Talk:Narrative psychology/Rescued AFC submission

The Cognitive Revolution […] was intended to bring “mind” back into the human sciences after a long cold winter of objectivism […]. Some critics, perhaps unkindly, argue that the new cognitive science, the child of revolution, has gained its technical advantages at the price of de-humanising the very concept of mind it had sought to re-establish in psychology, and that it has thereby estranged much of psychology from the other human sciences and the humanities. (J. Bruner,Acts of Meaning)

Narrative Psychology is a viewpoint or a stance within psychology, developed by Bruner, which is based on the assumption that human beings think, perceive, imagine and develop their identity and co-build the socio-cultural reality, through narrative structures.

History

First theory of psychology was Bruner's Cultural Psychology, which highlighted the role of narrative in the creation of shared meanings; it highlighted the importance of stories in transmitting and co-constructing, in a process of circular and semantic interpretation, a reading grid for reality and a system of opinions about the world that can serve as a guide to processes, assessment, and decision making as well as behaviour . What has been pointed out by several voices is that experience does not automatically assume a narrative form, but it is the subject, in the process of elaboration of the experiences, that constructs stories in order to explain, predict or make sense of events. To this end, narrative thinking is characterized, therefore, as a particular form of causal thinking. Following the first reflections of Bruner, many authors have attempted to investigate the defining characteristics of narrative thinking. Sarbin , for example, reveals a cognitive scheme, typical of this mode of thought, which serves as a basis for generating each story. This scheme identifies several categories of information (including the players, the situation and the results) and the significant relationships that exist between these and among them (temporal or motivational types). So the narrative thought would allow, through a heuristic process, the elements of the situation experienced to be established within the scheme of history. When successful, the result is a coherent and plausible account of how something happened. Stories produced by this process integrate that which is known about an event as well as that which is conjectural, but relevant to the interpretation.

An impressive amount of research has been undertaken in an attempt to prove the existence of and explain the acquisition of the narrative grammar structure that guides the process of constructing narratives by the subjects. Specifically, researchers have hypothesized that people acquire this by developing a set of internal representations that reflect the components of proposed grammar. Such knowledge becomes explicit when a person develops expectations about a text that they try to process, as these expectations guide the retrieval of the information necessary to draw inferences and make decisions on the input data. In addition, the construction of a coherent narrative framework facilitates the long-term storage of information and the subsequent retrieval of the semantic elements of the text. In support of this hypothesis, Stein and Glenn have conducted numerous experiments that have enabled it to be established “that story memory was a direct function of the match between text structure of stories (as presented to participants) and an ideal story structure as defined in (their) grammar system” . In fact, after reading a text and being asked a stimulus-specific question, children participating in the experiments of the two authors provided additional information which was the result of inferences made in the heuristic process of narrative thought. However, this phenomenon occurred systematically only in subjects over the age of four years, a sign that only after this age do we have a complete maturation of the narrative grammar structure. Younger children, instead, tend to remember the details better and do not make inferences, but have difficulty processing the story in the holistic dimension.

Some researchers have begun to formulate several hypotheses on the etiological mechanisms of this process, and demonstrated the existence and the acquisition of narrative grammar structure at a certain point of development. One hypothesis that has the greatest number of supporters is that the development of narrative thinking is included in a more global organization and evolution of the psyche and the brain of the child. In particular, it has been argued that the narrative grammar structure develops epigenetically. According to Piaget, is only at about nine months that the child begins to develop an understanding of causal relationships and, in parallel, develops a general ability to coordinate schedules and representations which are necessary for the understanding of stories. So the structure of the story develops epigenetically from these basic structures whose early manifestations may be observed in children of about nine months.

