptions of ART could be grouped into t...

Background: Delay to start antiretroviral therapy (ART) and nonadherence compromise the health and wellbeing of people living with HIV (PLWH), raise the cost of care and increase risk of transmission to sexual partners. To date, interventions to improve adherence to ART have had limited success, perhaps because they have failed to systematically e...

Deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN-DBS) is an effective treatment for Parkinson’s disease (PD). In this study, we used an interpretative phenomenological analysis to explore how 10 male people with PD experienced life after STN-DBS surgery. Two themes emerged. The first, “Healed and relieved: all that glitters is not gold,” high...

In this article I offer a theoretical account of interpretative phenomenological analysis’s (IPA’s) position in relation to meaning-making by participant and researcher. In doing this, I draw on a range of theoretical writing on meaning. I then apply these ideas to a series of empirical studies on pain which I have been involved in. The intention,...

Introduction to the Special Issue

Background The adjustment process following predictive testing for Huntington’s disease can be variable, with some impacts experienced years after the result. Psychological interventions, particularly those focused on acceptance-based, systemic work such as narrative therapy, may be useful for people who have chosen to test whilst asymptomatic. We...

This paper explores the participant’s experience of what it is like to suffer depression, endured for years. Four women and three men, who each reported a minimum of four years’ depression, were interviewed and themes were generated using interpretative phenomenological analysis. A first complex theme is ‘depths of emptiness’ which encompasses: dec...

In this paper I present a rebuttal of Max Van Manen’s (2017) critique of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Unfortunately Van Manen’s piece contains a series of misrepresentations of IPA and its history. Here I answer these misrepresentations and present IPA as subscribing, and contributing, to a broad and holistic phenomenology concer...

Prior research has established emerging adulthood to be a time characterized by robust identity explorations in professional and non-professional domains. However, extant literature provides little contextual explanations in relation to how these identity explorations are experienced by early-career professionals. This manuscript presents idiograph...

The question of how migrants’ language use impacts their ethnic identity has received considerable attention in the literature. There is, however, little understanding of how this relationship manifests or is negotiated in interethnic families. This paper presents an in-depth exploration of Spanish mothers’ experiences of Spanish- and English-langu...

L’analyse interprétative phénoménologique permet au chercheur d’explorer l’expérience de participants, le sens qu’ils donnent à leur expérience et les mécanismes psychologiques sous-jacents. Elle est devenue une des approches les plus reconnues en psychologie et elle est utilisée de façon croissante dans d’autres disciplines. Étant donné cet intérê...

Combining participant drawings with interviews can stimulate deep reflection and allow the inexpressible to be expressed. This case study uses visual methods to illustrate the nine-month self-management journey of a female chronic pain sufferer. The participant drew a picture of her pain at each of three interviews and the drawings were used to dis...

Objectives: Ileostomy, in which the small intestine is redirected out of an abdominal wall so that waste is collected using a bag, is used to treat conditions including inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal cancer. This article reports an in-depth idiographic analysis of the experience of living with an ileostomy. Method: Twenty-one particip...

Antiretroviral therapy (ART) offers a powerful intervention in HIV but effectiveness can be compromised by inadequate adherence. This paper is a detailed examination of the experience of medication in a purposively selected group of people living with HIV. In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 HIV positive, West African women of black heritage...

The paper presents an in-depth idiographic study exploring the experience of fathers who have an adult son with a cervical spinal cord injury (SCI). Five participants were recruited and individual semi-structured interviews were conducted. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Tw...

AIMS: To explore treatment and healthcare experiences of people living with ileostomies, so nurses can build on best practice whilst caring for these patients. Background Ileostomies, in which the small intestine is re-directed out of a stoma in the abdominal wall so waste is collected using a bag, are used to treat conditions including Inflammato...

Transplantation is the treatment goal for patients living with End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD), and living donation is a suitable option for many kidney patients. Whilst some existing research has suggested that receiving a kidney can be more psychologically complex than donating one, previous work has tended to focus on donor rather than recipient...

