Teo, Thomas2019-03-052019-03-052018-10-162019-03-05http://hdl.handle.net/10315/35842Mainstream psychology adheres to a reductionist perspective on the body which is founded on a biomedical framework. In this view, the bodys functioning is investigated as merely physiological correlates of mental processes. To fully understand psychological phenomena, there is a need to address the issue of the body at all levels of the research process. The main objective of this thesis is to offer a prolegomenon for a research method in psychology which would systematically work with the bodily expression through gesture and movement for understanding psychological questions. First, I discuss historical and theoretical underpinnings of body image scholarship, nonverbal communication work, phenomenology, and feminist theory. Second, I examine the existing methods from applied fields of body psychotherapy and dance practices. Finally, I provide a possible format of the body-oriented method (BOM), including the stages of data collection, data description, data interpretation, and representation of results.enAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.PsychologyElectronic Thesis or Dissertation2019-03-05BodyEmbodied subjectivityPhenomenological methodGesture and movementQualitative research