Discharge instructions for caregivers in the context of pediatric emergency care: a narrative synthesis protocol.

PubMed

Curran, Janet A; Murphy, Andrea; Newton, Mandi; Zemek, Roger; Hartling, Lisa; Plint, Amy; Chorney, Jill; MacPhee, Shannon; Campbell, Samuel G; Jabbour, Mona; Boliver, Darlene; Petrie, David; Colwell, Randy; MacWilliams, Kate; Nolan, Alicia

2014-03-14

The period following discharge from a pediatric emergency department (ED) can be a time of significant vulnerability for caregivers who provide ongoing care to their child when they return home. Discharge communication practice varies widely at the individual practitioner and departmental level. At present, there are no nationally accepted guidelines for discharge communication for children and/or their caregivers in the ED.The primary objective of this knowledge synthesis is to understand how and why discharge instructions work and under what conditions. We will also examine the contextual factors and barriers and facilitators associated with discharge communication across varied ED settings. Using an integrated narrative approach, we will synthesize different types of evidence and explore relationships within and between included studies to develop a theory-based and knowledge user-informed discharge communication practice guideline. We will follow key principles for knowledge synthesis including: (1) involvement of a multidisciplinary team (for example, information specialists, statisticians, and content experts); (2) developing focused and answerable questions in collaboration with the knowledge users; (3) using a systematic method including specific tools and techniques appropriate for answering questions concerned with effectiveness and the implementation of interventions; and, (4) involving knowledge users throughout the process in an integrated knowledge translation approach. This collaborative and narrative approach will be a determining factor in increasing the reliability, validity and relevance of the study findings for healthcare practice and policy decision-makers. PROSPERO registration number: CRD42014007106.

RAMESES publication standards: meta-narrative reviews

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Meta-narrative review is one of an emerging menu of new approaches to qualitative and mixed-method systematic review. A meta-narrative review seeks to illuminate a heterogeneous topic area by highlighting the contrasting and complementary ways in which researchers have studied the same or a similar topic. No previous publication standards exist for the reporting of meta-narrative reviews. This publication standard was developed as part of the RAMESES (Realist And MEta-narrative Evidence Syntheses: Evolving Standards) project. The project's aim is to produce preliminary publication standards for meta-narrative reviews. Methods We (a) collated and summarized existing literature on the principles of good practice in meta-narrative reviews; (b) considered the extent to which these principles had been followed by published reviews, thereby identifying how rigor may be lost and how existing methods could be improved; (c) used a three-round online Delphi method with an interdisciplinary panel of national and international experts in evidence synthesis, meta-narrative reviews, policy and/or publishing to produce and iteratively refine a draft set of methodological steps and publication standards; (d) provided real-time support to ongoing meta-narrative reviews and the open-access RAMESES online discussion list so as to capture problems and questions as they arose; and (e) synthesized expert input, evidence review and real-time problem analysis into a definitive set of standards. Results We identified nine published meta-narrative reviews, provided real-time support to four ongoing reviews and captured questions raised in the RAMESES discussion list. Through analysis and discussion within the project team, we summarized the published literature, and common questions and challenges into briefing materials for the Delphi panel, comprising 33 members. Within three rounds this panel had reached consensus on 20 key publication standards, with an overall response rate

Immigrant women's experiences of maternity-care services in Canada: a systematic review using a narrative synthesis.

PubMed

Higginbottom, Gina M A; Morgan, Myfanwy; Alexandre, Mirande; Chiu, Yvonne; Forgeron, Joan; Kocay, Deb; Barolia, Rubina

2015-02-11

Canada's diverse society and its statutory commitment to multiculturalism means that a synthesis of knowledge related to the healthcare experiences of immigrants is essential to realise the health potential for future Canadians. Although concerns about the maternity experiences of immigrants in Canada are relatively new, recent national guidelines explicitly call for the tailoring of services to user needs. We therefore assessed the experiences of immigrant women accessing maternity-care services in Canada. In particular, we investigated the experiences of immigrant women in Canada in accessing and navigating maternity and related healthcare services from conception to 6 months postpartum in Canada. Our focus was on (a) the accessibility and acceptability of maternity-care services for immigrant women and (b) the effects of the perceptions and experiences of these women on their birth and postnatal outcomes. We conducted a systematic review using a systematic search and narrative synthesis of peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed reports of empirical research, with the aim of providing stakeholders with perspectives on maternity-care services as experienced by immigrant women. We partnered with key stakeholders ('integrated knowledge users') to ensure the relevancy of topics and to tailor recommendations for effective translation into future policy, practice and programming. Two search phases and a three-stage selection process for published and grey literature were conducted prior to appraisal of literature quality and narrative synthesis of the findings. Our knowledge synthesis of maternity care among immigrants to Canada provided a coherent evidence base for (a) eliciting a better understanding of the factors that generate disparities in accessibility, acceptability and outcomes during maternity care; and (b) improving culturally based competency in maternity care. Our synthesis also identified pertinent issues in multiple sectors that should be addressed to

Interpretive analysis of 85 systematic reviews suggests that narrative syntheses and meta‐analyses are incommensurate in argumentation

PubMed Central

O'Mara‐Eves, A.; Thomas, J.; Brunton, G.; Caird, J.; Petticrew, M.

2016-01-01

Using Toulmin's argumentation theory, we analysed the texts of systematic reviews in the area of workplace health promotion to explore differences in the modes of reasoning embedded in reports of narrative synthesis as compared with reports of meta‐analysis. We used framework synthesis, grounded theory and cross‐case analysis methods to analyse 85 systematic reviews addressing intervention effectiveness in workplace health promotion. Two core categories, or ‘modes of reasoning’, emerged to frame the contrast between narrative synthesis and meta‐analysis: practical–configurational reasoning in narrative synthesis (‘what is going on here? What picture emerges?’) and inferential–predictive reasoning in meta‐analysis (‘does it work, and how well? Will it work again?’). Modes of reasoning examined quality and consistency of the included evidence differently. Meta‐analyses clearly distinguished between warrant and claim, whereas narrative syntheses often presented joint warrant–claims. Narrative syntheses and meta‐analyses represent different modes of reasoning. Systematic reviewers are likely to be addressing research questions in different ways with each method. It is important to consider narrative synthesis in its own right as a method and to develop specific quality criteria and understandings of how it is carried out, not merely as a complement to, or second‐best option for, meta‐analysis. © 2016 The Authors. Research Synthesis Methods published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. PMID:27860329

The inclusion of students with dyslexia in higher education: a systematic review using narrative synthesis.

PubMed

Pino, Marco; Mortari, Luigina

2014-11-01

This article reports on a study focusing on the inclusion of students with dyslexia in higher education (HE). A systematic review was carried out to retrieve, critically appraise and synthesize the available evidence on how the inclusion of students with dyslexia can be fostered in HE. The 15 studies included in the final synthesis employed descriptive designs and overwhelmingly used qualitative methods to explore dyslexic students' perceptions on the impact of teaching, support and accommodation in their own learning experience. A critical appraisal of these studies revealed a landscape of significant gaps in the available stock of evidence on the inclusion of students with dyslexia in HE. The synthesis of the available evidence is presented in a narrative of five cross-study thematic areas: student coping strategies, being identified as dyslexic, interaction with academic staff, accessibility and accommodations, and using assistive technologies and information and communication technologies. Implications for practice and future research are discussed. © 2014 The Authors. Dyslexia published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Inclusion of Students with Dyslexia in Higher Education: A Systematic Review Using Narrative Synthesis

PubMed Central

Pino, Marco; Mortari, Luigina

2014-01-01

This article reports on a study focusing on the inclusion of students with dyslexia in higher education (HE). A systematic review was carried out to retrieve, critically appraise and synthesize the available evidence on how the inclusion of students with dyslexia can be fostered in HE. The 15 studies included in the final synthesis employed descriptive designs and overwhelmingly used qualitative methods to explore dyslexic students' perceptions on the impact of teaching, support and accommodation in their own learning experience. A critical appraisal of these studies revealed a landscape of significant gaps in the available stock of evidence on the inclusion of students with dyslexia in HE. The synthesis of the available evidence is presented in a narrative of five cross-study thematic areas: student coping strategies, being identified as dyslexic, interaction with academic staff, accessibility and accommodations, and using assistive technologies and information and communication technologies. Implications for practice and future research are discussed. PMID:25293652

Worked examples of alternative methods for the synthesis of qualitative and quantitative research in systematic reviews

PubMed Central

Lucas, Patricia J; Baird, Janis; Arai, Lisa; Law, Catherine; Roberts, Helen M

2007-01-01

Background The inclusion of qualitative studies in systematic reviews poses methodological challenges. This paper presents worked examples of two methods of data synthesis (textual narrative and thematic), used in relation to one review, with the aim of enabling researchers to consider the strength of different approaches. Methods A systematic review of lay perspectives of infant size and growth was conducted, locating 19 studies (including both qualitative and quantitative). The data extracted from these were synthesised using both a textual narrative and a thematic synthesis. Results The processes of both methods are presented, showing a stepwise progression to the final synthesis. Both methods led us to similar conclusions about lay views toward infant size and growth. Differences between methods lie in the way they dealt with study quality and heterogeneity. Conclusion On the basis of the work reported here, we consider textual narrative and thematic synthesis have strengths and weaknesses in relation to different research questions. Thematic synthesis holds most potential for hypothesis generation, but may obscure heterogeneity and quality appraisal. Textual narrative synthesis is better able to describe the scope of existing research and account for the strength of evidence, but is less good at identifying commonality. PMID:17224044

Teacher Narratives and Student Engagement: Testing Narrative Engagement Theory in Drug Prevention Education

PubMed Central

Miller-Day, Michelle; Hecht, Michael L.; Krieger, Janice L.; Pettigrew, Jonathan; Shin, YoungJu; Graham, John

2015-01-01

Testing narrative engagement theory, this study examines student engagement and teachers’ spontaneous narratives told in a narrative-based drug prevention curriculum. The study describes the extent to which teachers share their own narratives in a narrative-based curriculum, identifies dominant narrative elements, forms and functions, and assesses the relationships among teacher narratives, overall lesson narrative quality, and student engagement. One hundred videotaped lessons of the keepin’ it REAL drug prevention curriculum were coded and the results supported the claim that increased narrative quality of a prevention lesson would be associated with increased student engagement. The quality of narrativity, however, varied widely. Implications of these results for narrative-based prevention interventions and narrative pedagogy are discussed. PMID:26690668

Framing Effects in Narrative and Non-Narrative Risk Messages.

PubMed

Steinhardt, Joseph; Shapiro, Michael A

2015-08-01

Narrative messages are increasingly popular in health and risk campaigns, yet gain/loss framing effects have never been tested with such messages. Three experiments examined framing in narrative messages. Experiment 1 found that only the character's decision, not framing, influenced judgments about characters in a narrative derived from a prospect theory context. Experiment 2 found that a framing effect that occurred when presented in a decision format did not occur when the same situation was presented as a narrative. Using a different story/decision context, Experiment 3 found no significant difference in preference for surgery over radiation therapy in a narrative presentation compared to a non-narrative presentation. The results suggest that health and risk campaigns cannot assume that framing effects will be the same in narrative messages and non-narrative messages. Potential reasons for these differences and suggestions for future research are discussed. © 2015 Society for Risk Analysis.

Children's, parents' and other stakeholders' perspectives on early dietary self-management to delay disease progression of chronic disease in children: a protocol for a mixed studies systematic review with a narrative synthesis.

PubMed

Pugh, Pearl; Hemingway, Pippa; Christian, Martin; Higginbottom, Gina

2018-01-25

Chronic disease of childhood may be delayed by early dietary intervention. The purpose of this systematic review is to provide decision-makers with a perspective on the role of early dietary intervention, as a form of self-management, to delay disease progression in children with early chronic disease, as described by children, parents and other stakeholders. The study will systematically review empirical research (qualitative, quantitative and mixed method designs), including grey literature, using a narrative synthesis. A four-stage search process will be conducted involving a scoping search, the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) Patient Issues search filter on MEDLINE, the search of seven databases using a chronic disease and chronic kidney disease (CKD) search strategy, and hand searching the reference lists of identified papers for additional studies. All studies retrieved during the search process will undergo a screening and selection process against the inclusion/exclusion criteria. Methodological quality of relevant studies will be assessed using a validated Mixed Studies Review scoring system, before inclusion in the review. Relevant grey literature will be assessed for methodological quality and relative importance using McGrath et al.'s framework and the Academy Health advisory committee categories, respectively. Data extraction will be guided by the Centre for Review and Dissemination guidance and Popay et al.'s work. The narrative synthesis of the findings will use elements of Popay et al.'s methodology of narrative synthesis, applying recognised tools for each of the four elements: (1) developing a theory of how the intervention works, why and for whom; (2) developing a preliminary synthesis of findings of included studies; (3) exploring relationships in the data; and (4) assessing the robustness of the synthesis. This mixed studies systematic review with a narrative synthesis seeks to elucidate the gaps in current knowledge and

Laughter and MIRTH (Methodical Investigation of Risibility, Therapeutic and Harmful): narrative synthesis

PubMed Central

Aronson, J K

2013-01-01

Objective To review the beneficial and harmful effects of laughter. Design Narrative synthesis. Data sources and review methods We searched Medline (1946 to June 2013) and Embase (1974 to June 2013) for reports of benefits or harms from laughter in humans, and counted the number of papers in each category. Results Benefits of laughter include reduced anger, anxiety, depression, and stress; reduced tension (psychological and cardiovascular); increased pain threshold; reduced risk of myocardial infarction (presumably requiring hearty laughter); improved lung function; increased energy expenditure; and reduced blood glucose concentration. However, laughter is no joke—dangers include syncope, cardiac and oesophageal rupture, and protrusion of abdominal hernias (from side splitting laughter or laughing fit to burst), asthma attacks, interlobular emphysema, cataplexy, headaches, jaw dislocation, and stress incontinence (from laughing like a drain). Infectious laughter can disseminate real infection, which is potentially preventable by laughing up your sleeve. As a side effect of our search for side effects, we also list pathological causes of laughter, among them epilepsy (gelastic seizures), cerebral tumours, Angelman’s syndrome, strokes, multiple sclerosis, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or motor neuron disease. Conclusions Laughter is not purely beneficial. The harms it can cause are immediate and dose related, the risks being highest for Homeric (uncontrollable) laughter. The benefit-harm balance is probably favourable. It remains to be seen whether sick jokes make you ill or jokes in bad taste cause dysgeusia, and whether our views on comedians stand up to further scrutiny. PMID:24336308

Posttraumatic Stress in Mothers Related to Giving Birth Prematurely: A Mixed Research Synthesis.

PubMed

Beck, Cheryl Tatano; Harrison, Lisa

Globally the preterm birth rate for 184 countries in 2010 was 11.1%. Preterm births can be a traumatic experience for mothers. This article provides a mixed research synthesis of the quantitative and qualitative studies on posttraumatic stress in mothers who have given birth prematurely. Narrative synthesis was the mixed research synthesis approach used. Included in this narrative synthesis were quantitative prevalence studies ( n = 19), quantitative intervention studies ( n = 6), and qualitative studies ( n = 5). Prevalence rates ranged from 14% to 79%. Four of the intervention studies had significant results and two did not. Qualitative data synthesis revealed five themes: (a) shocked and horrified, (b) consuming guilt, (c) pervasive anxiety and hypervigilance, (d) intrusive thoughts, and (e) numbing and avoiding reminders. Women's traumatic experiences of preterm birth are clearly important issues for psychiatric nurses to address.

Quantifying Narrative Ability in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Computational Linguistic Analysis of Narrative Coherence

PubMed Central

Losh, Molly; Gordon, Peter C.

2014-01-01

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by difficulties with social communication and functioning, and ritualistic/repetitive behaviors (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). While substantial heterogeneity exists in symptom expression, impairments in language discourse skills, including narrative, are universally observed (Tager-Flusberg, Paul, & Lord, 2005). This study applied a computational linguistic tool, Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA), to objectively characterize narrative performance in ASD across two narrative contexts differing in interpersonal and cognitive demands. Results indicated that individuals with ASD produced narratives comparable in semantic content to those from controls when narrating from a picture book, but produced narratives diminished in semantic quality in a more demanding narrative recall task. Results are discussed in terms of the utility of LSA as a quantitative, objective, and efficient measure of narrative ability. PMID:24915929

Narrative means to manage responsibility in life narratives across adolescence.

PubMed

De Silveira, Cybèle; Habermas, Tilmann

2011-01-01

Adolescence is a passage from dependence to adult responsibility. Alongside identity development, social-cognitive development, and the ability to construct a life story, adolescents become increasingly aware of both their potential responsibility in an expanded sphere of life and of complex, contextual influences on their lives. This was partially tested in a cross-sectional study, both in terms of linguistic means and content expressed in life narratives. Indicators were defined for narrative agency, grading of responsibility, serendipity, and turning points, and tested for age differences in relative frequencies in 102 life narratives from age groups of 8, 12, 16, and 20 years, balanced for gender. Narrative grading of responsibility, serendipity, and turning points increased throughout adolescence. The relative frequency of narrative agency, in contrast, remained constant across age groups. Results are interpreted in the context of adolescent development of narrative identity.

Disrupted narrative and narrative symbol.

PubMed

Vuletić, Georgije

2018-02-01

In this article a specific type of narrative, which often appears in analytic sessions, is discussed. It is characterized by a seemingly ordinary, everyday topic and by a peculiar disruption of the narrative flow. The threefold structure of this type of narrative is described, along with its main characteristics. One element of this type of narrative is very similar to symbolic content or complex symbolic structures, e.g. dreams, the sort of material that can be used for the purpose of interpretation. The similarities as well as the differences are elaborated in the article. Thanks to the observed general structure and 'symbolic' nature of some parts of the narrative, it is easy to notice some of the unconscious elements, which are not familiar to the patient's ego, and to make an interpretation. Because these elements are close to the threshold of consciousness, the patient willingly accepts an interpretation based on them. This is especially true for patients whose dominant function is thinking. A temporary, working name for this type of narrative is proposed in the article: 'disrupted narrative' - and for its disruptive part 'narrative symbol'. © 2018, The Society of Analytical Psychology.

Narrative change, narrative stability, and structural constraint: The case of prisoner reentry narratives

PubMed Central

Harding, David J.; Dobson, Cheyney C.; Wyse, Jessica J. B.; Morenoff, Jeffrey D.

2016-01-01

Cultural sociologists and other social scientists have increasingly used the concept of narrative as a theoretical tool to understand how individuals make sense of the links between their past, present, and future, how individuals construct social identities from cultural building blocks, and how culture shapes social action and individual behavior. Despite its richness, we contend that the narratives literature has yet to grapple with narrative change and stability when structural constraints or barriers challenge personal narratives and narrative identities. Particularly for marginalized groups, the potential incompatibility of personal narratives with daily experiences raises questions about the capacity of narratives to influence behavior and decision-making. In this study we draw on prospective longitudinal data on the reentry narratives and narrative identities of former prisoners to understand how narratives do and not change when confronted with contradictory experiences and structural constraints. We identify and describe the processes generating narrative change and stability among our subjects. These findings inform a framework for studying narrative change and stability based on four factors: the content of the narrative itself, the structural circumstances experienced by the individual, the institutional contexts in which the individual is embedded, and the social networks in which the individual is embedded. PMID:28316785

Optimising Translational Research Opportunities: A Systematic Review and Narrative Synthesis of Basic and Clinician Scientists' Perspectives of Factors Which Enable or Hinder Translational Research

PubMed Central

Sadler, Euan; Fisher, Helen R.; Maher, John; Wolfe, Charles D. A.; McKevitt, Christopher

2016-01-01

Introduction Translational research is central to international health policy, research and funding initiatives. Despite increasing use of the term, the translation of basic science discoveries into clinical practice is not straightforward. This systematic search and narrative synthesis aimed to examine factors enabling or hindering translational research from the perspective of basic and clinician scientists, a key stakeholder group in translational research, and to draw policy-relevant implications for organisations seeking to optimise translational research opportunities. Methods and Results We searched SCOPUS and Web of Science from inception until April 2015 for papers reporting scientists’ views of the factors they perceive as enabling or hindering the conduct of translational research. We screened 8,295 papers from electronic database searches and 20 papers from hand searches and citation tracking, identifying 26 studies of qualitative, quantitative or mixed method designs. We used a narrative synthesis approach and identified the following themes: 1) differing concepts of translational research 2) research processes as a barrier to translational research; 3) perceived cultural divide between research and clinical care; 4) interdisciplinary collaboration as enabling translation research, but dependent on the quality of prior and current social relationships; 5) translational research as entrepreneurial science. Across all five themes, factors enabling or hindering translational research were largely shaped by wider social, organisational, and structural factors. Conclusion To optimise translational research, policy could consider refining translational research models to better reflect scientists’ experiences, fostering greater collaboration and buy in from all types of scientists. Organisations could foster cultural change, ensuring that organisational practices and systems keep pace with the change in knowledge production brought about by the

Quantifying narrative ability in autism spectrum disorder: a computational linguistic analysis of narrative coherence.

PubMed

Losh, Molly; Gordon, Peter C

2014-12-01

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by serious difficulties with the social use of language, along with impaired social functioning and ritualistic/repetitive behaviors (American Psychiatric Association in Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-5, 5th edn. American Psychiatric Association, Arlington, 2013). While substantial heterogeneity exists in symptom expression, impairments in language discourse skills, including narrative (or storytelling), are universally observed in autism (Tager-Flusberg et al. in Handbook on autism and pervasive developmental disorders, 3rd edn. Wiley, New York, pp 335-364, 2005). This study applied a computational linguistic tool, Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA), to objectively characterize narrative performance in high-functioning individuals with autism and typically-developing controls, across two different narrative contexts that differ in the interpersonal and cognitive demands placed on the narrator. Results indicated that high-functioning individuals with autism produced narratives comparable in semantic content to those produced by controls when narrating from a picture book, but produced narratives diminished in semantic quality in a more demanding narrative recall task. This pattern is similar to that detected from analyses of hand-coded picture book narratives in prior research, and extends findings to an additional narrative context that proves particularly challenging for individuals with autism. Results are discussed in terms of the utility of LSA as a quantitative, objective, and efficient measure of narrative ability.

Knowledge synthesis methods for integrating qualitative and quantitative data: a scoping review reveals poor operationalization of the methodological steps.

PubMed

Tricco, Andrea C; Antony, Jesmin; Soobiah, Charlene; Kastner, Monika; MacDonald, Heather; Cogo, Elise; Lillie, Erin; Tran, Judy; Straus, Sharon E

2016-05-01

To describe and compare, through a scoping review, emerging knowledge synthesis methods for integrating qualitative and quantitative evidence in health care, in terms of expertise required, similarities, differences, strengths, limitations, and steps involved in using the methods. Electronic databases (e.g., MEDLINE) were searched, and two reviewers independently selected studies and abstracted data for qualitative analysis. In total, 121 articles reporting seven knowledge synthesis methods (critical interpretive synthesis, integrative review, meta-narrative review, meta-summary, mixed studies review, narrative synthesis, and realist review) were included after screening of 17,962 citations and 1,010 full-text articles. Common similarities among methods related to the entire synthesis process, while common differences related to the research question and eligibility criteria. The most common strength was a comprehensive synthesis providing rich contextual data, whereas the most common weakness was a highly subjective method that was not reproducible. For critical interpretive synthesis, meta-narrative review, meta-summary, and narrative synthesis, guidance was not provided for some steps of the review process. Some of the knowledge synthesis methods provided guidance on all steps, whereas other methods were missing guidance on the synthesis process. Further work is needed to clarify these emerging knowledge synthesis methods. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Listeners as co-narrators.

PubMed

Bavelas, J B; Coates, L; Johnson, T

2000-12-01

A collaborative theory of narrative story-telling was tested in two experiments that examined what listeners do and their effect on the narrator. In 63 unacquainted dyads (81 women and 45 men), a narrator told his or her own close-call story. The listeners made 2 different kinds of listener responses: Generic responses included nodding and vocalizations such as "mhm." Specific responses, such as wincing or exclaiming, were tightly connected to (and served to illustrate) what the narrator was saying at the moment. In experimental conditions that distracted listeners from the narrative content, listeners made fewer responses, especially specific ones, and the narrators also told their stories significantly less well, particularly at what should have been the dramatic ending. Thus, listeners were co-narrators both through their own specific responses, which helped illustrate the story, and in their apparent effect on the narrator's performance. The results demonstrate the importance of moment-by-moment collaboration in face-to-face dialogue.

Action starring narratives and events: Structure and inference in visual narrative comprehension.

PubMed

Cohn, Neil; Wittenberg, Eva

Studies of discourse have long placed focus on the inference generated by information that is not overtly expressed, and theories of visual narrative comprehension similarly focused on the inference generated between juxtaposed panels. Within the visual language of comics, star-shaped "flashes" commonly signify impacts, but can be enlarged to the size of a whole panel that can omit all other representational information. These "action star" panels depict a narrative culmination (a "Peak"), but have content which readers must infer, thereby posing a challenge to theories of inference generation in visual narratives that focus only on the semantic changes between juxtaposed images. This paper shows that action stars demand more inference than depicted events, and that they are more coherent in narrative sequences than scrambled sequences (Experiment 1). In addition, action stars play a felicitous narrative role in the sequence (Experiment 2). Together, these results suggest that visual narratives use conventionalized depictions that demand the generation of inferences while retaining narrative coherence of a visual sequence.

Patients' and carers' perspectives of palliative care in general practice: A systematic review with narrative synthesis.

PubMed

Green, Emilie; Knight, Selena; Gott, Merryn; Barclay, Stephen; White, Patrick

2018-04-01

General practitioners have overall responsibility for community care, including towards end of life. Current policy places generalists at the centre of palliative care provision. However, little is known about how patients and carers understand the general practitioner's role. To explore patient and carer perspectives of (1) the role of the general practitioner in providing palliative care to adult patients and (2) the facilitators and barriers to the general practitioner's capacity to fulfil this perceived role. Systematic literature review and narrative synthesis. Seven electronic databases (MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, BNI, CINAHL, Cochrane and HMIC) were searched from inception to May 2017. Two reviewers independently screened papers at title, abstract and full-text stages. Grey literature, guideline, hand searches of five journals and reference list/citation searches of included papers were undertaken. Data were extracted, tabulated and synthesised using narrative, thematic analysis. A total of 25 studies were included: 14 employed qualitative methods, 8 quantitative survey methods and 3 mixed-methods. Five key themes were identified: continuity of care, communication between primary and secondary care, contact and accessibility, communication between general practitioner and patient, and knowledge and competence. Although the terminology and context of general practice vary internationally, themes relating to the perceived role of general practitioners were consistent. General practitioners are considered well placed to provide palliative care due to their breadth of clinical responsibility, ongoing relationships with patients and families, and duty to visit patients at home and coordinate healthcare resources. These factors, valued by service users, should influence future practice and policy development.

Worked examples of alternative methods for the synthesis of qualitative and quantitative research in systematic reviews.

PubMed

Lucas, Patricia J; Baird, Janis; Arai, Lisa; Law, Catherine; Roberts, Helen M

2007-01-15

The inclusion of qualitative studies in systematic reviews poses methodological challenges. This paper presents worked examples of two methods of data synthesis (textual narrative and thematic), used in relation to one review, with the aim of enabling researchers to consider the strength of different approaches. A systematic review of lay perspectives of infant size and growth was conducted, locating 19 studies (including both qualitative and quantitative). The data extracted from these were synthesised using both a textual narrative and a thematic synthesis. The processes of both methods are presented, showing a stepwise progression to the final synthesis. Both methods led us to similar conclusions about lay views toward infant size and growth. Differences between methods lie in the way they dealt with study quality and heterogeneity. On the basis of the work reported here, we consider textual narrative and thematic synthesis have strengths and weaknesses in relation to different research questions. Thematic synthesis holds most potential for hypothesis generation, but may obscure heterogeneity and quality appraisal. Textual narrative synthesis is better able to describe the scope of existing research and account for the strength of evidence, but is less good at identifying commonality.

Project Narrative

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Driscoll, Mary C.

2012-07-12

The Project Narrative describes how the funds from the DOE grant were used to purchase equipment for the biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics departments. The Narrative also describes how the equipment is being used. There is also a list of the positive outcomes as a result of having the equipment that was purchased with the DOE grant.

Narrative Aversion: Challenges for the Illness Narrative Advocate.

PubMed

Behrendt, Kathy

2017-02-01

Engaging in self-narrative is often touted as a powerful antidote to the bad effects of illness. However, there are various examples of what may broadly be termed "aversion" to illness narrative. I group these into three kinds: aversion to certain types of illness narrative; aversion to illness narrative as a whole; and aversion to illness narrative as an essentially therapeutic endeavor. These aversions can throw into doubt the advantages claimed for the illness narrator, including the key benefits of repair to the damage illness does to identity and life-trajectory. Underlying these alleged benefits are two key presuppositions: that it is the whole of one's life that is narratively unified, and that one's identity is inextricably bound up with narrative. By letting go of these assumptions, illness narrative advocates can respond to the challenges of narrative aversions. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy Inc. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Becoming a teller of tales: Associations between children’s fictional narratives and parent-child reminiscence narratives

PubMed Central

Wenner, Jennifer A.; Burch, Melissa M.; Lynch, Julie S.; Bauer, Patricia J.

2008-01-01

Previous research has revealed a connection between the contributions parents make while reminiscing and their children’s narratives for personally experienced events. The present research expands the literature by focusing on the connection between parental reminiscing and children’s production of fictional narratives. Four- to 9-year-olds and their parents reminisced about past shared events and then, with an experimenter, the children produced narratives based on wordless picture books. The results revealed that the overall quality of the fictional narratives was correlated with parents’ provision statements that emphasized orientation and evaluation in the reminiscence narrative. For younger children, correlations held for reminiscence narratives about recent events. For older children, correlations held for reminiscence narratives about events from the distant past. The results are consistent with the suggestion that children learn general storytelling skills from adult models. PMID:18062986

Action starring narratives and events: Structure and inference in visual narrative comprehension

PubMed Central

Cohn, Neil; Wittenberg, Eva

2015-01-01

Studies of discourse have long placed focus on the inference generated by information that is not overtly expressed, and theories of visual narrative comprehension similarly focused on the inference generated between juxtaposed panels. Within the visual language of comics, star-shaped “flashes” commonly signify impacts, but can be enlarged to the size of a whole panel that can omit all other representational information. These “action star” panels depict a narrative culmination (a “Peak”), but have content which readers must infer, thereby posing a challenge to theories of inference generation in visual narratives that focus only on the semantic changes between juxtaposed images. This paper shows that action stars demand more inference than depicted events, and that they are more coherent in narrative sequences than scrambled sequences (Experiment 1). In addition, action stars play a felicitous narrative role in the sequence (Experiment 2). Together, these results suggest that visual narratives use conventionalized depictions that demand the generation of inferences while retaining narrative coherence of a visual sequence. PMID:26709362

Death narratives and cervical cancer: Impact of character death on narrative processing and HPV vaccination.

PubMed

Krakow, Melinda; Yale, Robert N; Perez Torres, Debora; Christy, Katheryn; Jensen, Jakob D

2017-12-01

Narratives hold promise as an effective public health message strategy for health behavior change, yet research on what types of narratives are most persuasive is still in the formative stage. Narrative persuasion research has identified 2 promising features of such messages that could influence behavior: whether characters live or die, and whether characters encounter key barriers. This study investigated the effects of these 2 narrative message features on young women's HPV vaccination intentions and examined mediating psychological processes of narrative persuasion in the context of cervical cancer messages. We manipulated these 2 features in a narrative HPV vaccine intervention targeted to a national sample of U.S. women 18-26 who had not initiated the vaccine (N = 247). Participants were randomized in a 2 × 2 between-subjects experiment. Compared to death narratives, survival narratives increased narrative believability and self-efficacy while lowering perceived barriers to vaccination. As features interacted, survival narratives featuring social barriers led to greater narrative transportation (absorption into the story) than other combinations. Moderated mediation analysis tested 10 theoretically derived mediators; transportation and risk severity mediated the narrative-intention relationship. Findings provide evidence for key psychological postulates of narrative persuasion theory. Results inform practical application for the construction of effective narrative message content in cervical cancer prevention campaigns for young women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Narrative theory: II. Self-generated and experimenter-provided negative income shock narratives increase delay discounting.

PubMed

Mellis, Alexandra M; Snider, Sarah E; Bickel, Warren K

2018-04-01

Reading experimenter-provided narratives of negative income shock has been previously demonstrated to increase impulsivity, as measured by discounting of delayed rewards. We hypothesized that writing these narratives would potentiate their effects of negative income shock on decision-making more than simply reading them. In the current study, 193 cigarette-smoking individuals from Amazon Mechanical Turk were assigned to either read an experimenter-provided narrative or self-generate a narrative describing either the negative income shock of job loss or a neutral condition of job transfer. Individuals then completed a task of delay discounting and measures of affective response to narratives, as well as rating various narrative qualities such as personal relevance and vividness. Consistent with past research, narratives of negative income shock increased delay discounting compared to control narratives. No significant differences existed in delay discounting after self-generating compared to reading experimenter-provided narratives. Positive affect was lower and negative affect was higher in response to narratives of job loss, but affect measures did not differ based on whether narratives were experimenter-provided or self-generated. All narratives were rated as equally realistic, but self-generated narratives (whether negative or neutral) were rated as more vivid and relevant than experimenter-provided narratives. These results indicate that the content of negative income shock narratives, regardless of source, consistently drives short-term choices. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Narrating positive versus negative memories of illness: does narrating influence the emotional tone of memories?

