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Life-stories offer an approach to understanding personality processes within a larger, developmental context. This study examines the role that one area of a person’s larger context (namely romantic relationships) plays in that person’s life-story. Specifically, the study examines whether this role changes over the lifespan. Nineteen students from a consortium of colleges in southern California, and an equal number of older adults living in a nearby retirement community, were interviewed about their romantic relationship history. The interview was semi-structured and asked participants about past and current relationships, and their most meaningful relationship overall. The interviews were coded for the themes of agency, redemption, and contamination, reported self-growth, and an additional variable called unprompted discussion of sexuality that was added based on a series of unexpected occurrences during the interviews. The results showed significant differences in both agency and unprompted discussion of sexuality between the romantic relationship narratives of young and older adults. However, no significant differences were found between the age groups on any of the other three variables, or between the sexes on any of the five variables. The results not only help us to better understand the ways in which our stories about our romantic relationships change across the lifespan, but also suggest significant differences between how younger and older adults think about love and sex.

In the theoretical part of dissertation main ideas and concepts of narrative psychology are reviewed. The notion of both narrative and paradigmatic knowing coined by Jerome Bruner is explained. The importance of story and narrative for organizing and understanding human experience is discussed. Other psychological functions of both story and narrative metaphor are mentioned. In the empirical part selected stories that could be considered as a part of European cultural heritage (cultural meta-narratives) are analysed. The methods used for story analysis are TAT (ThematicApperception Test) and CCRT (Core Conflictual Relationship Theme, Luborsky et al.). The aim of the empirical part is to verify the construct of "a latent story". Another goal is to identify repeating motives in the selected stories, that could be used as a form of projective method. Keywords Story, narrative, latent story, narrative psychology, myth.

Thesis (M.A.) - Carleton University, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 102-112). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of Psychology, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 71-74).

Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of Psychology, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 39-45).

nÃo hà / Partindo da hipÃtese de que o paradigma narrativo em psicologia abre perspectivas promissoras e consistentes para os estudos psicolÃgicos, nosso trabalho tem por objetivo arrolar argumentos lÃgicos, epistemolÃgicos e psicolÃgicos que fundamentem esta hipÃtese. Metodologicamente, a pesquisa divide-se em dois momentos. No primeiro capÃtulo, investiga-se as bases epistemolÃgicas deste paradigma, desnudando sua vinculaÃÃo com o pÃs-fundacionalismo e com a filosofia analÃtica da linguagem ordinÃria. Defendemos que o conceito de narrativa tem muito a se beneficiar e enriquecer caso seja lido como uma, dentre as inÃmeras, formas possÃveis de Jogo de Linguagem. No segundo capÃtulo, buscamos exemplificar a proficuidade desta abordagem psicolÃgica valendo-nos dela para abordar o conceito de identidade, que à central para a psicologia social. A abordagem narrativa do conceito de identidade, tal como a compreendemos, divide-se em trÃs grupos de questÃes. Essas questÃes gravitam em torno da unicidade, da persistÃncia e da substÃncia. A utilizaÃÃo da abordagem narrativa para enfrentar as dificuldades teÃrico-metodolÃgicas e conceituais impostas pelas problemÃticas envolvidas na questÃo da identidade pessoal mostrou-se, ao mesmo tempo simples e abrangente, apontando para as vantagens inerentes à adoÃÃo do conceito narrativo de identidade. / This dissertation begins with the premise that the Narrative Psychology paradigm opens new and promising perspectives to the study of Psychology in general. Our work aims to enumerate logical, epistemological and psychological arguments that can back this premise up. Methodologically this research is divided in two sections. In the first one, we investigate the epistemological ground of this paradigm. The relation with both the post-foundationalist approach and the analytic philosophy of ordinary language is disclosed. We defend also that the narrative concept has much to gain when it is read as a language game, among a myriad of others. In the second chapter we intended to exemplify the advantage of this approach over other traditional ways to treat the problem of psychological identity. Given its complexity, the concept of narrative identity has to be treated in at least three levels, comprising three great groups of questions. These questions are: the persistence of identity along time, the question of the unity and the question of substance. The use of narrative concept showed to be, at the same time, a simple and a broad way to solve the problems raised by these questions. Such a result points to a sample of the benefits that can be reaped from the adoption of this paradigm.

