Narratology, cultural psychology, and counseling research.

Abstract

Narratological research is defined in relation to narrative theory and a cultural psychology perspective. Narrative concepts and methodology are explained, including the configural mode of understanding and principles of narrative analysis. Examples of application in psychological and counseling research are presented, with a discussion of issues of validity and voice. Suggestions are made on how narrative studies are to be evaluated. It is concluded that narratological research, with its focus on meanings and the storied nature of human life, can be especially useful in discovery research on identity development and the experience of counseling and life transitions.This article addresses the narrative paradigm for research, with a focus on narratology, narrative theory, and cultural psychology. In view of the fact that most qualitative research involves the collection and analysis of narrative data, the term narratology is used here to distinguish inquiry approaches that are informed by narrative theory and cultural psychology from other forms of qualitative research presented in this special issue. Granted that there are similarities between the various qualitative research paradigms, with a general philosophical preference for a social constructionist view of knowledge, qualitative inquiry can be largely inductive and not necessarily guided by narrative theory. Narrative inquiry, however, can be regarded as being on a continuum with the type of knowing involved in counseling practice when we listen for meanings and patterns in what clients say about themselves and their lives.One of the goals of this article was to explicate narrative theory and to locate it in the perspective of cultural psychology. Another was to discuss the implications of narrative theory and narratology for domains relevant to counseling. It should be stated at the outset that there is no unified narrative theory, but rather narrative concepts and principles that can be applied when conducting qualitative research. In exploring the possibilities of a narrative framework for the human sciences and its potential value in counseling research, it is recognized that narratological approaches to psychological research are still evolving. Narratological inquiry is in need of further definition under shared philosophical assumptions and communal standards. As I explain subsequently, narrative perspectives entail particular ontological assumptions about the nature of narrative accounts and human discourse in context. Being a qualitative methodology, it should not be expected to reflect the level of standardization as in experimental research.I begin here with the multidisciplinary literature on narrative study, as it offers definitions of a narrative, narrative concepts, and perspectives on interpretive validity and other issues in narrative inquiry.

Counseling for Work and Relationship

“…Narrative inquiry is a method that capitalizes on the role of narrative in human experience. According to Hoshmand (2005), "Human experience is narritivized in the sense that lived experience, when recounted, involves temporal and causal coherence" (p. 180). In other words, narrative inquiry is a way of knowing or an epistemology that attempts to capture how human beings make sense of their lived experience by explaining why something happened in their lives or why they behaved in a certain way, all of which is recounted in the stories they tell about their experience as these experiences have occurred in some kind of time frame.…”

“…Narrative-based approaches to qualitative inquiry will facilitate this inquiry (Clandinnin, 2007;Hoshmand, 2005;Mischler, 1995;Riessman, 2008). Besides providing rich descriptions of how people negotiate these transitions, this body of research may enable the identification of patterns of negotiation that may be helpful to others and to those who are engaged in intervention practice with people going through these kinds of difficult life transitions and turning points.…”

Autoethnography in Vocational Psychology: Wearing Your Class on Your Sleeve

“…From a psychological perspective, we tentatively suggest that autoethnography may be considered as a form of self-reflective, psychobiography (Runyan, 2006), narratology (Hoshmand, 2005) or narrative analysis (B. Smith & Sparkes, 2006).…”

Counseling for Work and Relationship: A Practice-Driven Theoretical Approach

“…It is a large, rapidly growing, and multifaceted area. According to Hoshmand (2005), narrative theory can best be considered a set of principles that focuses on the subjective experience of people's lives, especially as narrative, the stories people tell to explain their lives to themselves and others, structures that subjective experience. Basic narrative theory is the belief that narrative is a way of thinking, ubiquitous across cultures, that provides the means for people to organize, process, and make sense of their experience.…”