PubMed

Fioretti, C; Smorti, A

2017-05-01

Psychoncological studies have recognised a reduced autobiographical memory in cancer patients, furthermore cognitive studies have found that narrative is an effective instrument to re-elaborate memories. However, it is still unclear whether narrating positive versus negative events can have a different impact on autobiographical memory. The present study aims to explore the emotional experience of autobiographical memory before and after having narrated negative or positive events related to the illness. Of 63 oncological patients, 35 were selected for the present study. Participants completed a Memory Fluency Task twice, before and after having selected and narrated a positive (PN group) or a negative (NN group) memory of illness. They also had to attribute one or more emotions to each memory and to the narrative. The number of emotions and the percentage of emotional tones in both narrated and non-narrated memories were assessed. Narrated memories were more emotionally re-elaborated than non-narrated ones. Negative group participants, more than positive group ones, decreased negative emotions and increased complex ones. Authors discuss these results claiming that narrating works as a rehearsal of autobiographical memories in oncological patients and narrating negative memories eases the emotional re-elaboration of illness. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The primary health care service experiences and needs of homeless youth: a narrative synthesis of current evidence.

PubMed

Dawson, Angela; Jackson, Debra

2013-04-01

Homeless youth are a growing, vulnerable population with specific primary health care (PHC) requirements. There are no systematic reviews of evidence to guide the delivery of PHC interventions to best address the needs of homeless youth in Australia. We present a narrative synthesis of peer reviewed research designed to determine: (1) the PHC services homeless youth access; (2) experiences of services, reported outcomes and barriers to use; and, (3) the PHC service needs of homeless youth. Findings show that homeless youth access a variety of services and delivery approaches. Increased PHC use is associated with youth who recognise they need help. Street-based clinic linked services and therapy and case management alongside improved housing can positively impact upon mental health and substance use outcomes. Barriers to service use include knowledge; provider attitudes, financial constraints and inappropriate environments. Findings support targetted, co-ordinated networks of PHC and housing services with nurses working alongside community workers.

Laughter and MIRTH (Methodical Investigation of Risibility, Therapeutic and Harmful): narrative synthesis.

PubMed

Ferner, R E; Aronson, J K

2013-12-12

To review the beneficial and harmful effects of laughter. Narrative synthesis. We searched Medline (1946 to June 2013) and Embase (1974 to June 2013) for reports of benefits or harms from laughter in humans, and counted the number of papers in each category. Benefits of laughter include reduced anger, anxiety, depression, and stress; reduced tension (psychological and cardiovascular); increased pain threshold; reduced risk of myocardial infarction (presumably requiring hearty laughter); improved lung function; increased energy expenditure; and reduced blood glucose concentration. However, laughter is no joke-dangers include syncope, cardiac and oesophageal rupture, and protrusion of abdominal hernias (from side splitting laughter or laughing fit to burst), asthma attacks, interlobular emphysema, cataplexy, headaches, jaw dislocation, and stress incontinence (from laughing like a drain). Infectious laughter can disseminate real infection, which is potentially preventable by laughing up your sleeve. As a side effect of our search for side effects, we also list pathological causes of laughter, among them epilepsy (gelastic seizures), cerebral tumours, Angelman's syndrome, strokes, multiple sclerosis, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or motor neuron disease. Laughter is not purely beneficial. The harms it can cause are immediate and dose related, the risks being highest for Homeric (uncontrollable) laughter. The benefit-harm balance is probably favourable. It remains to be seen whether sick jokes make you ill or jokes in bad taste cause dysgeusia, and whether our views on comedians stand up to further scrutiny.

Narrativity and enaction: the social nature of literary narrative understanding

PubMed Central

Popova, Yanna B.

2014-01-01

This paper proposes an understanding of literary narrative as a form of social cognition and situates the study of such narratives in relation to the new comprehensive approach to human cognition, enaction. The particular form of enactive cognition that narrative understanding is proposed to depend on is that of participatory sense-making, as developed in the work of Di Paolo and De Jaegher. Currently there is no consensus as to what makes a good literary narrative, how it is understood, and why it plays such an irreplaceable role in human experience. The proposal thus identifies a gap in the existing research on narrative by describing narrative as a form of intersubjective process of sense-making between two agents, a teller and a reader. It argues that making sense of narrative literature is an interactional process of co-constructing a story-world with a narrator. Such an understanding of narrative makes a decisive break with both text-centered approaches that have dominated both structuralist and early cognitivist study of narrative, as well as pragmatic communicative ones that view narrative as a form of linguistic implicature. The interactive experience that narrative affords and necessitates at the same time, I argue, serves to highlight the active yet cooperative and communal nature of human sociality, expressed in the many forms than human beings interact in, including literary ones. PMID:25202286

Narrativity and enaction: the social nature of literary narrative understanding.

PubMed

Popova, Yanna B

2014-01-01

This paper proposes an understanding of literary narrative as a form of social cognition and situates the study of such narratives in relation to the new comprehensive approach to human cognition, enaction. The particular form of enactive cognition that narrative understanding is proposed to depend on is that of participatory sense-making, as developed in the work of Di Paolo and De Jaegher. Currently there is no consensus as to what makes a good literary narrative, how it is understood, and why it plays such an irreplaceable role in human experience. The proposal thus identifies a gap in the existing research on narrative by describing narrative as a form of intersubjective process of sense-making between two agents, a teller and a reader. It argues that making sense of narrative literature is an interactional process of co-constructing a story-world with a narrator. Such an understanding of narrative makes a decisive break with both text-centered approaches that have dominated both structuralist and early cognitivist study of narrative, as well as pragmatic communicative ones that view narrative as a form of linguistic implicature. The interactive experience that narrative affords and necessitates at the same time, I argue, serves to highlight the active yet cooperative and communal nature of human sociality, expressed in the many forms than human beings interact in, including literary ones.

Perceptions of patients and physiotherapists on patient participation: a narrative synthesis of qualitative studies.

PubMed

Schoeb, Veronika; Bürge, Elisabeth

2012-06-01

Patient participation is nowadays considered important for high quality patient care. Although the literature on health care professions provides some insights into this topic, specific aspects in the field of physiotherapy are less known. The objective of this review was to investigate how patients and physiotherapists perceive patient participation, especially in regards to what it means for them and the role patients play during physiotherapy treatment sessions. We used a narrative synthesis of qualitative studies. We conducted a systematic search in six databases using a set of key words, extracted relevant data, performed quality assessment and synthesized findings from the selected studies. Out of 160 studies, 11 were retained. Two main themes emerged: the conceptualization of patient participation and the patients' role preferences. Patient participation included various activities including goal setting, information exchange, decision-making and exercise training and often influenced the power relation between patient and physiotherapist. Patients' willingness to participate varied, and they often did not play their desired role. Patients and physiotherapists perceived participation to be valuable yet challenging. Problems of conceptualization, power inequalities, lack of health professionals' skills and lack of the right attitude to share power and responsibility from both sides were some of the barriers that impeded optimal participation. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Cinematic Narrator: The Logic and Pragmatics of Impersonal Narration.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burgoyne, Robert

1990-01-01

Describes "impersonal narration," an approach that defends the concept of the cinematic narrator as a logical and pragmatic necessity. Compares this approach with existing theories of the cinematic narrator, addressing disagreements in the field of film narrative theory. (MM)

The emotional impact of loss narratives: event severity and narrative perspectives.

PubMed

Habermas, Tilmann; Diel, Verena

2010-06-01

Out of the complex influences of event, narrative and listener characteristics on narrative emotions, this paper focuses on event severity, narrative perspectives, mood, and dispositions for emotion regulation and empathy. Event severity and perspective representation were systematically varied in sad autobiographical narratives to study their influence on quantity and quality of readers' emotional response. Each of three stories were manipulated to contain elaborated perspectives, only the past protagonists' perspective (dramatic narration), and very little perspectives at all (impersonal narration). We predicted that event severity influences the quantity of emotional response, while degree of perspective representation influences plausibility and whether emotional responses are sympathetic or interactional, that is, directed against the narrator. Hypotheses were confirmed except for plausibility, and perspective representation had an effect only on anger against and dislike of the narrator. In a second study, impersonal narration evoked anger at and negative evaluations of the narrator which were related to blaming the narrator for showing too little emotional involvement. The generalizability of findings across emotions and implications for sharing of emotions in everyday and clinical settings are discussed.

Increasing mental health literacy via narrative advertising.

PubMed

Chang, Chingching

2008-01-01

This research explored the effectiveness of narrative advertising and argument advertising in increasing mental illness (depression) literacy. Results showed that narrative advertising was more effective than argument advertising at engaging participants in experiential immersion, resulting in greater sympathy toward those suffering from depression. In addition, narrative advertising better involved participants in issue elaboration and increased willingness to seek professional help. Finally, in comparison with argument advertising, narrative advertisements were rated higher in providing vivid information, resulting in an increase in participants' perceived efficacy in recognizing friends or family suffering from depression.

Children's Cognitive and Affective Responses About a Narrative Versus a Non-Narrative Cartoon Designed for an Active Videogame

PubMed Central

Mafra, Rafaella; Beltran, Alicia; Baranowski, Thomas; Lu, Amy Shirong

2016-01-01

Abstract Objective: This article presents the results of interviews conducted with children regarding their cognitive and affective responses toward a narrative and a non-narrative cartoon. The findings will be used to further explore the role of a narrative in motivating continued active videogame play. Materials and Methods: Twenty children (8–11 years old of mixed gender) watched two cartoons (narrative and non-narrative) and were subsequently interviewed. A thematic matrix was used to analyze the interviews. Results: The narrative cartoon (n = 11) was only slightly preferred compared with the non-narrative one (n = 9), with little difference among the participants. The theme categories identified during the analyses were plot, characters, and suggestions. The fight scenes were mentioned by the children as a likeable aspect of the narrative cartoon. In the non-narrative cartoon, the vast majority (n = 17) liked the information about physical activity that was provided. The children enjoyed the appearance and personalities of the characters in both cartoons. A discrepancy in the data about the fight scenes (narrative cartoon) and characters (both cartoons) was found among the female participants (i.e., some girls did not like the fight and thought the characters were too aggressive). However, most of the children wanted to see more action in the story, an increase in the number of fight scenes (narrative cartoon), or more information about exercise and examples of exercises they could do (non-narrative cartoon). They also suggested adding a game to the non-narrative cartoon, including more characters, and improving the animation in both cartoons. Conclusions: The children preferred the narrative cartoon because of the story and the fight. Some gender differences were found, which further studies should investigate. PMID:26881473

Optimising Translational Research Opportunities: A Systematic Review and Narrative Synthesis of Basic and Clinician Scientists' Perspectives of Factors Which Enable or Hinder Translational Research.

PubMed

Fudge, Nina; Sadler, Euan; Fisher, Helen R; Maher, John; Wolfe, Charles D A; McKevitt, Christopher

2016-01-01

Translational research is central to international health policy, research and funding initiatives. Despite increasing use of the term, the translation of basic science discoveries into clinical practice is not straightforward. This systematic search and narrative synthesis aimed to examine factors enabling or hindering translational research from the perspective of basic and clinician scientists, a key stakeholder group in translational research, and to draw policy-relevant implications for organisations seeking to optimise translational research opportunities. We searched SCOPUS and Web of Science from inception until April 2015 for papers reporting scientists' views of the factors they perceive as enabling or hindering the conduct of translational research. We screened 8,295 papers from electronic database searches and 20 papers from hand searches and citation tracking, identifying 26 studies of qualitative, quantitative or mixed method designs. We used a narrative synthesis approach and identified the following themes: 1) differing concepts of translational research 2) research processes as a barrier to translational research; 3) perceived cultural divide between research and clinical care; 4) interdisciplinary collaboration as enabling translation research, but dependent on the quality of prior and current social relationships; 5) translational research as entrepreneurial science. Across all five themes, factors enabling or hindering translational research were largely shaped by wider social, organisational, and structural factors. To optimise translational research, policy could consider refining translational research models to better reflect scientists' experiences, fostering greater collaboration and buy in from all types of scientists. Organisations could foster cultural change, ensuring that organisational practices and systems keep pace with the change in knowledge production brought about by the translational research agenda.

Why Narrating Changes Memory: A Contribution to an Integrative Model of Memory and Narrative Processes.

PubMed

Smorti, Andrea; Fioretti, Chiara

2016-06-01

This paper aims to reflect on the relation between autobiographical memory (ME) and autobiographical narrative (NA), examining studies on the effects of narrating on the narrator and showing how studying these relations can make more comprehensible both memory's and narrating's way of working. Studies that address explicitly on ME and NA are scarce and touch this issue indirectly. Authors consider different trends of studies of ME and NA: congruency vs incongruency hypotheses on retrieving, the way of organizing memories according to gist or verbatim format and their role in organizing positive and negative emotional experiences, the social roots of ME and NA, the rules of conversation based on narrating. Analysis of investigations leads the Authors to point out three basic results of their research. Firstly, NA transforms ME because it narrativizes memories according to a narrative format. This means that memories, when are narrated, are transformed in stories (verbal language) and socialised. Secondly, the narrativization process is determined by the act of telling something within a communicative situation. Thus, relational situation of narrating act, by modifying the story, modifies also memories. The Authors propose the RE.NA.ME model (RElation, NArration, MEmory) to understand and study ME and NA. Finally, this study claims that ME and NA refer to two different types of processes having a wide area of overlapping. This is due to common social, developmental and cultural roots that make NA to include part of ME (narrative of memory) and ME to include part of NA (memory of personal events that have been narrated).

Lay and health care professional understandings of self-management: A systematic review and narrative synthesis

PubMed Central

Wolfe, Charles DA; McKevitt, Christopher

2014-01-01

Objectives: Self-management is widely promoted but evidence of effectiveness is limited. Policy encourages health care professionals to support people with long-term conditions to learn self-management skills, yet little is known about the extent to which both parties share a common understanding of self-management. Thus, we compared health care professional and lay understandings of self-management of long-term conditions. Methods: Systematic review and narrative synthesis of qualitative studies identified from relevant electronic databases, hand-searching of references lists, citation tracking and recommendations by experts. Results: In total, 55 studies were included and quality was assessed using a brief quality assessment tool. Three conceptual themes, each with two subthemes were generated: traditional and shifting models of the professional–patient relationship (self-management as a tool to promote compliance; different expectations of responsibility); quality of relationship between health care professional and lay person (self-management as a collaborative partnership; self-management as tailored support) and putting self-management into everyday practice (the lived experience of self-management; self-management as a social practice). Conclusion: Self-management was conceptualised by health care professionals as incorporating both a biomedical model of compliance and individual responsibility. Lay people understood self-management in wider terms, reflecting biomedical, psychological and social domains and different expectations of responsibility. In different ways, both deviated from the dominant model of self-management underpinned by the concept of self-efficacy. Different understandings help to explain how self-management is practised and may help to account for limited evidence of effectiveness of self-management interventions. PMID:26770733

Association between physical activity and vitamin D: A narrative literature review.

PubMed

Fernandes, Marcos Rassi; Barreto, Waldivino Dos Reis

2017-06-01

This narrative review of the medical literature assessed whether outdoor and indoor physical activity would increase the plasma levels of vitamin D. Synthesis of this liposoluble vitamin is mainly mediated by sunlight on the skin, where it is activated to perform its main action, which is to control the serum levels of calcium as soon as the element is absorbed in the intestines, assisting in the regulation of bone metabolism. Physical activity is any body movement that results in energy expenditure, while outdoor physical activity refers to physical activity carried out at public parks or other open spaces, as is the case of the popular practice of taking walks. Exercising outdoors would have both the benefits of physical activity and of sun exposure, namely the synthesis of vitamin D. However, according to the studies analyzed, increased plasma concentration of vitamin D occurs with physical activity both indoors and outdoors.

Systematic individualized narrative language intervention on the personal narratives of children with autism.

PubMed

Petersen, Douglas B; Brown, Catherine L; Ukrainetz, Teresa A; Wise, Christine; Spencer, Trina D; Zebre, Jennifer

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of an individualized, systematic language intervention on the personal narratives of children with autism. A single-subject, multiple-baseline design across participants and behaviors was used to examine the effect of the intervention on language features of personal narratives. Three 6- to 8-year-old boys with autism participated in 12 individual intervention sessions that targeted 2-3 story grammar elements (e.g., problem, plan) and 3-4 linguistic complexity elements (e.g., causal subordination, adverbs) selected from each participant's baseline performance. Intervention involved repeated retellings of customized model narratives and the generation of personal narratives with a systematic reduction of visual and verbal scaffolding. Independent personal narratives generated at the end of each baseline, intervention, and maintenance session were analyzed for presence and sophistication of targeted features. Graphical and statistical results showed immediate improvement in targeted language features as a function of intervention. There was mixed evidence of maintenance 2 and 7 weeks after intervention. Children with autism can benefit from an individualized, systematic intervention targeting specific narrative language features. Greater intensity of intervention may be needed to gain enduring effects for some language features.

Children's cognitive and affective responses about a narrative versus a non-narrative cartoon designed for an active videogame

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

This article presents the results of interviews conducted with children regarding their cognitive and affective responses toward a narrative and a non-narrative cartoon. The findings will be used to further explore the role of a narrative in motivating continued active videogame play. Twenty childre...

A Systematic Review and Narrative Synthesis of Health Economic Studies Conducted for Hereditary Haemochromatosis.

PubMed

de Graaff, Barbara; Neil, Amanda; Sanderson, Kristy; Si, Lei; Yee, Kwang Chien; Palmer, Andrew J

2015-10-01

Hereditary haemochromatosis (HH) is a common genetic condition amongst people of northern European heritage. HH is associated with increased iron absorption leading to parenchymal organ damage and multiple arthropathies. Early diagnosis and treatment prevents complications. Population screening may increase early diagnosis, but no programmes have been introduced internationally: a paucity of health economic data is often cited as a barrier. To conduct a systematic review of all health economic studies in HH. Studies were identified through electronic searching of economic/biomedical databases. Any study on HH with original economic component was included. Study quality was formally assessed. Health economic data were extracted and analysed through narrative synthesis. Thirty-eight studies met the inclusion criteria. The majority of papers reported on costs or cost effectiveness of screening programmes. Whilst most concluded screening was cost effective compared with no screening, methodological flaws limit the quality of these findings. Assumptions regarding clinical penetrance, effectiveness of screening, health-state utility values (HSUVs), exclusion of early symptomatology (such as fatigue, lethargy and multiple arthropathies) and quantification of costs associated with HH were identified as key limitations. Treatment studies concluded therapeutic venepuncture was the most cost-effective intervention. There is a paucity of high-quality health economic studies relating to HH. The development of a comprehensive HH cost-effectiveness model utilising HSUVs is required to determine whether screening is worthwhile.

Contemporary public perceptions of nursing: a systematic review and narrative synthesis of the international research evidence.

PubMed

Girvin, June; Jackson, Debra; Hutchinson, Marie

2016-11-01

To investigate the current public understanding and perceptions of nursing. In recent years, attention to large scale health-care failures has focused considerable concern upon nursing standards. To avoid short-term solutions, and the temptation to see individual failures as representative of the wider profession, it is important to understand contemporary public perceptions of nursing. A systematic review and narrative synthesis of peer reviewed papers from January 2010 to September 2015. Four main themes were identified: (1) media portrayal of nursing as a troubled profession; (2) entertainment value in demeaning nursing; (3) role incongruity - nursing trusted but not respected; and (4) nursing roles remain poorly understood. Although there is evidence of strong public trust, this does not generally appear to be born out of an understanding of nursing work and impact; rather it appears to stem from the respect held for the traditional, more sentimental stereotypes of selfless, hardworking young females. A long-term, strategic solution is required that focuses on public engagement and interaction with the profession in a context wider than personal health/ill-health, and that goes beyond the marketing campaigns seen in the past to address recruitment crises. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Visual narrative structure.

PubMed

Cohn, Neil

2013-04-01

Narratives are an integral part of human expression. In the graphic form, they range from cave paintings to Egyptian hieroglyphics, from the Bayeux Tapestry to modern day comic books (Kunzle, 1973; McCloud, 1993). Yet not much research has addressed the structure and comprehension of narrative images, for example, how do people create meaning out of sequential images? This piece helps fill the gap by presenting a theory of Narrative Grammar. We describe the basic narrative categories and their relationship to a canonical narrative arc, followed by a discussion of complex structures that extend beyond the canonical schema. This demands that the canonical arc be reconsidered as a generative schema whereby any narrative category can be expanded into a node in a tree structure. Narrative "pacing" is interpreted as a reflection of various patterns of this embedding: conjunction, left-branching trees, center-embedded constituencies, and others. Following this, diagnostic methods are proposed for testing narrative categories and constituency. Finally, we outline the applicability of this theory beyond sequential images, such as to film and verbal discourse, and compare this theory with previous approaches to narrative and discourse. Copyright © 2012 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Storybridging: Four Steps for Constructing Effective Health Narratives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boeijinga, Anniek; Hoeken, Hans; Sanders, José

2017-01-01

Objective: To develop a practical step-by-step approach to constructing narrative health interventions in response to the mixed results and wide diversity of narratives used in health-related narrative persuasion research. Method: Development work was guided by essential narrative characteristics as well as principles enshrined in the Health…

Evaluating Mediated Perception of Narrative Health Messages: The Perception of Narrative Performance Scale

PubMed Central

Lee, Jeong Kyu; Hecht, Michael L.; Miller-Day, Michelle; Elek, Elvira

2011-01-01

Narrative media health messages have proven effective in preventing adolescents’ substance use but as yet few measures exist to assess perceptions of them. Without such a measure it is difficult to evaluate the role these messages play in health promotion or to differentiate them from other message forms. In response to this need, a study was conducted to evaluate the Perception of Narrative Performance Scale that assesses perceptions of narrative health messages. A sample of 1185 fifth graders in public schools at Phoenix, Arizona completed a questionnaire rating of two videos presenting narrative substance use prevention messages. Confirmatory factor analyses were computed to identify the factor structure of the scale. Consistent with prior studies, results suggest a 3 factor structure for the Perception of Narrative Performance Scale: interest, realism, and identification (with characters). In addition, a path analysis was performed to test the predictive power of the scale. The analysis shows that the scale proves useful in predicting intent to use substances. Finally, practical implications and limitations are discussed. PMID:21822459

"Response to Comments": Finding the Narrative in Narrative Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coulter, Cathy A.

2009-01-01

The author responds to comments by Barone (2009), Clandinin and Murphy (2009), and M. W. Smith (2009) on "The Construction Zone: Literary Elements in Narrative Research" (Coulter & M. L. Smith, 2009). She clarifies issues regarding point of view, authorial surplus, narrative coherence, and the relational qualities of narrative research. She…

The Effect of Modality and Narration Style on Recall of Online Health Information: Results From a Web-Based Experiment

PubMed Central

van Weert, Julia CM; de Haes, Hanneke CJM; Loos, Eugene F; Smets, Ellen MA

2015-01-01

Background Older adults are increasingly using the Internet for health information; however, they are often not able to correctly recall Web-based information (eHealth information). Recall of information is crucial for optimal health outcomes, such as adequate disease management and adherence to medical regimes. Combining effective message strategies may help to improve recall of eHealth information among older adults. Presenting information in an audiovisual format using conversational narration style is expected to optimize recall of information compared to other combinations of modality and narration style. Objective The aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of modality and narration style on recall of health information, and whether there are differences between younger and older adults. Methods We conducted a Web-based experiment using a 2 (modality: written vs audiovisual information) by 2 (narration style: formal vs conversational style) between-subjects design (N=440). Age was assessed in the questionnaire and included as a factor: younger (<65 years) versus older (≥65 years) age. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four experimental webpages where information about lung cancer treatment was presented. A Web-based questionnaire assessed recall of eHealth information. Results Audiovisual modality (vs written modality) was found to increase recall of information in both younger and older adults (P=.04). Although conversational narration style (vs formal narration style) did not increase recall of information (P=.17), a synergistic effect between modality and narration style was revealed: combining audiovisual information with conversational style outperformed combining written information with formal style (P=.01), as well as written information with conversational style (P=.045). This finding suggests that conversational style especially increases recall of information when presented audiovisually. This combination of modality and

Managerial leadership for research use in nursing and allied health care professions: a narrative synthesis protocol

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Nurses and allied health care professionals (physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and language pathologists, dietitians) form more than half of the clinical health care workforce and play a central role in health service delivery. There is a potential to improve the quality of health care if these professionals routinely use research evidence to guide their clinical practice. However, the use of research evidence remains unpredictable and inconsistent. Leadership is consistently described in implementation research as critical to enhancing research use by health care professionals. However, this important literature has not yet been synthesized and there is a lack of clarity on what constitutes effective leadership for research use, or what kinds of intervention effectively develop leadership for the purpose of enabling and enhancing research use in clinical practice. We propose to synthesize the evidence on leadership behaviours amongst front line and senior managers that are associated with research evidence by nurses and allied health care professionals, and then determine the effectiveness of interventions that promote these behaviours. Methods/Design Using an integrated knowledge translation approach that supports a partnership between researchers and knowledge users throughout the research process, we will follow principles of knowledge synthesis using a systematic method to synthesize different types of evidence involving: searching the literature, study selection, data extraction and quality assessment, and analysis. A narrative synthesis will be conducted to explore relationships within and across studies and meta-analysis will be performed if sufficient homogeneity exists across studies employing experimental randomized control trial designs. Discussion With the engagement of knowledge users in leadership and practice, we will synthesize the research from a broad range of disciplines to understand the key elements of leadership

Managerial leadership for research use in nursing and allied health care professions: a narrative synthesis protocol.

PubMed

Gifford, Wendy A; Holyoke, Paul; Squires, Janet E; Angus, Douglas; Brosseau, Lucie; Egan, Mary; Graham, Ian D; Miller, Carol; Wallin, Lars

2014-06-05

Nurses and allied health care professionals (physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and language pathologists, dietitians) form more than half of the clinical health care workforce and play a central role in health service delivery. There is a potential to improve the quality of health care if these professionals routinely use research evidence to guide their clinical practice. However, the use of research evidence remains unpredictable and inconsistent. Leadership is consistently described in implementation research as critical to enhancing research use by health care professionals. However, this important literature has not yet been synthesized and there is a lack of clarity on what constitutes effective leadership for research use, or what kinds of intervention effectively develop leadership for the purpose of enabling and enhancing research use in clinical practice. We propose to synthesize the evidence on leadership behaviours amongst front line and senior managers that are associated with research evidence by nurses and allied health care professionals, and then determine the effectiveness of interventions that promote these behaviours. Using an integrated knowledge translation approach that supports a partnership between researchers and knowledge users throughout the research process, we will follow principles of knowledge synthesis using a systematic method to synthesize different types of evidence involving: searching the literature, study selection, data extraction and quality assessment, and analysis. A narrative synthesis will be conducted to explore relationships within and across studies and meta-analysis will be performed if sufficient homogeneity exists across studies employing experimental randomized control trial designs. With the engagement of knowledge users in leadership and practice, we will synthesize the research from a broad range of disciplines to understand the key elements of leadership that supports and enables research use

Characterizing donation behavior from psychophysiological indices of narrative experience

PubMed Central

Correa, Kelly A.; Stone, Bradly T.; Stikic, Maja; Johnson, Robin R.; Berka, Chris

2015-01-01

Research on narrative persuasion has yet to investigate whether this process influences behavior. The current study explored whether: (1) a narrative could persuade participants to donate to a charity, a prosocial, behavioral decision; (2) psychophysiological metrics can delineate the differences between donation/non-donation behaviors; and (3) donation behavior can be correlated with measures of psychophysiology, self-reported reactions to the narrative, and intrinsic characteristics. Participants (n = 49) completed personality/disposition questionnaires, viewed one of two versions of a narrative while EEG and ECG were recorded, completed a questionnaire regarding their reactions to the narrative, and were given an opportunity to donate to a charity related to the themes of the narrative. Results showed that: (1) 34.7% of participants donated; (2) psychophysiological metrics successfully delineated between donation behaviors and the effects of narrative version; and (3) psychophysiology and reactions to the narrative were better able to explain the variance (88 and 65%, respectively) in the amount donated than all 3 metrics combined as well as any metric alone. These findings demonstrate the promise of narrative persuasion for influencing prosocial, behavioral decisions. Our results also illustrate the utility of the previously stated metrics for understanding and possibly even manipulating behaviors resulting from narrative persuasion. PMID:26379488

Children's Cognitive and Affective Responses About a Narrative Versus a Non-Narrative Cartoon Designed for an Active Videogame.

PubMed

Fernandes Davies, Vanessa; Mafra, Rafaella; Beltran, Alicia; Baranowski, Thomas; Lu, Amy Shirong

2016-04-01

This article presents the results of interviews conducted with children regarding their cognitive and affective responses toward a narrative and a non-narrative cartoon. The findings will be used to further explore the role of a narrative in motivating continued active videogame play. Twenty children (8-11 years old of mixed gender) watched two cartoons (narrative and non-narrative) and were subsequently interviewed. A thematic matrix was used to analyze the interviews. The narrative cartoon (n = 11) was only slightly preferred compared with the non-narrative one (n = 9), with little difference among the participants. The theme categories identified during the analyses were plot, characters, and suggestions. The fight scenes were mentioned by the children as a likeable aspect of the narrative cartoon. In the non-narrative cartoon, the vast majority (n = 17) liked the information about physical activity that was provided. The children enjoyed the appearance and personalities of the characters in both cartoons. A discrepancy in the data about the fight scenes (narrative cartoon) and characters (both cartoons) was found among the female participants (i.e., some girls did not like the fight and thought the characters were too aggressive). However, most of the children wanted to see more action in the story, an increase in the number of fight scenes (narrative cartoon), or more information about exercise and examples of exercises they could do (non-narrative cartoon). They also suggested adding a game to the non-narrative cartoon, including more characters, and improving the animation in both cartoons. The children preferred the narrative cartoon because of the story and the fight. Some gender differences were found, which further studies should investigate.

Nurses experiences of delivering care in acute inpatient mental health settings: A narrative synthesis of the literature.

PubMed

Wyder, Marianne; Ehrlich, Carolyn; Crompton, David; McArthur, Leianne; Delaforce, Caroline; Dziopa, Fiona; Ramon, Shulamit; Powell, Elizabeth

2017-12-01

Inpatient psychiatric care requires a balance between working with consumers' priorities and goals, managing expectations of the community, legal, professional and service responsibilities. In order to improve service delivery within acute mental health units, it is important to understand the constraints and facilitating factors for good care. We conducted a systematic narrative synthesis, where findings of qualitative studies are synthesised to generate new insights. 21 articles were identified. Our results show that personal qualities, professional skills as well as environmental factors all influence the ability to provide recovery focused care. Three overarching themes which either facilitated or hindered were identified. These included: (i) Complexity of the nursing role (clinical care; practical and emotional support: advocacy and education; enforcing aspects of the Mental Health Act. and, maintaining ward safety); (ii) Constraining factors (operational barriers; change in patient characteristic; and competing understandings of care); and (iii) Facilitating factors (ward factors; nursing tools; nurse characteristics; approach to people; approach to work and ability to self-care). We suggest that the therapeutic use of self is central to the provision of recovery oriented care. However person-centred practice can be fragile and fluid and a compassionate system of support is needed to enable an understanding of context and self. It is critical to have a work environment which fosters hope and optimism and is supportive of autonomy, ensures workload balance, and is safe. © 2017 Australian College of Mental Health Nurses Inc.

Theorizing Foreshadowed Death Narratives: Examining the Impact of Character Death on Narrative Processing and Skin Self-Exam Intentions

PubMed Central

JENSEN, JAKOB D.; YALE, ROBERT N.; KRAKOW, MELINDA; JOHN, KEVIN K.; KING, ANDY J.

2017-01-01

Narratives are common in health campaigns and interventions, with many depicting individuals battling a particular illness or disease. Past research has focused primarily on the form and effects of survivor stories, but considerably less attention has been devoted to stories in which 1 or more of the central characters passes away. The goal of the current study was to compare the relative persuasive impact of survivor and death narratives in influencing skin prevention behaviors and to test narrative mediators that might explicate underlying mechanisms of effect. To that end, adults (N = 635, M age = 32.43 [SD = 11.23]) were randomly assigned to 1 of 6 narrative intervention conditions in an online message experiment. Participants read 1 of 2 stories about a person with melanoma (Rusty or Diane) that was manipulated as a narrative depicting the survival, death, or foreshadowed death of the main character. Foreshadowed death narratives increased intentions to perform a skin self-exam (SSE), a relationship that was mediated by narrative transportation and perceived SSE benefits. The results support the central postulate of narrative transportation theory and the utility of using foreshadowed death narratives in communication-based interventions designed to increase SSE frequency. PMID:28060585

The relationship between oral and written narratives: A three-year longitudinal study of narrative cohesion, coherence, and structure.

PubMed

Pinto, Giuliana; Tarchi, Christian; Bigozzi, Lucia

2015-12-01

The relationship between oral language and the writing process at early acquisition stages and the ways the former can enhance or limit the latter has not been researched extensively. The predictive relationship between kindergarten oral narrative competence and the first- and second-grade written narrative competence was explored in a 3-year longitudinal study. Among the first and second graders, the relationship between orthographic competence and narrative competence in written productions was also analysed. One hundred and nine Italian children participated in this study. Kindergarteners produced an oral narrative, whereas the first and second graders produced a written narrative. The oral and written narratives were analysed in terms of cohesion, coherence, and structure. The first-grade orthographic competence was assessed via a dictation task. Multiple linear regression and mediational analyses were performed. Kindergarten oral narrative competence affected the first- and second-grade written narrative competence via a mediational effect of orthographic competence. The results suggest the importance of practicing oral narrative competence in kindergarten and first grade and the value of composition quality independent of orthographic text accuracy. © 2015 The British Psychological Society.

