•Features of vicarious life stories are related to personal life stories.•This effect does not extend to vicarious life stories for ex-friends/partners.•Vicarious life stories for mothers are related ...to mothers’ personal life stories.•Vicarious life stories are less positive than personal life stories.•Vicarious life stories do not explain well-being beyond personal life stories.
We examined relationships between vicarious life stories for mothers and distant others, personal life stories, and well-being. Participants described chapters in their mothers’ and personal life stories, self-rated chapters on emotional tone and meaning, and completed well-being measures. In Studies 3 and 4, participants described chapters for distant others. In Study 4, mothers’ personal life stories were collected. In Studies 2–4, chapters were coded for redemption, agency, and communion. Qualities of vicarious and personal life stories were positively related, except for ex-boy/girlfriends (Study 4). Vicarious life stories were less positive and were less consistently related to well-being than personal life stories. Vicarious life stories for mothers were positively related to both participants’ personal life stories and mothers’ personal life stories.
The present study investigates functions of personal and vicarious life stories focusing on identity and empathy. Two-hundred-and-forty Danish high school students completed two life story ...questionnaires: one for their personal life story and one for a close other's life story. In both questionnaires, they identified up to 10 chapters and self-rated the chapters on valence and valence of causal connections. In addition, they completed measures of identity disturbance and empathy. More positive personal life stories were related to lower identity disturbance and higher empathy. Vicarious life stories showed a similar pattern with respect to identity but surprisingly were unrelated to empathy. In addition, we found positive correlations between personal and vicarious life stories for number of chapters, chapter valence, and valence of causal connections. The study indicates that both personal and vicarious life stories may contribute to identity.
Abstract The life stories of two female teachers delve into the type of teaching practices during the democratic transition in Spain. The narrative biographical research, through the use of ...biographical accounts, investigates the decision-making and practices that made the classroom an emancipatory space. The analysis focuses on the type of creative practices, the basis of educational, collaborative and democratic action. Literary creation and theatrical works, together with the students, fostered autonomy, confidence and a love of learning. These innovative practices, for the time, can be considered today as disruptive practices which, together with the importance of affective relationships and the revaluation of artistic spaces, constitute the basis of pedagogical action.
Resumo As histórias de vida de duas professoras permitem estudar o tipo de práticas de ensino desenvolvidas durante a transição democrática na Espanha. A pesquisa narrativa biográfica, através da utilização de relatos biográficos, investiga a tomada de decisões e as práticas educativas que fizeram da sala de aula um espaço emancipatório. A análise apresenta o tipo de práticas criativas, base da ação educativa colaborativa e democrática. A criação de obras literárias e teatrais, juntamente com os estudantes, fomentou a autonomia, a confiança e o amor pela aprendizagem. Essas práticas inovadoras, para a época, podem ser consideradas hoje práticas disruptivas, que, aliadas à importância das relações afetivas e à revalorização dos espaços artísticos, constituem a base da ação pedagógica.
Resumen Las historias de vida de dos maestras profundizan en el tipo de prácticas docentes durante la transición democrática en España. La investigación biográfica narrativa, a través del uso de relatos biográficos, indaga en la toma de decisiones y prácticas que hicieron del aula un espacio emancipador. El análisis presenta el tipo de prácticas creativas, base de una acción educativa colaborativa y democrática. La creación literaria y de obras teatrales, junto al alumnado, propiciaron autonomía, confianza y amor por el aprendizaje. Estas prácticas innovadoras, para la época, pueden ser consideradas hoy en día prácticas disruptivas que, junto a la importancia de las relaciones afectivas y la revalorización de espacios artísticos, se constituyen como base de la acción pedagógica.
Résumé Les récits de vie de deux enseignantes permettent de s’interroger sur le type de pratiques pédago- giques pendant la transition démocratique en Espagne. La recherche biographique narrative, par le biais de récits biographiques, étudie les prises de décision et les pratiques qui ont fait de la salle de classe un espace émancipateur. L’analyse présente le type de pratiques créatives, base de l’action éducative collaborative et démocratique. La création d’œuvres littéraires et théâtrales, avec les élèves, a favorisé l’autonomie, la confiance et le goût de l’apprentissage. Ces pratiques innovantes, pour l’époque, peuvent être considérées aujourd’hui comme des pratiques perturbatrices qui, ensemble avec l’importance des relations affectives et la revalorisation des espaces artistiques, constituent la base de l’action pédagogique.
