Contributions of the hermeneutics of Paul Ricoeur to the phenomenological research in psychology

Abstract

The study aims to apprehend the specificity and reflect on possible contributions of the phenomenological- -hermeneutic method of Paul Ricoeur to phenomenological research in psychology. The results demonstrate that, in phenomenological psychology, the empirical understanding is synonymous with interpretation and it means direct apprehension of the lived structure (objective pole of the hermeneutic circle), whereas, in the Ricoeur's hermeneutics perspective, it is the radical acceptance of interpretation - understood as a result of the understanding/explanation dialectics - acting in the course of any investigation that ensures the recognition of the inalienable presence of subjectivity and the requirements of scientific rigor to be corresponded. We concluded that the hermeneutics of Ricoeur contributes to the improvement of the empirical phenomenological psychology, since it offers conditions of greater coherence, consistency, depth, and range.