Storybridging: Four steps for constructing effective health narratives

PubMed Central

Boeijinga, Anniek; Hoeken, Hans; Sanders, José

2017-01-01

Objective: To develop a practical step-by-step approach to constructing narrative health interventions in response to the mixed results and wide diversity of narratives used in health-related narrative persuasion research. Method: Development work was guided by essential narrative characteristics as well as principles enshrined in the Health Action Process Approach. Results: The ‘storybridging’ method for constructing health narratives is described as consisting of four concrete steps: (a) identifying the stage of change, (b) identifying the key elements, (c) building the story, and (d) pre-testing the story. These steps are illustrated by means of a case study in which an effective narrative health intervention was developed for Dutch truck drivers: a high-risk, underprivileged occupational group. Conclusion: Although time and labour intensive, the Storybridging approach suggests integrating the target audience as an important stakeholder throughout the development process. Implications and recommendations are provided for health promotion targeting truck drivers specifically and for constructing narrative health interventions in general. PMID:29276232

Interventions that improve maternity care for immigrant women in the UK: protocol for a narrative synthesis systematic review.

PubMed

Higginbottom, Gina Marie Awoko; Evans, Catrin; Morgan, Myfanwy; Bharj, Kuldip Kaur; Eldridge, Jeanette; Hussain, Basharat

2017-07-12

A quarter of all births in the UK are to mothers born outside the UK. There is also evidence that immigrant women have higher maternal and infant death rates and of inequalities in the provision and uptake of maternity services/birth centres. The topic is of great significance to the National Health Service because of directives that address inequalities and the changing patterns of migration to the UK. Our main question for the systematic review is 'what interventions exist that are specifically focused on improving maternity care for immigrant women in the UK?' The primary objective of this synthesis is to generate new interpretations of research evidence. Second, the synthesis will provide substantive base to guide developments and implementation of maternity services/birth centres which are acceptable and effective for immigrant women in the UK. We are using a narrative synthesis (NS) approach to identify, assess scientific quality and rigour, and synthesise empirical data focused on access and interventions that enhance quality of maternity care/birth centres for the UK immigrant women. The inclusion criteria include: publication date 1990 to present, English language, empirical research and findings are focused on women who live in the UK, participants of the study are immigrant women, is related to maternity care/birth centres access or interventions or experiences of maternity.In order to ensure the robustness of the NS, the methodological quality of key evidence will be appraised using the Center for Evidence-Based Management tools and review confidence with CERQual (Confidence in the Evidence from Reviews of Qualitative Research). Two reviewers will independently screen studies and extract relevant evidence. We will synthesise evidence studying relationships between included studies using a range of tools. Dissemination plan includes: an e-workshop for policymakers, collaborative practitioner workshops, YouTube video and APP, scientific papers and

Clarifying the Narrative Paradigm.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fisher, Walter R.

1989-01-01

Replies to Rowland's article (same issue) on Fisher's views of the narrative paradigm. Clarifies the narrative paradigm by discussing three senses in which "narration" can be understood, and by indicating what the narrative paradigm is not. (SR)

Theorizing Foreshadowed Death Narratives: Examining the Impact of Character Death on Narrative Processing and Skin Self-Exam Intentions.

PubMed

Jensen, Jakob D; Yale, Robert N; Krakow, Melinda; John, Kevin K; King, Andy J

2017-01-01

Narratives are common in health campaigns and interventions, with many depicting individuals battling a particular illness or disease. Past research has focused primarily on the form and effects of survivor stories, but considerably less attention has been devoted to stories in which 1 or more of the central characters passes away. The goal of the current study was to compare the relative persuasive impact of survivor and death narratives in influencing skin prevention behaviors and to test narrative mediators that might explicate underlying mechanisms of effect. To that end, adults (N = 635, M age = 32.43 [SD = 11.23]) were randomly assigned to 1 of 6 narrative intervention conditions in an online message experiment. Participants read 1 of 2 stories about a person with melanoma (Rusty or Diane) that was manipulated as a narrative depicting the survival, death, or foreshadowed death of the main character. Foreshadowed death narratives increased intentions to perform a skin self-exam (SSE), a relationship that was mediated by narrative transportation and perceived SSE benefits. The results support the central postulate of narrative transportation theory and the utility of using foreshadowed death narratives in communication-based interventions designed to increase SSE frequency.

Narrative, Poststructuralism, and Social Justice: Current Practices in Narrative Therapy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Combs, Gene; Freedman, Jill

2012-01-01

This paper is a review of current practice in narrative therapy with a focus on how it is attractive and useful for therapists who wish to work for social justice. The authors describe narrative therapy's roots in poststructuralist philosophy and social science. They illustrate its major theoretical constructs, including the "narrative metaphor,"…

Autism as Metaphor: Narrative and Counter-Narrative

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Broderick, Alicia A.; Ne'eman, Ari

2008-01-01

In this paper we explore the significance of metaphor and dominant cultural narratives in current autism discourse. We briefly explore the history of metaphor in autism discourse, and outline the contemporary struggle between the culturally dominant metaphor of autism as disease and the emergent counter-narrative of autism within neurodiversity.…

Using a narrative to spark safer sex communication

PubMed Central

Donné, Lennie; Hoeks, John; Jansen, Carel

2017-01-01

Objective: College students are a group at risk for contracting sexually transmitted infections (STIs). While they are generally well informed about STIs, they do not consistently use condoms. An important element in preventing STIs is safer sex communication, especially with a sexual partner. This may be difficult, however, because of a lack of experience in talking about safer sex or because of the absence of suitable role models. In this study, a narrative intervention was tested that was developed to provide receivers with a social script for safer sex communication. Design: An experiment was conducted among college students (N = 225) who were exposed to either a narrative intervention or a non-narrative (brochure) intervention, followed by a post-test questionnaire. In the narrative condition, part of the participants completed a pre-test questionnaire before being exposed to the intervention. Results: Compared to pre-test scores, the narrative positively influenced safer sex communication intentions. The results show no significant differences between post-test scores of the narrative and the non-narrative condition. Mediation analyses showed that narrative processes (identification and transportation) were positively related to safer sex communication. Conclusion: In this study, we investigated both the effects of a narrative intervention on safer sex communication intentions, and the mechanisms of narrative processing underlying these effects. The narrative turned out to be as effective as a brochure version with the same information. Our mediation analyses suggest that narratives can be made more persuasive by increasing the reader’s involvement with the story as a whole, and with one of the characters in particular. PMID:28919639

Does cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia improve cognitive performance? A systematic review and narrative synthesis.

PubMed

Herbert, Vanessa; Kyle, Simon D; Pratt, Daniel

2018-06-01

Individuals with insomnia report difficulties pertaining to their cognitive functioning. Cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is associated with robust, long-term improvements in sleep parameters, however less is known about the impact of CBT-I on the daytime correlates of the disorder. A systematic review and narrative synthesis was conducted in order to summarise and evaluate the evidence regarding the impact of CBT-I on cognitive functioning. Reference databases were searched and studies were included if they assessed cognitive performance as an outcome of CBT-I, using either self-report questionnaires or cognitive tests. Eighteen studies met inclusion criteria, comprising 923 individuals with insomnia symptoms. The standardised mean difference was calculated at post-intervention and follow-up. We found preliminary evidence for small to moderate effects of CBT-I on subjective measures of cognitive functioning. Few of the effects were statistically significant, likely due to small sample sizes and limited statistical power. There is a lack of evidence with regards to the impact of CBT-I on objective cognitive performance, primarily due to the small number of studies that administered an objective measure (n = 4). We conclude that adequately powered randomised controlled trials, utilising both subjective and objective measures of cognitive functioning are required. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Anorexia Nervosa: A Synthesis of Poetic and Narrative Therapies in the Outpatient Treatment of Young Adult Women

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robbins, Joy M.; Pehrsson, Dale-Elizabeth

2009-01-01

Current trends for treatment of women with anorexia nervosa often focus on weight gain as the primary therapeutic goal without concurrently addressing psychological concerns. As a result of this singular focus, many women drop out of treatment before recovering. This article offers an alternate treatment model. A synthesized narrative and poetry…

Narrative as Inquiry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hendry, Petra Munro

2010-01-01

The author suggests that all research is narrative. Resituating all research as narrative, as opposed to characterizing narrative as one particular form of inquiry, provides a critical space for rethinking "research" beyond current dualisms and bifurcations that create boundaries that limit the capacity for dialogue across diverse epistemologies.…

Modeling Narrative Discourse

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elson, David K.

2012-01-01

This thesis describes new approaches to the formal modeling of narrative discourse. Although narratives of all kinds are ubiquitous in daily life, contemporary text processing techniques typically do not leverage the aspects that separate narrative from expository discourse. We describe two approaches to the problem. The first approach considers…

Slave Narratives as Polemic.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heglar, Charles J.

Although slave narratives have enjoyed critical attention as literature and autobiography, when presenting them to undergraduates, there is some confusion--usually centering on the dissimilarities between the narratives and traditional autobiography. The narratives are not as linear, not as focused on personal development; the narrators are not as…

Using the 'Social Marketing Mix Framework' to explore recruitment barriers and facilitators in palliative care randomised controlled trials? A narrative synthesis review.

PubMed

Dunleavy, Lesley; Walshe, Catherine; Oriani, Anna; Preston, Nancy

2018-05-01

Effective recruitment to randomised controlled trials is critically important for a robust, trustworthy evidence base in palliative care. Many trials fail to achieve recruitment targets, but the reasons for this are poorly understood. Understanding barriers and facilitators is a critical step in designing optimal recruitment strategies. To identify, explore and synthesise knowledge about recruitment barriers and facilitators in palliative care trials using the '6 Ps' of the 'Social Marketing Mix Framework'. A systematic review with narrative synthesis. Medline, CINAHL, PsycINFO and Embase databases (from January 1990 to early October 2016) were searched. Papers included the following: interventional and qualitative studies addressing recruitment, palliative care randomised controlled trial papers or reports containing narrative observations about the barriers, facilitators or strategies to increase recruitment. A total of 48 papers met the inclusion criteria. Uninterested participants (Product), burden of illness (Price) and 'identifying eligible participants' were barriers. Careful messaging and the use of scripts/role play (Promotion) were recommended. The need for intensive resources and gatekeeping by professionals were barriers while having research staff on-site and lead clinician support (Working with Partners) was advocated. Most evidence is based on researchers' own reports of experiences of recruiting to trials rather than independent evaluation. The 'Social Marketing Mix Framework' can help guide researchers when planning and implementing their recruitment strategy but suggested strategies need to be tested within embedded clinical trials. The findings of this review are applicable to all palliative care research and not just randomised controlled trials.

Performing Narrative Medicine

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Langellier, Kristin M.

2009-01-01

In this article, the author weaves narrative medicine and performance together to consider what might it mean to call narrative medicine a performance. To name narrative medicine as performance is to recognize the texts and bodies, the stories and selves, that participate in its practice--patients' and physicians' embodied stories as well as the…

Narrative Means to Preventative Ends: A Narrative Engagement Framework for Designing Prevention Interventions

PubMed Central

Miller-Day, Michelle; Hecht, Michael L.

2013-01-01

This paper describes a Narrative Engagement Framework (NEF) for guiding communication-based prevention efforts. This framework suggests that personal narratives have distinctive capabilities in prevention. The paper discusses the concept of narrative, links narrative to prevention, and discusses the central role of youth in developing narrative interventions. As illustration, the authors describe how the NEF is applied in the keepin’ it REAL adolescent drug prevention curriculum, pose theoretical directions, and offer suggestions for future work in prevention communication. PMID:23980613

How best to structure interdisciplinary primary care teams: the study protocol for a systematic review with narrative framework synthesis.

PubMed

Wranik, W Dominika; Hayden, Jill A; Price, Sheri; Parker, Robin M N; Haydt, Susan M; Edwards, Jeanette M; Suter, Esther; Katz, Alan; Gambold, Liesl L; Levy, Adrian R

2016-10-04

Western publicly funded health care systems increasingly rely on interdisciplinary teams to support primary care delivery and management of chronic conditions. This knowledge synthesis focuses on what is known in the academic and grey literature about optimal structural characteristics of teams. Its goal is to assess which factors contribute to the effective functioning of interdisciplinary primary care teams and improved health system outcomes, with specific focus on (i) team structure contribution to team process, (ii) team process contribution to primary care goals, and (iii) team structure contribution to primary care goals. The systematic search of academic literature focuses on four chronic conditions and co-morbidities. Within this scope, qualitative and quantitative studies that assess the effects of team characteristics (funding, governance, organization) on care process and patient outcomes will be searched. Electronic databases (Ovid MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, PAIS, Web of Science) will be searched systematically. Online web-based searches will be supported by the Grey Matters Tool. Studies will be included, if they report on interdisciplinary primary care in publicly funded Western health systems, and address the relationships between team structure, process, and/or patient outcomes. Studies will be selected in a three-stage screening process (title/abstract/full text) by two independent reviewers in each stage. Study quality will be assessed using the Mixed Methods Assessment Tool. An a priori framework will be applied to data extraction, and a narrative framework approach is used for the synthesis. Using an integrated knowledge translation approach, an electronic decision support tool will be developed for decision makers. It will be searchable along two axes of inquiry: (i) what primary care goals are supported by specific team characteristics and (ii) how should teams be structured to support specific primary care goals? The results of this evidence

Transportation Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Synthesis, Phase II

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2018-04-24

The Transportation Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Synthesis includes an LCA Learning Module Series, case studies, and analytics on the use of the modules. The module series is a set of narrated slideshows on topics related to environmental LCA. Phase I ...

Waiting Narratives of Lung Transplant Candidates

PubMed Central

Yelle, Maria T.; Stevens, Patricia E.; Lanuza, Dorothy M.

2013-01-01

Before 2005, time accrued on the lung transplant waiting list counted towards who was next in line for a donor lung. Then in 2005 the lung allocation scoring system was implemented, which meant the higher the illness severity scores, the higher the priority on the transplant list. Little is known of the lung transplant candidates who were listed before 2005 and were caught in the transition when the lung allocation scoring system was implemented. A narrative analysis was conducted to explore the illness narratives of seven lung transplant candidates between 2006 and 2007. Arthur Kleinman's concept of illness narratives was used as a conceptual framework for this study to give voice to the illness narratives of lung transplant candidates. Results of this study illustrate that lung transplant candidates expressed a need to tell their personal story of waiting and to be heard. Recommendation from this study calls for healthcare providers to create the time to enable illness narratives of the suffering of waiting to be told. Narrative skills of listening to stories of emotional suffering would enhance how healthcare providers could attend to patients' stories and hear what is most meaningful in their lives. PMID:23476760

Waiting narratives of lung transplant candidates.

PubMed

Yelle, Maria T; Stevens, Patricia E; Lanuza, Dorothy M

2013-01-01

Before 2005, time accrued on the lung transplant waiting list counted towards who was next in line for a donor lung. Then in 2005 the lung allocation scoring system was implemented, which meant the higher the illness severity scores, the higher the priority on the transplant list. Little is known of the lung transplant candidates who were listed before 2005 and were caught in the transition when the lung allocation scoring system was implemented. A narrative analysis was conducted to explore the illness narratives of seven lung transplant candidates between 2006 and 2007. Arthur Kleinman's concept of illness narratives was used as a conceptual framework for this study to give voice to the illness narratives of lung transplant candidates. Results of this study illustrate that lung transplant candidates expressed a need to tell their personal story of waiting and to be heard. Recommendation from this study calls for healthcare providers to create the time to enable illness narratives of the suffering of waiting to be told. Narrative skills of listening to stories of emotional suffering would enhance how healthcare providers could attend to patients' stories and hear what is most meaningful in their lives.

Narrative Development in Monolingual Spanish-Speaking Preschool Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Castilla-Earls, Anny; Petersen, Douglas; Spencer, Trina; Hammer, Krista

2015-01-01

Research Findings: The purpose of this study was to describe differences in the narratives produced by 3-, 4-, and 5- year old Spanish-speaking (SS) children. Narrative productions of 104 typically developing children were collected using a story-retelling task and coded using the Index of Narrative Complexity. The results of this study indicate…

Systemic therapy and attachment narratives: Attachment Narrative Therapy.

PubMed

Dallos, Rudi; Vetere, Arlene

2014-10-01

This article outlines an integration of attachment theory with narrative theory and systemic theory and practice: Attachment Narrative Therapy (ANT). This integration offers a more powerful explanatory formulation of the development and maintenance of human distress in relationships, families and communities, and gives direction to psychotherapeutic intervention. © The Author(s) 2014.

The feeling of the story: Narrating to regulate anger and sadness.

PubMed

Pasupathi, Monisha; Wainryb, Cecilia; Mansfield, Cade D; Bourne, Stacia

2017-04-01

Admonitions to tell one's story in order to feel better reflect the belief that narrative is an effective emotion regulation tool. The present studies evaluate the effectiveness of narrative for regulating sadness and anger, and provide quantitative comparisons of narrative with distraction, reappraisal, and reexposure. The results for sadness (n = 93) and anger (n = 89) reveal that narrative is effective at down-regulating negative emotions, particularly when narratives place events in the past tense and include positive emotions. The results suggest that if people tell the "right" kind of story about their experiences, narrative reduces emotional distress linked to those experiences.

What are narratives good for?

PubMed

Beatty, John

2016-08-01

Narratives may be easy to come by, but not everything is worth narrating. What merits a narrative? Here, I follow the lead of narratologists and literary theorists, and focus on one particular proposal concerning the elements of a story that make it narrative-worthy. These elements correspond to features of the natural world addressed by the historical sciences, where narratives figure so prominently. What matters is contingency. Narratives are especially good for representing contingency and accounting for contingent outcomes. This will be squared with a common view that narratives leave no room for chance. On the contrary, I will argue, tracing one path through a maze of alternative possibilities, and alluding to those possibilities along the way, is what a narrative does particularly well. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Using a narrative to spark safer sex communication.

PubMed

Donné, Lennie; Hoeks, John; Jansen, Carel

2017-10-01

College students are a group at risk for contracting sexually transmitted infections (STIs). While they are generally well informed about STIs, they do not consistently use condoms. An important element in preventing STIs is safer sex communication, especially with a sexual partner. This may be difficult, however, because of a lack of experience in talking about safer sex or because of the absence of suitable role models. In this study, a narrative intervention was tested that was developed to provide receivers with a social script for safer sex communication. An experiment was conducted among college students ( N  = 225) who were exposed to either a narrative intervention or a non-narrative (brochure) intervention, followed by a post-test questionnaire. In the narrative condition, part of the participants completed a pre-test questionnaire before being exposed to the intervention. Compared to pre-test scores, the narrative positively influenced safer sex communication intentions. The results show no significant differences between post-test scores of the narrative and the non-narrative condition. Mediation analyses showed that narrative processes (identification and transportation) were positively related to safer sex communication. In this study, we investigated both the effects of a narrative intervention on safer sex communication intentions, and the mechanisms of narrative processing underlying these effects. The narrative turned out to be as effective as a brochure version with the same information. Our mediation analyses suggest that narratives can be made more persuasive by increasing the reader's involvement with the story as a whole, and with one of the characters in particular.

The Feeling of the Story: Narrating to Regulate Anger and Sadness

PubMed Central

Pasupathi, Monisha; Wainryb, Cecilia; Mansfield, Cade D.; Bourne, Stacia

2017-01-01

Admonitions to tell one’s story in order to feel better reflect the belief that narrative is an effective emotion regulation tool. The present studies evaluate the effectiveness of narrative for regulating sadness and anger, and provide quantitative comparisons of narrative with distraction, reappraisal, and reexposure. The results for sadness (n = 93) and anger (n = 89) reveal that narrative is effective at down-regulating negative emotions, particularly when narratives place events in the past tense and include positive emotions. The results suggest that if people tell the “right” kind of story about their experiences, narrative reduces emotional distress linked to those experiences. PMID:26745208

Discourse on Narrative Research: The Construction Zone--Literary Elements in Narrative Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coulter, Cathy A.; Smith, Mary Lee

2009-01-01

Narrative research has become part of the landscape of education inquiry, yet its theory and practice are still debated and evolving. This article addresses the construction of narratives using literary elements common to nonfiction and fiction writings. The authors discuss these elements and use four narratives to illustrate them. They address…

Narrative medicine in surgical education.

PubMed

Pearson, A Scott; McTigue, Michael P; Tarpley, John L

2008-01-01

Narrative medicine is a patient-centered approach to the practice of medicine that rescues the patients' stories and integrates what is important to them into decisions regarding their health care. Our hypothesis is that narrative understanding enhances the patient-provider relationship and contributes to optimizing patient care. We propose to use written narrative reflection to capture and measure the general competencies of systems-based practice, practice-based learning, communication skills, and professionalism. DEVELOPMENT/METHODS: The development of this narrative-based project is based on a pilot study that we conducted at our institution with third-year surgical clerkship students. In the pilot, students produced in-depth narrative write-ups on a patient they had had the opportunity to "know." We plan a similar approach for surgical resident education. After a brief discussion of narrative medicine during our scheduled didactic conference, the residents are asked to initiate a written narrative reflection on a patient of their choosing. The narratives will be collected 1 week later. Our plan is to repeat this assessment quarterly so that 4 narratives will be generated annually from internship through the chief resident year. The narratives will be analyzed for content and recurring themes that capture the resident's communication skills, professionalism, as well as self-critique (practice-based learning) and value attributed to health-care teams (systems-based practice). After completion of the narratives, a 5-point Likert response survey will be given to the residents to assess their experience and the perceived value of written reflection. The written narratives will become part of the resident's ongoing portfolio. IMPLEMENTATION/EXPERIENCE TO DATE: Feedback from the medical student pilot study was favorable. When asked in a follow-up questionnaire, most students reported the experience to be valuable and recommended the use of narrative reflection in

Quality end-of-life care for dementia: What have family carers told us so far? A narrative synthesis

PubMed Central

Maio, Laura; Rait, Greta; Iliffe, Steve

2014-01-01

Background: People with dementia do not always receive good quality end-of-life care, with undertreated pain, aggressive medical interventions and limited access to hospice care being common. Family carers often provide the majority of informal care for people with dementia, therefore may be best placed to comment on quality of care. Aim: We explored what quality end-of-life care for dementia is from the perspective of family carers. Design: A review of qualitative evidence taking a systematic approach using a narrative synthesis with tabulation, textual description of studies and thematic analysis as tools, following the guidelines from the Economic and Social Research Council. Data sources: Keywords and subject headings were searched in MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, SCIE and PsycINFO for studies from 1990 in April 2012 and updated in May 2013. Reference lists were checked and citation searches undertaken. Results: Eight studies were included. There was an overarching theme of ‘A family’s belief of death and their choice of treatment’. Three further themes were then identified to explain family carers’ beliefs: the relationship with professionals as a core component of care quality; emotional and commitment pressures of caring and finally, family carers’ ability to think about death and dying. Conclusion: It is difficult to define what constitutes high-quality end-of-life care for people with dementia from the perspective of family carers. Their views expressed in the literature appear to demonstrate more variation of preference of care and treatment and their uncertainty of this. PMID:24625567

A narrative analysis of spiritual distress in geriatric physical rehabilitation.

PubMed

Mundle, Robert

2015-03-01

Drawing upon narrative data generated in a semi-structured interview with an 82-year-old female patient in geriatric physical rehabilitation, this clinical case study provides a detailed example of recognizing, assessing, and addressing spiritual distress as a symptom of physical pain. Data analysis focused on narrative content as well as on the interactive and performative aspects of narrating spiritual health issues in a close reading of two "attachment narratives." Results support the "narrative turn" in healthcare, including the therapeutic benefits of empathic listening as "narrative care" in geriatric rehabilitation and in healthcare in general. © The Author(s) 2015.

A narrative analysis of helplessness in depression.

PubMed

Vanheule, Stijn; Hauser, Stuart T

2008-12-01

The transcripts of semistructured clinical interviews with forty psychiatrically hospitalized adolescents were subjected to narrative analysis in an effort to map the logic of their explanations as they spontaneously talked about helplessness experiences, and to determine how helplessness is embedded in broader story lines. Three types of narrative composition were discerned, and are discussed by means of excerpts from the interviews. In a first and predominant type of narrative, a disturbing confrontation with another is pivotal: the other's intentions are obscure; this frightens the narrator, who does not know what to do. Helplessness arises as a direct result of not knowing how to manage the "unbearable riddle" of the other's intentions. In the second, more marginal type of narrative, helplessness is embedded in an account of emptiness and boredom. The protagonist relates enduring experiences of emptiness due to loss and the suffering consequent on it. In the third, also more marginal type of narrative, helplessness is framed in a context of failure: the protagonist adheres to strict standards, feels he or she has fallen short, and concludes that he or she is a failure. Only the first type of narrative is significantly related to the psychiatric diagnoses of mood disorder and major depression.

The relative persuasiveness of narrative versus non-narrative health messages in public health emergency communication: Evidence from a field experiment.

PubMed

Bekalu, Mesfin A; Bigman, Cabral A; McCloud, Rachel F; Lin, Leesa K; Viswanath, K

2018-06-01

Previous studies indicated that narrative health messages are more effective than non-narrative messages in influencing health outcomes. However, this body of evidence does not account for differences in health domain, and little is known about the effectiveness of this message execution strategy during public health emergencies. In this study, we examined the relative effectiveness of the two formats in influencing knowledge and perceived response efficacy related to prevention of pandemic influenza, and determined whether effects of message format vary across population sub-groups. Data for the study come from an experiment fielded in 2013 that involved a nationally representative sample of 627 American adults. Participants were randomly assigned to view either a narrative (n=322) or a non-narrative (n=305) video clip containing closely matched information about knowledge and preventive actions related to pandemic influenza, and completed pre- and post-viewing questions assessing knowledge and perceived response efficacy related to the prevention of pandemic influenza. Results indicated that participants in the non-narrative condition reported greater knowledge and rated pandemic influenza prevention measures as more effective compared with those in the narrative condition. Message format effects did not vary across population sub-groups; post-viewing scores of knowledge and perceptions related to pandemic influenza were consistently higher in the non-narrative condition compared with the narrative condition across five socio-demographic groups: age, gender, education, race/ethnicity and income. We concluded that didactic, non-narrative messages may be more effective than narrative messages to influence knowledge and perceptions during public health emergencies. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Do Psychosocial Interventions Improve Quality of Life and Wellbeing in Adults with Neuromuscular Disorders? A Systematic Review and Narrative Synthesis.

PubMed

Walklet, Elaine; Muse, Kate; Meyrick, Jane; Moss, Tim

2016-08-30

Quality of life and well-being are frequently restricted in adults with neuromuscular disorders. As such, identification of appropriate interventions is imperative. The objective of this paper was to systematically review and critically appraise quantitative studies (RCTs, controlled trials and cohort studies) of psychosocial interventions designed to improve quality of life and well-being in adults with neuromuscular disorders. A systematic review of the published and unpublished literature was conducted. Studies meeting inclusion criteria were appraised using a validated quality assessment tool and results presented in a narrative synthesis. Out of 3,136 studies identified, ten studies met criteria for inclusion within the review. Included studies comprised a range of interventions including: cognitive behavioural therapy, dignity therapy, hypnosis, expressive disclosure, gratitude lists, group psychoeducation and psychologically informed rehabilitation. Five of the interventions were for patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). The remainder were for patients with post-polio syndrome, muscular dystrophies and mixed disorders, such as Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, myasthenia gravis and myotonic dystrophy. Across varied interventions and neuromuscular disorders, seven studies reported a short-term beneficial effect of intervention on quality of life and well-being. Whilst such findings are encouraging, widespread issues with the methodological quality of these studies significantly compromised the results. There is no strong evidence that psychosocial interventions improve quality of life and well-being in adults with neuromuscular disorders, due to a paucity of high quality research in this field. Multi-site, randomised controlled trials with active controls, standardised outcome measurement and longer term follow-ups are urgently required.

Do Psychosocial Interventions Improve Quality of Life and Wellbeing in Adults with Neuromuscular Disorders? A Systematic Review and Narrative Synthesis

PubMed Central

Walklet, Elaine; Muse, Kate; Meyrick, Jane; Moss, Tim

2016-01-01

Quality of life and well-being are frequently restricted in adults with neuromuscular disorders. As such, identification of appropriate interventions is imperative. The objective of this paper was to systematically review and critically appraise quantitative studies (RCTs, controlled trials and cohort studies) of psychosocial interventions designed to improve quality of life and well-being in adults with neuromuscular disorders. A systematic review of the published and unpublished literature was conducted. Studies meeting inclusion criteria were appraised using a validated quality assessment tool and results presented in a narrative synthesis. Out of 3,136 studies identified, ten studies met criteria for inclusion within the review. Included studies comprised a range of interventions including: cognitive behavioural therapy, dignity therapy, hypnosis, expressive disclosure, gratitude lists, group psychoeducation and psychologically informed rehabilitation. Five of the interventions were for patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). The remainder were for patients with post-polio syndrome, muscular dystrophies and mixed disorders, such as Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, myasthenia gravis and myotonic dystrophy. Across varied interventions and neuromuscular disorders, seven studies reported a short-term beneficial effect of intervention on quality of life and well-being. Whilst such findings are encouraging, widespread issues with the methodological quality of these studies significantly compromised the results. There is no strong evidence that psychosocial interventions improve quality of life and well-being in adults with neuromuscular disorders, due to a paucity of high quality research in this field. Multi-site, randomised controlled trials with active controls, standardised outcome measurement and longer term follow-ups are urgently required. PMID:27854227

Narrative versus Non-narrative: The Role of Identification, Transportation and Emotion in Reducing Health Disparities

PubMed Central

Murphy, Sheila T.; Frank, Lauren B.; Chatterjee, Joyee S.; Baezconde-Garbanati, Lourdes

2013-01-01

This research empirically tests whether using a fictional narrative produces a greater impact on health-related knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral intention than presenting the identical information in a more traditional, nonfiction, non-narrative format. European American, Mexican American, and African American women (N = 758) were surveyed before and after viewing either a narrative or non-narrative cervical cancer-related film. The narrative was more effective in increasing cervical cancer-related knowledge and attitudes. Moreover, in response to the narrative featuring Latinas, Mexican Americans were most transported, identified most with the characters, and experienced the strongest emotions. Regressions revealed that transportation, identification with specific characters, and emotion each contributed to shifts in knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral intentions. Thus, narrative formats may provide a valuable tool in reducing health disparities. PMID:24347679

Do Live versus Audio-Recorded Narrative Stimuli Influence Young Children's Narrative Comprehension and Retell Quality?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Young-Suk Grace

2016-01-01

Purpose: The primary aim of the present study was to examine whether different ways of presenting narrative stimuli (i.e., live narrative stimuli versus audio-recorded narrative stimuli) influence children's performances on narrative comprehension and oral-retell quality. Method: Children in kindergarten (n = 54), second grade (n = 74), and fourth…

Drama and Imagination: A Cognitive Theory of Drama's Effect on Narrative Comprehension and Narrative Production

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mages, Wendy K.

2006-01-01

This article proposes a cognitive theory of how drama affects two aspects of language development: narrative comprehension and narrative production. It is a theoretical model that explicitly posits the role of the imagination in drama's potential to enhance the development of both narrative comprehension and narrative production. (Contains 2…

Politics of love: narrative structures, intertextuality and social agency in the narratives of parents with disabled children.

PubMed

Hanisch, Halvor

2013-11-01

Recent research has highlighted how parental narratives can be important in the resistance against disabling processes. This article contains analyses of enabling language in narratives published by Scandinavian disability rights organizations. First, drawing on the work of Fisher and Goodley, I point out that the material constitute a threefold: normality narratives, resistance narratives, and narratives that demonstrate an appreciation of the present and the child's individual alterity. Second, I demonstrate that the last narrative draws on Romanticism rather than linguistic resources from disability culture. Third, I show that these narratives are hyperboles - texts that strengthen and emphasise the valuation to the point where the narrative structure transcends narrative consistency. Fourth, drawing on the work of Kristeva, I argue that this form of narration constitutes an intimate politics of love. © 2013 The Author. Sociology of Health & Illness © 2013 Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness/John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Narrative, Preaching, and Formation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Finney, Mark David

2017-01-01

This dissertation focuses on the place of narrative in the transformational encounter that can take place between hearers of sermons and God. Chapter 1 surveys the history and development of contemporary scholarship related to narrative preaching. It argues that most homileticians consider narrative either as a way of structuring sermons, or as a…

Narrative Inquiry: Theory and Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Savin-Baden, Maggi; Van Niekerk, Lana

2007-01-01

This article offers an overview of the method of narrative inquiry and explores competing trends in the use of the approach. It not only examines the theories relating to the method but also offers practical guidance on using narrative inquiry, including an exploration of what might count as a narrative and ways of analysing narrative data. The…

Searching for harmony: parents' narratives about their child's genital ambiguity and reconstructive genital surgeries in childhood.

PubMed

Sanders, Caroline; Carter, Bernie; Goodacre, Lynne

2011-10-01

This paper is a report of a narrative study of parents' experiences of their child's genital ambiguity and the place reconstructive surgeries have in their lives. Increasingly, the use of early reconstructive genital surgery has come under criticism. Few studies have explored parents' inclusion in the surgical decision-making process, their experiences of their child's surgeries or of parenting a child born with ambiguous genitalia. Narrative interviews about parents' experiences of having and caring for a child of uncertain gender and their rationale for reconstructive surgeries were conducted with 15 parents between October 2004 and February 2006. Interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed in a narrative analysis framework. Narrative analysis resulted in three increasingly contextual and conceptual levels of stories. Connections between stories gave the basis for the synthesis of the data; interpretation identified three elements of shock, protection and anxiety, which influenced the parents. The parents identified the need for early and ongoing support from healthcare professionals. The parents expected professionals to be knowledgeable about the dilemmas surround disorders of sex development and have experience in managing care for themselves and their child. For the parents seeking a sense of harmony between their child's genital ambiguity and gender during childhood was important. Searching for this harmony became a dynamic and evolving process, which was built on their knowledge and increasing willingness to engage with professionals, negotiate their social worlds, emotional responses and belief systems. © 2011 The Authors. Journal of Advanced Nursing © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Forensic historiography: narratives and science.

