Narrative analysis in health psychology: a guide for analysis

Abstract

Introduction: Telling stories is a natural way to explain our experiences to others. Through telling stories, we come to understand these experiences, and to explain our own and other’s place in the world. Stories are an opportunity to present a version of ourselves and to shape how we would like to be seen. By analysing stories, we also reveal something about the social world beyond the immediate story. Objectives: Applying a narrative approach to interviews can be challenging for the beginning narrative scholar. This paper provides a worked example of a narrative psychology approach to analysis. We present examples identifying the different levels at work in stories: personal stories, interpersonal accounts, and social narratives. Beyond identifying the levels, we offer further suggestions to assist with the narrative analysis of interview transcripts. These suggestions provide a way to start to understand why stories have been told, and what their telling reveals more broadly. To illustrate how to build a narrative analysis, we use a small set of interviews with older people in residential care.

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