The lived experiences of awe and connectedness: an interpretative phenomenological analysis

This dissertation project explores the lived experiences of awe amongst people in middle adulthood (age 35-65). The research project intends to examine how awe is experienced and made sense of in the immediate term and beyond, and to understand what facilitates the experiences of awe. Seven participants were interviewed using semi-structured interviews about their experiences of awe. The material was analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), and four Group Experiential Themes were identified and discussed: the first details the experiential characteristics of awe in the immediate moment, the second explores the impact of the experiences on the participants’ ways of being, and third examined the psychological factors that helped participants to access and experience awe, and the fourth theme explored how participants more broadly perceived and conceptualised awe. The findings were understood and illuminated with references to knowledge gleaned from existing literature on awe, while also contributing a phenomenological and qualitative understanding of the phenomena that has thus far been investigated primarily through experimental and quantitative means. The findings suggest that the experience of awe is expansive, complex, and impactful on one’s sense of connectedness and ways of relating with the wider world. It is also suggested that awe is accessible and can be experienced through cultivating favourable psychological conditions.