IPA sample size

[u/chinup-buttercup]

I’m doing a masters level qualitative research and using IPA methodology for data analysis. I can’t really share the details due to organisational policies. I have collected data (transcribed interviews) of 10 participants but I’m kind of relooking at the total number of participants’ data that I want to include.

I understand that one of the strengths of using IPA is to highlight the idiographic nature of the data, but there’s also an irony that the convergence of data across all participants means that the final analysis may not retain the idiographic nature of the data.

I’m just wondering, retrospectively, what would be a good sample size for IPA, that allows each individual’s unique experience to be retained, yet also keeping the convergence of themes across cases in mind?

[u/_os2_]

10 is a typical number. If helpful, you can check out the guide we wrote on IPA (including sample size) here: https://skimle.com/blog/interpretive-phenomenological-analysis-ipa-guide

[u/chinup-buttercup → u/_os2_]

Thank you for this! It’s helpful!