PubMed

Drukteinis, Albert M

2014-01-01

Psychiatrists function, in part, as historians who rely on patient narratives to help them understand presenting mental disorders and explain their causes. Forensic psychiatrists have been skeptical of using narratives, raising concerns about their lack of objectivity and potential for bias. They also have criticized narratives as being more performative than scientific. Recent authors, however, have pointed out that narratives may be helpful in forming forensic opinions and supporting oral testimony, while stressing that their use must be consistent with the ethics espoused by forensic psychiatry. This article reviews the role of narratives in understanding human events and the ubiquitous presence of narratives in the judicial process. It delves into the inescapability of using explicit or implicit narratives in the course of forensic practice, as well as how they may be meaningfully incorporated into evaluations and find expression alongside scientific principles. © 2014 American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law.

Patient safety risks associated with telecare: a systematic review and narrative synthesis of the literature.

PubMed

Guise, Veslemøy; Anderson, Janet; Wiig, Siri

2014-11-25

Patient safety risk in the homecare context and patient safety risk related to telecare are both emerging research areas. Patient safety issues associated with the use of telecare in homecare services are therefore not clearly understood. It is unclear what the patient safety risks are, how patient safety issues have been investigated, and what research is still needed to provide a comprehensive picture of risks, challenges and potential harm to patients due to the implementation and use of telecare services in the home. Furthermore, it is unclear how training for telecare users has addressed patient safety issues. A systematic review of the literature was conducted to identify patient safety risks associated with telecare use in homecare services and to investigate whether and how these patient safety risks have been addressed in telecare training. Six electronic databases were searched in addition to hand searches of key items, reference tracking and citation tracking. Strict inclusion and exclusion criteria were set. All included items were assessed according to set quality criteria and subjected to a narrative synthesis to organise and synthesize the findings. A human factors systems framework of patient safety was used to frame and analyse the results. 22 items were included in the review. 11 types of patient safety risks associated with telecare use in homecare services emerged. These are in the main related to the nature of homecare tasks and practices, and person-centred characteristics and capabilities, and to a lesser extent, problems with the technology and devices, organisational issues, and environmental factors. Training initiatives related to safe telecare use are not described in the literature. There is a need to better identify and describe patient safety risks related to telecare services to improve understandings of how to avoid and minimize potential harm to patients. This process can be aided by reframing known telecare implementation

Mathematics in narratives of Geodetic expeditions.

PubMed

Terrall, Mary

2006-12-01

In eighteenth-century France, geodesy (the measure of the earth's shape) became an arena where mathematics and narrative intersected productively. Mathematics played a crucial role not only in the measurements and analysis necessary to geodesy but also in the narrative accounts that presented the results of elaborate and expensive expeditions to the reading public. When they returned to France to write these accounts after their travels, mathematician-observers developed a variety of ways to display numbers and mathematical arguments and techniques. The numbers, equations, and diagrams they produced could not be separated from the story of their acquisition. Reading these accounts for the interplay of these two aspects--the mathematical and the narrative--shows how travelers articulated the intellectual and physical difficulties of their work to enhance the value of their results for specialist and lay readers alike.

The Rise of the Life Narrative

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goodson, Ivor

2006-01-01

In this article, the author discusses how narratives, which are part of the common currency of the day, have dramatically changed over the years. Grand narratives, which grew exponentially in the mid-nineteenth century, have now been replaced by two different narratives: life narratives and small-scale narratives. He also discusses how small…

Testimony in Narrative Educational Research: A Qualitative Interview, Narrative Analysis and Epistemological Evaluation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Christopher, Justin

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study is to assess issues that arise in the context of epistemological claims in narrative educational research by means of narrative analysis and epistemological evaluation. The research questions which guided the study were: 1) To what extent is epistemology considered by narrative educational researchers?; 2) What issues do…

Narrative research in psychotherapy: a critical review.

PubMed

Avdi, Evrinomy; Georgaca, Eugenie

2007-09-01

This paper is a review of studies which utilise the notion of narrative to analyse psychotherapy. Its purpose is to systematically present this diverse field of research, to highlight common themes and divergences between different strands and to further the development and integration of narrative research in psychotherapy. The paper reviews studies which employ an applied textual analysis of narratives produced in the context of psychotherapy. Criteria for inclusion of studies are, firstly, the analysis of therapeutic and therapy-related texts and, secondly, the adoption of a narrative psychological perspective. The studies were examined on the basis of the notion of narrative they employ and the aspects of client narratives they focus on, and were grouped accordingly in the review. The majority of the studies reviewed assume a constructivist approach to narrative, adopt a representational view of language, focus primarily on client micro-narratives and relate to cognitive-constructivist and process-experiential psychotherapeutic approaches. A smaller group of studies assume a social constructionist approach to narrative and a functional view of language, focus on micro-narratives, highlight the interactional and wider social aspects of narrative and relate to postmodern trends in psychotherapy. The range of conceptualisations of narrative in the studies reviewed, from a representational psychological view to a constructionist social view, reflects tensions within narrative psychology itself. Moreover, two trends can be discerned in the field reviewed, narrative analysis of therapy, which draws from narrative theory and utilises the analytic approaches of narrative research to study psychotherapy, and analyses of narrative in therapy, which study client narratives using non-narrative qualitative methods. Finally, the paper highlights the need for integration of this diverse field of research and urges for the development of narrative studies of psychotherapy

Understanding the Person through Narrative

PubMed Central

Hall, Joanne M.; Powell, Jill

2011-01-01

Mental health nurses need to know their clients at depth, and to comprehend their social contexts in order to provide holistic care. Knowing persons through their stories, narratives they tell, provides contextual detail and person-revealing characteristics that make them individuals. Narratives are an everyday means of communicating experience, and there is a place for storytelling in nearly all cultures. Thus narrative is a culturally congruent way to ascertain and understand experiences. This means the nurse should ask questions such as “How did that come about?” versus why questions. A narrative approach stands in contrast to a yes/no algorithmic process in conversing with clients. Eliciting stories illustrates the social context of events, and implicitly provides answers to questions of feeling and meaning. Here we include background on narrative, insights from narrative research, and clinical wisdom in explaining how narratively understanding the person can improve mental health nursing services. Implications for theory, practice, and research are discussed. PMID:21994820

Narrative interviews: an important resource in qualitative research.

PubMed

Muylaert, Camila Junqueira; Sarubbi, Vicente; Gallo, Paulo Rogério; Neto, Modesto Leite Rolim

2014-12-01

Objetives This methodological study explain and emphasize the extent and fertility of the narrative interview in qualitative research. Methods To describe the narrative method within the qualitative research. Results The qualitative research method is characterized by addressing issues related to the singularities of the field and individuals investigated, being the narrative interviews a powerful method for use by researchers who aggregate it. They allow the deepening of research, the combination of life stories with socio-historical contexts, making the understanding of the senses that produce changes in the beliefs and values that motivate and justify the actions of possible informants. Conclusion The use of narrative is an advantageous investigative resource in qualitative research, in which the narrative is a traditional form of communication whose purpose is to serve content from which the subjective experiences can be transmitted.

The narrative approach to personalisation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Conlan, Owen; Staikopoulos, Athanasios; Hampson, Cormac; Lawless, Séamus; O'keeffe, Ian

2013-06-01

This article describes the narrative approach to personalisation. This novel approach to the generation of personalised adaptive hypermedia experiences employs runtime reconciliation between a personalisation strategy and a number of contextual models (e.g. user and domain). The approach also advocates the late binding of suitable content and services to the generated personalised pathway resulting in an interactive composition that comprises services as well as content. This article provides a detailed definition of the narrative approach to personalisation and showcases the approach through the examination of two use-cases: the personalised digital educational games developed by the ELEKTRA and 80Days projects; and the personalised learning activities realised as part of the AMAS project. These use-cases highlight the general applicability of the narrative approach and how it has been applied to create a diverse range of real-world systems.

The Narrative-Emotion Process Coding System 2.0: A multi-methodological approach to identifying and assessing narrative-emotion process markers in psychotherapy.

PubMed

Angus, Lynne E; Boritz, Tali; Bryntwick, Emily; Carpenter, Naomi; Macaulay, Christianne; Khattra, Jasmine

2017-05-01

Recent studies suggest that it is not simply the expression of emotion or emotional arousal in session that is important, but rather it is the reflective processing of emergent, adaptive emotions, arising in the context of personal storytelling and/or Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) interventions, that is associated with change. To enhance narrative-emotion integration specifically in EFT, Angus and Greenberg originally identified a set of eight clinically derived narrative-emotion integration markers were originally identified for the implementation of process-guiding therapeutic responses. Further evaluation and testing by the Angus Narrative-Emotion Marker Lab resulted in the identification of 10 empirically validated Narrative-Emotion Process (N-EP) markers that are included in the Narrative-Emotion Process Coding System Version 2.0 (NEPCS 2.0). Based on empirical research findings, individual markers are clustered into Problem (e.g., stuckness in repetitive story patterns, over-controlled or dysregulated emotion, lack of reflectivity), Transition (e.g., reflective, access to adaptive emotions and new emotional plotlines, heightened narrative and emotion integration), and Change (e.g., new story outcomes and self-narrative discovery, and co-construction and re-conceptualization) subgroups. To date, research using the NEPCS 2.0 has investigated the proportion and pattern of narrative-emotion markers in Emotion-Focused, Client-Centered, and Cognitive Therapy for Major Depression, Motivational Interviewing plus Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and EFT for Complex Trauma. Results have consistently identified significantly higher proportions of N-EP Transition and Change markers, and productive shifts, in mid- and late phase sessions, for clients who achieved recovery by treatment termination. Recovery is consistently associated with client storytelling that is emotionally engaged, reflective, and evidencing new story outcomes and self-narrative

The effect of modality and narration style on recall of online health information: results from a Web-based experiment.

PubMed

Bol, Nadine; van Weert, Julia C M; de Haes, Hanneke C J M; Loos, Eugene F; Smets, Ellen M A

2015-04-24

Older adults are increasingly using the Internet for health information; however, they are often not able to correctly recall Web-based information (eHealth information). Recall of information is crucial for optimal health outcomes, such as adequate disease management and adherence to medical regimes. Combining effective message strategies may help to improve recall of eHealth information among older adults. Presenting information in an audiovisual format using conversational narration style is expected to optimize recall of information compared to other combinations of modality and narration style. The aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of modality and narration style on recall of health information, and whether there are differences between younger and older adults. We conducted a Web-based experiment using a 2 (modality: written vs audiovisual information) by 2 (narration style: formal vs conversational style) between-subjects design (N=440). Age was assessed in the questionnaire and included as a factor: younger (<65 years) versus older (≥65 years) age. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four experimental webpages where information about lung cancer treatment was presented. A Web-based questionnaire assessed recall of eHealth information. Audiovisual modality (vs written modality) was found to increase recall of information in both younger and older adults (P=.04). Although conversational narration style (vs formal narration style) did not increase recall of information (P=.17), a synergistic effect between modality and narration style was revealed: combining audiovisual information with conversational style outperformed combining written information with formal style (P=.01), as well as written information with conversational style (P=.045). This finding suggests that conversational style especially increases recall of information when presented audiovisually. This combination of modality and narration style improved recall of

More STELLA Narratives.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Doecke, Brenton

2001-01-01

Presents six brief (about one page) narratives by primary and secondary teachers arising from STELLA (Standards for Teachers of English Language and Literacy in Australia) workshops and interpretive discussions. Notes that each narrative describes a moment of "good" English/literacy teaching. (SG)

Narratives and Accounts: "Post-Crisis" Narration in Annual Company Reports

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Winchester, Jules; Williams, Simon

2014-01-01

This paper aims to provide Business English and EAP practitioners with a rationale for including the analysis of narrative elements in business addresses in their language teaching in order to encourage critical thinking in learners. By studying these elements, and the rhetorical function of the narrative in particular, students can become more…

Narrative Family Therapy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walsh, William M.; Keenan, Robert

1997-01-01

States that narrative family therapy is informed by social constructionism and postmodern worldviews, and is a relatively significant departure from mainstream psychotherapy. Discusses the use of narrative family therapy. Uses the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden as an example. (MKA)

Discourse Markers in Chinese Conversational Narrative

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xiao, Yang

2010-01-01

This study examines the indexicality of discourse markers (DMs) in Chinese conversational narrative. Drawing upon theoretical and methodological principles related to narrative dimensions (Ochs & Capps, 2001), narrative desires (Ochs, 1997, 2004), and narrative positioning (Bamberg, 1997), this work proposes an integrated analytical framework for…

Teaching about Narrative.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davies, Gill

1978-01-01

Raises issues involved in the study and teaching of narrative, with reference to both literature and film. Considers the function of realism in narrative fiction and the teaching of theory and practice of those writers and filmmakers who have challenged the realist text by alternative strategies. (JMF)

Narrative ARTifice and women's agency.

PubMed

Kalbian, Aline H

2005-04-01

The choice to pursue fertility treatments is a complex one. In this paper I explore the issues of choice, agency, and gender as they relate to assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs). I argue that narrative approaches to bioethics such as those by Arthur Frank and Hilde Lindemann Nelson clarify judgments about autonomy and fertility medicine. More specifically, I propose two broad narrative categories that help capture the experience of encounters with fertility medicine: narratives of hope and narratives of resistance. This narrative typology captures the inevitable conflict that women feel when they become subjects of fertility medicine. On the one hand, they must remain hopeful; on the other, they must not surrender themselves completely. Nelson's account of counterstories as narratives of resistance helps us see how women can reconcile the experience of a strong desire to have children with the desire to remain authentic and whole.

TV as storyteller: how exposure to television narratives impacts at-risk preschoolers' story knowledge and narrative skills.

PubMed

Linebarger, Deborah L; Piotrowski, Jessica Taylor

2009-03-01

Educational media serve as informal educators within the home by supplementing young children's development. Substantial evidence documents the contributions of educational television to preschoolers' acquisition of a variety of skills; however, television's natural capacity as storyteller and the role it plays in preschoolers' early literacy development has been largely overlooked. This study examined the effects of viewing different TV program types on 311 at-risk preschoolers' story knowledge and narrative skills. Children were assigned to one of 4 viewing conditions (i.e. watching up to 40 episodes of a particular program type): no viewing; expository; embedded narrative; or traditional narrative. Story knowledge scores were higher for those viewing either narrative type. In contrast, viewing specific narrative types differentially affected the component skills of narrative competence. Story retelling and identification of explicit story events were higher after repeat viewing of embedded narratives while generating implicit story content was higher after repeat viewing of traditional narratives.

A theory led narrative review of one-to-one health interventions: the influence of attachment style and client-provider relationship on client adherence.

PubMed

Nanjappa, S; Chambers, S; Marcenes, W; Richards, D; Freeman, R

2014-10-01

A theory-led narrative approach was used to unpack the complexities of the factors that enable successful client adherence following one-to-one health interventions. Understanding this could prepare the provider to anticipate different adherence behaviours by clients, allowing them to tailor their interventions to increase the likelihood of adherence. The review was done in two stages. A theoretical formulation was proposed to explore factors which influence the effectiveness of one-to-one interventions to result in client adherence. The second stage tested this theory using a narrative synthesis approach. Eleven studies across the health care arena were included in the synthesis and explored the interplay between client attachment style, client-provider interaction and client adherence with health interventions. It emerged that adherence results substantially because of the relationship that the client has with the provider, which is amplified or diminished by the client's own attachment style. This occurs because the client's attachment style shapes how they perceive and behave in relationships with the health-care providers, who become the 'secure base' from which the client accepts, assimilates and adheres with the recommended health intervention. The pathway from one-to-one interventions to adherence is explained using moderated mediation and mediated moderation models. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

The utility and impact of information communication technology (ICT) for pre-registration nurse education: A narrative synthesis systematic review.

PubMed

Webb, Lucy; Clough, Jonathan; O'Reilly, Declan; Wilmott, Danita; Witham, Gary

2017-01-01

To evaluate and summarise the utility and impact of information communication technology (ICT) in enhancing student performance and the learning environment in pre-registration nursing. A systematic review of empirical research across a range of themes in ICT health-related education. Science Direct, Cinahl, AMED, MEDLINE, PubMed, ASSIA, OVID and OVID SP (2008-2014). Further date parameters were imposed by theme. Evidence was reviewed by narrative synthesis, adopting Caldwell's appraisal framework and CASP for qualitative methods. Selection and inclusion was grounded in the PICOS structure, with language requirements (English), and further parameters were guided by theme appropriateness. Fifty studies were selected for review across six domains: reusable learning objects, media, audience response systems, e-portfolios, computer-based assessment and faculty adoption of e-learning. Educational ICT was found to be non-inferior to traditional teaching, while offering benefits to teaching and learning efficiency. Where support is in place, ICT improves the learning environment for staff and students, but human and environmental barriers need to be addressed. This review illuminates more advantages for ICT in nurse training than previously. The key advantage of flexibility is supported, though with little evidence for effect on depth of learning. Crown Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Combining Historical Research and Narrative Inquiry to Create Chronicles and Narratives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilson, Richard A.

2007-01-01

Stories about the Idaho State Library, chronicles and narratives, are reported in my doctoral dissertation (Wilson, 2005). The chronicles, reconstructed from documents and records, provided a presentation of the people, events, and activities to frame the stories. The narratives, excerpted from interviews, provided the rich description and unique…

Narrative Policy Analysis and the Use of the Meta-Narrative in Participatory Policy Development within Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hampton, Greg

2011-01-01

Narrative policy analysis is examined for its contribution to participatory policy development within higher education. Within narrative policy analysis the meta-narrative is developed by the policy analyst in order to find a way to bridge opposing narratives. This development can be combined with participants deliberating in a policy process,…

Do Live versus Audio-Recorded Narrative Stimuli Influence Young Children's Narrative Comprehension and Retell Quality?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Young-Suk Grace

2016-01-01

Purpose: The primary aim of the present study was to examine whether different ways of presenting narrative stimuli (i.e., live narrative stimuli versus audio-recorded narrative stimuli) influence children's performances on narrative comprehension and oral-retell quality. Method: Children in kindergarten (n = 54), second grade (n = 74), and fourth…

Criminal Narrative Experience: Relating Emotions to Offence Narrative Roles During Crime Commission.

PubMed

Ioannou, Maria; Canter, David; Youngs, Donna

2017-10-01

A neglected area of research within criminality has been that of the experience of the offence for the offender. The present study investigates the emotions and narrative roles that are experienced by an offender while committing a broad range of crimes and proposes a model of criminal narrative experience (CNE). Hypotheses were derived from the circumplex of emotions, Frye, narrative theory, and its link with investigative psychology. The analysis was based on 120 cases. Convicted for a variety of crimes, incarcerated criminals were interviewed and the data were subjected to smallest space analysis (SSA). Four themes of CNE were identified: Elated Hero, Calm Professional, Distressed Revenger, and Depressed Victim in line with the recent theoretical framework posited for narrative offence roles. The theoretical implications for understanding crime on the basis of the CNE as well as practical implications are discussed.

Public acceptability of government intervention to change health-related behaviours: a systematic review and narrative synthesis

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Governments can intervene to change health-related behaviours using various measures but are sensitive to public attitudes towards such interventions. This review describes public attitudes towards a range of policy interventions aimed at changing tobacco and alcohol use, diet, and physical activity, and the extent to which these attitudes vary with characteristics of (a) the targeted behaviour (b) the intervention and (c) the respondents. Methods We searched electronic databases and conducted a narrative synthesis of empirical studies that reported public attitudes in Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand towards interventions relating to tobacco, alcohol, diet and physical activity. Two hundred studies met the inclusion criteria. Results Over half the studies (105/200, 53%) were conducted in North America, with the most common interventions relating to tobacco control (110/200, 55%), followed by alcohol (42/200, 21%), diet-related interventions (18/200, 9%), interventions targeting both diet and physical activity (18/200, 9%), and physical activity alone (3/200, 2%). Most studies used survey-based methods (160/200, 80%), and only ten used experimental designs. Acceptability varied as a function of: (a) the targeted behaviour, with more support observed for smoking-related interventions; (b) the type of intervention, with less intrusive interventions, those already implemented, and those targeting children and young people attracting most support; and (c) the characteristics of respondents, with support being highest in those not engaging in the targeted behaviour, and with women and older respondents being more likely to endorse more restrictive measures. Conclusions Public acceptability of government interventions to change behaviour is greatest for the least intrusive interventions, which are often the least effective, and for interventions targeting the behaviour of others, rather than the respondent him or herself. Experimental studies

Service user experiences of specialist mental health supported accommodation: A systematic review of qualitative studies and narrative synthesis.

PubMed

Krotofil, Joanna; McPherson, Peter; Killaspy, Helen

2018-04-02

Specialist supported accommodation services have become a key component of most community-based mental healthcare systems. While mental health policies highlight the importance of service user involvement in service development and care planning, there are no comprehensive literature reviews synthesising services users' perspectives on, or experiences of, supported accommodation services. This systematic review was undertaken to fill this gap. We searched electronic databases (January 2015, updated June 2017), conducted hand searches and used forward-backward snowballing to identify 13,678 papers. We inspected the full-text of 110 papers and included 50 of these in the final review. Data extraction and quality assessments were conducted. We used narrative synthesis to develop a conceptual model of service users' experiences that included structural, process, relational and contextual factors, such as the characteristics of the service, relationships with staff and other service users, the intensity and nature of support, the physical environment, and social and community integration. The review highlights the complex interplay of individual, service-level and community factors in shaping the lived experience of service users and their impact on personal identity and recovery. Our approach addressed some of the widely reported limitations of the quantitative research in this field, providing a conceptual model relevant to service user experiences across supported accommodation service types, population groups and countries. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Regulating Emotion and Identity by Narrating Harm

PubMed Central

Pasupathi, Monisha; Billitteri, Jacob; Mansfield, Cade D.; Wainryb, Cecilia; Hanley, Grace E.; Taheri, Kiana

2015-01-01

This study examined how narration of harm experiences can regulate self and emotions in ways relevant to well-being. Participants (n = 88, 65% female) were asked to provide 6 narratives about instances when they were victims of harm and 6 narratives about instances when they were perpetrators of harm. Narratives were coded for extent of exploration, growth, damage conclusions and resolution. Participants drew damage conclusions more frequently in victim narratives and growth conclusions more frequently in perpetrator narratives. Both the type of experience (victim or perpetrator) and the way the experience was narrated (references to damage conclusions and resolution) predicted emotion and identity implications, which were, in turn, related to well-being. Implications for narrative approaches to self-regulation are discussed. PMID:26392641

Visual Narrative Structure

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cohn, Neil

2013-01-01

Narratives are an integral part of human expression. In the graphic form, they range from cave paintings to Egyptian hieroglyphics, from the Bayeux Tapestry to modern day comic books (Kunzle, 1973; McCloud, 1993). Yet not much research has addressed the structure and comprehension of narrative images, for example, how do people create meaning out…

Designing Epistemologically Correct Science Narratives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sachin, Datt; Poovaiah, Ravi

2012-01-01

In recent years use of narratives for teaching science at secondary school level has gained impetus. This paper deals with the problem of designing narratives for teaching scientific concept. The central issue of the problem of designing narratives for carrying scientific information is that science belongs to the domain of objective observation…

Narrative Style Influences Citation Frequency in Climate Change Science

PubMed Central

Hillier, Ann; Kelly, Ryan P.; Klinger, Terrie

2016-01-01

Peer-reviewed publications focusing on climate change are growing exponentially with the consequence that the uptake and influence of individual papers varies greatly. Here, we derive metrics of narrativity from psychology and literary theory, and use these metrics to test the hypothesis that more narrative climate change writing is more likely to be influential, using citation frequency as a proxy for influence. From a sample of 732 scientific abstracts drawn from the climate change literature, we find that articles with more narrative abstracts are cited more often. This effect is closely associated with journal identity: higher-impact journals tend to feature more narrative articles, and these articles tend to be cited more often. These results suggest that writing in a more narrative style increases the uptake and influence of articles in climate literature, and perhaps in scientific literature more broadly. PMID:27978538

Narrative Style Influences Citation Frequency in Climate Change Science.

PubMed

Hillier, Ann; Kelly, Ryan P; Klinger, Terrie

2016-01-01

Peer-reviewed publications focusing on climate change are growing exponentially with the consequence that the uptake and influence of individual papers varies greatly. Here, we derive metrics of narrativity from psychology and literary theory, and use these metrics to test the hypothesis that more narrative climate change writing is more likely to be influential, using citation frequency as a proxy for influence. From a sample of 732 scientific abstracts drawn from the climate change literature, we find that articles with more narrative abstracts are cited more often. This effect is closely associated with journal identity: higher-impact journals tend to feature more narrative articles, and these articles tend to be cited more often. These results suggest that writing in a more narrative style increases the uptake and influence of articles in climate literature, and perhaps in scientific literature more broadly.

Narrative and emotion process in psychotherapy: an empirical test of the Narrative-Emotion Process Coding System (NEPCS).

PubMed

Boritz, Tali Z; Bryntwick, Emily; Angus, Lynne; Greenberg, Leslie S; Constantino, Michael J

2014-01-01

While the individual contributions of narrative and emotion processes to psychotherapy outcome have been the focus of recent interest in psychotherapy research literature, the empirical analysis of narrative and emotion integration has rarely been addressed. The Narrative-Emotion Processes Coding System (NEPCS) was developed to provide researchers with a systematic method for identifying specific narrative and emotion process markers, for application to therapy session videos. The present study examined the relationship between NEPCS-derived problem markers (same old storytelling, empty storytelling, unstoried emotion, abstract storytelling) and change markers (competing plotlines storytelling, inchoate storytelling, unexpected outcome storytelling, and discovery storytelling), and treatment outcome (recovered versus unchanged at therapy termination) and stage of therapy (early, middle, late) in brief emotion-focused (EFT), client-centred (CCT), and cognitive (CT) therapies for depression. Hierarchical linear modelling analyses demonstrated a significant Outcome effect for inchoate storytelling (p = .037) and discovery storytelling (p = .002), a Stage × Outcome effect for abstract storytelling (p = .05), and a Stage × Outcome × Treatment effect for competing plotlines storytelling (p = .001). There was also a significant Stage × Outcome effect for NEPCS problem markers (p = .007) and change markers (p = .03). The results provide preliminary support for the importance of assessing the contribution of narrative-emotion processes to efficacious treatment outcomes in EFT, CCT, and CT treatments of depression.

Levels of narrative analysis in health psychology.

PubMed

Murray, M

2000-05-01

The past 10-15 years have seen a rapid increase in the study of narrative across all the social sciences. It is sometimes assumed that narrative has the same meaning irrespective of the context in which it is expressed. This article considers different levels of narrative analysis within health psychology. Specifically, it considers the character of health and illness narratives as a function of the personal, interpersonal, positional and societal levels of analysis. At the personal level of analysis narratives are portrayed as expressions of the lived experience of the narrator. At the interpersonal level of analysis the narrative is one that is co-created in dialogue. At the positional level of analysis the analysis considers the differences in social position between the narrator and the listener. The societal level of analysis is concerned with the socially shared stories that are characteristic of certain communities or societies. The challenge is to articulate the connections between these different levels of narrative analysis and to develop strategies to promote emancipatory narratives.

Does the use of consumer health information technology improve outcomes in the patient self-management of diabetes? A meta-analysis and narrative review of randomized controlled trials.

PubMed

Or, Calvin K L; Tao, Da

2014-05-01

To assess whether the use of consumer health information technologies (CHITs) improves outcomes in the patient self-management of diabetes. The evidence from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the effects of CHITs on patient outcomes was analyzed using either meta-analysis or a narrative synthesis approach. A systematic search of seven electronic databases was conducted to identify relevant reports of RCTs for the analysis. In the meta-analyses, standardized mean differences in patient outcomes were calculated and random-effects models were applied in cases where the heterogeneity of the results was moderate or high, otherwise fixed-effects models were used. Sixty-two studies, representing 67 RCTs, met the inclusion criteria. The results of the meta-analyses showed that the use of CHITs was associated with significant reductions in HbA1c, blood pressure, total cholesterol, and triglycerides levels when compared with the usual care. The findings from the narrative synthesis indicated that only a small proportion of the trials reported positive effects of CHITs on patient outcomes. The use of CHITs in supporting diabetes self-management appears to have potential benefits for patients' self-management of diabetes. However, the effectiveness of the technologies in improving patient outcomes still awaits confirmation in future studies. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Narrative and "anti-narrative" in science: How scientists tell stories, and don't.

PubMed

Padian, Kevin

2018-06-04

Narratives are common to all branches of science, not only to the humanities. Scientists tell stories about how the things we study work, develop, and evolve, and about how we come to be interested in them. Here I add a third domain (Secularity) to Gould's two "non-overlapping magisteria" of Science and Religion, and I review previous work on the parallels in elements between story-telling in literature and science. The stories of each domain have different criteria for judging them valid or useful. In science, especially historical sciences such as biology and geology, particular scientific methods and approaches both structure and test our narratives. Relying on the narrative assumptions of how certain processes, such as natural selection, are supposed to work is treacherous unless they are tested by appropriate historical patterns, such as phylogeny, and rooted in the process of natural mechanisms. The structure of scientific explanation seen in peer-reviewed papers and grant proposals obscures true narrative within a formulaic sequence of "question, methods, materials" and so on that is quite different from the classic narrative of folk-tales and novels, producing an "anti-narrative" that must be "un-learned" before it can be communicated to non-scientists. By adopting some of the techniques of classic story-telling, scientists can become more effective in making our ideas clear, educating the public, and even attracting funding.

Narrative writing: Effective ways and best practices

PubMed Central

Ledade, Samir D.; Jain, Shishir N.; Darji, Ankit A.; Gupta, Vinodkumar H.

2017-01-01

A narrative is a brief summary of specific events experienced by patients, during the course of a clinical trial. Narrative writing involves multiple activities such as generation of patient profiles, review of data sources, and identification of events for which narratives are required. A sponsor outsources narrative writing activities to leverage the expertise of service providers which in turn requires effective management of resources, cost, time, quality, and overall project management. Narratives are included as an appendix to the clinical study report and are submitted to the regulatory authorities as a part of dossier. Narratives aid in the evaluation of the safety profile of the investigational drug under study. To deliver high-quality narratives within the specified timeframe to the sponsor can be achieved by standardizing processes, increasing efficiency, optimizing working capacity, implementing automation, and reducing cost. This paper focuses on effective ways to design narrative writing process and suggested best practices, which enable timely delivery of high-quality narratives to fulfill the regulatory requirement. PMID:28447014

Narrative writing: Effective ways and best practices.

PubMed

Ledade, Samir D; Jain, Shishir N; Darji, Ankit A; Gupta, Vinodkumar H

2017-01-01

A narrative is a brief summary of specific events experienced by patients, during the course of a clinical trial. Narrative writing involves multiple activities such as generation of patient profiles, review of data sources, and identification of events for which narratives are required. A sponsor outsources narrative writing activities to leverage the expertise of service providers which in turn requires effective management of resources, cost, time, quality, and overall project management. Narratives are included as an appendix to the clinical study report and are submitted to the regulatory authorities as a part of dossier. Narratives aid in the evaluation of the safety profile of the investigational drug under study. To deliver high-quality narratives within the specified timeframe to the sponsor can be achieved by standardizing processes, increasing efficiency, optimizing working capacity, implementing automation, and reducing cost. This paper focuses on effective ways to design narrative writing process and suggested best practices, which enable timely delivery of high-quality narratives to fulfill the regulatory requirement.

Metrics for Electronic-Nursing-Record-Based Narratives: Cross-sectional Analysis

PubMed Central

Kim, Kidong; Jeong, Suyeon; Lee, Kyogu; Park, Hyeoun-Ae; Min, Yul Ha; Lee, Joo Yun; Kim, Yekyung; Yoo, Sooyoung; Doh, Gippeum

2016-01-01

Summary Objectives We aimed to determine the characteristics of quantitative metrics for nursing narratives documented in electronic nursing records and their association with hospital admission traits and diagnoses in a large data set not limited to specific patient events or hypotheses. Methods We collected 135,406,873 electronic, structured coded nursing narratives from 231,494 hospital admissions of patients discharged between 2008 and 2012 at a tertiary teaching institution that routinely uses an electronic health records system. The standardized number of nursing narratives (i.e., the total number of nursing narratives divided by the length of the hospital stay) was suggested to integrate the frequency and quantity of nursing documentation. Results The standardized number of nursing narratives was higher for patients aged 70 years (median = 30.2 narratives/day, interquartile range [IQR] = 24.0–39.4 narratives/day), long (8 days) hospital stays (median = 34.6 narratives/day, IQR = 27.2–43.5 narratives/day), and hospital deaths (median = 59.1 narratives/day, IQR = 47.0–74.8 narratives/day). The standardized number of narratives was higher in “pregnancy, childbirth, and puerperium” (median = 46.5, IQR = 39.0–54.7) and “diseases of the circulatory system” admissions (median = 35.7, IQR = 29.0–43.4). Conclusions Diverse hospital admissions can be consistently described with nursing-document-derived metrics for similar hospital admissions and diagnoses. Some areas of hospital admissions may have consistently increasing volumes of nursing documentation across years. Usability of electronic nursing document metrics for evaluating healthcare requires multiple aspects of hospital admissions to be considered. PMID:27901174

Using Narratives in Healthcare Communication

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Langer, Nieli; Ribarich, Marie

2009-01-01

Narratives convey feelings and communicate ideas that the listener needs to hear. As such, they make powerful tools in all endeavors of human interaction. The use of narratives has been especially successful in educational settings. The time has come for the patient narrative to take back its rightful place after having been displaced in the name…

Narratives of Girls and Boys with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Gender Differences in Narrative Competence and Internal State Language.

PubMed

Kauschke, Christina; van der Beek, Bettina; Kamp-Becker, Inge

2016-03-01

Since gender differences in the symptomatology of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are not well understood, the current study examines the communicative skills of males and females with ASD. Narrative competence and internal state language (ISL) was investigated using narrations elicited by a wordless picture book. 11 girls and 11 boys with ASD and 11 typically developing girls were individually matched. Although results demonstrate largely comparable narrative skills across groups, the groups differed with respect to the size and use of ISL: Girls with ASD verbalized and motivated internal states more often than boys, and both groups with ASD fell behind typically developing children in production of affective words. Implications for the clinical presentation of males and females with ASD are discussed.

