Narrative Turn or Blind Alley?

Atkinson, Paul

doi:10.1177/104973239700700302

Cited by 348 publications

(221 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Since its introduction into mainstream psychology by figures like Theodore Sarbin (1986) and Jerome Bruner (1990), narrative has had a limited impact in specialist areas, such as personality and human development (McAdams, 1985), psychotherapy (e.g., Mair, 1989) and health psychology (e.g., Atkinson, 1997;Crossley, 1999). Conventional psychology has not previously applied the philosophy of narrative to the study of media violence.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making sense of violence: a study of narrative meaning

Shaw¹

2004

Qualitative Research in Psychology

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Dramatized violence has been a feature of entertainment in western civilization throughout history. The function of lm violence is explored and compared to violence encountered in real life. The role of narrative in individuals' meaning-making processes is also investigated. Six adults were individually interviewed using a semi-structured schedule and narrative analysis was implemented. The ndings revealed that real life violence is experientially distinct from lm violence but narrative was found to be central to participants' quest for the meaning of violence in both contexts. The narrative framework of violence and whether it is justi able were fundamental to participants' understanding. The function of violent lm was found to be multifaceted: it can teach viewers about the consequences of violence; it allows them to speculate about their own and others' reactions to violence; and it provides an opportunity to experience something which is ordinarily outside of our experience in order to satisfy our human existential needs.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making sense of violence: a study of narrative meaning

Shaw¹

2004

Qualitative Research in Psychology

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“…Moreover, a number of the studies on aging called upon in the remains of this paper might use more than one lens for their analytical purposes. Narrative analysis: Story analysts and storytelling Organised through the umbrella term narrative analysis, two standpoints toward analysing narratives may be teased out from within the literature (e.g., Atkinson, 1997;Atkinson & Delamont, 2006;Bochner, 2001Bochner, , 2002Ellis, 2004;Lieblich et al, 1998;Polkinghorne, 1995;Riessman, 2008;Richardson, 2000;Smith & Sparkes, 2006). These may be termed a story analyst and storyteller.…”

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confidence: 99%

Narrative analysis in aging studies: A typology for consideration

Phoenix

Smith

Sparkes

2010

Journal of Aging Studies

170

135

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This article seeks to expand our understanding on narrative and the analysis of stories researchers invite and collect in the domain of aging studies. To do so, we first offer an understanding of what narrative inquiry can be by laying out a theoretical basis for this kind of research, and making a case for the relevance of narrative as an alternative methodology. Painting with broad strokes, narrative analysis as a method is then considered before a typology of different ways in which stories can be analyzed is introduced. Illuminated by the typology are two contrasting standpoints toward narrative analysis-storyteller and story analyst-and three specific methods-structural, performative, and autoethnograpic creative analytic practices-that each standpoint might use to analyse the whats and hows of storytelling. The article closes by suggesting that in order to assist us to understand the complexities of aging researchers might consider using a variety of analyses. Keywords: Aging; Narrative analysis; Story analyst; Storyteller; Structural analysis; Performative analysis; Creative analytical practices Introduction According to Birren (1999), aging has become one of the most complex areas of study facing modern day science. Not least, this is because the process of growing older is something which is dynamic, interactive, subject to the twists and turns of life, chance, change and complication. Or, as Randall (2007) puts it, aging is a process which is exemplified by complexity. For him, we become more unique and more distinctive with age, not less. With this in mind, it is perhaps unsurprising that narrative forms of inquiry have burgeoned within aging studies to the extent that narrative gerontology is now a recognized discipline in itself (Kenyon, Clark, & de Vries, 2001;Randall, 2007). Within aging studies, narrative has been used, for example, to examine social policy (Biggs, 2001), issues of masculinity (Jackson, 2003;Smith, Braunack--Mayer, Wittert & Warin, 2007), interpersonal and intimate relationships (Jones, 2002;Rosenfeld, 2003;Matthews, 2000), physical activity in later life (Dionigi & O'Flynn, 2007;Heuser, 2005;Tulle, 2007), narrative maps of aging (Phoenix & Sparkes, 2006a, 2006b, body image and beauty work (Halliwell & Dittmar, 2003; Hurd Clarke & Griffin, 2007a;Paquette & Raine, 2004), experiences of health and illness (Jolanki, 2004;Faircloth, Rittman, Boylstein, Young & Van Puymbroeck, 2004;Sanders, Donovan & Dieppe, 2002), carework (Ribeiro, Paú& Nogueira, 2007Twigg, 2000), and retirement (Savishinsky, 2000). As part of this, narrative analysis has attracted interest and has been utilised. In this article, we aspire to develop and extend our understandings of narrative analysis by introducing a typology that considers this method in the plural rather than in the singular. The rationale for doing so, following Elliot (2005), is that applying a classification or typology might be a useful way of making sense of different techniques and approaches currently operating

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“…Autoethnographical research is written in a form that is quite similar to stories, poetry and photographs rather than conventional academic prose (Ellis, 2000;Ellis and Bochner, 2000). I do recognize that autoethnographical work is quite individualistic in nature (Atkinson, 1997), but what I do to deal with that problem is to consider a personal response as being located within wider social and political discourses. Therefore, what I argue for here is to write about one's reflexive response to environments using an autoethnographic methodology and to link this to situationist psychogeographical writing by Debord (1958).…”

Section: The Situationists and Psychogeographymentioning

confidence: 99%

Visualising Manchester: Exploring New Ways to Study Urban Environments with Reference to Situationist Theory, the Dérive, and Qualitative Research

Bridger

2013

Qualitative Research in Psychology

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Narrative Turn or Blind Alley?

Cited by 348 publications

References 4 publications

Making sense of violence: a study of narrative meaning

Making sense of violence: a study of narrative meaning

Narrative analysis in aging studies: A typology for consideration

Visualising Manchester: Exploring New Ways to Study Urban Environments with Reference to Situationist Theory, the Dérive, and Qualitative Research

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