A ‘new life’ story or ‘delaying the inevitable’? Exploring older people's narratives during exercise uptake

ObjectivesThe purpose of this study was to examine narratives of ageing in a clinical population embarking on a physical activity/exercise programme, exploring if and how their narratives changed throughout their experiences.DesignThe study employed a longitudinal narrative approach.MethodParticipants were six sedentary individuals aged between 78 and 89 years who were enrolled on an exercise programme for older adults. During the course of the 32-week programme participants took part in multiple interviews focused on their attitudes towards physical activity and their physical self-perceptions and identity. A structural narrative analysis was used to focus on the progression of the plot outlined in each participant's story.ResultsOur results suggested the emergence of two comparative narratives, with each demonstrated in the stories told by three participants. The first narrative is one of decelerated decline, in which the exercise programme is assimilated or fitted into the existing life narrative, but little is made of the personal meaning of being active. In the second narrative, participation in exercise prompted participants to re-story their ageing narratives, changing from initially accepting the decline they associated with an ageing body, to the prospect of gaining some control. While this increased sense of control may intuitively seem positive, participants initially described a number of existential challenges and dilemmas as well as their resolution of these.ConclusionParticipants' emergent stories highlighted that while older adults may perceive exercise positively, their existing narratives of decline may be resistant to change. Where changes do occur, it is important for health professionals to recognize the associated difficulties with gaining increased responsibility for health.     

Sink or swim: Adversity- and growth-related experiences in Olympic swimming champions

ObjectiveTo explore the adversity- and growth-related experiences of swimmers at the highest competitive level. Of particular interest was the transitional process that the swimmers progress through to positively transform their experiences.DesignEight autobiographies of Olympic swimming champions were sampled and analyzed.MethodThe books were written by four male and three female swimmers whose ages at the time of their Olympic swims ranged from 14 to 41 years (M = 23.39, SD = 6.04). Informed by a narrative tradition, the autobiographies were subjected to a holistic analysis which involved scrutinizing the form of the structure and style of the narrative, and the content relating to the events and meanings described by the authors.ResultsThe swimmers perceived their adversity-related experiences to be traumatic and initially attempted to negotiate them by maintaining a state of normality through the development of an emotional and embodied relationship with water. This relationship involved the non-disclosure of traumatic adversities and the development of multiple identities. As these strategies eventually proved to be maladaptive and exposed the swimmers to further adversity, the dialog of the autobiographies typically shifted to a more quest-focused narrative with the swimmers seeking meaning in their experiences and looking to others for support. Adoption of these strategies was necessary for the swimmers to experience growth, which was identifiable through superior performance, enhanced relationships, spiritual awareness, and prosocial behavior.ConclusionThe findings provide broad support for theories of posttraumatic growth and suggest that assimilation processes may comprise initial phases of the transition between adversity and growth. We discuss a number of practical implications for psychologists and significant others involved with elite swimmers.     

Is narrating growth in stories of personal transgressions associated with increased well-being,self-compassion,and forgiveness of others?

We tested whether narrating growth from transgressions was associated with increased well-being, self-compassion, and forgiveness. Study 1 was cross-sectional (N = 118). Studies 2 and 3 were short-term longitudinal (N’s = 77 and 88). Study 1 revealed positive associations between narrating growth and well-being. Study 2 replicated Study 1 and growth-oriented narration was associated with increased self-compassion and forgiveness at session 2 beyond expected levels given session 1 scores. Study 3 replicated some Study 2 findings and growth-oriented narration was once again associated with increased self-compassion at session 2 beyond expected levels given session 1 scores. We discuss how growth-oriented narration in specific types of events may be associated with changes in specific forms of adaptive functioning and gender differences.     

文学小说阅读影响社会认知的心理机制

摘要：文学小说阅读可以提高个体社会认知能力,但其中具体心理机制有待探索。本文通过梳理以往研究,从文学小说的社会性和文学性两个视角入手,结合模拟理论,精加工似然模型和叙事传输理论讨论了文学小说阅读影响社会认知的心理机制,并在此基础上初步构建了文学小说影响社会认知的动机-情感-认知加工策略框架。文学小说的社会性会增强读者对故事的情感卷入（叙事传输理论）,并引发读者对故事内容进行心理模拟（模拟理论）;文学小说的文学性同样能够增强读者对故事的情感卷入（叙事传输理论）,同时促使读者在动机层面愿意耗费更多认知资源去理解故事内容（精加工似然模型）,进而促进心理模拟。未来需要更多实证研究来检验这一框架的解释力,完善其边界条件,寻找脑机制层面的证据。     

