Exploring Inner Experience
The descriptive experience sampling method
Written for the psychologist, philosopher, and layperson interested in consciousness, Exploring Inner Experience provides a comprehensive introduction to the Descriptive Experience Sampling (DES) method for obtaining accurate reports of inner experience. DES uses a beeper to cue participants to pay attention to their experience at precisely defined moments; participants are then interviewed to obtain high-fidelity accounts of their experience at those moments. Exploring Inner Experience shows (a) how DES uncovers previously unknown details of inner experience; (b) how the implications of this method affect our understanding of inner experience and the human condition more generally; (c) how DES avoids the traps that destroyed the introspections of the previous century; (d) why DES reports of inner experience should be considered reliable and valid; and (e) how to use the DES method. This book will be basic reading for all psychologists, philosophers, and students interested in consciousness, as well as anyone who is seriously concerned with understanding the human condition.(Series B)
[Advances in Consciousness Research, 64] 2006. xii, 276 pp.
Publishing status: Available
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
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Preface | pp. vii–xii
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1. Inner experience | pp. 1–11
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2. Amy’s Inner Experience | pp. 13–29
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3. Telling what we know: Describing inner experience | pp. 31–39
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4. Psychological science’s prescription for accurate reports about inner experience | pp. 41–60
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5. To beep or not to beep | pp. 61–75
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6. The Descriptive Experience Sampling procedure | pp. 77–92
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7. Transcript of a DES Expositional interview | pp. 93–105
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8. How to do DES: The moment of the beep | pp. 107–132
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9. A Sampling Journal: Learning about DES | pp. 133–149
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10. Bracketing presuppositions | pp. 151–175
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11. Reliability and validity of DES | pp. 177–189
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12. DES compared to other systems | pp. 191–208
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13. Everyday inner experience | pp. 209–231
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14. Implications of inner experience | pp. 233–248
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15. Idiographic science | pp. 249–262
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Index | pp. 273–276
“The authors' overexuberance notwithstanding their description of the DES technique is compelling, and their dedication, enthusiasm, and experience are beyond doubt. One of the book's central aims is to encourage further use of DES, and despite my concerns about the technique and the ease of implementation, I am inspired to try the technique out during my own research. I am optimistic it will reveal new and surprising information that I look forward to sharing with the authors.”
Stuart W.G. Derbyshire, in PsycCritiques, Vol. 51, Issue 50, 2006
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Subjects
Consciousness Research
Psychology
Main BIC Subject
JMT: States of consciousness
Main BISAC Subject
PSY020000: PSYCHOLOGY / Neuropsychology