Individuality of Narratives Generated by Individuals: An Investigation Using Four-Panel Comics

In this study, we conducted an empirical research focusing on the generation of stories to obtain a hypothesis on how different the stories that people generate in their daily lives by linking events and situations are. For this purpose, five illustrations that revealed only the first and fourth panels of a four-panel comic were used as stimuli to generate a narrative in which the participants could make a connection between them. A total of 40 stories were obtained from eight participants. As a result, the narrative emerged in a variety of ways, even in events with little personal connection to the participants. This reveals that there are individual differences in the way people generate narratives themselves, despite their relationship with and position on the event. When the stories were typified, none of the participants generated similar stories in all five illustrations. This suggests that, because the combination of stories a person creates about every event is unique, there is only one story about the world, and one about himself/herself.     

How can a heterosexual man remove his body hair and retain his masculinity? Mapping stories of male body hair depilation

ABSTRACT

This study explores the gendered body hair removal norm and the meanings of male body hair by examining young people’s sense-making around male body hair removal. The novel technique of story completion was used to collect data from 102 psychology undergraduates. They were presented with a story “stem” featuring a young man (David) deciding to start body hair removal and asked to complete the stem. David was most often portrayed as a young heterosexual man who was excessively hairy, in the “wrong” places, was often subject to teasing and bullying, and was concerned about his diminished sexual capital. Hair removal did not always end “happily ever after” for David. While in some stories he “got the girl,” he was punished for his vanity and foolishness in others. These different endings arguably reflect currently ambivalent meanings around male body hair depilation. The production of a hairless, or less hairy, male body is both desirable and a potential threat to masculinity. The data spoke strongly to the power of social norms surrounding body hair practices and suggest that story completion provides a useful tool in interrogating the discourses that sustain these norms.     

Emotion regulation strategies in preschool children

This study investigated the development of emotion regulation strategies as reflected in the narratives of children between the ages of 3 and 6 years. An experimental procedure based on story completion tasks was devised to elicit the emotion‐related narratives of 69 preschool children. Coding of the narratives led to the observation of different emotion regulation strategies: Behavioural strategies, social support, and cognitive reappraisal. Several significant gender and age differences were identified in the use of these strategies. In addition, verbal skills, non‐verbal intelligence, and emotion comprehension were found to be associated with use of the observed emotion regulation strategies, although only at specific ages.