Week 6 Flashcards
What is Narrative
- Lies at the heart of being human
- We are story telling animals
- Way we make sense of and create order of chaos in the world
- Expression of self through story telling
- Stories help us heal
Narrative Approach
- Dan P Adams 1993 - Stories we live by
- Influenced by Silvan S Tomkins
- Concerned with how stories shape personality
What does Narrative Do?
- The way we define ourselves
- Establish Temporal Continuity
- Distinguish ourselves from others
Temporal Continuity
When we are key characters in our narratives
We present a version of ourselves
Past, Present & Future
Narrative Interpretation
- An organised interpretation of a sequence of events
- Atrributing agency to characters
- Establish causal links between events
Three Components of Narrative
McAdams sees time as linear; from a western perspective
1. Beginning
2. Middle
3. End
Narrative has Two Functions
- Emplotment
- Creation of self-identity
Emplotment
- Attempt to bring order to disorder
- Organise a sequence of events into a linear plot
- Disorder is a challenge to our daily life
- Narratives are provisional
- Subject to change as new information is discovered
Creation of Identity
- We tell stories about our lives
- This creates a narrative identity
- This establishes Localised Coherence
- Stability across different contexts
Narrative Identity
- We begin construction in adolescence and continues through life
- Internalised, evolving and integrative
- Reflects our struggle to reconcile self image in context of life
Narrative Identity to Establish Coherence
- address particular problems we encounter
- specific points in the life course
- have a social dimension
Narrative and Life Issues
- Helps us make sense of specific issues in life
- Young adults may use their stories to attract partners and intimacy
- Parents try to instruct children in ways of the world
- Midlife adults construct stories that support generativity (Erikson)
Social Dimensions of Narratives
- Narrative Accounts are shaped by social context
- Narrator frames the story
- Story depends on the audience and broader social context
- Groups as have narratives that shape identity - Jewish Diaspora
Master Narratives
- Blueprints for people to follow when constructing their lives
- Become embedded in culture
e.g. go to school, graduate, find work, marraige and children - Gives us a sense of the arc of life
Problems of Master Narrative
- Stigmatise those who don’t adhere to them
- Give unrealistic expectations of happiness
- Change with cultural and historical shifts
Two Culturally Dominant Master Narratives
Contemporary Western Ideas
1. Redemption Story
2. Contamination Story
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The Redemption Story
- Start of Bad and end Better
- Some early blessing helps with later suffering
- Gain insight or strength
- Leads to positive outcome
- Associated with greater well-being
- Positive seed in a negative experience
Redemptive Stories - McAdams
- Adults who show high generativity had identities with redemption narratives
- American culture holds metaphors that run through history and heritage - think Oprah
- Americans seem especially drawn to Redemption Narratives
Four Canonical Redemptive Stories
- Atonement
- Upward Socially Mobile
- Liveration
- Recovery
Narrative Arc - Atonement
- Moves from sin to salvation
- Massachusetts Bay Puritans who came to New World in 17th century
Narrative Arc - Upward Socially Mobile
- Rags to riches stories
- The underdog story
- Canonised as The American Dream
Narrative Arc - Liberation
- Historically animated social movements
e.g. civil rights, women’s rights, LGBTQI+ rights
Narrative Arc - Recovery
- Look back to a Golden Age or Paradise Lost that beckons to be refound
- Stories of recovery from illness, addiction, abuse
Again Oprah
The Contamination Story
- Start off positively and end badly
- The good becomes contaminated, ruined, spoiled
- Contamination sequences overwhelm or pollute pre-existing positivity
e.g. Ned Stark in Game of Thrones
Contamination Themes in Real Life
- Tend to be connected with poor mental health
- Lodi-Smith et al., 2009
2 Superordinate Narrative Themes
Mostly relevant in the Western World
1. Agency - Power
2. Communion - Love
Personal Agency
- Ability to influence the course of your life
- Not allowing external forces to brign you down
- Prized in individualist cultures
- The ‘fighter’ is a common protagonist - goes to battle in a struggle for vitality
- linked with positive mental health
- Thought that it is beneficial over physical illness - Adler et al., 2015
Locus of Control
- You are the master of your own destiny
- Your ability to hold agency over your life
- Degree to which one believes that they have control over the outcome of events in their lives.
