This document provides an overview of narrative research. It discusses how narrative research is concerned with how individuals make sense of the world through stories. It outlines the history of narrative psychology, including influential books in the field. It describes key characteristics of narrative research such as flexibility, focusing on individual experiences, collecting stories, and collaborating with participants. It also discusses types of narrative designs, data collection methods, analyzing narratives, and addressing ethical concerns regarding story authenticity and memory accuracy.

1. Narrative Research
Presented by:
Rimsha Aiman
Amna Maqsood
Shafqat Nawaz
Muzamal Tahir

2. Introduction
• Narrative is concerned with the human means of making sense of an
over changing world.
• Psychologists became interested in stories and everyday accounts of
life in the 1970s.

3. History
• Within psychology, three classic texts marked the specific narrative
turn.
• The term narrative psychology was introduced by Theodore R. Sarbin
in his 1986 book Narrative Psychology: The Storied Nature of Human
Conduct in which he claimed that human conduct is best explained
through stories and that this explanation should be done through
qualitative research.

4. • Sarbin argued that "narrative" is a root metaphor for psychology that
should replace the mechanistic and organic metaphors (transforming
everything work related into quantifiable dimensions) which shaped so
much theory and research in the discipline over the past century.

5. • This book also contained a chapter by Ken and Mary Gergen (1986)
on the structure of narrative in which they argued that narratives are
social constructions (shared assumptions about realities) that are
developed in everyday social interactions.
• They identified three primary structures
 Progressive (comedy, romance)
 Regressive (tragedy)
 Stable (satire)

6. Progressive Regressive

7. Stable

8. • The second important book was Acts of Meaning by Jerome Bruner (1990)
according to him narrative approach organizes everyday interpretations of
the world in story form.
• He identified some properties of narratives:
 Composed of sequence of events, mental states and happenings
 Can be imaginary or real
 Specialized in forging the links between exceptional and ordinary
• These properties help us understand narrative as a way of constructing
reality of bringing sense to something unusual and obscure.

9. • Third influential book was Narrative Knowing and the Human
Sciences by Donald Polkinghorne (1988) its most important feature
was the opening up of hermeneutic philosophy (deals with
interpretation, especially of the Bible or literary texts).
• Dan McAdams (1985) introduced an approach based on
developmental model.
• Earliest form is narrative tone (optimistic or pessimistic)

10. Optimistic- romantic or comic narrative
 Pessimistic- tragedy or satire
• Followed by imagery which are personalized symbols and fantasized
objects.
• More advanced level is themes and ideology which are beliefs and
values underlying in a story.

11. Definition
• Specific type of qualitative design in which “narrative is understood as
a spoken or written text giving an account of an event/action or series
of events/actions, chronologically connected” (Czarniawska, 2004).

12. • The procedures for implementing this research consist of focusing on
studying one or two individuals, gathering data through the collection
of their stories, reporting individual experiences, and chronologically
ordering (or using life course stages) the meaning of those
experiences.

13. Key Characteristics of Narrative Research
• Flexibility
• Individual experiences
• Chronology of the experiences
• Collecting individual stories
• Restorying
• Coding for themes
• Context or setting
• Collaboration with participants

14. Flexibility
Narrative inquiry like the life
experience that it investigates is a
complex and ever-changing.
Moreover, narrative researchers often
emphasize finding direction for their
research in their participant’s stories.

15. Individual Experiences
• Narrative inquiry often focuses on the
experiences of one or a few participants
rather than those of a larger group
• Exploring the experiences of that
individual

16. • Life stories. Like much of qualitative research, narrative inquiry
explores life experience. However, it describes and analyzes these
experiences using the language of “story.” For instance, the field texts
or data that narrative researchers gather may include, or be called,
“stories” of life experience and include plots and characters and so
forth.

17. Chronology of the Experiences
• Researcher analyzes and writes about
an individual life using a time sequence
or chronology of events
• Researcher orders these events in a way
that makes sense to a reader

18. Collecting Individual Stories
• Stories have a beginning, middle, and end.
• Like a novel, stories have time, place, plot, and
scene.
• Involve a conflict, or struggle; a protagonist or
character; and a sequence with implied causality
(a plot) during which the predicament is resolved
in some fashion.
• Narrative inquiry is a literary form of qualitative
research that places a special emphasis on
writing.

19. Tzvetan Todorov
A Bulgarian theorist. He gave narrative theory.
According to that all narratives start with equilibrium
where everything is balanced.
Then a problem comes along where the balanced is
disrupted and to close the problem is solved,
returning to the equilibrium.
• Equilibrium
• Disequilibrium (problem)
• New equilibrium

21. Aristotle
This Greek philosopher discovered over 2000
years ago, that a narrative must contain a:
•Beginning •Middle •End
This theory has developed into the five main
stages of narrative which is more recognizable to
a modern audience:
•Exposition- The scene is set
•Development- More characters are introduced
•Complication- Something happens to disrupt the
life of a character
•Climax- Decisive moment reached
•Resolution- Matters are resolved

22. Restorying
• Researcher gathers stories and analyzes
them for elements of the story.
• The narrative researcher may use the
aforementioned themes or categories to
restory
• Researcher rewrites the story to place it in a
chronological sequence.
• Restorying provides a causal link among
ideas.