This study aims to explore the impact that life stories of LGBTIQ + teachers have on future teachers’ perceptions of gender and sexual diversity, as well as examining differences in such perceptions ...according to academic degree, age and gender. Quantitative and qualitative data was gathered from a total of 101 students. The results show how life stories are a good method of raising awareness among trainee teachers of the reality of LGBTIQ + experience and the barriers that LGBTIQ + teachers face in schools. It is recommended that higher education institutions gradually incorporate training on gender, sexual and family diversity into their curricula.
•Life stories can be a pedagogical tool to approach people outside heteronormativity.•Future teaching professionals have had few opportunities of receiving GSFD training.•Bachelor's students have more favorable attitudes toward GSFD than master's students.•Higher Education must pursue the integration of GSFD into teachers’ curricula.
Individuals with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders face profound challenges as they attempt to maintain identity through the course of illness. Narrative identity—the study of internalized, evolving ...life stories—provides a rich theoretical and empirical perspective on these challenges. Based on evidence from a systematic review of narrative identity in the psychosis spectrum (30 studies, combined N = 3859), we argue that the narrative identities of individuals with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders are distinguished by three features: disjointed structure, a focus on suffering, and detached narration. Psychotic disorders typically begin to emerge during adolescence and emerging adulthood, which are formative developmental stages for narrative identity, so it is particularly informative to understand identity disturbances from a developmental perspective. We propose a developmental model in which a focus on suffering emerges in childhood; disjointed structure emerges in middle and late adolescence; and detached narration emerges before or around the time of a first psychotic episode. Further research with imminent risk and early course psychosis populations would be needed to test these predictions. The disrupted life stories of individuals on the psychosis spectrum provide multiple rich avenues for further research to understand narrative self-disturbances.
•Individuals in the psychosis spectrum experience lifelong challenges with identity.•These challenges manifest, in part, as disjointed, painful, detached life stories.•Difficult life stories can be understood as disturbances in narrative identity.•Narrative identity disturbances likely appear in adolescence and emerging adulthood.
•Self-other agreement among manifest events was observed 25% of the time.•Targets’ personal and informants’ vicarious stories demonstrated agreement in tone.•Self-other agreement in manifest events ...increased with greater relationship closeness.•Understanding key events in close others’ lives may foster interpersonal closeness.
Life stories are psychosocial constructions of one’s past, present, and future. Vicarious stories are mental representations of others’ life stories. Across two studies, we examined self-other agreement among features of participants’ personal and vicarious stories and whether agreement corresponded with relationship closeness. Agreement was quantified via the affective qualities and manifest events of key scenes. Targets’ personal and informants’ vicarious stories demonstrated agreement in tone, but not in redemption or contamination (Study 1). The manifest events within informants’ vicarious scenes corresponded with participants’ personal life stories 25% of the time, and this agreement increased with greater relationship closeness (Study 2). Our findings support the notion that an understanding of the important events in someone’s life may facilitate interpersonal closeness.
A robust empirical literature suggests that individual differences in the thematic and structural aspects of life narratives are associated with and predictive of psychological well-being. However, 1 ...limitation of the current field is the multitude of ways of capturing these narrative features, with little attention to overarching dimensions or latent factors of narrative that are responsible for these associations with well-being. In the present study we uncovered a reliable structure that accommodates commonly studied features of life narratives in a large-scale, multi-university collaborative effort. Across 3 large samples of emerging and midlife adults responding to various narrative prompts (N = 855 participants, N = 2,565 narratives), we found support for 3 factors of life narratives: motivational and affective themes, autobiographical reasoning, and structural aspects. We also identified a "functional" model of these 3 factors that reveals a reduced set of narrative features that adequately captures each factor. Additionally, motivational and affective themes was the factor most reliably related to well-being. Finally, associations with personality traits were variable by narrative prompt. Overall, the present findings provide a comprehensive and robust model for understanding the empirical structure of narrative identity as it relates to well-being, which offers meaningful theoretical contributions to the literature, and facilitates practical decision making for researchers endeavoring to capture and quantify life narratives.
Patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) display disturbances in understanding self and others. We examined whether these disturbances extended to how patients described their personal and ...parents’ life stories and to measures of identity, alexithymia, empathy, and emotional intelligence. Thirty BPD patients and 30 matched control participants described personal and parents’ life stories and completed measures of identity disturbance, alexithymia, empathy, and emotional intelligence. Compared to the controls, patients with BPD described their personal and their parents’ life stories more negatively and with fewer themes of agency and communion fulfillment. Patients and controls showed equally complex reasoning about their personal life stories, but patients displayed less complexity and more self‐other confusion, when reasoning about their parents’ stories. Patients also differed from controls on identity disturbance, alexithymia, and empathy. The results suggest that patients’ storied understanding of themselves and others are disturbed and should be taken into account to better understand BPD.