Narrative methods in quality improvement research

PubMed Central

Greenhalgh, T; Russell, J; Swinglehurst, D

2005-01-01



 This paper reviews and critiques the different approaches to the use of narrative in quality improvement research. The defining characteristics of narrative are chronology (unfolding over time); emplotment (the literary juxtaposing of actions and events in an implicitly causal sequence); trouble (that is, harm or the risk of harm); and embeddedness (the personal story nests within a particular social, historical and organisational context). Stories are about purposeful action unfolding in the face of trouble and, as such, have much to offer quality improvement researchers. But the quality improvement report (a story about efforts to implement change), which is common, must be distinguished carefully from narrative based quality improvement research (focused systematic enquiry that uses narrative methods to generate new knowledge), which is currently none. We distinguish four approaches to the use of narrative in quality improvement research—narrative interview; naturalistic story gathering; organisational case study; and collective sense-making—and offer a rationale, describe how data can be collected and analysed, and discuss the strengths and limitations of each using examples from the quality improvement literature. Narrative research raises epistemological questions about the nature of narrative truth (characterised by sense-making and emotional impact rather than scientific objectivity), which has implications for how rigour should be defined (and how it might be achieved) in this type of research. We offer some provisional guidance for distinguishing high quality narrative research in a quality improvement setting from other forms of narrative account such as report, anecdote, and journalism. PMID:16326792

Understanding of Factors that Enable Health Promoters in Implementing Health-Promoting Schools: A Systematic Review and Narrative Synthesis of Qualitative Evidence

PubMed Central

Hung, Tommy Tsz Man; Chiang, Vico Chung Lim; Dawson, Angela; Lee, Regina Lai Tong

2014-01-01

Health-promoting schools have been regarded as an important initiative in promoting child and adolescent health in school settings using the whole-school approach. Quantitative research has proved its effectiveness in various school-based programmes. However, few qualitative studies have been conducted to investigate the strategies used by health promoters to implement such initiatives. In this study, the researchers conducted a systematic review and narrative synthesis of the qualitative literature to identify important enablers assisting the implementation of health-promoting schools from the perspectives of health promoters. Five enablers have been identified from the review: (a) Following a framework/guideline to implement health-promoting schools; (b) Obtaining committed support and contributions from the school staff, school board management, government authorities, health agencies and other stakeholders; (c) Adopting a multidisciplinary, collaborative approach to implementing HPS; (d) Establishing professional networks and relationships; and (e) Continuing training and education in school health promotion. This highlights the importance of developing school health policies that meet local health needs, and socio-cultural characteristics that can foster mutual understanding between the health and education sectors so as to foster health promotion in children and adolescents. PMID:25264789

Sensory Narratives: Capturing Embodiment in Narratives of Movement, Sport, Leisure and Health

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hunter, Lisa; Emerald, Elke

2016-01-01

Narrative research has been employed by many researchers in the field of physical culture (including movement, play, dance, sport, leisure, physical pursuits, physical activity, physical education and health). From our storied worlds, narrative research reveals complex embodied and emplaced social phenomena within this field. However, there are…

The Role of the Narrator in Narrative Inquiry in Education: Construction and Co-Construction in Two Case Studies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bignold, Wendy; Su, Feng

2013-01-01

This paper explores narratives as an effective means of capturing multiple identities of research participants in complex social environments in education research. In doing so, it explores the role of the narrator in two case studies in two modes of narrative inquiry. Both studies present narratives of young people, focusing on multiple…

Multivalent Narratives: Extending the Narrative Paradigm with Insights from Ancient Indian Rhetoric.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stroud, Scott R.

Research that has focused on ancient Indian rhetoric, a sub-category of Eastern rhetoric, has largely eschewed focus on the narrative paradigm as a theoretical guide. These narratives often enshrine didactic elements, contradictions, and mythic traits that often confound and inspire Western audiences. These archaic religious/philosophical texts…

Narrating personality change.

PubMed

Lodi-Smith, Jennifer; Geise, Aaron C; Roberts, Brent W; Robins, Richard W

2009-03-01

The present research investigated the longitudinal relations between personality traits and narratives. Specifically, the authors examined how individual differences in 170 college students' narratives of personality change (a) were predicted by personality traits at the beginning of college, (b) related to actual changes and perceived changes in personality traits during college, and (c) related to changes in emotional health during college. Individual differences in narratives of personality trait change told in the 4th year of college fell into 2 dimensions: affective processing, characterized by positive emotions, and exploratory processing, characterized by meaning making and causal processing. Conscientious, open, and extraverted freshmen told exploratory stories of change as seniors. Emotionally healthy freshmen told stories of change that were high in positive affect. Both positive affective and exploratory stories corresponded to change in emotional stability and conscientiousness during college above and beyond the effects of perceived changes in these traits. In addition, both positive affective and exploratory narratives corresponded to increases in emotional health during college independent of the effects of changes in personality traits. These findings improve our understanding of how individuals conceptualize their changing identity over time.

Narrating Personality Change

PubMed Central

Lodi-Smith, Jennifer; Geise, Aaron C.; Roberts, Brent W.; Robins, Richard W.

2009-01-01

The present research investigated the longitudinal relations between personality traits and narratives. Specifically, the authors examined how individual differences in 170 college students' narratives of personality change (a) were predicted by personality traits at the beginning of college, (b) related to actual changes and perceived changes in personality traits during college, and (c) related to changes in emotional health during college. Individual differences in narratives of personality trait change told in the 4th year of college fell into 2 dimensions: affective processing, characterized by positive emotions, and exploratory processing, characterized by meaning making and causal processing. Conscientious, open, and extraverted freshmen told exploratory stories of change as seniors. Emotionally healthy freshmen told stories of change that were high in positive affect. Both positive affective and exploratory stories corresponded to change in emotional stability and conscientiousness during college above and beyond the effects of perceived changes in these traits. In addition, both positive affective and exploratory narratives corresponded to increases in emotional health during college independent of the effects of changes in personality traits. These findings improve our understanding of how individuals conceptualize their changing identity over time. PMID:19254112

Classroom-Based Narrative and Vocabulary Instruction: Results of an Early-Stage, Nonrandomized Comparison Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gillam, Sandra Laing; Olszewski, Abbie; Fargo, Jamison; Gillam, Ronald B.

2014-01-01

Purpose: This nonrandomized feasibility study was designed to provide a preliminary assessment of the impact of a narrative and vocabulary instruction program provided by a speech-language pathologist (SLP) in a regular classroom setting. Method: Forty-three children attending 2 first-grade classrooms participated in the study. Children in each…

Becoming a vampire without being bitten: the narrative collective-assimilation hypothesis.

PubMed

Gabriel, Shira; Young, Ariana F

2011-08-01

We propose the narrative collective-assimilation hypothesis--that experiencing a narrative leads one to psychologically become a part of the collective described within the narrative. In a test of this hypothesis, participants read passages from either a book about wizards (from the Harry Potter series) or a book about vampires (from the Twilight series). Both implicit and explicit measures revealed that participants who read about wizards psychologically became wizards, whereas those who read about vampires psychologically became vampires. The results also suggested that narrative collective assimilation is psychologically meaningful and relates to the basic human need for connection. Specifically, the tendency to fulfill belongingness needs through group affiliation moderated the extent to which narrative collective assimilation occurred, and narrative collective assimilation led to increases in life satisfaction and positive mood, two primary outcomes of belonging. The implications for the importance of narratives, the need to belong to groups, and social surrogacy are discussed.

Integrated narrative assessment exemplification: a leukaemia case history.

PubMed

Artioli, Giovanna; Foà, Chiara; Cosentino, Chiara; Sollami, Alfonso; Taffurelli, Chiara

2017-07-18

In the Integrated Narrative Nursing Assessment (INNA), the Evidence-Based Nursing Model is integrated with the Narrative-Based Nursing Model. The INNA makes use of quantitative instruments, arising from the natural sciences as well as of qualitative ones, arising from the human achieving results of standardization and reproducibility, as well as of customization and uniqueness. Accordingly, the purpose of this work is to exemplify the thinking process of and the method adopted by a nurse adopting an integrated narrative assessment in the evaluation of a patient. The patient suffered from acute myeloid leukaemia, treated with chemotherapy. Her nurse worked in a haematology ward in a North Italy Hospital. The nurse had previous experience in conducting the assessment according to INNA. Based on patient's characteristics, the nurse chose to use the narration (to explore needs from their subjective perception) and the scales (to measure them objectively) among the various assessment instruments provided by the INNA. The resultant integrated outcomes helped the nurse to have a comprehensive overview of the person's health-care needs and their connections. These outcomes derive from the integration of narrative information with those obtained from the scales, which in this paper have shown consistent results. It is very difficult to reach this complexity by considering qualitative and quantitative assessment strategies as mutually foreclosing, given that both emerged as being very useful in identifying, understanding and measuring the needs of the assisted person. Then they both could be used to design a customized intervention, encouraging new connections between disease, illness, sickness and everyday life.

What about narrative dentistry?

PubMed

Vergnes, Jean-Noel; Apelian, Nareg; Bedos, Christophe

2015-06-01

Narrative medicine strives toward a humanized form of medicine in which empathy and the ability to listen are developed with the same emphasis as scientific rigor. We hypothesize that the adoption of narrative medicine in dentistry would be an excellent method to cultivate the philosophy behind the emerging clinical concept of patient-centered dentistry. Reading literary works, reflective writing, and creative writing would sensitize practitioners to the daily lives of people, human uniqueness, and alterity. Narrative dentistry could lead to more empathic and self-aware practices, and improve dental professionals' observational abilities by making them more perceptive and more attentive to image, metaphor, and meaning. The introduction of narrative dentistry would enrich the clinical clerkship of dentists by bringing the often-missing humanities to the dental professional, academic, and scientific environment. Copyright © 2015 American Dental Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Local Heroes, Narrative Worlds and the Imagination: The Making of a Moral Curriculum through Experiential Narratives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Conle, Carola; Boone, Michelle

2008-01-01

Concern about the impact of narrative worlds and their heroes offered by the media prompted research on encounters with moral models in experiential, narrative curricula. Researchers tracked the extension of a mandated Language Arts curriculum on "heroes" through the experiential narratives of four local heroes chosen collaboratively by teacher,…

What are Chinese nurses' experiences whilst working overseas? A narrative scoping review.

PubMed

Zhong, Yaping; McKenna, Lisa; Copnell, Beverley

2017-09-01

Transnational nurse migration has become an apparent attribute of the global nurse shortage and it is foreseeable that China will play an increasingly significant role in nurse exports. These nurses have unique cultural and professional needs throughout their journey of migration and in-depth analysis of Chinese migrant nurses' experiences is urgently required to manage and empower an ethnically diverse workforce. To synthesise Chinese migrant nurses' experiences by examining the findings of existing studies. Scoping review methods incorporating narrative synthesis were conducted. Arksey and O'Malley's five-stage scoping review framework was utilised to identify Chinese migrant nurses' experiences. 13 databases were searched, and 5009 articles were retrieved. After screening the titles and abstracts, 169 articles were assessed in full text for eligibility, and finally 22 articles plus 2 manually included ones, representing 19 discrete studies, were further analysed and synthesised with a three-step narrative synthesis. 13 qualitative studies, 5 quantitative studies and 1 mixed- methods study met inclusion criteria. Two main themes were identified. "Contexts and migration" comprised three subthemes: perceptions of nursing, original culture and nursing differences. "The self and migration" included four subthemes: initiating, transition, reality and future. This scoping review revealed the literature on Chinese migrant nurses and provided insight into their stories and circumstances. There were external factors which affected Chinese nurses' interpretations and choices. Throughout their migration journeys, they encountered various challenges and also successes. They responded with positive or negative behavioural and psychosocial changes. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

On Narrative Method, Biography and Narrative Unities in the Study of Teaching.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Connelly, F. Michael; Clandinin, D. Jean

This paper outlines a narrative method for the study of teaching which has as its principle feature the reconstruction of classroom meaning in terms of narrative unities in the lives of classroom participants. This purpose is achieved by comparatively outlining similarities and differences with closely associated lines of work. This study of…

Task shifting and sharing in maternal and reproductive health in low-income countries: a narrative synthesis of current evidence.

PubMed

Dawson, Angela J; Buchan, James; Duffield, Christine; Homer, Caroline S E; Wijewardena, Kumudu

2014-05-01

Reducing maternal mortality and providing universal access to reproductive health in resource poor settings has been severely constrained by a shortage of health workers required to deliver interventions. The aim of this article is to determine evidence to optimize health worker roles through task shifting/sharing to address Millennium Development Goal 5 and reduce maternal mortality and provide universal access to reproductive health. A narrative synthesis of peer-reviewed literature from 2000 to 2011 was undertaken with retrieved documents assessed using an inclusion/exclusion criterion and quality appraisal guided by critical assessment tools. Concepts were analysed thematically. The analysis identified a focus on clinical tasks (the delivery of obstetric surgery, anaesthesia and abortion) that were shifted to and/or shared with doctors, non-physician clinicians, nurses and midwives. Findings indicate that shifting and sharing these tasks may increase access to and availability of maternal and reproductive health (MRH) services without compromising performance or patient outcomes and may be cost effective. However, a number of issues and barriers were identified with health workers calling for improved in-service training, supervision, career progression and incentive packages to better support their practice. Collaborative approaches involving community members and health workers at all levels have the potential to deliver MRH interventions effectively if accompanied by ongoing investment in the health care system.

Narrative in Essays: A Challenge of Textbook Truisms.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hesse, Douglas

Most textbooks, ignoring current narrative theory, fail to explain a large number of published essays containing narrative. To challenge textbook definitions of narratives, three points should be made: (1) a clear distinction should be recognized between narratives making points and narratives proving points, (2) the textbook equating of…

Should anti-tobacco media messages be culturally targeted for Indigenous populations? A systematic review and narrative synthesis.

PubMed

Gould, Gillian Sandra; McEwen, Andy; Watters, Tracey; Clough, Alan R; van der Zwan, Rick

2013-07-01

To summarise published empirical research on culturally targeted anti-tobacco media messages for Indigenous or First Nations people and examine the evidence for the effectiveness of targeted and non-targeted campaigns. Studies were sought describing mass media and new media interventions for tobacco control or smoking cessation in Indigenous or First Nations populations. Studies of any design were included reporting outcomes of media-based interventions including: cognitions, awareness, recall, intention to quit and quit rates. Then, 2 reviewers independently applied inclusion criteria, which were met by 21 (5.8%) of the studies found. One author extracted data with crosschecking by a second. Both independently assessed papers using Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN; quantitative studies) and Daly et al (qualitative studies). A total of 21 studies were found (4 level 1 randomised controlled trials (RCTs), 11 level 2 studies and 6 qualitative studies) and combined with narrative synthesis. Eight evaluated anti-tobacco TV or radio campaigns; two assessed US websites; three New Zealand studies examined mobile phone interventions; five evaluated print media; three evaluated a CD-ROM, a video and an edutainment intervention. Although Indigenous people had good recall of generic anti-tobacco messages, culturally targeted messages were preferred. New Zealand Maori may be less responsive to holistic targeted campaigns, despite their additional benefits, compared to generic fear campaigns. Culturally targeted internet or mobile phone messages appear to be as effective in American Indians and Maori as generic messages in the general population. There is little research comparing the effect of culturally targeted versus generic messages with similar message content in Indigenous people.

Narrating the self-injured body

PubMed Central

Chandler, Amy

2014-01-01

Illness narratives have traditionally been used as a conceptual tool for exploring experiences of chronic illness or disease. In this paper, I suggest that Frank's typology of illness narratives (chaos, restitution and quest) also offers an illuminating approach to analysing accounts of self-injury, demonstrating the diverse ways in which self-injury is practiced, experienced and narrated. Drawing on 24 narrative interviews with 12 people who had self-injured, I focus on participants’ accounts of their self-injured bodies. The approach is phenomenological, and concerned with talk about the experience of living with and in a body that has been marked by self-injury. Thus, the act of self-injury is not the sole focus, and particular attention is paid to accounts of the bodily aftermath: scars, marks and wounds. Scars left by self-injury can be seen as communicative, and the analysis developed here demonstrates some of the various ways that these marks may be read. Attending to these diverse narratives can contribute to the provision of compassionate, non-judgemental care for patients who have self-injured. Further, highlighting the existence of different ways of narrating the self-injured body may offer an optimistic resource for people who have self-injured. PMID:24812335

Narrative Counseling for Professional School Counselors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nafziger, Jacinta; DeKruyf, Lorraine

2013-01-01

This article introduces narrative counseling concepts and techniques for professional school counselors. The authors provide a case study of narrative school counseling with an elementary student struggling with selective mutism. Examples also demonstrate how a narrative approach could be used at elementary, middle, and high school levels within…

Narrative Processes across Childhood

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mulvaney, Matthew Keefe

2011-01-01

According to the narrative perspective on personality development, personality is constructed largely by interpreting and representing experience in story format (scripts) over the course of the lifespan. The focus of this paper is to describe briefly the narrative perspective on personality development during childhood and adolescence, to discuss…

Dissemination of performance information and continuous improvement: A narrative systematic review.

PubMed

Lemire, Marc; Demers-Payette, Olivier; Jefferson-Falardeau, Justin

2013-01-01

Developing a performance measure and reporting the results to support decision making at an individual level has yielded poor results in many health systems. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the factors associated with the dissemination of performance information that generate and support continuous improvement in health organizations. A systematic data collection strategy that includes empirical and theoretical research published from 1980 to 2010, both qualitative and quantitative, was performed on Web of Science, Current Contents, EMBASE and MEDLINE. A narrative synthesis method was used to iteratively detail explicative processes that underlie the intervention. A classification and synthesis framework was developed, drawing on knowledge transfer and exchange (KTE) literature. The sample consisted of 114 articles, including seven systematic or exhaustive reviews. Results showed that dissemination in itself is not enough to produce improvement initiatives. Successful dissemination depends on various factors, which influence the way collective actors react to performance information such as the clarity of objectives, the relationships between stakeholders, the system's governance and the available incentives. This review was limited to the process of knowledge dissemination in health systems and its utilization by users at the health organization level. Issues related to improvement initiatives deserve more attention. Knowledge dissemination goes beyond better communication and should be considered as carefully as the measurement of performance. Choices pertaining to intervention should be continuously prompted by the concern to support organizational action. While considerable attention was paid to the public reporting of performance information, this review sheds some light on a more promising avenue for changes and improvements, notably in public health systems.

Narratives about illness and medication: a neglected theme/new methodology within pharmacy practice research. Part II: medication narratives in practice.

PubMed

Ryan, Kath; Bissell, Paul; Morecroft, Charles

2007-08-01

Part 2 of this paper aims to provide a methodological framework for the study of medication narratives, including a semi-structured interview guide and suggested method of analysis, in an attempt to aid the development of narrative scholarship within pharmacy practice research. Examples of medication narratives are provided to illustrate their diversity and usefulness. The framework is derived from the work of other researchers and adapted for our specific purpose. It comes from social psychology, narrative psychology, narrative anthropology, sociology and critical theory and fits within the social constructionist paradigm. The suggested methods of analysis could broadly be described as narrative analysis and discourse analysis. Examples of medication narratives are chosen from a variety of sources and brief interpretations are presented by way of illustration. Narrative analysis, a neglected area of research in pharmacy practice, has the potential to provide new understanding about how people relate to their medicines, how pharmacists are engaged in producing narratives and the importance of narrative in the education of students. IMPACT OF THE ARTICLE: This article aims to have the following impact on pharmacy practice research: Innovative approach to researching and conceptualising the use of medicines. Introduction of a new theoretical perspective and methodology. Incorporation of social science research methods into pharmacy practice research. Development of narrative scholarship within pharmacy.

Processes and content of narrative identity development in adolescence: gender and well-being.

PubMed

McLean, Kate C; Breen, Andrea V

2009-05-01

The present study examined narrative identity in adolescence (14-18 years) in terms of narrative content and processes of identity development. Age- and gender-related differences in narrative patterns in turning point memories and gender differences in the content and functions for sharing those memories were examined, as was the relationship between narrative patterns and self-esteem. The narrative patterns focused on were meaning-making (learning from past events) and emotionality of the narratives, specified as overall positive emotional tone and redemptive sequencing. Results showed an age-related increase in meaning-making but no gender differences in the degree of meaning-making. Results further showed that gender predicted self-esteem and that boys evidenced higher self-esteem. Emotionality also predicted self-esteem; this was especially true for redemption and for boys. In terms of telling functions, girls endorsed more relational reasons for telling memories than did boys. Results are discussed in terms of potential gendered and nongendered pathways for identity development in adolescence. Copyright 2009 APA, all rights reserved

Small Schools Reform Narratives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lehman, Beth M.; Berghoff, Beth

2013-01-01

This study explored complicated personal narratives of school reform generated by participants in response to a particular small schools reform initiative. Narrative data was dialogically generated in interviews with nine past participants of an urban high school conversion project planned and implemented over a span of five years toward the goal…

A narrative synthesis of research evidence for tinnitus-related complaints as reported by patients and their significant others.

PubMed

Hall, Deborah Ann; Fackrell, Kathryn; Li, Anne Beatrice; Thavayogan, Rachel; Smith, Sandra; Kennedy, Veronica; Tinoco, Catarina; Rodrigues, Evelina D; Campelo, Paula; Martins, Tânia D; Lourenço, Vera Martins; Ribeiro, Diogo; Haider, Haúla F

2018-04-11

There are a large number of assessment tools for tinnitus, with little consensus on what it is important to measure and no preference for a minimum reporting standard. The item content of tinnitus assessment tools should seek to capture relevant impacts of tinnitus on everyday life, but no-one has yet synthesised information about the range of tinnitus complaints. This review is thus the first comprehensive and authoritative collection and synthesis of what adults with tinnitus and their significant others report as problems in their everyday lives caused by tinnitus. Electronic searches were conducted in PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, as well as grey literature sources to identify publications from January 1980 to June 2015 in which participants were enrolled because tinnitus was their primary complaint. A manual search of seven relevant journals updated the search to December 2017. Of the 3699 titles identified overall, 84 records (reporting 86 studies) met our inclusion criteria and were taken through to data collection. Coders collated generic and tinnitus-specific complaints reported by people with tinnitus. All relevant data items were then analyzed using an iterative approach to narrative synthesis to form domain groupings representing complaints of tinnitus, which were compared patients and significant others. From the 86 studies analyzed using data collected from 16,381 patients, 42 discrete complaints were identified spanning physical and psychological health, quality of life and negative attributes of the tinnitus sound. This diversity was not captured by any individual study alone. There was good convergence between complaints collected using open- and closed-format questions, with the exception of general moods and perceptual attributes of tinnitus (location, loudness, pitch and unpleasantness); reported only using closed questions. Just two studies addressed data from the perspective of significant others (n = 79), but there was substantial

Conceptualizing Mathematics Using Narratives and Art

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kurz , Terri L.; Bartholomew, Barbara

2013-01-01

Narratives are a wonderful way to allow students to personalize mathematics. In the context of this article, the authors define narratives as short stories, written by students, that contain a mathematical work problem centered on students' lives and interests. These narratives can be supported with art, such as drawings or photographs. When…

Chinese mental illness narratives: controlling the spirit.

PubMed

Ramsay, Guy

2009-01-01

Through analysis of local level narrative themes and linguistic features and their attendant narrative 'domains' and emotive content, this study explicates the discursive forms of Chinese personal narratives about mental illness published in a psychoeducational volume in mainland China. The cultural phenomena underpinning the explicated discursive forms are considered. The study finds that the Chinese mental illness narratives emphasize the problematic nature of the illness experience for the individual concerned, as well as the importance of gaining control over the personal and social disembodiment that mental illness brings about. The language of medicine presents as a dominant linguistic feature of the texts. Narrative authors appear to respond to their illness experience by negotiating and utilizing social relationships and support structures and through active medical intercession. As such, their narratives appear deeply culturally marked despite their psychoeducational intent and institutional context of publication. The study findings bear out the call for more attention to be given to the cultural dimension when analysing illness narratives.

Structure of Children's Narratives.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Menig-Peterson, Carole L.; McCabe, Allyssa

This analysis of the structure of children's narratives deals with material gathered from 96 children, aged 3 1/2 to 9 1/2 years, in conversations about events in which they were personally involved. Elements of the narratives and the structural relationship of these elements are examined. Three elements are discerned: (1) chronological…

Deconstruction as Narrative Interruption

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gilbert-Walsh, James

2007-01-01

Because of the way it prioritizes "interruption" and calls into question the very possibility of producing coherent, self-contained narratives, the deconstructive work of Jacques Derrida is often thought to be intrinsically anti-narrative in its very structure; and yet there are those who insist that, to the contrary, deconstruction is a narrative…

Drawing the line between constituent structure and coherence relations in visual narratives

PubMed Central

Cohn, Neil; Bender, Patrick

2016-01-01

Theories of visual narrative understanding have often focused on the changes in meaning across a sequence, like shifts in characters, spatial location, and causation, as cues for breaks in the structure of a discourse. In contrast, the theory of Visual Narrative Grammar posits that hierarchic “grammatical” structures operate at the discourse level using categorical roles for images, which may or may not co-occur with shifts in coherence. We therefore examined the relationship between narrative structure and coherence shifts in the segmentation of visual narrative sequences using a “segmentation task” where participants drew lines between images in order to divide them into sub-episodes. We used regressions to analyze the influence of the expected constituent structure boundary, narrative categories, and semantic coherence relationships on the segmentation of visual narrative sequences. Narrative categories were a stronger predictor of segmentation than linear coherence relationships between panels, though both influenced participants’ divisions. Altogether, these results support the theory that meaningful sequential images use a narrative grammar that extends above and beyond linear semantic shifts between discourse units. PMID:27709982

Drawing the line between constituent structure and coherence relations in visual narratives.

PubMed

Cohn, Neil; Bender, Patrick

2017-02-01

Theories of visual narrative understanding have often focused on the changes in meaning across a sequence, like shifts in characters, spatial location, and causation, as cues for breaks in the structure of a discourse. In contrast, the theory of visual narrative grammar posits that hierarchic "grammatical" structures operate at the discourse level using categorical roles for images, which may or may not co-occur with shifts in coherence. We therefore examined the relationship between narrative structure and coherence shifts in the segmentation of visual narrative sequences using a "segmentation task" where participants drew lines between images in order to divide them into subepisodes. We used regressions to analyze the influence of the expected constituent structure boundary, narrative categories, and semantic coherence relationships on the segmentation of visual narrative sequences. Narrative categories were a stronger predictor of segmentation than linear coherence relationships between panels, though both influenced participants' divisions. Altogether, these results support the theory that meaningful sequential images use a narrative grammar that extends above and beyond linear semantic shifts between discourse units. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Assessing the State of Knowledge Regarding the Effectiveness of Interventions to Contain Pandemic Influenza Transmission: A Systematic Review and Narrative Synthesis.

PubMed

Saunders-Hastings, Patrick; Reisman, Jane; Krewski, Daniel

2016-01-01

Influenza pandemics occur when a novel influenza strain, to which humans are immunologically naïve, emerges to cause infection and illness on a global scale. Differences in the viral properties of pandemic strains, relative to seasonal ones, can alter the effectiveness of interventions typically implemented to control seasonal influenza burden. As a result, annual control activities may not be sufficient to contain an influenza pandemic. This study seeks to inform pandemic policy and planning initiatives by reviewing the effectiveness of previous interventions to reduce pandemic influenza transmission and infection. Results will inform the planning and design of more focused in-depth systematic reviews for specific types of interventions, thus providing the most comprehensive and current understanding of the potential for alternative interventions to mitigate the burden of pandemic influenza. A systematic review and narrative synthesis of existing systematic reviews and meta-analyses examining intervention effectiveness in containing pandemic influenza transmission was conducted using information collected from five databases (PubMed, Medline, Cochrane, Embase, and Cinahl/EBSCO). Two independent reviewers conducted study screening and quality assessment, extracting data related to intervention impact and effectiveness. Most included reviews were of moderate to high quality. Although the degree of statistical heterogeneity precluded meta-analysis, the present systematic review examines the wide variety of interventions that can impact influenza transmission in different ways. While it appears that pandemic influenza vaccination provides significant protection against infection, there was insufficient evidence to conclude that antiviral prophylaxis, seasonal influenza cross-protection, or a range of non-pharmaceutical strategies would provide appreciable protection when implemented in isolation. It is likely that an optimal intervention strategy will employ a

“Mommy Blogs” and the Vaccination Exemption Narrative: Results From A Machine-Learning Approach for Story Aggregation on Parenting Social Media Sites

PubMed Central

Tangherlini, Timothy R; Glenn, Beth; Crespi, Catherine M; Bandari, Roja; Wadia, Akshay; Falahi, Misagh; Ebrahimzadeh, Ehsan; Bastani, Roshan

2016-01-01

into an overarching narrative framework graph. In our model, stories were represented as network graphs with actants as nodes and their various relationships as edges. We estimated the latent stories circulating on these sites by modeling the posts as a sampling of the hidden narrative framework graph. Temporal trends were examined based on monthly user-poststatistics. Results We discovered that discussions of exemption from vaccination requirements are highly represented. We found a strong narrative framework related to exemption seeking and a culture of distrust of government and medical institutions. Various posts reinforced part of the narrative framework graph in which parents, medical professionals, and religious institutions emerged as key nodes, and exemption seeking emerged as an important edge. In the aggregate story, parents used religion or belief to acquire exemptions to protect their children from vaccines that are required by schools or government institutions, but (allegedly) cause adverse reactions such as autism, pain, compromised immunity, and even death. Although parents joined and left the discussion forums over time, discussions and stories about exemptions were persistent and robust to these membership changes. Conclusions Analyzing parent forums about health care using an automated analytic approach, such as the one presented here, allows the detection of widespread narrative frameworks that structure and inform discussions. In most vaccination stories from the sites we analyzed, it is taken for granted that vaccines and not vaccine preventable diseases (VPDs) pose a threat to children. Because vaccines are seen as a threat, parents focus on sharing successful strategies for avoiding them, with exemption being the foremost among these strategies. When new parents join such sites, they may be exposed to this endemic narrative framework in the threads they read and to which they contribute, which may influence their health care decision making

An Education in Narratives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gallagher, Shaun

2014-01-01

I argue for a broad education in narratives as a way to address several problems found in moral psychology and social cognition. First, an education in narratives will address a common problem of narrowness or lack of diversity, shared by virtue ethics and the simulation theory of social cognition. Secondly, it also solves the "starting…

Narrative History and Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tamura, Eileen H.

2011-01-01

While narrative history has been the prevailing mode in historical scholarship, its preeminence has not gone unquestioned. In the 1980s, the role of narrative in historical writing was "the subject of extraordinarily intense debate." The historical backdrop of this debate can be traced to the preceding two decades, when four groups of thinkers…

Narrative theory and the dynamics of popular movies.

PubMed

Cutting, James E

2016-12-01

Popular movies grab and hold our attention. One reason for this is that storytelling is culturally important to us, but another is that general narrative formulae have been honed over millennia and that a derived but specific filmic form has developed and has been perfected over the last century. The result is a highly effective format that allows rapid processing of complex narratives. Using a corpus analysis I explore a physical narratology of popular movies-narrational structure and how it impacts us-to promote a theory of popular movie form. I show that movies can be divided into 4 acts-setup, complication, development, and climax-with two optional subunits of prolog and epilog, and a few turning points and plot points. In 12 studies I show that normative aspects in patterns of shot durations, shot transitions, shot scale, shot motion, shot luminance, character introduction, and distributions of conversations, music, action shots, and scene transitions reduce to 5 correlated stylistic dimensions of movies and can litigate among theories of movie structure. In general, movie narratives have roughly the same structure as narratives in any other domain-plays, novels, manga, folktales, even oral histories-but with particular runtime constraints, cadences, and constructions that are unique to the medium.

Mimesis: Where Play and Narrative Meet

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Feldman, Carol Fleisher

2005-01-01

There is a great deal of narrative in play and also of play in narrative, especially in the narrative and play of young children. Part of the reason for this may be that they share an important pattern or structure in the way they work as mental instruments, "mimesis." Mimesis is a mode of representation in which the relation between the symbol…

Narrative research on mental health recovery: two sister paradigms.

PubMed

Spector-Mersel, Gabriela; Knaifel, Evgeny

2017-06-24

Despite the breadth of narrative studies on individuals with severe mental illness, the suitability of narrative inquiry to exploring mental health recovery (MHR) has not been examined. (1) Examining the appropriateness of narrative inquiry to studying MHR; (2) assessing the extent to which narrative studies on MHR conform to the unique features of narrative research, as a distinctive form of qualitative inquiry. Review of empirical, theoretical and methodological literature on recovery and narrative inquiry. Considering the perspectives of recovery and narrative as paradigms, the similarity between their ontology and epistemology is shown, evident in 10 common emphases: meaning, identity, change and development, agency, holism, culture, uniqueness, context, language and giving voice. The resemblance between these "sister" paradigms makes narrative methodology especially fruitful for accessing the experiences of individuals in recovery. Reviewing narrative studies on MHR suggests that, currently, narrative research's uniqueness, centered on the holistic principle, is blurred on the philosophical, methodological and textual levels. Well-established narrative research has major implications for practice and policy in recovery-oriented mental health care. The narrative inquiry paradigm offers a possible path to enhancing the distinctive virtues of this research, realizing its potential in understanding and promoting MHR.