23. Coding for Themes
• Like other forms of qualitative research, narrative
inquiry involves coding field texts for themes or
categories.
(e.g., interview transcripts, letters from the
participant to the researcher)
• Themes add depth to the insight about understanding an
individual’s experiences
• Themes can be incorporated into the passage retelling
the individual’s experience

24. Context or Setting
• Includes the people involved in the
story.
• Includes the physical setting.
• Setting may be described before events
or actions, or can be woven throughout
the study.
(Creswell, 2008)

25. Collaboration with Participants
• Inquirer actively involves the participant
in the inquiry as it unfolds
• Many narrative researchers emphasize the
importance of learning from their
participants
(Pinnegar & Daynes, 2007)

26. Types of Narrative Designs
• Autobiography (In the Line of Fire by Pervaiz Musharaf)
• Biography (Diana by Andrew Morton)
• Narrative interviews (Rewind with Samina Peerzada)
• Personal narratives (stories by grandparents)
• Personal documents (written event details)
• Life stories and histories (Kashmir behind the vale by MJ Akbar)

27. • Narrative research is, focused on how individuals assign meaning to
their experiences through the stories they tell.

28. Steps
• Clandinin and Connelly (2000) methods of conducting a narrative
study do not follow a lock-step approach, but instead represent an
informal collection of topics.

29. Steps
1.Determine the research problem or question .
2. Select one or more individuals who have stories or life
experiences to tell.
3.Collect information about the context of these stories.
4. Analyze the participants’ stories.
5. Collaborate with participants by actively involving them in the
research.

30. Data Collection
Narratives can be gathered from different forms of data collection such
as
• Interview
• Observation,
• Documents,
• Images, and
• Other sources.

31. Other sources
• Research participants may record their stories in a journal or diary
• Researchers may also collect letters sent by the individuals
• Assemble stories about the individuals from family members;
• Gather documents such as memos

32. • Obtain photographs,
• Memory boxes (collection of items that trigger memories),
• Other personal-family-social artifacts.
• After examining these sources, the researcher records the individuals’
life experiences
(Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) .

33. Narrative interview
Narrative interview is designed to provide an opportunity for to give a
detailed account of a particular experience.

34. Main phases of the narrative interview (Bauer, 2002)
1. Preparation Exploring the field Formulating exmanent questions.
2. Initialization Formulation of the initial topic for narration.
3. Main narration No interruptions. Only non-verbal or paralinguistic encouragement to
continue telling the story Wait for signals the end of the
Questioning phase only question: no opinion or attitude questions no arguing on contradictions
do not ask: Why? Go from exmanent into immanent questions
Small talk Stop recording. Make note immediately after the interview.

35. Role of Researcher
• Neutral
• Active listener and show interest
• Non judgmental
• Make initial contact
• Refrain from giving comment
• Language

36. Some Important Consideration
• Selective memory
• Narratives cannot judged
• Comfortable setting
• Avoid indexical formulations
• Recording
• Transcription

37. Analysing Narratives
The analysis of narrative account can be divided into two broad phases
• Descriptive
• Interpretive

38. Descriptive
• A thorough reading and Preparing a short summary of the narratives
identifying the key features
• Beginning
• Middle
• End
• Highlighting key issues and identifying linkages that connect different parts
of the narrative.

39. Interpretive
• Connecting the narrative with theoraticle literature to interpret the
story.
• This phase of the analysis can lead to labelling certain accounts as
being of a certain type that illustrates their theoretical content.

40. Role of the Reader
• The meaning or the significance of a story wells up from the
intersection of the world of the text and the world of the reader.
• In conducting the narrative analysis, it is important to be aware of
what theoretical assumptions are guiding the analysis while at the
same time being open to new ideas and challenges.

41. Narrative Structure and Content
• According to Robinson(1990),
• Regressive narrative
• Stable narrative
• Progressive narrative
Another important aspect is the narrative tone
The tone is concerned with the overall emotional flavor of the narrative.

42. Connecting the Stories with the Context
• The researcher can also consider the
• Personal
• Interpersonal
• Group and social contexts.
(Murray ,2000)

43. Further Analysis
• Unlike the other forms of the qualitative analysis that break the
interviews down into themes,the aim of the narrative analysis is to take
the full narrative account, to examine how it is structured and to
connect it to the broader context.

44. Ethical Issues
What are some ethical issues in gathering stories?
• Distorting data (self reported information)
• Story authenticity (Faking the data possible)
• Inability to tell the story (because it is horrific or raw)
• Forgetting story

45. Solutions
• The collection of multiple field texts
• The triangulation of data
• Member checking

46. References
Camic, P. M., Rhodes, J. E., & Yardley, L. E. (2003). Qualitative research in
psychology: Expanding perspectives in methodology and design.
American Psychological Association.
Creswell, J. W. (2012). Collecting qualitative data. Educational
Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative
and Qualitative Research. Fourth ed. Boston: Pearson, 204-35.
Smith, J. A. (2003). Validity and qualitative psychology. Qualitative
psychology: A practical guide to research methods, 232-235.

47. Willig, C. (2013). Introducing qualitative research in psychology.
McGraw-Hill Education (UK).