The experience of living with End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) and being on dialysis is a complex and life-changing one that has received some investigation within the qualitative psychological realm (see e.g., Gill & Lowes, 2008; Martin-McDonald, 2003; Polaschek, 2003).

Demand for kidneys from deceased donors far outstrips supply. Despite this, there appears to be little research that focuses solely on the experience of waiting for a kidney from a deceased donor. This study uses the qualitative methodology interpretative phenomenological analysis to explore the lives of 10 people on the transplant list, with the a...

The term 'phenomenology' is perhaps not well understood by those less involved in qualitative research. It has developed and diversified to encompass a bewildering array of different traditions and methods. This article provides a whistle-stop tour of its history, key figures and applications in psychology. Leading qualitative psychologists then ex...

Much previous research into living kidney donation has focused on the decision-making of the donor, despite evidence suggesting this may be a more psychologically challenging time for the recipient. This longitudinal study explores the experiences of four recipients of kidneys from living donors throughout the transplant process. Transcripts were a...

This study examines patients' pictorial representations of their chronic pain, alongside their accounts of those images, in order to help our understanding of their lived experience of the condition. The sample comprises 7 women in middle adulthood from southern England. They began by drawing what their pain felt like and were then interviewed abou...

This paper details the transition of one researcher in his journey from attending to the methods of research to identifying and enacting the methodology of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). In the backdrop of this paper is a larger qualitative study that is employing IPA to understand a rich picture of how engineering student become e...

Objectives. Chronic low back pain is a major health problem and one where pain, physical impairment and biological pathology are only very loosely correlated). It is considered that the experience of pain, its distress and disability is mediated by its meaning to the sufferer. The intention of this study was to explore the sufferers' personal exper...

The aim of this study was to explore the childhood experience of living with a parent with depression from a retrospective point of view. Five women between 39 and 47 years of age, who grew up with a mother with depression, were interviewed about their current perspectives on their childhood experiences. Interviews were semi-structured and the data...

In the second of two interviews (Doran, 2014), Professor Jonathan A. Smith and Kate Doran discuss the development of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), its achievements and potential future directions.

Young adults are significantly more likely to experience problematic substance use than mature adults. Identity transformation is known to be a key feature of mature adult recovery, but for the culturally distinct young adult demographic, the links between their identity and their recovery from addiction have not been well investigated. This paper...

Objectives This article presents a detailed idiographic analysis of patients' experience of first-episode depression.DesignThis is a qualitative interview study using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA).Methods Semi-structured interviews were carried out with a purposive sample of seven patients presenting to a mental health service in L...

This observational study aimed to (i) compare the accuracy of information recalled by patients and relatives following genetic counselling about a newly identified BRCA1/2 mutation, (ii) identify differences in accuracy of information about genetics and hereditary cancer and (iii) investigate whether accuracy among relatives improved when informati...

Four White British women who had not signed up to be organ donors were interviewed in depth to investigate their feelings on organ donation. Transcripts were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to reveal how the ability to detach from the body affects the acceptance of organ donation, how organ donation can trigger difficult tho...

Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) is a qualitative approach which aims to provide detailed examinations of personal lived experience. It produces an account of lived experience in its own terms rather than one prescribed by pre-existing theoretical preconceptions and it recognises that this is an interpretative endeavour as humans are...

Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) has become a popular methodological framework in qualitative psychology. Studies based in IPA focus on examining how individuals make meaning of their life experiences. A detailed analysis of personal accounts followed by presenting and discussing the generic experiential themes is typically paired with the researche...

Professor Jonathan A. Smith is best known for his development of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) as a particular experiential qualitative approach within psychology and its application to a range of areas within health, social and clinical psychology (Smith, 1996; Smith, Flowers & Larkin, 2009). He holds a Chair in the Department of...

There has been significant investment in developing guidelines to improve clinical and public health practice. Though much is known about the processes of evidence synthesis and evidence-based guidelines implementation, we know little about how evidence presented to advisory groups is interpreted and used to form practice recommendations or what ha...