Using Narrative Approach for Anticipatory Grief Among Family Caregivers at Home

PubMed Central

Toyama, Hiroko; Honda, Akiko

2016-01-01

Family caregivers of patients with terminal-stage cancer have numerous roles as caregivers, which can influence their anticipatory grief. The purpose of this study was to clarify how talking to family caregivers of patients with terminal illness using the narrative approach can influence such caregivers’ process of anticipatory grief. We conducted the narrative approach as an intervention with two family caregivers several times and qualitatively analyzed their narratives. The results indicated that these family caregivers had two primary roles—family member and caregiver—and that family caregivers felt trapped in their caregiver role. The narrative approach helped them transition into the role needed for coping with the loss. PMID:28462354

Alleviating travel anxiety through virtual reality and narrated video technology.

PubMed

Ahn, J C; Lee, O

2013-01-01

This study presents an empirical evidence of benefit of narrative video clips in embedded virtual reality websites of hotels for relieving travel anxiety. Even though it was proven that virtual reality functions do provide some relief in travel anxiety, a stronger virtual reality website can be built when narrative video clips that show video clips with narration about important aspects of the hotel. We posit that these important aspects are 1. Escape route and 2. Surrounding neighborhood information, which are derived from the existing research on anxiety disorder as well as travel anxiety. Thus we created a video clip that showed and narrated about the escape route from the hotel room, another video clip that showed and narrated about surrounding neighborhood. We then conducted experiments with this enhanced virtual reality website of a hotel by having human subjects play with the website and fill out a questionnaire. The result confirms our hypothesis that there is a statistically significant relationship between the degree of travel anxiety and psychological relief caused by the use of embedded virtual reality functions with narrative video clips of a hotel website (Tab. 2, Fig. 3, Ref. 26).

Mood and narrative entwinement: some implications for educational practice.

PubMed

Conroy, Sherrill A; Dobson, Stephen

2005-09-01

Moods are one way of existentially reading the authenticity of people and are entwined within any narrative. Attunement between narrative and its mood is crucial for understanding the implicit message of the narrator. Sometimes, a master narrative is interrupted by counternarratives, so that narrative recognition becomes problematic. People can disguise their existential state when narrating, but the mood discloses it nonetheless. The authors explore the relationship between mood and narrative, and how the two are connected with how a person acts authentically or inauthentically. They provide selected empirical examples of narratives from medical students to support their argument. The educational relevance of their discussion comprises the final section. Educators in any educational program must first reflect on, then make explicit the manner in which narrative and mood are used to communicate knowledge.

Conceptualisation of patient satisfaction: a systematic narrative literature review.

PubMed

Batbaatar, Enkhjargal; Dorjdagva, Javkhlanbayar; Luvsannyam, Ariunbat; Amenta, Pietro

2015-09-01

Patient satisfaction concept is widely measured due to its appropriateness to health service; however, evidence suggests that it is a poorly developed concept. This article is a first part of a two-part series of research with a goal to review a current conceptual framework of patient satisfaction and to bring the concept for further operationalisation procedures. The current article aimed to review a theoretical framework that helps the next article to review determinants of patient satisfaction for designing a measurement system. The study used a systematic review method, meta-narrative review, based on the RAMESES guideline with the phases of screening evidence, appraisal evidence, data extraction and synthesis. Patient satisfaction theoretical articles were searched on the two databases MEDLINE and CINAHL. Inclusion criteria were articles published between 1980 and 2014, and English language papers only. There were 36 articles selected for the synthesis. Results showed that most of the patient satisfaction theories and formulations are based on marketing theories and defined as how well health service fulfils patient expectations. However, review demonstrated that a relationship between expectation and satisfaction is unclear and the concept expectation itself is not distinctly theorised as well. Researchers brought satisfaction theories from other fields to the current healthcare literature without much adaptation. Thus, there is a need to attempt to define the patient satisfaction concept from other perspectives or to learn how patients evaluate the care rather than struggling to describe it by consumerist theories. © Royal Society for Public Health 2015.

Explicit Oral Narrative Intervention for Students with Williams Syndrome

PubMed Central

Diez-Itza, Eliseo; Martínez, Verónica; Pérez, Vanesa; Fernández-Urquiza, Maite

2018-01-01

Narrative skills play a crucial role in organizing experience, facilitating social interaction and building academic discourse and literacy. They are at the interface of cognitive, social, and linguistic abilities related to school engagement. Despite their relative strengths in social and grammatical skills, students with Williams syndrome (WS) do not show parallel cognitive and pragmatic performance in narrative generation tasks. The aim of the present study was to assess retelling of a TV cartoon tale and the effect of an individualized explicit instruction of the narrative structure. Participants included eight students with WS who attended different special education levels. Narratives were elicited in two sessions (pre and post intervention), and were transcribed, coded and analyzed using the tools of the CHILDES Project. Narratives were coded for productivity and complexity at the microstructure and macrostructure levels. Microstructure productivity (i.e., length of narratives) included number of utterances, clauses, and tokens. Microstructure complexity included mean length of utterances, lexical diversity and use of discourse markers as cohesive devices. Narrative macrostructure was assessed for textual coherence through the Pragmatic Evaluation Protocol for Speech Corpora (PREP-CORP). Macrostructure productivity and complexity included, respectively, the recall and sequential order of scenarios, episodes, events and characters. A total of four intervention sessions, lasting approximately 20 min, were delivered individually once a week. This brief intervention addressed explicit instruction about the narrative structure and the use of specific discourse markers to improve cohesion of story retellings. Intervention strategies included verbal scaffolding and modeling, conversational context for retelling the story and visual support with pictures printed from the cartoon. Results showed significant changes in WS students’ retelling of the story, both at

Sensitivity of Narrative Organization Measures Using Narrative Retells Produced by Young School-Age Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heilmann, John; Miller, Jon F.; Nockerts, Ann

2010-01-01

Analysis of children's productions of oral narratives provides a rich description of children's oral language skills. However, measures of narrative organization can be directly affected by both developmental and task-based performance constraints which can make a measure insensitive and inappropriate for a particular population and/or sampling…

Characterizing the Pain Narratives of Parents of Youth with Chronic Pain

PubMed Central

Noel, Melanie; Beals-Erickson, Sarah E.; Law, Emily F.; Alberts, Nicole; Palermo, Tonya M.

2015-01-01

Objectives Questionnaire-based research has shown that parents exert a powerful influence on and are profoundly influenced by living with a child with chronic pain. Examination of parents' pain narratives through an observational lens offers an alternative approach to understanding the complexity of pediatric chronic pain; however, the narratives of parents of youth with chronic pain have been largely overlooked. The present study aimed to characterize the vulnerability- and resilience-based aspects of the pain narratives of parents of youth with chronic pain. Methods Pain narratives of 46 parents were recorded during the baseline session as part of two clinical trials evaluating a behavioral intervention for parents of youth with chronic pain. The narratives were coded for aspects of pain-related vulnerability and resilience. Results Using exploratory cluster analysis, two styles of parents’ pain narratives were identified. Distress narratives were characterized by more negative affect and an exclusively unresolved orientation towards the child’s diagnosis of chronic pain whereas resilience narratives were characterized by positive affect and a predominantly resolved orientation towards the child’s diagnosis. Preliminary support for the validity of these clusters was provided through our finding of differences between clusters in parental pain catastrophizing about child pain (helplessness). Discussion Findings highlight the multidimensional nature of parents’ experience of their child’s pain problem. Clinical implications in terms of assessment and treatment are discussed. PMID:26736026

A narrative synthesis of illustrative evidence on effects of capitation payment for primary care: lessons for Ghana and other low/middle-income countries.

PubMed

Andoh-Adjei, Francis-Xavier; Spaan, Ernst; Asante, Felix A; Mensah, Sylvester A; van der Velden, Koos

2016-12-01

To analyse and synthesize available international experiences and information on the motivation for, and effects of using capitation as provider payment method in country health systems and lessons and implications for low/middle-income countries. We did narrative review and synthesis of the literature on the effects of capitation payment on primary care. Eleven articles were reviewed. Capitation payment encourages efficiency: drives down cost, serves as critical source of income for providers, promotes adherence to guidelines and policies, encourages providers to work better and give health education to patients. It, however, induces reduction in the quantity and quality of care provided and encourages skimming on inputs, underserving of patients in bad state of health, "dumping" of high risk patients and negatively affect patient-provider relationship. The illustrative evidence adduced from the review demonstrates that capitation payment in primary care can create positive incentives but could also elicit un-intended effects. However, due to differences in country context, policy makers in Ghana and other low/middle-income countries may only be guided by the illustrative evidence in their design of a context-specific capitation payment for primary care. Netherlands Fellowship Programme (NFP), Fellowship number: NFP-PhD.12/352.

CNTRO: A Semantic Web Ontology for Temporal Relation Inferencing in Clinical Narratives.

PubMed

Tao, Cui; Wei, Wei-Qi; Solbrig, Harold R; Savova, Guergana; Chute, Christopher G

2010-11-13

Using Semantic-Web specifications to represent temporal information in clinical narratives is an important step for temporal reasoning and answering time-oriented queries. Existing temporal models are either not compatible with the powerful reasoning tools developed for the Semantic Web, or designed only for structured clinical data and therefore are not ready to be applied on natural-language-based clinical narrative reports directly. We have developed a Semantic-Web ontology which is called Clinical Narrative Temporal Relation ontology. Using this ontology, temporal information in clinical narratives can be represented as RDF (Resource Description Framework) triples. More temporal information and relations can then be inferred by Semantic-Web based reasoning tools. Experimental results show that this ontology can represent temporal information in real clinical narratives successfully.

Adolescents' Intergenerational Narratives across Cultures

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reese, Elaine; Fivush, Robyn; Merrill, Natalie; Wang, Qi; McAnally, Helena

2017-01-01

Adolescents' intergenerational narratives--the stories they tell about their mothers' and fathers' early experiences--are an important component of their identities (Fivush & Merrill, 2016; Merrill & Fivush, 2016). This study explored adolescents' intergenerational narratives across cultures. Adolescents aged 12 to 21 from 3 cultural…

The Role of Narrative in Multimedia Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Diamond, Myrna Elyse

2011-01-01

This descriptive case study investigated the role of narrative in multimedia learning and teaching and observed how teachers applied their understanding of narrative, and new constructivist technologies, to design multimedia presentations for instruction. The study looked specifically at the cognitive strategies, visual narrative concepts, and…

Understanding personal narratives: an approach to practice.

PubMed

Gaydos, H Lea

2005-02-01

This paper explores the need for and nature of personal narratives and their relevance to nursing practice. It proposes that the co-creative aesthetic process can be used to understand and co-create personal narratives through an emphasis on self-defining memories and metaphor. Many authors in nursing and other human sciences have recognized the need for and importance of personal narrative, its relationship to aesthetic knowing and its value in qualitative research and in practice. The role of memory and metaphor in the creation of meaning in personal narratives, however, has not been sufficiently explored in nursing literature. The nature of personal narrative is explored, focusing on the way meaning is created from self-defining memories using metaphor. Then, the importance of personal narratives in nursing practice is considered, followed by discussion about how meaning in personal narratives may be co-created between clients and nurses using an aesthetic process developed by the author. The co-creative aesthetic process is an example of nursing as art and can be used to co-create personal narratives in practice. The experience of co-creating a self story with a nurse can be healing, as the self story is heard by a caring person, memories are understood in new ways, and the self story is both confirmed and recreated.

The Effect of a Narrative Intervention on Story Retelling and Personal Story Generation Skills of Preschoolers with Risk Factors and Narrative Language Delays

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spencer, Trina D.; Slocum, Timothy A.

2010-01-01

Narration, or storytelling, is an important aspect of language. Narrative skills have academic and social importance. This study evaluated the effects of a narrative intervention on story retelling and personal story generation skills of preschoolers with risk factors and narrative language delays. Narrative intervention was delivered in a small…

Narrative Language and Reading Comprehension in Students with Mild Intellectual Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barton-Hulsey, Andrea; Sevcik, Rose A.; Romski, MaryAnn

2017-01-01

Past research shows positive correlations between oral narrative skill and reading comprehension in typically developing students. This study examined the relationship between reading comprehension and narrative language ability of 102 elementary students with mild levels of intellectual disability. Results describe the students' narrative…

Structural and Dialectal Characteristics of the Fictional and Personal Narratives of School-age African American Children

PubMed Central

Mills, Monique T.; Watkins, Ruth V.; Washington, Julie A.

2014-01-01

Purpose To report preliminary comparisons of developing structural characteristics associated with fictional and personal narratives in school-age African American children. Method Forty-three children, grades two through five, generated a fictional and a personal narrative in response to a wordless-book elicitation task and a story-prompt task, respectively. Narratives produced in these two contexts were characterized for macrostructure, microstructure, and dialect density. Differences across narrative type and grade level were examined. Results Statistically significant differences between the two types of narratives were found for both macrostructure and microstructure but not for dialect density. There were no grade-related differences in macrostructure, microstructure, or dialect density. Conclusion The results demonstrate the complementary role of fictional and personal narratives for describing young children's narrative skills. Use of both types of narrative tasks and descriptions of both macrostructure and macrostructure may be particularly useful for characterizing the narrative abilities of young school-age African American children, for whom culture-fair methods are scarce. Further study of additional dialect groups is warranted. PMID:23633645

Gender constructions of male sex offenders in Germany: narrative analysis from group psychotherapy.

PubMed

Moertl, Kathrin; Buchholz, Michael B; Lamott, Franziska

2010-02-01

This study was conducted to analyze how male sexual offenders construct mental images of masculinity and femininity to provide insight into therapeutic treatment for such patients. Thematerial examined in this studywas comprised of 21 videotaped prison group therapy sessions in which the participating sexual offenders talked about their crimes and biographies. Aqualitative data analysis softwarewas usedto apply a modified grounded theorymethodology to the transcribed sessions. The resulting categories can be understood as descriptions of how the imprisoned men constructed gender images, and were based on three narrative levels: the structure of narration, the narrative positions in the story, and the interaction between the narrator and the other participants. According to the categories describedin the narrative positions (the narrated self and the narrated significant male others), we constructed masculinity categorizations which corresponded to specific images of femininity (derived from the narrated significant female others).The constructionsprovided insight into the selfimage of the narrator, as well as the accountability and positioning of himself and the other in regard to perpetrator-victim constructions. The study further revealed whether the participants either accepted or rejected responsibility and guilt for their crimes; this is essential for psychotherapeutic process and treatment.

What the stories children tell can tell about their memory: narrative skill and young children's suggestibility.

PubMed

Kulkofsky, Sarah; Klemfuss, J Zoe

2008-09-01

The authors examined the relation between children's narrative ability, which has been identified as an important contributor to memory development, and suggestibility. Across 2 studies, a total of 112 preschool-aged children witnessed a staged event and were subsequently questioned suggestively. Results from Study 1 indicated that children's ability to provide a high-quality narrative of the event was related to resistance to suggestive questions, and narrative ability appeared to supersede age as a predictor of such resistance. In Study 2, children's general language and narrative abilities were measured in addition to their ability to produce a high-quality narrative about the target event. These results replicated Study 1's findings that children's ability to produce a high-quality narrative of a previously experienced event predicted resistance to suggestion. However, the quality of children's autobiographical memory narratives predicted shifting from denial to assent. Findings are considered in light of narrative's role in memory development and underlying mechanisms that may explain children's suggestibility.

"These Are Just Stories, Mulder": Exposure to Conspiracist Fiction Does Not Produce Narrative Persuasion.

PubMed

Nera, Kenzo; Pantazi, Myrto; Klein, Olivier

2018-01-01

Narrative persuasion, i.e., the impact of narratives on beliefs, behaviors and attitudes, and the mechanisms underpinning endorsement of conspiracy theories have both drawn substantial attention from social scientists. Yet, to date, these two fields have evolved separately, and to our knowledge no study has empirically examined the impact of conspiracy narratives on real-world conspiracy beliefs. In a first study, we exposed a group of participants ( n = 37) to an X-Files episode before asking them to fill in a questionnaire related to their narrative experience and conspiracy beliefs. A control group ( n = 41) had to answer the conspiracy beliefs items before watching the episode. Based on past findings of both the aforementioned fields of research, we hypothesized that the experimental group would show greater endorsement of conspiracy beliefs, an effect expected to be mediated by identification to the episodes' characters. We furthermore hypothesized that identification would be associated with cognitive elaboration of the topics developed in the narrative. The first two hypotheses were disproved since no narrative persuasion effect was observed. In a second study, we sought to replicate these results in a larger sample ( n = 166). No persuasive effect was found in the new data and a Bayesian meta-analysis of the two studies strongly supports the absence of a positive effect of exposure to narrative material on endorsement of conspiracy theories. In both studies, a significant relation between conspiracy mentality and enjoyment was observed. In the second study, this relation was fully mediated by two dimensions of perceived realism, i.e., plausibility and narrative consistency. We discuss our results, based on theoretical models of narrative persuasion and compare our studies with previous narrative persuasion studies. Implications of these results for future research are also discussed.

Narrative competence in Spanish-speaking adults with Williams syndrome.

PubMed

Diez-Itza, Eliseo; Martínez, Verónica; Antón, Aránzazu

2016-08-01

Williams syndrome (WS) is a genetic disorder associated with intellectual disability and characterised by displaying an atypical neuropsychological profile, with peaks and valleys, where language skills seem better preserved than non-verbal intelligence. This study researches the narrative competence of nine Spanish-speaking adults with WS. Oral narratives were elicited from a silent film, and narrative coherence was analysed as a function of sequential order of the events narrated at three structure levels, while narrative cohesion was assessed through the frequency of use and type of discourse markers. WS subjects were able to remember a significant proportion of the events from the film, but coherence of narratives, i.e., sequential order of events, was more impaired. Consistently with their linguistic abilities, cohesion of narratives was better preserved, as they used discourse markers to introduce a high proportion of events. Construction of mental models of the narratives may be constrained in WS by non-verbal cognitive abilities, but narrative competence is also determined by textual pragmatic abilities to organize discourse, which should be addressed by specific intervention in narrative competence.

Aging and the segmentation of narrative film.

PubMed

Kurby, Christopher A; Asiala, Lillian K E; Mills, Steven R

2014-01-01

The perception of event structure in continuous activity is important for everyday comprehension. Although the segmentation of experience into events is a normal concomitant of perceptual processing, previous research has shown age differences in the ability to perceive structure in naturalistic activity, such as a movie of someone washing a car. However, past research has also shown that older adults have a preserved ability to comprehend events in narrative text, which suggests that narrative may improve the event processing of older adults. This study tested whether there are age differences in event segmentation at the intersection of continuous activity and narrative: narrative film. Younger and older adults watched and segmented a narrative film, The Red Balloon, into coarse and fine events. Changes in situational features, such as changes in characters, goals, and objects predicted segmentation. Analyses revealed little age-difference in segmentation behavior. This suggests the possibility that narrative structure supports event understanding for older adults.

"Kubla Khan" and Its Narratives of Possible Worlds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nayar, Pramod K.

2013-01-01

This essay argues that Coleridge's "Kubla Khan" is a poem about narrative and specifically focuses on the narrative construction of possible worlds, or even utopian worlds. It notes two pairs of narratives. In pair one the utopian narrative of the monarch's decree which seeks to build a space of pure pleasure is in opposition to the…

Written narrative practices in elementary school students.

PubMed

Romano-Soares, Soraia; Soares, Aparecido José Couto; Cárnio, Maria Silvia

2010-01-01

Promotion of a written narratives production program in the third grade of an Elementary School. To analyze two written narrative practice proposals in order to verify which resources are more efficient in benefitting the textual productions of third grade Elementary School students. Sixty students were selected from two third grade groups of a public Elementary School in São Paulo (Brazil). For the analysis, students were divided into two groups (Group A and Group B). Fourteen children's storybooks were used. In Group A, the story was orally told by the researchers in a colloquial manner, keeping the narrator role and the original structure proposed by the author. In Group B, the story was fully read. The book was projected onto a screen and read aloud so the students could follow the reading and observe the corresponding illustrations. Voice changing resources in the characters' dialogues were used. In the overall comparison, statistically significant results were found for moment (initial and final assessments) and for interaction between groups. It was observed that both groups presented substantial development from initial to final assessment. The Written Narratives Promotion Program based on the shared reading of children's storybooks constituted a more effective strategy than telling the stories using a single reader.

Listening with a narrative ear

PubMed Central

Pereles, Laurie; Jackson, Roberta; Rosenal, Tom; Nixon, Lara

2017-01-01

Abstract Objective To determine the value of adding a patient narrative to the clinical assessment of falls in the elderly. Design Qualitative study of interviews. Setting A fall prevention clinic in Calgary, Alta. Participants Fifteen older adults on a wait list for assessment by the fall clinic and the physiotherapists who assessed them. Methods Participants’ stories were audiorecorded and later transcribed and summarized. Stories were collected using open-ended questions, first inviting participants to tell the interviewer about themselves, and then the circumstances of their falls and their reflections on them. In a subsequent visit, transcriptions or summaries were returned to patients for member checking. Narratives were read and analyzed by all 4 investigators using a narrative approach and a close-reading technique. With the patients’ additional consent, stories were shared with the fall prevention team for their insights and reactions. Interviews with physiotherapists were audiorecorded and transcribed. Main findings The narrative analysis provided new insights into the attitudes about and perceptions of the causes of falls, their effects, and rehabilitation. Close reading exposed presentation of self, locus of control, and underlying social and emotional issues. Conclusion The addition of patient narratives to clinical assessments offers clinicians an understanding of patients’ perspectives, which can be used to better engage patients in rehabilitation. PMID:28115459

Properties of the Narrative Scoring Scheme Using Narrative Retells in Young School-Age Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heilmann, John; Miller, Jon F.; Nockerts, Ann; Dunaway, Claudia

2010-01-01

Purpose: To evaluate the clinical utility of the narrative scoring scheme (NSS) as an index of narrative macrostructure for young school-age children. Method: Oral retells of a wordless picture book were elicited from 129 typically developing children, ages 5-7. A series of correlations and hierarchical regression equations were completed using…

The influence of narrative risk communication on feelings of cancer risk.

PubMed

Janssen, Eva; van Osch, Liesbeth; de Vries, Hein; Lechner, Lilian

2013-05-01

Evidence is accumulating for the importance of feelings of risk in explaining cancer preventive behaviours, but best practices for influencing these feelings are limited. The aim of this experimental study was to compare the effects of narrative and non-narrative risk communication about sunbed use on ease of imagination and feelings of cancer risk. A total of 233 female sunbed users in the general Dutch population were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: a narrative message (i.e., personal testimonial), a non-narrative cognitive message (i.e., factual risk information using cognitive-laden words), or a non-narrative affective message (i.e., factual risk information using affective-laden words). Ease of imagination and feelings of risk were assessed directly after the risk information was given (T1). Three weeks after the baseline session, feelings of risk were measured again (T2). The results revealed that sunbed users who were exposed to narrative risk information could better imagine themselves developing skin cancer and reported higher feelings of skin cancer risk at T1. Moreover, ease of imagination mediated the effects of message type on feelings of risk at T1 and T2. The findings provide support for the effects of narrative risk communication in influencing feelings of cancer risk through ease of imagination. Cancer prevention programmes may therefore benefit from including narrative risk information. Future research is important to investigate other mechanisms of narrative information and their most effective content and format. What is already known on this subject? Evidence is growing for the importance of feelings of risk in explaining cancer preventive behaviours. Narratives have increasingly been considered as an effective format for persuasive risk messages and studies have shown narrative risk communication to be effective in influencing cognitive risk beliefs. What does this study add? Increasing understanding of how feelings of cancer

A pilot test of the acceptability and efficacy of narrative and non-narrative health education materials in a low health literacy population

PubMed Central

Moran, Meghan Bridgid; Frank, Lauren B.; Chatterjee, Joyee S.; Murphy, Sheila T.; Baezconde-Garbanati, Lourdes

2016-01-01

Although entertainment-education narratives are increasingly being used to communicate health information to a diversity of populations, there is limited evidence examining the use of narrative health education videos in low compared with adequate health literacy populations. There are also very few studies directly comparing narrative materials to more traditional, non-narrative materials. Because individuals with low health literacy are less likely than those with adequate health literacy to benefit from health communication interventions, it is especially important to develop an evidence base supporting the use of narrative health education materials in low literacy populations. This study extends knowledge on the use of narrative health education materials in populations with low health literacy by conducting a randomized trial comparing the acceptability and efficacy (knowledge gain) of two fact-equivalent films, one in a narrative and one in a non-narrative format, on individuals with adequate and low health literacy. This study finds that while both films were well-accepted and produced knowledge gains, the narrative film was more effective in this regard. This effect occurred regardless of health literacy level, indicating that narrative health communication materials are appropriate for individuals with low health literacy and do not exacerbate existing health disparities. These findings add to a small but growing body of evidence testing narrative health education materials in individuals with low health literacy, and provide new evidence supporting narrative, entertainment-education style video as a health communication tool to help reduce health literacy-related health disparities. PMID:27872657

Maternal Autonomy Support and Dyadic Verbal Synchrony during Narrative Coconstruction: Links with Child Attachment Representations and Independent Narrative Competence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kelly, Kimberly Reynolds

2018-01-01

This study investigated the empirical bases for 2 dimensions of narrative coconstruction (autonomy support and verbal synchrony) with 65 mother-child dyads. Links between the 2 narrative dimensions and child narrative competence were tested, and differences in autonomy support and verbal synchrony across attachment groups (child story-stem…

The limits of narrative: provocations for the medical humanities.

PubMed

Woods, Angela

2011-12-01

This paper aims to (re)ignite debate about the role of narrative in the medical humanities. It begins with a critical review of the ways in which narrative has been mobilised by humanities and social science scholars to understand the experience of health and illness. I highlight seven dangers or blind spots in the dominant medical humanities approach to narrative, including the frequently unexamined assumption that all human beings are 'naturally narrative'. I then explore this assumption further through an analysis of philosopher Galen Strawson's influential article 'Against Narrativity'. Strawson rejects the descriptive claim that "human beings typically see or live or experience their lives as a narrative" and the normative claim that "a richly Narrative outlook is essential to a well-lived life, to true or full personhood". His work has been taken up across a range of disciplines, but its implications in the context of health and illness have not yet been sufficiently discussed. This article argues that 'Against Narrativity' can and should stimulate robust debate within the medical humanities regarding the limits of narrative, and concludes by discussing a range of possibilities for venturing 'beyond narrative'.

[Narrative-based medicine and clinical knowledge].

PubMed

Saito, Seiji

2006-01-01

Narrative Based Medicine (NBM) can be defined as follows; a) It views the patient's illness as an unfolding story within the wider story of the patient's life and life-world; b) It acknowledges the patient as the narrator of the story and the subject of the tale; c) It recognizes that all medical theories, hypothesis and pathophysiologies as socially constructed narratives and accepts the coexistence of multiple different narratives; d) It regards the emergence of new stories from dialogue and discourse between patients and healthcare professionals as part of the treatment. Because psychiatry is the only area of specialist medicine where talking and listening are explicitly understood to be therapeutic, NBM can be adopted an effective perspective and method in psychiatry.

The Ability of Narrative Communication to Address Health-related Social Norms

PubMed Central

Moran, Meghan Bridgid; Murphy, Sheila T.; Frank, Lauren; Baezconde-Garbanati, Lourdes

2013-01-01

Social norms are an important predictor of health behavior and have been targeted by a variety of health communication campaigns. However, these campaigns often encounter challenges related to the socially specific context in which norms exist: specifically, the extent to which the target population identifies with the reference group presented in the ad and the extent to which the target population believes the campaign's message. We argue that because of its capacity to effect identification among viewers, narrative communication is particularly appropriate for impacting social norms and, consequently, behavioral intention. This manuscript presents the results of a randomized trial testing the effectiveness of two films – one narrative, one non-narrative – in changing perceived social norms and behavioral intention regarding Pap testing to detect cervical cancer. Results of the study indicate that the narrative film was in fact more effective at producing positive changes in perceived norm and intention. PMID:24179677

A story of change: The influence of narrative on African-Americans with diabetes

PubMed Central

Goddu, Anna P.; Raffel, Katie E.; Peek, Monica E.

2015-01-01

Objective To understand if narratives can be effective tools for diabetes empowerment, from the perspective of African-American participants in a program that improved diabetes self-efficacy and self-management. Methods In-depth interviews and focus groups were conducted with program graduates. Participants were asked to comment on the program's film, storytelling, and role-play, and whether those narratives had contributed to their diabetes behavior change. An iterative process of coding, analyzing, and summarizing transcripts was completed using the framework approach. Results African-American adults (n = 36) with diabetes reported that narratives positively influenced the diabetes behavior change they had experienced by improving their attitudes/beliefs while increasing their knowledge/skills. The social proliferation of narrative – discussing stories, rehearsing their messages with role-play, and building social support through storytelling – was reported as especially influential. Conclusion Utilizing narratives in group settings may facilitate health behavior change, particularly in minority communities with traditions of storytelling. Theoretical models explaining narrative's effect on behavior change should consider the social context of narratives. Practice implications Narratives may be promising tools to promote diabetes empowerment. Interventions using narratives may be more effective if they include group time to discuss and rehearse the stories presented, and if they foster an environment conducive to social support among participants. PMID:25986500

Visuospatial Working Memory Capacity Predicts Physiological Arousal in a Narrative Task.

PubMed

Smithson, Lisa; Nicoladis, Elena

2016-06-01

Physiological arousal that occurs during narrative production is thought to reflect emotional processing and cognitive effort (Bar-Haim et al. in Dev Psychobiol 44:238-249, 2004). The purpose of this study was to determine whether individual differences in visuospatial working memory and/or verbal working memory capacity predict physiological arousal in a narrative task. Visuospatial working memory was a significant predictor of skin conductance level (SCL); verbal working memory was not. When visuospatial working memory interference was imposed, visuospatial working memory was no longer a significant predictor of SCL. Visuospatial interference also resulted in a significant reduction in SCL. Furthermore, listener ratings of narrative quality were contingent upon the visuospatial working memory resources of the narrator. Potential implications for educators and clinical practitioners are discussed.

The Scope and Autonomy of Personal Narrative

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ingraham, Chris

2017-01-01

The work of Carol Berkenkotter and others who have expanded the realm of personal narrative studies over the past several decades would not have been possible without the pioneering efforts of those who first brought the study of narrative to nonliterary discourses. By revisiting what personal narratives were to these pioneers-working outward from…

Pseudo-Haptic Feedback for Promoting Narrative Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Umetsu, Kazuaki; Kashihara, Akihiro

2017-01-01

Skill in reading comprehension requires reading sentences to understand an intention embedded between the lines. In the case of narrative, it is particularly necessary to read a narrative and find essential concepts such as emotions of the characters embedded between the lines for comprehending an intention of the narrative. In this work, we focus…

“What Is Our Story?” Philip Morris’s Changing Corporate Narrative

PubMed Central

Malone, Ruth E.

2015-01-01

Objectives. We sought to learn how employees reacted to changes in the corporate narrative of Philip Morris Companies (PMC) in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Methods. We analyzed archival internal tobacco industry documents about PMC’s creation of a new corporate story. Results. In response to litigation and public opprobrium, PMC replaced its market success–oriented corporate narrative with a new one centered on responsibility. Although management sought to downplay inconsistencies between the old and new narratives, some employees reportedly had difficulty reconciling them, concerned that the responsibility focus might affect company profitability. However, others embraced the new narrative, suggesting radical ideas to prevent youth smoking. These ideas were not adopted. Conclusions. PMC’s new narrative was unconvincing to many of its employees, who perceived it either as a threat to the company’s continued profits or as incongruous with what they had previously been told. As it had done with the public, PMC misled its employees in explaining a narrative repositioning that would help the company continue business as usual. Moving toward a tobacco endgame will require ongoing discursive and symbolic efforts to disrupt this narrative. PMID:26270280

Narrative palliative care: a method for building empathy.

PubMed

Stanley, Patricia; Hurst, Marsha

2011-01-01

We make meaning of illness, suffering, and death through narrative, by telling a story. In this article, the authors explore narrative and palliative care: how, at the end of life, narratives of patients, caregivers, and clinicians serve to connect to those still living, and how through each telling and listening, we honor and validate the experience of suffering. A discussion of narrative competence and the skills of attention, representation, and affiliation is followed by an outline of the format for a narrative medicine workshop and a detailed analysis of an experiential exercise in close reading and reflective writing.

Perspective taking in children's narratives about jealousy.

PubMed

Aldrich, Naomi J; Tenenbaum, Harriet R; Brooks, Patricia J; Harrison, Karine; Sines, Jennie

2011-03-01

This study explored relationships between perspective-taking, emotion understanding, and children's narrative abilities. Younger (23 5-/6-year-olds) and older (24 7-/8-year-olds) children generated fictional narratives, using a wordless picture book, about a frog experiencing jealousy. Children's emotion understanding was assessed through a standardized test of emotion comprehension and their ability to convey the jealousy theme of the story. Perspective-taking ability was assessed with respect to children's use of narrative evaluation (i.e., narrative coherence, mental state language, supplementary evaluative speech, use of subjective language, and placement of emotion expression). Older children scored higher than younger children on emotion comprehension and on understanding the story's complex emotional theme, including the ability to identify a rival. They were more advanced in perspective-taking abilities, and selectively used emotion expressions to highlight story episodes. Subjective perspective taking and narrative coherence were predictive of children's elaboration of the jealousy theme. Use of supplementary evaluative speech, in turn, was predictive of both subjective perspective taking and narrative coherence. ©2010 The British Psychological Society.

The Index of Narrative Microstructure: A Clinical Tool for Analyzing School-Age Children's Narrative Performances

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Justice, Laura M.; Bowles, Ryan P.; Kaderavek, Joan N.; Ukrainetz, Teresa A.; Eisenberg, Sarita L.; Gillam, Ronald B.

2006-01-01

Purpose: This research was conducted to develop a clinical tool--the Index of Narrative Microstructure (INMIS)--that would parsimoniously account for important microstructural aspects of narrative production for school-age children. The study provides field test age- and grade-based INMIS values to aid clinicians in making normative judgments…

Narrative inquiry: a relational research methodology for medical education.