Communion
- Drive for connection with others - Adler et al 2015
- Prized on collectivist cultures
- Often found in stories of physical health
- Focus on social connections to regain vitality
- Linked to positive mental health
Narrative Analysis - Epistomology
- Contextualist Epistomology
- Combines Critical-Realist and Social Constructionist
- Apply data to pre-exisitng themes or codes
- Not accept themes arising from the data
- Existing codes could assist testing a hypothesis
- Exposes language used in stories
- Focus on how themes and metaphors shape understanding of phenomena
Collecting Narratives
- Primary method of this research is Unstructured Interview
- Simmilar to IPA tries to be Idiographic over Nomothetic
- Creates detailed account of an experience
Two Types of Narrative Interview
- Narrative Interview - Particular experience
- Episodic Experience - Particular disruptive event
Two Types of Narrative Interview
- Narrative Interview - Particular experience
- Episodic Experience - Particular disruptive event
Other Ways to Collect Narratives
- Focus Groups
- Personal Journal
- Video or photo collage e.g. Instagram
Information to Collect for Narrative Analysis
- Detailed Biographical Information about participants
- Background about central participants in their lives
- Detailed log of each interview
- Log is part of the data but also used to demonstrate Reflexivity
e.g. Think structure of program Alone
Analysis in Narrative Approaches: Step 1
- Descriptive Reading - Similar to empathic summary in IPA
- Prepare short descriptive summary with beginning, middle and end
- Identify sub-plots in narrative
- Establish the connections between sub plots
Analysis in Narrative Approaches: Step 2
Interpretive Reading considers 5 Issues:
1. Structure
2. Tone
3. Dominant Themes
4. Context
5. Language
Step 2: Structure and Tone
- Regressive Telling - Pessimistic
- Progressive Telling - Optimistic
- Stable Telling - Neutral, Objective, List of events
Note Epiphany Points that redirect narrative - e.g. Frozen
Dominant Themes
- Underlie Major Beliefs and Values
- Coded for the prescence or absence of 4 Key Themes
- Uses Coding guide - Redemption, contamination agency & Communion
- Breaks down into sub-themes with examples
5 Sub Themes of Redemption
- Sacrifice
- Recovery
- Growth
- Learning
- Improvement
Redemption Subthemes - Sacrifice
The protagonist wilfully accepts or endures an extremely negative A in order to provide B.
Redemption Subthemes - Recovery
- The protagonist successfully obtains a positive state after losing it
- Could be in healing, survival, regaining, recuperating.
Redemption Subthemes - Growth
- Negative experience leads to interpersonal growth
- Also fulfillment, actualization, strengthening, individuation.
Redemption Subthemes - Learning
A protagonist gains new knowledge, wisdom, skills, etc. from a negative event.
Redemption Subthemes - Improvement
- Something of catch all if subthemes doesn’t fit above
- In a bad situation has negative outcomes
- In a good situation has good outcomes
Sub Themes of Contamination
- Victimisation
- Betrayal
- Loss
- Failure
- Physcal or Psychological illness
- Disappointment
- Disillusionment
- Sex
Contamination Sub Themes: Victimisation
Physical or verbal abuse, theft.
Contamination Sub Themes: Betrayal
Affairs, Telling Secrets
Contamination Sub Themes: Loss
- Significant others, job, money, property, self-respect, respect for another.
Contamination Sub Themes: Failure
In school, sports, job, courtship.
Contamination Sub Themes: Physical/Mental Injury
- Experience of symptoms
- Process of (mis)diagnoses
- Unsuccessful treatment/intervention
Contamination Sub Themes: Disappointment
Things do not turn out as expected, things go wrong.
Contamination Sub Themes: Disillusionment
- Correction of a positive misperception
- Role model betraysown teachings.
Contamination Sub Themes: Sex
Enjoyment turns to guilt, humiliation.
Sub themes of Agency
- Self Mastery
- Status/Victory
- Achievement/Responsibility
- Empowerment
Sub themes of Agency: Self-Mastery
The protagonist strives successfully to master, control, enlarge, or perfect the self.
Sub themes of Agency: Status/Victory
- Attains a heightened status or prestige
- Receives special recognition or honour through winning a contest or competition.
Sub themes of Agency: Acheivement/Responsibility
- Substantial success in the achievement of tasks
- Assumption of important responsibilities.
- This is winning the war - not the battles
Sub themes of Agency: Empowerment
- Protagonist is enlarged, enhanced, empowered, through their association withsomeone or something larger and more powerful than the self.
