It was developed within the field of health psychology by Jonathan Smith and colleagues over 20 years ago and is now an established approach which has gained popularity within qualitative psychology (Smith, 2004; Smith et al., 2012).

Who invented interpretative phenomenological analysis?

IPA is an integrative hermeneutic phenomenology [2] first proposed by Jonathan Smith [3] in a paper that argued for an experiential approach in psychology that could equally dialogue with mainstream psychology.

What is interpretative phenomenological analysis in qualitative research?

Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) is a qualitative approach which aims to provide detailed examinations of personal lived experience. … It is explicitly idiographic in its commitment to examining the detailed experience of each case in turn, prior to the move to more general claims.