PubMed

Clandinin, D Jean; Cave, Marie T; Berendonk, Charlotte

2017-01-01

Narrative research, an inclusive term for a range of methodologies, has rapidly become part of medical education scholarship. In this paper we identify narrative inquiry as a particular theoretical and methodological framework within narrative research and outline its characteristics. We briefly summarise how narrative research has been used in studying medical learners' identity making in medical education. We then turn to the uses of narrative inquiry in studying medical learners' professional identity making. With the turn to narrative inquiry, the shift is to thinking with stories instead of about stories. We highlight four challenges in engaging in narrative inquiry in medical education and point toward promising future research and practice possibilities. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and The Association for the Study of Medical Education.

The Home Literacy Environment and the English Narrative Development of Spanish–English Bilingual Children

PubMed Central

Hammer, Carol Scheffner

2016-01-01

Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the home literacy environment (HLE) on the English narrative development of Spanish–English bilingual children from low-income backgrounds. Method Longitudinal data were collected on 81 bilingual children from preschool through 1st grade. English narrative skills were assessed in the fall and spring of each year. Microstructure measures included mean length of utterance in morphemes and number of different words. The Narrative Scoring Scheme (Heilmann, Miller, Nockerts, & Dunaway, 2010) measured macrostructure. Each fall, the children's mothers reported the frequency of literacy activities and number of children's books in the home. Growth curve modeling was used to describe the children's narrative development and the impact of the HLE over time. Results Significant growth occurred for all narrative measures. The HLE did not affect microstructure growth. The frequency with which mothers read to their children had a positive impact on the growth of the children's total Narrative Scoring Scheme scores. Other aspects of the HLE, such as the frequency with which the mothers told stories, did not affect macrostructure development. Conclusions These results provide information about the development of English narrative abilities and demonstrate the importance of frequent book reading for the overall narrative quality of children from Spanish-speaking homes who are learning English. PMID:27701625

Electricity and Vital Force: Discussing the Nature of Science Through a Historical Narrative

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schiffer, Hermann; Guerra, Andreia

2015-05-01

Seeking a historical-philosophical approach to science teaching, narrative texts have been used as pedagogical tools to improve the learning experience of students. A review of the literature of different types of narrative texts and their different rates of effectiveness in science education is presented. This study was developed using the so-called Historical Narrative as a tool to introduce science content from a historical-philosophical approach, aiming to discuss science as a human construction. This project was carried out in a 9th grade Physics class in K-12 school, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The steps involved in constructing a Historical Narrative based on the controversy over animal electrical fluid between Luigi Galvani and Alessandro Volta is reported herein. Finally, qualitative research results of the activities inspired by this Historical Narrative are presented with the purpose of answering the research question: to what extent do Historical Narratives support and enhance discussions about the Nature of Science (NOS), through teaching the scientific content in a historical-philosophical approach with 9th grade students? The results indicate that Historical Narrative, based on historical episodes, is a good "door opener" to teach scientific content in a historical-philosophical approach, introducing discussions about the Nature of Science without neglecting the scientific content or simplifying the discussions about the NOS.

Methodological Pluralism and Narrative Inquiry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Michie, Michael

2013-01-01

This paper considers how the integral theory model of Nancy Davis and Laurie Callihan might be enacted using a different qualitative methodology, in this case the narrative methodology. The focus of narrative research is shown to be on "what meaning is being made" rather than "what is happening here" (quadrant 2 rather than…

A cross-linguistic study of the development of gesture and speech in Zulu and French oral narratives.

PubMed

Kunene Nicolas, Ramona; Guidetti, Michèle; Colletta, Jean-Marc

2017-01-01

The present study reports on a developmental and cross-linguistic study of oral narratives produced by speakers of Zulu (a Bantu language) and French (a Romance language). Specifically, we focus on oral narrative performance as a bimodal (i.e., linguistic and gestural) behaviour during the late language acquisition phase. We analyzed seventy-two oral narratives produced by L1 Zulu and French adults and primary school children aged between five and ten years old. The data were all collected using a narrative retelling task. The results revealed a strong effect of age on discourse performance, confirming that narrative abilities improve with age, irrespective of language. However, the results also showed cross-linguistic differences. Zulu oral narratives were longer, more detailed, and accompanied by more co-speech gestures than the French narratives. The parallel effect of age and language on gestural behaviour is discussed and highlights the importance of studying oral narratives from a multimodal perspective within a cross-linguistic framework.

Personal domains assessed in multiple mini interviews (MMIs) for healthcare student selection: A narrative synthesis systematic review.

PubMed

Callwood, Alison; Jeevaratnam, Kamalan; Kotronoulas, Grigorios; Schneider, Annegret; Lewis, Liane; Nadarajah, Vishna Devi

2018-05-01

To examine the personal domains multiple mini interviews (MMIs) are being designed to assess, explore how they were determined and contextualise such domains in current and future healthcare student selection processes DESIGN: A systematic review of empirical research reporting on MMI model design was conducted from database inception to November 2017. Twelve electronic bibliographic databases. Evidence was extracted from original studies, and integrated in a narrative synthesis guided by the PRISMA statement for reporting systematic reviews. Personal domains were clustered into themes using a modified Delphi technique. A total of 584 articles were screened. 65 unique studies (80 articles) matched our inclusion criteria of which seven were conducted within nursing/midwifery faculties. Six in 10 studies featured applicants to medical school. Across selection processes, we identified 32 personal domains assessed by MMIs, the most frequent being: communication skills (84%), teamwork/collaboration (70%), and ethical/moral judgement (65%). Domains capturing ability to cope with stressful situations (14%), make decisions (14%), and resolve conflict in the workplace (13%) featured in fewer than ten studies overall. Intra- and inter-disciplinary inconsistencies in domain profiles were noted, as well as differences by entry level. MMIs deployed in nursing and midwifery assessed compassion and decision-making more frequently than in all other disciplines. Own programme philosophy and professional body guidance were most frequently cited (~50%) as sources for personal domains; a blueprinting process was reported in only 8% of studies. Nursing, midwifery and allied healthcare professionals should develop their theoretical frameworks for MMIs to ensure they are evidence-based and fit-for-purpose. We suggest a re-evaluation of domain priorities to ensure that students who are selected, not only have the capacity to offer the highest standards of care provision, but are able to

Teaching Life Narratives in the Classroom: Strategies Based on Indigenous Traditions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lavoie, Constance; Blanchet, Patricia-Anne

2018-01-01

The life narrative is an oral genre grounded in Indigenous tradition and teaching practice. In Canadian Indigenous communities, the expertise and content transmitted by life narratives are a part of their oral heritage. Drawing from their personal and professional experiences in Indigenous school environments, as well as the results from…

The use of narrative in Jewish medical ethics.

PubMed

Jotkowitz, Alan

2013-09-01

Anne Jones has pointed out that over the last three decades, stories have been important to medical ethics in at least three ways: (1). Stories as cases for teaching principle-based medical ethics (2). Narratives for moral guides on what is considered living a good life (3). Stories as testimonials written by both patients and physicians. A pioneer in this effort, particularly in regard to using narratives as moral guides, has been the ethicist and philosopher Stanley Hauerwas. Heavily influenced by virtue ethics, Hauerwas believes that it is a person's particular narrative tradition that provides one with convictions that form the basis of one's morality. Befitting a Protestant theologian, he is particularly concerned with the Christian narrative. From a Jewish perspective, there has been much less written on the use of narrative in medical ethics. However, it is a mistake to think that narrative has little, if any, role in Rabbinic ethical decision making. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the centrality of narrative in the thought of Orthodox Jewish decisors and the problems inherent in this methodology.

Narrative and natural history in the eighteenth century.

PubMed

Terrall, Mary

2017-04-01

In the eighteenth century, natural histories of animals incorporated narratives about animal behaviour and narratives of discovery and experimentation. Naturalists used first-person accounts to link the stories of their scientific investigations to the stories of the animal lives they were studying. Understanding nature depended on narratives that shifted back and forth in any given text between animal and human, and between individual cases and generalizations about species. This paper explores the uses of narrative through examples from the work of René-Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur and Abraham Trembley. In all cases, narrative took the genre of natural history well beyond straightforward description and classification. Prose accounts of insect actions and mechanisms worked in tandem with visual narratives embedded in the accompanying illustrations, where artists developed strategies for representing sequences of minute changes over time. By throwing into relief the narrative sections of natural histories, the examples considered here expose the role played by these tales of encounters with the insect world in the making of natural historical knowledge. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Mutinous Fiction: Narrative and Illustrative Metalepsis in Three Postmodern Picturebooks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pantaleo, Sylvia

2010-01-01

Narrative embedding is a common narrative structural device. Genette (1980, 1988) distinguished among various diegetic levels to explain the discrete narrative levels in embedded narratives and he defined metalepsis as the deliberate disturbing or breaking of narrative boundaries. Metalepsis, described by Malina (2002) as a mutinous narrative…

“These Are Just Stories, Mulder”: Exposure to Conspiracist Fiction Does Not Produce Narrative Persuasion

PubMed Central

Nera, Kenzo; Pantazi, Myrto; Klein, Olivier

2018-01-01

Narrative persuasion, i.e., the impact of narratives on beliefs, behaviors and attitudes, and the mechanisms underpinning endorsement of conspiracy theories have both drawn substantial attention from social scientists. Yet, to date, these two fields have evolved separately, and to our knowledge no study has empirically examined the impact of conspiracy narratives on real-world conspiracy beliefs. In a first study, we exposed a group of participants (n = 37) to an X-Files episode before asking them to fill in a questionnaire related to their narrative experience and conspiracy beliefs. A control group (n = 41) had to answer the conspiracy beliefs items before watching the episode. Based on past findings of both the aforementioned fields of research, we hypothesized that the experimental group would show greater endorsement of conspiracy beliefs, an effect expected to be mediated by identification to the episodes' characters. We furthermore hypothesized that identification would be associated with cognitive elaboration of the topics developed in the narrative. The first two hypotheses were disproved since no narrative persuasion effect was observed. In a second study, we sought to replicate these results in a larger sample (n = 166). No persuasive effect was found in the new data and a Bayesian meta-analysis of the two studies strongly supports the absence of a positive effect of exposure to narrative material on endorsement of conspiracy theories. In both studies, a significant relation between conspiracy mentality and enjoyment was observed. In the second study, this relation was fully mediated by two dimensions of perceived realism, i.e., plausibility and narrative consistency. We discuss our results, based on theoretical models of narrative persuasion and compare our studies with previous narrative persuasion studies. Implications of these results for future research are also discussed. PMID:29875710

The anthropology of dementia: a narrative perspective.

PubMed

Randall, William L

2009-03-01

This article draws on recent thinking in the field of narrative gerontology to lend support to Mahnaz Hashmi's "anthropological perspective" on dementia. From a narrative perspective, the relational component of human life--and thus of dementia--is underscored. Moreover, when the narrative dimensions of memory are considered, the line between "normal" and "pathological" is revealed as finer than commonly assumed.

Narrative, emotion and action: analysing 'most memorable' professionalism dilemmas.

PubMed

Rees, Charlotte E; Monrouxe, Lynn V; McDonald, Laura A

2013-01-01

Although previous studies have explored medical learners''most memorable' experiences, these have typically focused on patient deaths or mistakes. Drawing on multiple theoretical perspectives to understand the interplay between narrative, emotion and action, this paper aims to explore the whats and hows of written narratives of most memorable professionalism dilemmas: what types of dilemma are most memorable? When and where do they take place? How do students act? What characteristics relate to these dilemmas? How are dilemmas narrated? A total of 680 students from 29 of 32 UK medical schools provided a written narrative of their most memorable dilemma as part of their responses to an online questionnaire exploring the impact of professionalism dilemmas on moral distress. We employed quantitative thematic and discourse analysis of all narratives using Linguistic Inquiry Word Count software (LIWC) and conducted a narrative analysis of one exemplar. The most common themes across all narratives concerned dilemmas that related to issues of patient care with reference to the actions of health care professionals or students, student abuse, and consent and intimate examination. A total of 41.1% of experiences had occurred over 6 months previously and 80.1% had taken place in hospital settings. Overall, 54.9% of narrators reported having done something in the face of their dilemma, although only 13.2% described taking obvious or direct action. Numerous characteristics were related to most memorable dilemmas (e.g. narratives citing intimate examinations were more likely to take place in surgical settings). A total of 92.6% of narratives included negative emotion talk and numerous significant relationships emerged between types of emotion talk and most memorable dilemmas (e.g. more anger talk in abuse narratives). Our narrative analysis of one exemplar illustrates the richness of emotion talk and more subtle devices to establish emotional tone. Findings extend previous

Personal Narratives of Genetic Testing: Expectations, Emotions, and Impact on Self and Family.

PubMed

Anderson, Emily E; Wasson, Katherine

2015-01-01

The stories in this volume shed light on the potential of narrative inquiry to fill gaps in knowledge, particularly given the mixed results of quantitative research on patient views of and experiences with genetic and genomic testing. Published studies investigate predictors of testing (particularly risk perceptions and worry); psychological and behavioral responses to testing; and potential impact on the health care system (e.g., when patients bring DTC genetic test results to their primary care provider). Interestingly, these themes did not dominate the narratives published in this issue. Rather, these narratives included consistent themes of expectations and looking for answers; complex emotions; areas of contradiction and conflict; and family impact. More narrative research on patient experiences with genetic testing may fill gaps in knowledge regarding how patients define the benefits of testing, changes in psychological and emotional reactions to test results over time, and the impact of testing on families.

Conducting a narrative analysis.

PubMed

Emden, C

1998-07-01

This paper describes the process of narrative analysis as undertaken within a nursing study on scholars and scholarship. If follows an earlier paper titled: Theoretical perspectives on narrative inquiry that described the influencing ideas of Bruner (1987) and Roof (1994) upon the same study. Analysis procedures are described here in sufficient detail for other researchers wishing to implement a similar approach to do so. The process as described has two main components: (A) strategies of 'core story creation' and 'employment'; and (B) issues and dilemmas of narrative analysis, especially relating to rigour. The ideas of Polkinghorne (1988), Mishler (1986), and Labov (in Mishler 1986a) are introduced in so far as they impinge upon the analysis process. These relate especially to the development of key terms, and to the analysis strategies of core story creation and employment. Outcomes of the study in question are termed 'Signposting the lived-world of scholarship'.

On the Usefulness of Narratives: An Interdisciplinary Review and Theoretical Model.

PubMed

Shaffer, Victoria A; Focella, Elizabeth S; Hathaway, Andrew; Scherer, Laura D; Zikmund-Fisher, Brian J

2018-04-19

How can we use stories from other people to promote better health experiences, improve judgments about health, and increase the quality of medical decisions without introducing bias, systematically persuading the listeners to change their attitudes, or altering behaviors in nonoptimal ways? More practically, should narratives be used in health education, promotion, or behavior change interventions? In this article, we address these questions by conducting a narrative review of a diverse body of literature on narratives from several disciplines to gain a better understanding about what narratives do, including their role in communication, engagement, recall, persuasion, and health behavior change. We also review broad theories about information processing and persuasion from psychology and more specific models about narrative messaging found in the health communication and marketing literatures to provide insight into the processes by which narratives have their effect on health behavior. To address major gaps in our theoretical understanding about how narratives work and what effects they will have on health behavior, we propose the Narrative Immersion Model, whose goal is to identify the parameters that predict the specific impact of a particular narrative (e.g. persuade, inform, comfort, etc.) based on the type of narrative message (e.g. process, experience, or outcome narrative). Further, the Narrative Immersion Model describes the magnitude of the effect as increasing through successive layers of engagement with the narrative: interest, identification, and immersion. Finally, the Narrative Immersion Model identifies characteristics of the narrative intervention that encourage greater immersion within a given narrative. We believe there are important communication gaps in areas areas of behavioral medicine that could be addressed with narratives; however, more work is needed in order to employ narrative messaging systematically. The Narrative Immersion Model

Narrative environments and the capacity of disability narratives to motivate leisure-time physical activity among individuals with spinal cord injury.

PubMed

Perrier, Marie-Josée; Smith, Brett M; Latimer-Cheung, Amy E

2013-01-01

Few individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) engage in the recommended amount of leisure time physical activity (LTPA). Yet little is known about how, and why, active individuals engage in specific types of LTPA. This study explored how a unique narrative environment and disability narratives motivated individuals with SCI to engage in LTPA. Fourteen individuals with SCI from a physical activity program participated in approximately hour-long interviews. Interviews were then subjected to a narrative analysis. Individuals who used a restitution narrative (n = 6) were motivated to engage in functional LTPA because of the desire to maintain the body and restore the past self. The individual who used the chaos narrative (n = 1) preferred solitary LTPA as exposure to others with SCI was a constant reminder of the lost, pre-injury self. Individuals who used a quest narrative (n = 7) explored LTPA options that fit with their interests; these individuals were open to new types of LTPA, such as sport and outdoor recreation. The plot of three disability narratives can all motivate the pursuit of LTPA; however, not all types of LTPA are seen as equal. LTPA interventions can be enhanced through the lessons learned from this unique type of environment. Despite individuals' views about their disability, they can still be motivated to engage in routine LTPA. Different theoretical determinants, such as health or social benefits, hold different relevance for LTPA among individuals with differing disability narratives. The environment provided by practitioners can therefore elicit some stories of SCI while stifling others. Open narrative environment will attract individuals to listen and maintain involvement in LTPA.

The Rhetoric of Awareness Narratives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Swiencicki, Jill

2006-01-01

At the heart of passionate antiracist writing by white people often lies a personal narrative--a narrative of awakening in which the writers see for the first time the unearned prvilege their skin color affords them, and one that reveals the historical, familial, and cultural trajectories of race difference they are linked to and perpetuate. In…

Prescriptive scientific narratives for communicating usable science.

PubMed

Downs, Julie S

2014-09-16

In this paper I describe how a narrative approach to science communication may help audiences to more fully understand how science is relevant to their own lives and behaviors. The use of prescriptive scientific narrative can help to overcome challenges specific to scientific concepts, especially the need to reconsider long-held beliefs in the face of new empirical findings. Narrative can captivate the audience, driving anticipation for plot resolution, thus becoming a self-motivating vehicle for information delivery. This quality gives narrative considerable power to explain complex phenomena and causal processes, and to create and reinforce memory traces for better recall and application over time. Because of the inherent properties of narrative communication, their creators have a special responsibility to ensure even-handedness in selection and presentation of the scientific evidence. The recent transformation in communication and information technology has brought about new platforms for delivering content, particularly through interactivity, which can use structured self-tailoring to help individuals most efficiently get exactly the content that they need. As with all educational efforts, prescriptive scientific narratives must be evaluated systematically to determine whether they have the desired effects in improving understanding and changing behavior.

Prescriptive scientific narratives for communicating usable science

PubMed Central

Downs, Julie S.

2014-01-01

In this paper I describe how a narrative approach to science communication may help audiences to more fully understand how science is relevant to their own lives and behaviors. The use of prescriptive scientific narrative can help to overcome challenges specific to scientific concepts, especially the need to reconsider long-held beliefs in the face of new empirical findings. Narrative can captivate the audience, driving anticipation for plot resolution, thus becoming a self-motivating vehicle for information delivery. This quality gives narrative considerable power to explain complex phenomena and causal processes, and to create and reinforce memory traces for better recall and application over time. Because of the inherent properties of narrative communication, their creators have a special responsibility to ensure even-handedness in selection and presentation of the scientific evidence. The recent transformation in communication and information technology has brought about new platforms for delivering content, particularly through interactivity, which can use structured self-tailoring to help individuals most efficiently get exactly the content that they need. As with all educational efforts, prescriptive scientific narratives must be evaluated systematically to determine whether they have the desired effects in improving understanding and changing behavior. PMID:25225369

Social and Gendered Readings of Illness Narratives.

PubMed

Lederman, Muriel

2016-09-01

This essay recognizes that the interactions that define medical care are problematic and that narrative is invoked to overcome these strains. Being grounded in science, medicine, too, might be influenced by a particular world-view that arose in the natural philosophy of the Scientific Revolution. If narrative responds to this sort of medicine, it may retain traces of this mindset. A feminist approach responds to this viewpoint and may used beneficially to analyze both the story of medicine and the stories within medicine. Tensions discussed from this perspective are those between sickness and health and those between patient and provider; also questioned are suitable form(s) of narrative and whose narratives are valued. Suggestions for broadening narrative to address these issues include letting the body speak for itself, overcoming the power differential in the patient/provider interaction and using standpoints to foster a more equal and just medical system.

Relations Between Narrative Coherence, Identity, and Psychological Well-being in Emerging Adulthood

PubMed Central

Waters, Theodore E. A.; Fivush, Robyn

2014-01-01

Objective The hypothesis that the ability to construct a coherent account of personal experience is reflective, or predictive, of psychological adjustment cuts across numerous domains of psychological science. It has been argued that coherent accounts of identity are especially adaptive. We tested these hypotheses by examining relations between narrative coherence of personally significant autobiographical memories and three psychological well-being components (Purpose and Meaning; Positive Self View; Positive Relationships). We also examined the potential moderation of the relations between coherence and well-being by assessing the identity content of each narrative. Method We collected two autobiographical narratives of personally significant events from 103 undergraduate students and coded them for coherence and identity content. Two additional narratives about generic/recurring events were also collected and coded for coherence. Results We confirmed the prediction that constructing coherent autobiographical narratives is related to psychological well-being. Further, we found that this relation was moderated by the narratives’ relevance to identity and that this moderation held after controlling for narrative ability more generally (i.e. coherence of generic/recurring events). Conclusion These data lend strong support to the coherent narrative identity hypothesis and the prediction that unique events are a critical feature of identity construction in emerging adulthood. PMID:25110125

Child, parent, and parent-child emotion narratives: implications for developmental psychopathology.

PubMed

Oppenheim, David

2006-01-01

Studies using narratives with children and parents offer ways to study affective meaning-making processes that are central in many theories of developmental psychopathology. This paper reviews theory regarding affective meaning making, and argues that narratives are particularly suited to examine such processes. The review of narrative studies and methods is organized into three sections according to the focus on child, parent, and parent-child narratives. Within each focus three levels of analysis are considered: (a) narrative organization and coherence, (b) narrative content, and (c) the behavior/interactions of the narrator(s). The implications of this research for developmental psychopathology and clinical work are discussed with an emphasis on parent-child jointly constructed narratives as the meeting point of individual child and parent narratives.

Towards interactive narrative medicine.

PubMed

Cavazza, Marc; Charles, Fred

2013-01-01

Interactive Storytelling technologies have attracted significant interest in the field of simulation and serious gaming for their potential to provide a principled approach to improve user engagement in training scenarios. In this paper, we explore the use of Interactive Storytelling to support Narrative Medicine as a reflective practice. We describe a workflow for the generation of virtual narratives from high-level descriptions of patients' experiences as perceived by physicians, which can help to objectivize such perceptions and support various forms of analysis.

Role of Narrative Perspective and Modality in the Persuasiveness of Public Service Advertisements Promoting HPV Vaccination.

PubMed

Nan, Xiaoli; Futerfas, Michelle; Ma, Zexin

2017-03-01

In the context of public service advertisements promoting human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination, the current research examines 1) the relative persuasiveness of narrative vs. non-narrative messages and 2) the influence of narrative perspective (first- vs. third-person) and modality (text-based vs. audio-based) on message effectiveness. Results of a controlled experiment (N = 121) suggested that both a non-narrative message and a first-person narrative message led to greater perceived risk of getting HPV than a third-person narrative message. There was no difference in risk perception between the non-narrative and first-person narrative conditions. These findings were confined to the text-based condition, however. When the messages were audio-based, no differential message effects were detected. The analysis also provided partial evidence for an indirect effect of narrative perspective on intentions to vaccinate against HPV through HPV risk perception. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Career Paths in Educational Leadership: Examining Principals' Narratives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parylo, Oksana; Zepeda, Sally J.; Bengtson, Ed

2012-01-01

This qualitative study analyzes the career path narratives of active principals. Structural narrative analysis was supplemented with sociolinguistic theory and thematic narrative analysis to discern the similarities and differences, as well as the patterns in the language used by participating principals. Thematic analysis found four major themes…

Customizing clinical narratives for the electronic medical record interface using cognitive methods.

PubMed

Sharda, Pallav; Das, Amar K; Cohen, Trevor A; Patel, Vimla

2006-05-01

As healthcare practice transitions from paper-based to computer-based records, there is increasing need to determine an effective electronic format for clinical narratives. Our research focuses on utilizing a cognitive science methodology to guide the conversion of medical texts to a more structured, user-customized presentation in the electronic medical record (EMR). We studied the use of discharge summaries by psychiatrists with varying expertise-experts, intermediates, and novices. Experts were given two hypothetical emergency care scenarios with narrative discharge summaries and asked to verbalize their clinical assessment. Based on the results, the narratives were presented in a more structured form. Intermediate and novice subjects received a narrative and a structured discharge summary, and were asked to verbalize their assessments of each. A qualitative comparison of the interview transcripts of all subjects was done by analysis of recall and inference made with respect to level of expertise. For intermediate and novice subjects, recall was greater with the structured form than with the narrative. Novices were also able to make more inferences (not always accurate) from the structured form than with the narrative. Errors occurred in assessments using the narrative form but not the structured form. Our cognitive methods to study discharge summary use enabled us to extract a conceptual representation of clinical narratives from end-users. This method allowed us to identify clinically relevant information that can be used to structure medical text for the EMR and potentially improve recall and reduce errors.

Research studies on patients' illness experience using the Narrative Medicine approach: a systematic review

PubMed Central

Fioretti, Chiara; Mazzocco, Ketti; Oliveri, Serena; Masiero, Marianna; Pravettoni, Gabriella

2016-01-01

Objective Since its birth about 30 years ago, Narrative Medicine approach has increased in popularity in the medical context as well as in other disciplines. This paper aims to review Narrative Medicine research studies on patients' and their caregivers' illness experience. Setting and participants MEDLINE, Psycinfo, EBSCO Psychological and Behavioural Science, The Cochrane Library and CINAHL databases were searched to identify all the research studies which focused on the Narrative Medicine approach reported in the title, in the abstract and in the keywords the words ‘Narrative Medicine’ or ‘Narrative-based Medicine’. Primary and secondary outcome measures: number of participants, type of disease, race and age of participants, type of study, dependent variables, intervention methods, assessment. Results Of the 325 titles screened, we identified 10 research articles fitting the inclusion criteria. Our systematic review showed that research on Narrative Medicine has no common specific methodology: narrative in Medicine is used as an intervention protocol as well as an assessment tool. Patients' characteristics, types of disease and data analysis procedures differ among the screened studies. Conclusions Narrative Medicine research in medical practice needs to find clear and specific protocols to deepen the impact of narrative on medical practice and on patients' lives. PMID:27417197

Temporality of Features in Near-Death Experience Narratives

PubMed Central

Martial, Charlotte; Cassol, Héléna; Antonopoulos, Georgios; Charlier, Thomas; Heros, Julien; Donneau, Anne-Françoise; Charland-Verville, Vanessa; Laureys, Steven

2017-01-01

Background: After an occurrence of a Near-Death Experience (NDE), Near-Death Experiencers (NDErs) usually report extremely rich and detailed narratives. Phenomenologically, a NDE can be described as a set of distinguishable features. Some authors have proposed regular patterns of NDEs, however, the actual temporality sequence of NDE core features remains a little explored area. Objectives: The aim of the present study was to investigate the frequency distribution of these features (globally and according to the position of features in narratives) as well as the most frequently reported temporality sequences of features. Methods: We collected 154 French freely expressed written NDE narratives (i.e., Greyson NDE scale total score ≥ 7/32). A text analysis was conducted on all narratives in order to infer temporal ordering and frequency distribution of NDE features. Results: Our analyses highlighted the following most frequently reported sequence of consecutive NDE features: Out-of-Body Experience, Experiencing a tunnel, Seeing a bright light, Feeling of peace. Yet, this sequence was encountered in a very limited number of NDErs. Conclusion: These findings may suggest that NDEs temporality sequences can vary across NDErs. Exploring associations and relationships among features encountered during NDEs may complete the rigorous definition and scientific comprehension of the phenomenon. PMID:28659779

Temporality of Features in Near-Death Experience Narratives.

PubMed

Martial, Charlotte; Cassol, Héléna; Antonopoulos, Georgios; Charlier, Thomas; Heros, Julien; Donneau, Anne-Françoise; Charland-Verville, Vanessa; Laureys, Steven

2017-01-01

Background: After an occurrence of a Near-Death Experience (NDE), Near-Death Experiencers (NDErs) usually report extremely rich and detailed narratives. Phenomenologically, a NDE can be described as a set of distinguishable features. Some authors have proposed regular patterns of NDEs, however, the actual temporality sequence of NDE core features remains a little explored area. Objectives: The aim of the present study was to investigate the frequency distribution of these features (globally and according to the position of features in narratives) as well as the most frequently reported temporality sequences of features. Methods: We collected 154 French freely expressed written NDE narratives (i.e., Greyson NDE scale total score ≥ 7/32). A text analysis was conducted on all narratives in order to infer temporal ordering and frequency distribution of NDE features. Results: Our analyses highlighted the following most frequently reported sequence of consecutive NDE features: Out-of-Body Experience, Experiencing a tunnel, Seeing a bright light, Feeling of peace. Yet, this sequence was encountered in a very limited number of NDErs. Conclusion: These findings may suggest that NDEs temporality sequences can vary across NDErs. Exploring associations and relationships among features encountered during NDEs may complete the rigorous definition and scientific comprehension of the phenomenon.

Narrative-Based Interactive Learning Environments from Modelling Reasoning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yearwood, John; Stranieri, Andrew

2007-01-01

Narrative and story telling has a long history of use in structuring, organising and communicating human experience. This paper describes a narrative based interactive intelligent learning environment which aims to elucidate practical reasoning using interactive emergent narratives that can be used in training novices in decision making. Its…

7 CFR 3402.14 - Budget and budget narrative.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 15 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Budget and budget narrative. 3402.14 Section 3402.14... GRADUATE AND POSTGRADUATE FELLOWSHIP GRANTS PROGRAM Preparation of an Application § 3402.14 Budget and budget narrative. Applicants must prepare the Budget, Form CSREES-2004, and a budget narrative...

Toward a Narrative Pedagogy for Interactive Learning Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hazel, Paul

2008-01-01

The use of narrative within interactive learning environments (ILEs) is widespread. Reviewing recent research in the fields of ethnography, cognitive psychology, neurobiology, discourse analysis, and education, this paper proposes a rationale for the use of narrative in ILEs. Starting with a description of the origin of narrative in the brain, the…

[Narrative and faculty development: results of a five years experience with a creative writing workshop].

PubMed

Walker, María Rosa; Zúñiga, Denisse; Triviño, Ximena

2012-05-01

Narrative medicine has showed to be a powerful instrument to reinforce relationships, identity, and self-knowledge among health professionals. Subjective issues have been recently recognized as relevant for faculty development in addition to the technical aspects. Since 2006 a creative writing workshop has been included as part of the Diploma in Medical Education at the medical school of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. To describe the experience and results of the creative writing workshop (2006-2010). Descriptive and retrospective study with a qualitative and quantitative design. Thirty-six teachers of the School of Medicine attended a 12-hour workshop. The Kirkpatrick model for evaluation of educational outcomes was used to report the data obtained in the course evaluation survey and in the stories produced. There were positive results at the four levels of Kirkpatrick evaluation model. The learning objectives of the workshop were achieved and 83 stories were created, compiled and published. The creative writing workshop can provide faculty with protected time for reflective practice about academic experiences and produce educational outcomes at different levels of the Kirkpatrick model.

The Organization and Anatomy of Narrative Comprehension and Expression in Lewy Body Spectrum Disorders

PubMed Central

Ash, Sharon; Xie, Sharon; Gross, Rachel Goldmann; Dreyfuss, Michael; Boller, Ashley; Camp, Emily; Morgan, Brianna; O’Shea, Jessica; Grossman, Murray

2012-01-01

Objective Patients with Lewy body spectrum disorders (LBSD) such as Parkinson’s disease (PD), Parkinson’s disease with dementia (PDD), and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) exhibit deficits in both narrative comprehension and narrative expression. The present research examines the hypothesis that these impairments are due to a material-neutral deficit in organizational executive resources rather than to impairments of language per se. We predicted that comprehension and expression of narrative would be similarly affected and that deficits in both expression and comprehension of narrative would be related to the same anatomic distribution of prefrontal disease. Method We examined 29 LBSD patients and 26 healthy seniors on their comprehension and expression of narrative discourse. For comprehension, we measured accuracy and latency in judging events with high and low associativity from familiar scripts such as “going fishing.” The expression task involved maintaining the connectedness of events while narrating a story from a wordless picture book. Results LBSD patients were impaired on measures of narrative organization during both comprehension and expression relative to healthy seniors. Measures of organization during narrative expression and comprehension were significantly correlated with each other. These measures both correlated with executive measures but not with neuropsychological measures of lexical semantics or grammar. Voxel-based morphometry revealed overlapping regressions relating frontal atrophy to narrative comprehension, narrative expression, and measures of executive control. Conclusions Difficulty with narrative discourse in LBSD stems in part from a deficit of organization common to comprehension and expression. This deficit is related to prefrontal cortical atrophy in LBSD. PMID:22309984

Emotional expressiveness and avoidance in narratives of unaccompanied refugee minors

PubMed Central

Huemer, Julia; Nelson, Kristin; Karnik, Niranjan; Völkl-Kernstock, Sabine; Seidel, Stefan; Ebner, Nina; Ryst, Erika; Friedrich, Max; Shaw, Richard J.; Realubit, Cassey; Steiner, Hans; Skala, Katrin

2016-01-01

Objective The aim of this study was to examine a cohort of unaccompanied refugee minors (URMs) by means of psycholinguistic methods in order to obtain a more subtle picture of their degree of traumatization. Methods Twenty-eight participants were included in the Stress-Inducing Speech Task (SIST) consisting of a free association (FA) and a stress (STR) condition. Narratives were examined by means of (1) quantitative parameters (word count); (2) psycholinguistic variables (temporal junctures, TJs), narrative structure, referential activity (RA)—a measure of emotional expressivity; and (3) content analysis ratings. Results Word count was significantly lower than in age-matched norms. In the FA condition, TJs were lower, but in the STR condition, rates were comparable. RA was significantly higher in both conditions. Content analysis ratings showed that the experiences described by these youths were potentially traumatic in nature. Conclusions This pattern of narrative shows a mixture of fulfilling the task demand, while containing an emotionally charged narrative. Narrative structure was absent in the FA condition, but preserved in the STR condition, as URMs struggled with the description of non-normative events. This indicates that these youths have not yet emotionally dealt with and fully integrated their trauma experiences. PMID:26955827

Structure, Meaning, and Constituency in Visual Narrative Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cohn, Neil Thomas

2012-01-01

Narrative has been formally studied for at least two millennia, dating back to the writings of Aristotle. While most theories began by describing the construction of plotlines in theatre, most contemporary research on the structure and comprehension of narratives has examined the discourse of spoken language. However, visual narratives in the form…

A Narratable Self as Addressed by Human Rights

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adami, Rebecca

2017-01-01

The paper extends the critique in earlier research of human rights as exclusive of otherness and difference by introducing the work of Adriana Cavarero (2000) on a "narratable self." Hence, the formation of human rights is thus about the relations between different narratable selves, not just Western ones. A narrative learning, drawing…

Narrative incoherence in schizophrenia: the absent agent-protagonist and the collapse of internal dialogue.