Sub Themes of Communion
- Love & Friendship
- Dialogue
- Caring/Help
- Unity/Togetherness
Sub Themes of Communion: Love & Friendship
- Protagonist receives erotic love or friendship
- Friendship Refers primarily between peers and platonic
- Love as i romantic or erotic partners
- Exludes Child/Parent love
Sub Themes of Communion: Dialogue
- Reciprocal and non-instrumental communication with another person or group
Sub Themes of Communion: Caring/Help
- Protagonist provides care, assistance, help or aid for another
- Could be physical, material or social
Sub Themes of Communion: Unity/Togetherness
- Captures communal idea of being part of a community
- Protagonist experiences a sense of oneness with a group of people or even human kind
Context
- Personal Context - Experience of the individual
- Societal Context - Broader Social Narrative; Sturcture everyday accounts
e.g. Being an outsider
Language - Metaphors
- Lakoff & Johnson 1980
- Metaphors are understanding and experiencing one thing in terms of another
- Used to frame experiences
- Reveal how we conceptualise the world
- Imagery is equally powerful as a narrative tool
- Useful in Propoganda
Quality in Qualitative Research
- Some say Reliability & Validity innapropriate in Qual research
- Prefer the term trustworthiness - Braun & Clarke 2013
Criteria exist base on
1. Methodology - Yardley’s (2000) criteria for IPA
2. Ontological Position - Madiull et al., 2000
3. Trustiworthiness Concerns - Guba & Lincoln., 1982
Big Tent Criteria
- Criteria for excellent Qual Research
- Tracy 2020
1. Worthy topic
2. Rich rigor
3. Sincerity
4. Credibility
5. Resonance
6. Significant contribution
7. Ethical
8. Meaningful coherence
A Worthy Topic
The topic of the research is
* Relevant
* Timely
* Significant
* Interesting
Rich Rigour
The study uses sufficient, abundant, appropriate, and complex:
* theoretical constructs
* data and time in the field
* sample(s)
* context (s)
* data collection and analysis process
Sincerity
The study is characterised by:
* Self-reflexivity about values, biases, and inclinations of the researcher(s)
* Transparency about the methods and challenges
Can be demonstrated:
* First person pronouns (“I”)
* Reflexive statement
* Audit trail (look for a link to marked up transcripts, reflexive journal, memos)
* Acknowledgements section
Credibility
- Is the research plausible and persuasive?
The research is marked by: - Thick description, concrete detail,
- explication of tacit (nontextual) knowledge
- Showing rather than telling
- Triangulation (realist) or crystallization (relativist)
- Multivocality (use of multiple and varied voices in analysis)
- Member reflections: ““taking findings back to the field
- Determining whether the participants recognize them as true or accurate” (Lindlof & Taylor, 2002)
Resonance
- Affects readers through empahtectic validity
- Aesthetic, evocative presentation
- Should be moving - at minimum should be clear and comprehendible
Naturalistic Generalisations/Transferable Findings
- Generalisability not a goal
- Should have flexible transferability
- This is decided by the reader based on thick description
- Decide context & group is similar enough to constitute a safe transfer
Significant Contribution
The research provides a significant contribution
* conceptually/theoretically
* practically
* morally
* methodologically
* heuristically
Questions to ask: “Does the study extend knowledge?”; “Improve practice?”; “Generate
Ethical
The research considers:
* procedural ethics (such as human subjects)
* situational and culturally specific ethics
* relational ethics
* exiting ethics (leaving the scene and sharing the research)
Meaningful Coherence
The study:
* achieves what it purports to be about
* uses methods and procedures that fit its stated goals
* meaningfully interconnects literature, research questions/foci, findings, and interpretations with each other
Impact of Colonisation
Indigenous people who are alive today have experienced significant trauma
* Exposed to violence
* Dispossed of Land
* Forcible removl of children
* Not allowed in public area s
* Curfew
* Denied education and medicine
* Forced labour and government appropriation of their earnings
Legacy of Colonisation
- Amplified by oppressive government policy
- creates intergeneral trauma
- perpetuates negative stereotypes
Health & Wellbeing
- Attributions comprise beliefs we have about causes of disease and wellbeing
- Reflected in two key models of hHeallth
1. Biomedical Health
2. Biopsychosocial Model of Health
Indigenous Concepts of Health & Wellbeing
Includes the Following Components
* Physical Wellbeing
* Social Wellbeing
* Emotional Wellbeing
* Mental Wellbeing
* Environmental Wellbeing
* Cultural Wellbeing
* Spiritual Wellbeing
Conducting Culturally Safe Research
- value diversity
- conduct self-assessment
- manage the dynamics of difference
- acquire and institutionalise cultural knowledge
- adapt to diversity and the cultural context of communities you serve