Effects of Self‐Affirmation,Narratives, and Informational Messages in Reducing Unrealistic Optimism About Alcohol‐Related Problems Among College Students

This study examines intervention approaches to improve the accuracy of risk judgments among college students with unrealistic optimism about alcohol‐related problems. We conducted a randomized experiment with 2 self‐affirmation (affirmed, nonaffirmed) and 3 message conditions (narrative, informational, no treatment control). Results indicate that providing risk information to unrealistic optimists, while concomitantly protecting their self‐concept via either self‐affirmation or narratives, may reduce defensive reactions and align their perceived risk more closely with their actual risk. Self‐affirmation reduced unrealistic optimism only among those exposed to an informational message, not those exposed to a narrative. The narrative message appeared to increase perceived risk among unrealistic optimists via transportation and identification with the character. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of this work.     

The career construction interview and literary analysis

The aim of this study was to examine what changes occurred in a career construction interview (CCI), what elements contributed to these changes and how reflexivity was fostered. Two clients and two counselors participated in interpersonal process recall (IPR) interviews (Larsen, Flesaker, & Stege, 2008) to review CCI interviews they had previously participated in. The CCI was reported based on the construction and reconstruction that took place during the interview. The IPR interviews were analyzed qualitatively by means of the grounded theory method. Then the two CCI's were submitted to literary analysis based on Greimas's narrative semiotics (Vilhjálmsdóttir & Tulinius, 2009) in order to determine whether and in what way the counselor missed something during the interview. The article concludes that the CCI is very effective but could be made even more so if the counselors received more training in literary analysis, more specifically narrative semiotics.     

Couples Work in Cultural Context: Te Ao Māori and Poststucturalist Practices Informing Counselor Training in Aotearoa New Zealand

This article outlines key themes that appear in the teaching of poststructuralist ideas and practices for couples counseling within the Postgraduate Diploma in Counseling Program at Unitec Institute of Technology in Auckland, New Zealand, and it explores the congruence of this pedagogical approach with Māori (indigenous) understandings of relationality, collaboration, and partnership. The diploma program's curriculum includes narrative therapy and relational language‐making. Themes explored in this article include: understanding (heterosexual) couple relationships as contextualized entities, deconstructing dominant discourses of coupledom, and the positioning of counselors/teachers as nonexpert. Taking each theme in turn, the authors, one of them Māori and two Pākehā (European), articulate points of alignment with Māori cultural concepts and practices.     

The single greatest life challenge: How late-midlife adults construct narratives of significant personal challenges

This study introduces the concept of the single greatest life challenge—the most subjectively-significant challenge a person has ever faced—and explores its implications for narrative identity. Through content coding of 157 late-midlife community adults’ life challenge narratives, we catalogued the distribution of 18 life challenge topics. Through exploratory factor analysis of narrative features, we found a four-factor structure (identity processing, agency/emotion, verbosity/specificity, and scope) largely consistent with the “big three” narrative identity metastructure. The agency/emotion factor was most closely tied to traits and functioning: it correlated negatively with neuroticism and depression, correlated positively with psychological well-being and life satisfaction, and provided incremental validity in predicting depression. The stories adults tell of their greatest challenges are informative about personality and psychological functioning.     

Narrative Therapy's Relational Understanding of Identity

We describe how we think of identity as relational, distributed, performed, and fluid, and we illustrate the use of this conceptualization within a narrative worldview. Drawing on the work of Michael White, we describe how this relational view of identity leads to therapeutic responses that give value to interconnection across multiple contexts and that focus on becoming rather than on being. We show how a narrative worldview helps focus on the relational, co‐evolving perspective that was the basis of our early attraction to family therapy. We offer detailed examples from our work of practices that help us stay firmly situated in a relational worldview that is counter to the pervasive influence of individualism in our contemporary culture.     

Models of Psychotherapy: Implications for Pastoral Care Practice

Pastoral care givers are called to provide care and counseling to parishioners that are suffering in many ways. A core question is what does a pastor rely on to provide this care? Pastors usually call on models of psychotherapy to inform their care giving. A framework of theological anthropology, cosmology, soteriology and harmatiology is developed for analyzing the worldviews inherent in models of psychotherapy. The specific models of Adler’s Individual Psychology, Narrative therapy, Horney’s personality theory, and Intersubjective theory are used to demonstrate the application of this framework. Several pastoral care implications are developed following the application of the framework.