Efforts to discourage excessive alcohol use among young people can only be effective if the target audience is exposed to, attends to, and comprehends key messages. The aim of this study was to examine age and sex differences in drinking motives to better inform development of targeted interventions to reduce alcohol-related harm. Thirty individual...

Huntington's disease (HD) is a well-recognized progressive neurodegenerative disorder that follows an autosomal dominant pattern of inheritance. Onset is insidious and can occur at almost any age, but most commonly the diagnosis is made between the ages of 35 and 55 years. Onset ≤20 years of age is classified as juvenile HD (JHD). This age-based de...

The objective of the current study was to explore the structural, temporal and experiential manifestations of crisis episodes in early adulthood, using a holistic-systemic theoretical framework. Based on an analysis of 50 interviews with individuals about a crisis episode between the ages of 25 and 35, a holistic model was developed. The model comp...

The study reported here presents a detailed description of what it is like to parent a child with juvenile Huntington's disease in families across four European countries. Its primary aim was to develop and extend findings from a previous UK study. The study recruited parents from four European countries: Holland, Italy, Poland and Sweden,. A secon...

This is a qualitative examination of candidates' decision-making in relation to the genetic test for Huntington's disease (HD). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine participants who were asked about factors influencing their decision whether to take up predictive genetic testing. Transcripts of interviews were subjected to interpreta...

This study aims to provide insight into the reasons for choosing an unknown oocyte donor and to explore recipients' feelings and wishes regarding donor information. In-depth interviews were carried out with 11 women at different stages of treatment. Seven were on a waiting list and four have given birth to donor oocyte babies. The interviews were a...

Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) has become a popular methodological framework in qualitative psychology. Studies based in IPA focus on examining how individuals make meaning of their life experiences. Doing IPA involves a detailed analysis of personal accounts from participants. This is followed by the presentation of the emergent ex...

Book synopsis: Research Methods in Psychology has been substantially revised in its fourth edition. Continuing to offer enviable coverage of the research methods that psychology students at intermediate levels need to cover in their course, the textbook has now been broadened to cover the full suite of beginner level research methods too. The resul...

The experience of living with End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) and being on dialysis is a complex and life-changing one that has received some investigation within the qualitative psychological realm (see e.g. Gill & Lowes, 2008; Martin-McDonald, 2003; Polaschek, 2003). This is a period of time that can lead to difficulties with autonomy and empowerm...

Book synopsis: The three-volume APA Handbook of Research Methods in Psychology features descriptions of many techniques that psychologists and others have developed to help them pursue a shared understanding of why humans think, feel, and behave the way they do. At the broadest level, when choosing a method, researchers make decisions about what da...

Book synopsis: “This new book by Carla Willig closes a gap in qualitative research in psychology and beyond. It focuses on the process of understanding in qualitative data analysis by taking the perspective of interpretation: What links our understanding with social and psychological phenomena in qualitative research? With its broad coverage of the...

This paper presents the gem as a valuable concept for experiential qualitative psychology. The gem is the relatively rare utterance that is especially resonant and offers potent analytic leverage to a study. After contextualising and defining the gem, the paper will give an example from my work on the experience of pain to help illustrate the power...

This article focuses on visual representations of subjective experiences of the process of recovery from addiction and the meanings that participants attribute to their visual work. The data are drawn from a study of six female participants. In this article, we discuss the results with reference to one participant, to allow for detailed considerati...

Genetic testing for BRCA1/2 mutations associated with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer reveals significant risk information about one's chances of developing cancer. It is important to study communication processes in families where members are undergoing genetic testing because the information received is crucial not just to the individual con...

Objectives. To explore the theoretical utility of current health psychology in understanding the occurrence of unprotected anal sex amongst gay men in relationships. Design. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was employed to highlight the utility of incorporating the perspective of gay men in addressing a theoretical understanding of sexual d...