Among the leading figures in the history of narrative psychology, George A. Kelly plays a major role. His Personal Construct Theory focuses on the uniqueness with which each individual perceives, interprets and conceptualizes the world. This interpretation of the world is achieved through elements, which are very similar to narratives, called "constructs". Individuals use their own constructs in the interpretation of daily events through mental procedures that include the categorization of persons or objects, the attribution of meaning and prediction of events. He also defines a technique through which you can modify the system of personal constructs (narratives) that the individual uses to interpret the world, known as the Fixed-Role Therapy. This procedure allows patients to build new narratives about themselves. Therapy, therefore, emerges as a process of rebuilding the system which is influenced by the collective narratives that cultures offer to individuals. As some authors, including Polkinghorne , Gergen and Murray have pointed out, the stories of each individual must be intimately related to that person’s cultural matrix of belonging. It can be argued that communities offer individuals narrative models that are both adapted to individual’s lives and are transformed, from time to time, in relation to the history and culture (narratives) of the individual. In this sense it is believed that the narratives that communities suggest are developed by individuals through specific practices of self and relationships. A human being is not a passive actor unquestioningly following scripts offered by communities; instead, there are activities and relationships that mediate the relationship between individual and social narratives, thus acting as a catalyst for systemic change.

Currently, Narrative Psychology deals with the content and form of individual narratives and the relationship with the content and form of socially shared narratives. The process of the signification of reality is, in fact, deeply influenced by the collective narratives that cultures offer to individuals.

An important implication of this theoretical point of view is that human systems are, for the modern narrative psychology, linguistic systems that generate meaning in which there are the sociallly shared narratives that determine the interpretation and the knowledge of reality. Hence, meaning is socially built; in other words, there is no understanding without comunicative action, and without a dialogue that promotes sense in the system in which this comunication has relevance. The study of discourse, like situations involving social action, is the object of study of Discoursive Psychology, developed by Harré and Gillet. The authors speak about discourse and not language to underline how the construction of the symbolic meanings is a relational process, in which are intertwined points of view, social practices and different experiences. The discourse is considered like a social action, co-constructed by social agents in a way which depends on their experience and is in relation to a frame of reference. Therefore, Harre and Gillet promote an idea of a discursive psychology devoted to the study of public and private speech, and to the meaning acquisition and positioning, because only through these can the psychological phenomena can be explained.

In the modern landscape, Hutto is one of the most relevant exponents of narrative psychology. According to his Narrative Practice Hypothesis, the author develops the idea that narrative structures exist that are able to allow social interpretation, called narratives of the common sense (Folk Psychology Narratives). These narratives allow the reader or the listener to understand the feelings, actions and thoughts of present characters. However, unlike Piaget, Hutto emphasizes the relevant socio-cultural influences that allow to these structures to develop. The child in Piaget's theory is an isolated individual, that builds its experiences and knowledge of reality without any socio-cultural influences, while, in the opinion of Hutto there is a direct social influence at the beginning of the process of acquiring narrative structures.

Basic principles

Narrative is the symbolic artefact through which humans can read reality with the purpose of reconstructing the events and experience and establish a sense of coherence, which unifies the cognitive, emotional and behavioural aspects of the individual, so ensuring a sense of continuity of the self through time.

Narrative thinking

A story is the product of narrative thinking. There seems to be a universal and inborn human tendency to organize reality by a plot constructed according to a personal view of the world. Narrative thinking is defined by the following three principal characteristics:

• It is episodic: the narrative thinking has to respect the spatial-time and causal coordinates.
• It is interpretative:.it is the result of the choice of the person to tell a particular portion of reality, from a particular point of view, like a photographer who decides to photograph a subject from a particular viewpoint.
• It is communicative: the storyteller uses and integrates different languages in order to share this experience with another that is different from himself. Narratives imply the presence of a narrator who, placed on the same level, presents their experience and point of view of a particular reality, and an observer who is open to accepting and incorporating the testimony of the narrator.

The narrative thinking product: The narrative artefact

Narrative artefact is the product of narrative thinking. It is characterized by:

• Permanence: through the time and space, both in the content and symbolic form (for example, writing the text of movie) chosen by the author to communicate it.
• Sense-making: the story is a chance to give order to one’s own experience, making it shared, by organizing it in a coherent and structured way.
• Likelihood: the narrative act is a coherent and symbolic representation of reality. It is not an objective presentation of the world, but it is the result of the intention of the subject to narrate a particular reality from a certain point of view.
• Accountability: narration, like a communicative act, is a social practice, an instrument through which the subject makes their experience shared, referable and communicable. The narrative artefact has also a reflexive nature because it is a report of event and not the event itself.