Processes of within-individual change in offending and desistance from crime can be very complex, often involving multiple, context-specific processes. But even in a generous reading of much research ...on turning points, while this is theoretically stated or inferred, it is less often shown or illustrated in empirical cases. I explore processes of change in offending with the help of the concept of 'turning points', through life story interviews conducted in the Stockholm Project, trying to make use of the possibilities inherent in qualitative inquiry. I show how life course processes and the turning points that emerge within them are often interdependent on each other, emerging in very context-specific circumstances, and need to be studied and understood and such. Future research areas are suggested.
Resumo Muito se discute sobre o atual estágio da epidemia de HIV/Aids no Brasil. Dados oficiais do Ministério da Saúde apontam para estabilização da epidemia; no entanto, pesquisadores e organismos ...internacionais apontam para sua reemergência. Em nível mundial, a ONU afirma ser possível erradicar a epidemia até 2030. Neste artigo apresentamos o trabalho de tradução de práticas que abrange diálogos entre as narrativas oficial, global e nacional. Foram adotadas duas estratégias metodológicas centrais: entrevistas e pesquisa documental. A análise e discussão dos resultados foram realizadas com base nos procedimentos sociológicos: sociologia das emergências e ecologia de saberes, referenciados em Boaventura de Sousa Santos, para identificar o que emerge na diversidade de experiências, globais, nacionais e locais, como resposta à epidemia de HIV/Aids, com o recorte sobre as análises e reflexões sobre a prevenção combinada. Identificamos que a prevenção foi a etapa mais negligenciada do cuidado, e que há divergências entre as expectativas das instituições e dos atores locais sobre as possibilidades de erradicação da epidemia. Concluímos pela insuficiência do modelo de Prevenção Combinada proposto pelo Ministério da Saúde no diagrama “Mandala de Prevenção Combinada” e propomos uma representação gráfica alternativa, a partir das possibilidades que emergiram do trabalho de tradução.
Abstract Much is discussed about the current stage of the HIV/Aids epidemic in Brazil. Official data from the Ministry of Health points to the stabilization of the epidemic; however, researchers and international organizations point to its reemergence. At a global level, the UN claims that it is possible to eradicate the epidemics by 2030. In this article, we present the work of translating practices that encompasses dialogue between the official, global and national narratives. Two central methodological strategies were adopted: interviews and documentary research. The analysis and discussion of the results were carried out based on sociological procedures: sociology of emergencies and ecology of knowledge, referenced in Boaventura de Sousa Santos, to identify what emerges in the diversity of experiences, global, national and local, as a response to the epidemics of HIV/Aids, with a focus on analysis and reflections on combined prevention. We identified that prevention was the most neglected stage of care, and that there are divergences between the expectations of institutions and local actors about the possibilities of eradicating the epidemics. We conclude that the Combined Prevention model proposed by the Ministry of Health in the “Combined Prevention Mandala” diagram is insufficient and we propose an alternative graphic representation, based on the possibilities that emerged from the translation work.Resumo: Muito se discute sobre o atual estágio da epidemia de HIV/Aids no Brasil. Dados oficiais do Ministério da Saúde apontam para estabilização da epidemia; no entanto, pesquisadores e organismos internacionais apontam para sua reemergência. Em nível mundial, a ONU afirma ser possível erradicar a epidemia até 2030. Neste artigo apresentamos o trabalho de tradução de práticas que abrange diálogos entre as narrativas oficial, global e nacional. Foram adotadas duas estratégias metodológicas centrais: entrevistas e pesquisa documental. A análise e discussão dos resultados foram realizadas com base nos procedimentos sociológicos: sociologia das emergências e ecologia de saberes, referenciados em Boaventura de Sousa Santos, para identificar o que emerge na diversidade de experiências, globais, nacionais e locais, como resposta à epidemia de HIV/Aids, com o recorte sobre as análises e reflexões sobre a prevenção combinada. Identificamos que a prevenção foi a etapa mais negligenciada do cuidado, e que há divergências entre as expectativas das instituições e dos atores locais sobre as possibilidades de erradicação da epidemia. Concluímos pela insuficiência do modelo de Prevenção Combinada proposto pelo Ministério da Saúde no diagrama “Mandala de Prevenção Combinada” e propomos uma representação gráfica alternativa, a partir das possibilidades que emergiram do trabalho de tradução.
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