Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 9, 2026

Enactive Phenomenological Approach to the Trier Social Stress Test: A Mixed Methods Point of View
Published on: January 7, 2019
I feel like a scrambled egg in my head: an idiographic case study of meaning making and anger using interpretative
Virginia Eatough1, Jonathan A Smith
1School of Psychology, Birkbeck University of London, UK. v.eatough@bbk.ac.uk
Abstract:
What does it feel like when one's meaning making is impoverished and threatens to break down? The aim of this study is to show how meaning making is achieved in the context of one's life and how this achievement is often a struggle for the individual. The study reports data from semi-structured interviews with a female participant, which was analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). This paper examines how cultural discourses and conventions are experienced and given meaning by the individual. First, the analysis demonstrates how dominant discourses are used to explain anger and aggression. These include hormones, alcohol, and the influence of past relationships on present action. Second, it examines how the participant's meaning making is often ambiguous and confused, and how she variously accepts and challenges available meanings. Finally, the analysis demonstrates how meaning making can break down and the consequences of this for the individual's sense of self.
Related Concept Videos
The Sense of Self: Reflected Self-Appraisal and Social Comparison
Structuralism
Titchener's approach to structuralism was unique. He employed introspection, a method...
Understanding Self-Concept
Deindividuation
Structure of Self
Components of the Mind: Id, Ego, and Superego
Jung's Analytical Theory