Adolescents need to feel loved and cared for and they need to share their feelings with other people in their environment. As the school plays a significant role in the life of the adolescent, emotional support is an important aspect that has to be part of any educational setting. Unfortunately, adolescents do not always feel comfortable talking to a teacher, a person in authority or even a school psychologist. In many instances they are most comfortable talking to a friend or a peer with whom they can identify. In this study, a literature review explored adolescence as a developmental stage, existing support systems in schools, and the history, key features, definition and nature of peer support groups and supervision of peer supporters. Studies revealed that peer support has potential advantages but also disadvantages for peer supporters but that the former outweigh the latter. The study also looked at research on peer support groups in the South African context. The aims of this study were to explore, in a qualitative way, the experiences, thoughts and feelings of three adolescent peer supporters and provide rich and thick descriptions of their stories. Postmodernism, social constructionism and narrative psychology were combined and identified as a framework for the research. The research material gathered by means of individual interviews, focus groups and journaling reflected the realities co-constructed by the participants and the researcher. The researcher also made use of reflexivity by including a description of her own experience of the research process. The strengths and limitations of this study are evaluated and the findings are summarized. Finally, recommendations are made on supervision, constructing roles and boundaries, training, keeping the momentum of peer support groups going and the usefulness of peer support groups. / Dissertation (MA (Counseling Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Psychology / unrestricted

Fatherhood has become an area of research that has attracted a considerable amount of media attention and interest within the social sciences in the twentieth century. Historically, the evolution of the concept fatherhood has led to many discourses circulating within many cultural settings. Until now, there has been a voluminous diverse body of work regarding the construction of fatherhood. Research has mainly focused on the effects fathers have on childhood development; fatherhood and masculinity; the cultural representation of fatherhood; and father involvement to name a few. However there is a significant lack of research pertaining to the subjective experiences of fathers who have encountered the world of illness from a South African context. At the same time, there is little body of knowledge relating to fatherhood and disability. This study aims to explore the subjective experiences of the fathers’ worlds so as to answer the question, “How do fathers make sense of limb loss due to diabetes, through narrative?” This is to aid in the understanding of the significance of fathers and their relationship with illness. In order to attain this, a qualitative approach to research was applied where the participants were recruited through the application of snowball sampling. Given the narrative framework, the narratives of the participants serve as the source of information. This is reflected in the research techniques administered. Semi-structured interviews were utilised as a means of data collection. The analysis was conducted using the transcriptions from the interview material allowing the text to illustrate how culture and history affect the manner in which experiences are narrated. Highlighted within this study is how the application of a qualitative approach within the ranks of narrative psychology provided a useful exploration into the subjective experiences of fathers who have lost a limb due to diabetes. The results were set out giving a useful indication of how culture and history shapes experiences and what meanings are constructed thereof. From a cultural stance three cultures were investigated thus allowing access into unknown domains. However further research needs to be explored so as to enrich the fatherhood topic from a South African context, thus offering multiple realities of the construction of fatherhood. / Dissertation (MA (Counselling Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Psychology / MA / unrestricted

In South Africa, where a large portion of the population lives in townships, more often than not, the therapist and client do not share a similar cultural context. Cultural knowledge is therefore pertinent to generating a complex and thorough interpretation of any psychological assessments. This study aims to explore possible cultural narratives evoked in the responses to the Thematic Apperception Test so that cross-cultural use of the test would be more effective in the Mamelodi township. The research is done from a narrative point of view, where lived experience is understood by organising it into structured narratives or stories that repeat throughout a person’s life. The pictures of the TAT were viewed as a context that could elicit such life narratives from respondents. TAT stories from five adolescent residents in Mamelodi were thematically analysed as a method of identifying common stories that could reflect the cultural narratives that young persons in Mamelodi draw from to make sense of their world. The results indicated common narratives concerning the following: the experience of violence and danger, the experience of close relationships, dealing with challenges, and the role that clothes play. These findings, and possible findings from similar future research, might aid psychologists towards a better understanding of the TAT in the township context. Copyright / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Psychology / unrestricted