The narrative artefact is defined within the frame of the personal experience of the narrator and the reader, and of the cultural environment to which they belong. The communicative act can be considered to be like an instrument available to the culture for the transmission and attribution of values and meanings, that is, it is a “lens” through which to read reality.

How to make stories: The Story Grammar

As the grammar of language dictates the principles to follow for the construction of sentences and phrases, so the Story Grammar provides a model for the building of the skeleton of the story, on the basis of two fundamental structures: firstly, the mental scheme of stories, and secondly, the principles of logical, spatial, temporal and causal coherence, necessary to make a history with sense.

A “well-formed” story has to present a specific structure as follows:

• Causal field or initial environment: an environment in which there are protagonists and characters at the beginning of the story.
• Initial event: in the causal field, an unexpected event happens that generates a break in the initial balance.
• Design thinking: the protagonist evaluates and projects a strategy for coping with the initial event.
• Attempt: the protagonist acts, putting in place the design thinking.
• Consequence: this is in close relation to the attempt and it can be either positive or negative.
• Emotional and/or cognitive reaction: this depends on the positive or negative value attributed to the consequence.

Each reader has implicit knowledge about the structural characteristics of the many textual genera. This means that the user has some expectation of the structure of the story. The more the narrative respects the canons of the Story Grammar, the more it will coincide with the expectations of the reader, which will facilitate the understanding of the story and the construction of memory.

Areas of application

Analysis of Narrative Artefact

The Analysis of Narrative Artefact permits us to analyse the intentional, cognitive, communicational, emotional components of every narrative product from the content perspective, be it a movie, a book, or an advertisement. From the intentional point of view, the narrator and user have in common the aim to share an experience. The communicative intention of the writer will coincide more or less with the intention with which the reader approaches the narrative. The dialogue between these two will produce a different reading and interpretation of the artefact. It will take into consideration the coherence and cohesion of the text, and the code and the medium of analysis, with regard to its cognitive usability. The content analysis provides an opportunity to construct a content map, by a temporal line, which investigates not only the explicit meanings of the narrative, but also the intrinsic meanings which are not superficially recognized. The emotional analysis will also allow the emotions that are represented by the characters of the narrative to be investigated. They are a way by which the user learns “from a distance” the nature, the causes, the performance rules, and the coping strategies to manage a situation. From the emotional point of view, it is also possible to investigate the type of impact, in terms of engagement and identification that the narrative artefact can generate in the reader.

The analysis of the narrative artefact permits us to understand the narrative, from the perspective of the reader, taking into consideration its characteristics in terms of cognitive, physical, social and emotional development, and not forgetting that it belongs to a physic and socio-cultural environment.

Narrative Therapy

The term Narrative Therapy refers to the ideas and practices of Michael White, David Epston and other professionals who have a common focus on the narrative story provided by the patient during therapy, in order to alter in various ways (delete, reinterpret, modify, and so on) the reports provided. Operationally, narrative therapy involves a process of deconstruction and meaning achieved through collaboration and discussion with the client.

The basic idea is that identity is formed within the personal and cultural narratives. The therapist, then, after defining the subject with which the narrative operates, will start reconstruction work on the personal mythology of the customer, to change his identity.

Also relevant to this is the Method of Writing Emotions designed by Pennebacker. This consists of describing, in a private diary, the emotional experiences of the day. The diary allows the subject to build and define their experience, to find a logical bond that connects the life event, and to believe that this event provides the possibility of giving an explanation. The Method of Writing Emotions is a valid support to promote an optimistic attitude, and to reduce the symptoms of depression and the state of helplessness, ensuring at the same time an improvement in the indicators of physical health and well-being.

See Also

• Cultural Psychology
• J. Bruner
• Sarbin
• Narrative
• Narratology
• Narrative Therapy
• George A. Kelly
• Personal Construct Theory
• Harré
• Discoursive Psychology
• Michael White
• David Epston