PubMed

Lysaker, Paul H; Wickett, Amanda M; Wilke, Neil; Lysaker, John

2003-01-01

It is widely known that people with schizophrenia have difficulty telling a coherent story of their lives and that this is linked to impoverished function. But what specifically has gone wrong in the narratives in schizophrenia? Is it the case that some elements of narrative remain intact in schizophrenia while others are uniquely affected? To address these questions, we qualitatively analyze the personal narratives of three persons with schizophrenia, which have emerged in psychotherapy. Based on this analysis we suggest that narratives in schizophrenia uniquely fail to situate agency within the narrator resulting in a story that is missing an agent-protagonist. While the narratives we present contain coherent accounts of how others are connected to one another, they fail to evolve into a story about the self as an agent that others could associate with the narrator. We speculate that this may reflect neuro-cognitively based difficulties maintaining the internal dialogue that propels agency as well as fears that any emergent subjectivity may be appropriated or objectified by others. Implications for psychotherapy are discussed.

Narrative Organization Deficit in Lewy Body Disorders Is Related to Alzheimer Pathology.

PubMed

Grossman, Murray; Irwin, David J; Jester, Charles; Halpin, Amy; Ash, Sharon; Rascovsky, Katya; Weintraub, Daniel; McMillan, Corey T

2017-01-01

Background: Day-to-day interactions depend on conversational narrative, and we examine here the neurobiological basis for difficulty organizing narrative discourse in patients with Lewy body disorders (LBD). Method: Narrative organization was examined in 56 non-aphasic LBD patients, including a non-demented cohort ( n = 30) with Parkinson's disease (PD) or PD-Mild Cognitive Impairment PD-MCI,) and a cohort with mild dementia ( n = 26) including PD-dementia (PDD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), with similar age and education but differing in MMSE ( p < 0.001). We used a previously reported procedure that probes patients' judgments of the organization of brief, familiar narratives (e.g., going fishing, wrapping a present). A subgroup of 24 patients had MRI assessment of regional gray matter (GM) atrophy and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels of biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology, including beta amyloid (Aβ), total-tau ( t -tau), and phosphorylated-tau ( p -tau). Results: Mildly demented LBD patients had a significant deficit judging narratives compared to non-demented patients, but this deficit was not correlated with MMSE. Regression analyses instead related narrative organization to regions of frontal GM atrophy, and CSF levels of Aβ and t -tau associated with presumed AD pathology in these frontal regions. Conclusion: These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that CSF markers of AD pathology associated with frontal regions play a role in difficulty organizing narratives in LBD.

Adolescent Summaries of Narrative and Expository Discourse: Differences and Predictors.

PubMed

Lundine, Jennifer P; Harnish, Stacy M; McCauley, Rebecca J; Blackett, Deena Schwen; Zezinka, Alexandra; Chen, Wei; Fox, Robert A

2018-05-03

Summarizing expository passages is a critical academic skill that is understudied in language research. The purpose of this study was to compare the quality of verbal summaries produced by adolescents for 3 different discourse types and to determine whether a composite measure of cognitive skill or a test of expressive syntax predicted their performance. Fifty adolescents listened to, and then verbally summarized, 1 narrative and 2 expository lectures (compare-contrast and cause-effect). They also participated in testing that targeted expressive syntax and 5 cognitive subdomains. Summary quality scores were significantly different across discourse types, with a medium effect size. Analyses revealed significantly higher summary quality scores for cause-effect than compare-contrast summaries. Although the composite cognitive measure contributed significantly to the prediction of quality scores for both types of expository summaries, the expressive syntax score only contributed significantly to the quality scores for narrative summaries. These results support previous research indicating that type of expository discourse may impact student performance. These results also show, for the first time, that cognition may play a predictive role in determining summary quality for expository but not narrative passages in this population. In addition, despite the more complex syntax commonly associated with exposition versus narratives, an expressive syntax score was only predictive of performance on narrative summaries. These findings provide new information, questions, and directions for future research for those who study academic discourse and for professionals who must identify and manage the problems of students struggling with different types of academic discourse. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.6167879.

Narrative health psychology: once more unto the breach. Introduction.

PubMed

Sools, Anneke M; Murray, Michael; Westerhof, Gerben J

2015-03-01

In this editorial, we position narrative health psychology as a variety of narrative psychology, a form of qualitative research in health psychology, and a psychological perspective that falls under the interdisciplinary term narrative health research. The aim of this positioning is to explore what are the most important features of the proposed approach and how they are relevant. We illustrate each positioning with the scope and diversity of narrative health psychology brought together in this special issue. Finally, we reflect on where narrative health psychology is now and how it could develop in the future. © The Author(s) 2015.

The architecture of visual narrative comprehension: the interaction of narrative structure and page layout in understanding comics.

PubMed

Cohn, Neil

2014-01-01

How do people make sense of the sequential images in visual narratives like comics? A growing literature of recent research has suggested that this comprehension involves the interaction of multiple systems: The creation of meaning across sequential images relies on a "narrative grammar" that packages conceptual information into categorical roles organized in hierarchic constituents. These images are encapsulated into panels arranged in the layout of a physical page. Finally, how panels frame information can impact both the narrative structure and page layout. Altogether, these systems operate in parallel to construct the Gestalt whole of comprehension of this visual language found in comics.

Metrics for Electronic-Nursing-Record-Based Narratives: cross-sectional analysis.

PubMed

Kim, Kidong; Jeong, Suyeon; Lee, Kyogu; Park, Hyeoun-Ae; Min, Yul Ha; Lee, Joo Yun; Kim, Yekyung; Yoo, Sooyoung; Doh, Gippeum; Ahn, Soyeon

2016-11-30

We aimed to determine the characteristics of quantitative metrics for nursing narratives documented in electronic nursing records and their association with hospital admission traits and diagnoses in a large data set not limited to specific patient events or hypotheses. We collected 135,406,873 electronic, structured coded nursing narratives from 231,494 hospital admissions of patients discharged between 2008 and 2012 at a tertiary teaching institution that routinely uses an electronic health records system. The standardized number of nursing narratives (i.e., the total number of nursing narratives divided by the length of the hospital stay) was suggested to integrate the frequency and quantity of nursing documentation. The standardized number of nursing narratives was higher for patients aged ≥ 70 years (median = 30.2 narratives/day, interquartile range [IQR] = 24.0-39.4 narratives/day), long (≥ 8 days) hospital stays (median = 34.6 narratives/day, IQR = 27.2-43.5 narratives/day), and hospital deaths (median = 59.1 narratives/day, IQR = 47.0-74.8 narratives/day). The standardized number of narratives was higher in "pregnancy, childbirth, and puerperium" (median = 46.5, IQR = 39.0-54.7) and "diseases of the circulatory system" admissions (median = 35.7, IQR = 29.0-43.4). Diverse hospital admissions can be consistently described with nursing-document-derived metrics for similar hospital admissions and diagnoses. Some areas of hospital admissions may have consistently increasing volumes of nursing documentation across years. Usability of electronic nursing document metrics for evaluating healthcare requires multiple aspects of hospital admissions to be considered.

Policy options to improve leadership of middle managers in the Australian residential aged care setting: a narrative synthesis

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Background The prevalence of both chronic diseases and multi-morbidity increases with longer life spans. As Australia's population ages, the aged care sector is under increasing pressure to ensure that quality aged care is available. Key to responding to this pressure is leadership and management capability within the aged care workforce. A systematic literature review was conducted to inform the policy development necessary for the enhancement of clinical and managerial leadership skills of middle managers within residential aged care. Methods Using scientific journal databases, hand searching of specialist journals, Google, snowballing and suggestions from experts, 4,484 papers were found. After a seven-tiered culling process, we conducted a detailed review (narrative synthesis) of 153 papers relevant to leadership and management development in aged care, incorporating expert and key stakeholder consultations. Results • Positive staff experiences of a manager's leadership are critical to ensure job satisfaction and workforce retention, the provision of quality care and the well-being of care recipients, and potentially a reduction of associated costs. • The essential attributes of good leadership for aged care middle management are a hands-on accessibility and professional expertise in nurturing respect, recognition and team building, along with effective communication and flexibility. However, successful leadership and management outcomes depend on coherent and good organisational leadership (structural and psychological empowerment). • There is inadequate preparation for middle management leadership roles in the aged care sector and a lack of clear guidelines and key performance indicators to assess leadership and management skills. • Theory development in aged care leadership and management research is limited. A few effective generic clinical leadership programs targeting both clinical and managerial leaders exist. However, little is known regarding

Maternal Depression, Family Functioning, and Child Outcomes: A Narrative Assessment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dickstein, Susan; St. Andre, Martin; Sameroff, Arnold; Seifer, Ronald; Schiller, Masha

1999-01-01

Investigated differences in family narratives between mothers with and those without current depressive symptoms as an indicator of family functioning. Found that Family Narrative Consortium measures of narrative coherence distinguished level of symptom severity. Found that more coherent narratives were associated with marital satisfaction,…

Gender Issues and the Slave Narratives: "Incidents in the Life" and "Narrative of the Life" Compared.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DeGout, Yasmin Y.

The differences between early African American narratives written by women and those written by men can be seen in a comparison of Harriet A. Jacobs's "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself" and Frederick Douglass's "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave." A comparison of these works…

The Measles Vaccination Narrative in Twitter: A Quantitative Analysis

PubMed Central

Radzikowski, Jacek; Jacobsen, Kathryn H; Croitoru, Arie; Crooks, Andrew; Delamater, Paul L

2016-01-01

Background The emergence of social media is providing an alternative avenue for information exchange and opinion formation on health-related issues. Collective discourse in such media leads to the formation of a complex narrative, conveying public views and perceptions. Objective This paper presents a study of Twitter narrative regarding vaccination in the aftermath of the 2015 measles outbreak, both in terms of its cyber and physical characteristics. We aimed to contribute to the analysis of the data, as well as presenting a quantitative interdisciplinary approach to analyze such open-source data in the context of health narratives. Methods We collected 669,136 tweets referring to vaccination from February 1 to March 9, 2015. These tweets were analyzed to identify key terms, connections among such terms, retweet patterns, the structure of the narrative, and connections to the geographical space. Results The data analysis captures the anatomy of the themes and relations that make up the discussion about vaccination in Twitter. The results highlight the higher impact of stories contributed by news organizations compared to direct tweets by health organizations in communicating health-related information. They also capture the structure of the antivaccination narrative and its terms of reference. Analysis also revealed the relationship between community engagement in Twitter and state policies regarding child vaccination. Residents of Vermont and Oregon, the two states with the highest rates of non-medical exemption from school-entry vaccines nationwide, are leading the social media discussion in terms of participation. Conclusions The interdisciplinary study of health-related debates in social media across the cyber-physical debate nexus leads to a greater understanding of public concerns, views, and responses to health-related issues. Further coalescing such capabilities shows promise towards advancing health communication, thus supporting the design of more

Multidirectional War Narratives in History Textbooks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van der Vlies, Tina

2016-01-01

This article aims to contribute to the field of textbook research by exploring a new approach in textbook analysis. Inspired by Michael Rothberg's concept of multidirectional memory, this article examines multidirectional narratives in history textbooks: narratives that combine different histories, places and times in a productive way. They…

Personal and Intergenerational Narratives in Relation to Adolescents' Well-Being

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fivush, Robyn; Bohanek, Jennifer G.; Zaman, Widaad

2011-01-01

Narratives of the self are embedded within families in which narrative interaction is a common practice. Especially in adolescence, when issues of identity and emotional regulation become key, narratives provide frameworks for understating self and emotion. The authors' research on family narratives suggests that adolescents' personal narratives…

The Impact of Narrative-Based Learning in Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marunda-Piki, Chipo J.

2018-01-01

Narrative and story play a central role in cognitive and cultural development of children. In this article, I explore a narrative-centred pedagogy used to address the teaching and learning concerns of my pupils from Helena infant school, Zimbabwe. I document how, as a novice teacher, I deployed narrative learning in my teaching of English as a…

Workplace training for senior trainees: a systematic review and narrative synthesis of current approaches to promote patient safety.

PubMed

Walton, Merrilyn; Harrison, Reema; Burgess, Annette; Foster, Kirsty

2015-10-01

Preventable harm is one of the top six health problems in the developed world. Developing patient safety skills and knowledge among advanced trainee doctors is critical. Clinical supervision is the main form of training for advanced trainees. The use of supervision to develop patient safety competence has not been established. To establish the use of clinical supervision and other workplace training to develop non-technical patient safety competency in advanced trainee doctors. Keywords, synonyms and subject headings were used to search eight electronic databases in addition to hand-searching of relevant journals up to 1 March 2014. Titles and abstracts of retrieved publications were screened by two reviewers and checked by a third. Full-text articles were screened against the eligibility criteria. Data on design, methods and key findings were extracted. Clinical supervision documents were assessed against components common to established patient safety frameworks. Findings from the reviewed articles and document analysis were collated in a narrative synthesis. Clinical supervision is not identified as an avenue for embedding patient safety skills in the workplace and is consequently not evaluated as a method to teach trainees these skills. Workplace training in non-technical patient safety skills is limited, but one-off training courses are sometimes used. Clinical supervision is the primary avenue for learning in postgraduate medical education but the most overlooked in the context of patient safety learning. The widespread implementation of short courses is not matched by evidence of rigorous evaluation. Supporting supervisors to identify teaching moments during supervision and to give weight to non-technical skills and technical skills equally is critical. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Understanding and Communicating through Narratives

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-05-17

distinctions, and may affect the fundamental contents of personal identity . It comes as no surprise that because of these influences stories are...activists.”16 Narrative serves an inherently strategic role, it serves as living embodiment of identity and ideology at personal, organizational, and as...applied by Freeman, national level. This identity function is one of the most critical functions of narrative. The logic expressed by the identity

"Forbidden Narratives": Exploring the Use of Student Narratives of Self in a Graduate Sport Sociology Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liberti, Rita

2004-01-01

This essay highlights three graduate student papers in an effort to explore the use of a relatively new methodology in the social sciences known as narratives of self. The seminar, in which the student papers were written, was formulated on the tenets of critical pedagogy and cultural studies. This paper positions the use of narratives of self…

The Limits of Narrative: Provocations for the Medical Humanities

PubMed Central

Woods, Angela

2014-01-01

This paper aims to (re)ignite debate about the role of narrative in the medical humanities. It begins with a critical review of the ways in which narrative has been mobilised by humanities and social science scholars to understand the experience of health and illness. I highlight seven dangers or blind spots in the dominant medical humanities approach to narrative, including the frequently unexamined assumption that all human beings are “naturally narrative.” I then explore this assumption further through an analysis of philosopher Galen Strawson’s influential article “Against Narrativity.” Strawson rejects the descriptive claim that “human beings typically see or live or experience their lives as a narrative” and the normative claim that “a richly Narrative outlook is essential to a well-lived life, to true or full personhood.” His work has been taken up across a range of disciplines but its implications in the context of health and illness have not yet been sufficiently discussed. This article argues that “Against Narrativity” can and should stimulate robust debate within the medical humanities regarding the limits of narrative, and concludes by discussing a range of possibilities for venturing “beyond narrative.” PMID:22038696

Narrative pedagogy and simulation: future directions for nursing education.

PubMed

Walsh, Mike

2011-05-01

Narrative pedagogy has been developed over the last decade in nursing as a means of complementing a conventional content and competency driven pedagogy. It focuses attention on the human experience of health care by deriving shared meanings from interpretation of stories. This allows students to explore the different perspectives of those involved. The emotional experiences of participants can be understood, conventional wisdom challenged and new knowledge emerge as students work together to construct their learning. Individual stories are embedded within the narrative and teachers have successfully used literature and film as narratives to help them explore the meaning of health care with students. Modern technology has opened up a new range of electronic narratives such as virtual simulation. These are considered and rejected as devices for a health care narrative due to their dehumanized and unrealistic nature. However it is argued that a multimedia online simulation of a typical neighbourhood can achieve the goal of providing a suitable narrative. Human actors replace avatars and real world settings replace gaming environments as the stories of people in this community are related and used to support narrative pedagogy. An example of such a narrative developed jointly in the UK and Canada is discussed. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

"What Is Our Story?" Philip Morris's Changing Corporate Narrative.

PubMed

McDaniel, Patricia A; Malone, Ruth E

2015-10-01

We sought to learn how employees reacted to changes in the corporate narrative of Philip Morris Companies (PMC) in the late 1990s and early 2000s. We analyzed archival internal tobacco industry documents about PMC's creation of a new corporate story. In response to litigation and public opprobrium, PMC replaced its market success-oriented corporate narrative with a new one centered on responsibility. Although management sought to downplay inconsistencies between the old and new narratives, some employees reportedly had difficulty reconciling them, concerned that the responsibility focus might affect company profitability. However, others embraced the new narrative, suggesting radical ideas to prevent youth smoking. These ideas were not adopted. PMC's new narrative was unconvincing to many of its employees, who perceived it either as a threat to the company's continued profits or as incongruous with what they had previously been told. As it had done with the public, PMC misled its employees in explaining a narrative repositioning that would help the company continue business as usual. Moving toward a tobacco endgame will require ongoing discursive and symbolic efforts to disrupt this narrative.

The Illness Narratives of Health Managers: Developing an Analytical Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Exworthy, Mark

2011-01-01

This paper examines the personal experience of illness and healthcare by health managers through their illness narratives. By synthesising a wider literature of illness narratives and health management, an analytical framework is presented, which considers the impact of illness narratives, comprising the logic of illness narratives, the actors…

"Mommy Blogs" and the Vaccination Exemption Narrative: Results From A Machine-Learning Approach for Story Aggregation on Parenting Social Media Sites.

PubMed

Tangherlini, Timothy R; Roychowdhury, Vwani; Glenn, Beth; Crespi, Catherine M; Bandari, Roja; Wadia, Akshay; Falahi, Misagh; Ebrahimzadeh, Ehsan; Bastani, Roshan

2016-11-22

Social media offer an unprecedented opportunity to explore how people talk about health care at a very large scale. Numerous studies have shown the importance of websites with user forums for people seeking information related to health. Parents turn to some of these sites, colloquially referred to as "mommy blogs," to share concerns about children's health care, including vaccination. Although substantial work has considered the role of social media, particularly Twitter, in discussions of vaccination and other health care-related issues, there has been little work on describing the underlying structure of these discussions and the role of persuasive storytelling, particularly on sites with no limits on post length. Understanding the role of persuasive storytelling at Internet scale provides useful insight into how people discuss vaccinations, including exemption-seeking behavior, which has been tied to a recent diminution of herd immunity in some communities. To develop an automated and scalable machine-learning method for story aggregation on social media sites dedicated to discussions of parenting. We wanted to discover the aggregate narrative frameworks to which individuals, through their exchange of experiences and commentary, contribute over time in a particular topic domain. We also wanted to characterize temporal trends in these narrative frameworks on the sites over the study period. To ensure that our data capture long-term discussions and not short-term reactions to recent events, we developed a dataset of 1.99 million posts contributed by 40,056 users and viewed 20.12 million times indexed from 2 parenting sites over a period of 105 months. Using probabilistic methods, we determined the topics of discussion on these parenting sites. We developed a generative statistical-mechanical narrative model to automatically extract the underlying stories and story fragments from millions of posts. We aggregated the stories into an overarching narrative framework

Building Better Narratives in Black Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderson, Meredith B. L.

2016-01-01

"Building Better Narratives in Black Education" fundamentally changes the narrative and face of education reform to meaningfully include Black voices, leaders and initiatives that truly have equity and Black student success at the core. This is imperative as there is an education crisis for Black students in the United States. Recent…

Personal Narratives in Life History Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Germeten, Sidsel

2013-01-01

In this article I discuss how to create personal narratives in life history research methodology. People tell stories of their lives, and the researchers make these stories into life histories. Based on theoretical perspectives on "discourse" inspired by Michel Foucault, narratives are seen as ways of positioning oneself as a…

Intercultural Allusion in Transcultural Identity Narratives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sell, Jonathan P. A.

2004-01-01

This paper attempts to provide a theoretical framework for the use of intercultural allusion in narratives of transcultural identity. Identity is taken to be narrative in performance, one element of which, intercultural allusion, serves pragmatically to broker the transcultured subject's insertion into the host culture. The paper then shows how…

Enabling narrative pedagogy: inviting, waiting, and letting be.

PubMed

Ironside, Pamela M

2014-01-01

This article describes how teachers enable Narrative Pedagogy in their courses by explicating the Concernful Practice Inviting: Waiting and Letting Be. Narrative Pedagogy, a research-based, phenomenological approach to teaching and learning, extends conventional pedagogies and offers nursing faculty an alternative way of transforming their schools and courses. Using hermeneutic phenomenology, interview data collected over a 10-year period were analyzed by coding practical examples of teachers' efforts to enact Narrative Pedagogy. When Narrative Pedagogy is enacted, teachers and students focus on thinking and learning together about nursing phenomena and seek new understandings about how they may provide care in the myriad situations they encounter. Although the Concernful Practices co-occur, explicating inviting experiences can assist new teachers, and those seeking to extend their pedagogical literacy, by providing new understandings of how Narrative Pedagogy can be enacted.

Experiences and Preferences for End-of-Life Care for Young Adults with Cancer and Their Informal Carers: A Narrative Synthesis.

PubMed

Ngwenya, Nothando; Kenten, Charlotte; Jones, Louise; Gibson, Faith; Pearce, Susie; Flatley, Mary; Hough, Rachael; Stirling, L Caroline; Taylor, Rachel M; Wong, Geoff; Whelan, Jeremy

2017-06-01

To review the qualitative literature on experiences of and preferences for end-of-life care of people with cancer aged 16-40 years (young adults) and their informal carers. A systematic review using narrative synthesis of qualitative studies using the 2006 UK Economic and Social Research Council research methods program guidance. Seven electronic bibliographic databases, two clinical trials databases, and three relevant theses databases were searched from January 2004 to October 2015. Eighteen articles were included from twelve countries. The selected studies included at least 5% of their patient sample within the age range 16-40 years. The studies were heterogeneous in their aims, focus, and sample, but described different aspects of end-of-life care for people with cancer. Positive experiences included facilitating adaptive coping and receiving palliative home care, while negative experiences were loss of "self" and nonfacilitative services and environment. Preferences included a family-centered approach to care, honest conversations about end of life, and facilitating normality. There is little evidence focused on the end-of-life needs of young adults. Analysis of reports including some young adults does not explore experience or preferences by age; therefore, it is difficult to identify age-specific issues clearly. From this review, we suggest that supportive interventions and education are needed to facilitate open and honest communication at an appropriate level with young people. Future research should focus on age-specific evidence about the end-of-life experiences and preferences for young adults with cancer and their informal carers.

The Home Literacy Environment and the English Narrative Development of Spanish-English Bilingual Children.

PubMed

Bitetti, Dana; Hammer, Carol Scheffner

2016-10-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the home literacy environment (HLE) on the English narrative development of Spanish-English bilingual children from low-income backgrounds. Longitudinal data were collected on 81 bilingual children from preschool through 1st grade. English narrative skills were assessed in the fall and spring of each year. Microstructure measures included mean length of utterance in morphemes and number of different words. The Narrative Scoring Scheme (Heilmann, Miller, Nockerts, & Dunaway, 2010) measured macrostructure. Each fall, the children's mothers reported the frequency of literacy activities and number of children's books in the home. Growth curve modeling was used to describe the children's narrative development and the impact of the HLE over time. Significant growth occurred for all narrative measures. The HLE did not affect microstructure growth. The frequency with which mothers read to their children had a positive impact on the growth of the children's total Narrative Scoring Scheme scores. Other aspects of the HLE, such as the frequency with which the mothers told stories, did not affect macrostructure development. These results provide information about the development of English narrative abilities and demonstrate the importance of frequent book reading for the overall narrative quality of children from Spanish-speaking homes who are learning English.

Integrating Journalism Into Health Promotion: Creating and Disseminating Community Narratives.

PubMed

Brown, Louis D; Berryhill, Joseph C; Jones, Eric C

2018-06-01

Media coverage of mental health and other social issues often relies on episodic narratives that suggest individualistic causes and solutions, while reinforcing negative stereotypes. Community narratives can provide empowering alternatives, serving as media advocacy tools used to shape the policy debate on a social issue. This article provides health promotion researchers and practitioners with guidance on how to develop and disseminate community narratives to broaden awareness of social issues and build support for particular programs and policy solutions. To exemplify the community narrative development process and highlight important considerations, this article examines a narrative from a mental health consumer-run organization. In the narrative, people with mental health problems help one another while operating a nonprofit organization, thereby countering stigmatizing media portrayals of people with mental illness as dangerous and incompetent. The community narrative frame supports the use of consumer-run organizations, which are not well-known and receive little funding despite evidence of effectiveness. The article concludes by reviewing challenges to disseminating community narratives, such as creating a product of interest to media outlets, and potential solutions, such as engaging media representatives through community health partnerships and using social media to draw attention to the narratives.

Framing narrative journalism as a new genre: A case study of the Netherlands.

PubMed

van Krieken, Kobie; Sanders, José

2017-11-01

Although narrative journalism has a long history in the Netherlands, it is in recent years being promoted as a 'new' genre. This study examines the motives underlying this promotional tactic. To that end, we analyze how narrative journalism is framed in (1) public expressions of the initiatives aimed at professionalization of the genre and (2) interviews with journalists and lecturers in journalism programs. Results indicate that in public discourse on narrative journalism, the genre is framed as moving , essential , and as high quality journalism . These frames indicate that the current promotion of narrative journalism as 'new' can be seen as a strategy that journalists apply to withstand the pressures they are facing in the competition with new media. These frames are deepened in the interviews with lecturers and practitioners, who frame narrative journalism as a dangerous game , a paradigm shift , and as the Holy Grail . These frames indicate that narrative journalism is regarded as the highest achievable goal for journalists, but that its practice comes with dangers and risks: it tempts journalists to abandon the traditional principles of objectivity and factuality, which can ultimately cause journalism to lose its credibility and authority. We discuss these findings in terms of boundary work and reflect on implications for narrative journalism's societal function.

Tell Me Your Story: A Pilot Narrative Medicine Curriculum During the Medicine Clerkship.

PubMed

Chretien, Katherine C; Swenson, Rebecca; Yoon, Bona; Julian, Ricklie; Keenan, Jonathan; Croffoot, James; Kheirbek, Raya

2015-07-01

Narrative medicine educational interventions may enhance patient-centered care, yet most educational interventions do not involve actual patient-provider interactions, nor do they assess narrative competence, a key skill for its practice. An experiential narrative medicine curriculum for medical students was developed and piloted. The purpose of the study was to develop narrative competence, practice attentive listening, and stimulate reflection. Participants were third-year medicine clerkship students. The curriculum involved 1) an introductory session, 2) a patient storytelling activity, and 3) a group reflection session. For the storytelling activity, students elicited illness narratives in storytelling form from patients, listened attentively, wrote their versions of the story, and then read them back to patients. Five student focus groups were conducted between July 2011 and March 2012 (n = 31; 66%) to explore students' experiences, student-patient dynamics, challenges, and what they learned. Patient interviews (n = 17) on their experience were conducted in January 2013. Thematic analysis of the audiotaped stories of ten patients and corresponding student-written stories helped gauge narrative competence. The curriculum was found to be feasible and acceptable to both patients and students. Some patients and students were profoundly moved. Ongoing focus groups resulted in continual process improvement. Students' stories showed attainment of narrative competence.

Framing narrative journalism as a new genre: A case study of the Netherlands

PubMed Central

van Krieken, Kobie; Sanders, José

2016-01-01

Although narrative journalism has a long history in the Netherlands, it is in recent years being promoted as a ‘new’ genre. This study examines the motives underlying this promotional tactic. To that end, we analyze how narrative journalism is framed in (1) public expressions of the initiatives aimed at professionalization of the genre and (2) interviews with journalists and lecturers in journalism programs. Results indicate that in public discourse on narrative journalism, the genre is framed as moving, essential, and as high quality journalism. These frames indicate that the current promotion of narrative journalism as ‘new’ can be seen as a strategy that journalists apply to withstand the pressures they are facing in the competition with new media. These frames are deepened in the interviews with lecturers and practitioners, who frame narrative journalism as a dangerous game, a paradigm shift, and as the Holy Grail. These frames indicate that narrative journalism is regarded as the highest achievable goal for journalists, but that its practice comes with dangers and risks: it tempts journalists to abandon the traditional principles of objectivity and factuality, which can ultimately cause journalism to lose its credibility and authority. We discuss these findings in terms of boundary work and reflect on implications for narrative journalism’s societal function. PMID:29278262

Narratives of empowerment and compliance: studies of communication in online patient support groups.

PubMed

Wentzer, Helle S; Bygholm, Ann

2013-12-01

New technologies enable new forms of patient participation in health care. The article discusses whether communication in online patient support groups is a source of individual as well as collective empowerment or to be understood within the tradition of compliance. The discussion is based on a qualitative analysis of patient communication in two online groups on the Danish portal sundhed.dk, one for lung patients and one for women with fertility problems. The object of study is the total sum of postings during a specific period of time - a total of 4301 posts are included. The textmaterial was analyzed according to the textual paradigm of Paul Ricoeur, and the three steps of critical interpretation. Thus, the analysis moves from describing communicative characteristics of the site to a thorough semantic analysis of its narrative structure of construing meaning, interaction and collective identity, and finally as a source of collective action. The meta-narratives of the two groups confirm online patient support groups for individual empowerment, for collective group identity, but not for collective empowerment. The collective identities of patienthood on the two sites are created by the users (patients) through specific styles of communication and interaction, referred to as 'multi-logical narratives'. In spite of the potential of online communities of opening up health care to the critical voice of the public, the analysis points to a synthesis of the otherwise opposite positions of empowerment and compliance in patient care. On a collective level, the site is empowering the individual users to comply with 'doctor's recommendations' as a group. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

The architecture of visual narrative comprehension: the interaction of narrative structure and page layout in understanding comics

PubMed Central

Cohn, Neil

2014-01-01

How do people make sense of the sequential images in visual narratives like comics? A growing literature of recent research has suggested that this comprehension involves the interaction of multiple systems: The creation of meaning across sequential images relies on a “narrative grammar” that packages conceptual information into categorical roles organized in hierarchic constituents. These images are encapsulated into panels arranged in the layout of a physical page. Finally, how panels frame information can impact both the narrative structure and page layout. Altogether, these systems operate in parallel to construct the Gestalt whole of comprehension of this visual language found in comics. PMID:25071651

Narrative Learning, EAL and Metacognitive Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cortazzi, Martin; Jin, Lixian

2007-01-01

This paper elaborates some aspects of narrative learning--defined here as learning to tell stories and learning from, about and through narratives--in the context of primary-age pupils who use English as an Additional Language (EAL). The paper introduces some principles to support their language development in classroom interaction. We argue that…

Using narratives and storytelling to communicate science with nonexpert audiences.

PubMed

Dahlstrom, Michael F

2014-09-16

Although storytelling often has negative connotations within science, narrative formats of communication should not be disregarded when communicating science to nonexpert audiences. Narratives offer increased comprehension, interest, and engagement. Nonexperts get most of their science information from mass media content, which is itself already biased toward narrative formats. Narratives are also intrinsically persuasive, which offers science communicators tactics for persuading otherwise resistant audiences, although such use also raises ethical considerations. Future intersections of narrative research with ongoing discussions in science communication are introduced.

Reading Intervention to Improve Narrative Production, Narrative Comprehension, and Motivation and Interest of Children with Hearing Loss

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pakulski, Lori A.; Kaderavek, Joan N.

2012-01-01

This study examined the effects of a reading intervention on narrative production, narrative comprehension, and reading motivation interest in children with hearing loss. Seven school children between the ages of 9 and 11 were paired with younger "reading buddies" (without hearing loss). The children with hearing loss read storybooks to…

Narrative in cancer research and policy: voice, knowledge and context

PubMed Central

Atkinson, Sarah; Rubinelli, Sara

2014-01-01

The potential applications of narrative within medical practice are attracting increased interest. In particular, personal narratives afford rich insights into how encounters with cancer and the associated provision of care are experienced, understood and represeted. Such first-person accounts are practically useful in indicating improvements to cancer care and politically significant in providing a means to enable the patient voice and legitimising experiential knowledge alongside a biomedical paradigm. However, personal narratives are necessarily and always constructed in particular social and political contexts and through existing ‘meta-narratives’ relating to cancer, health, illness and a flourishing life. The paper first examines work on personal cancer narratives to critically review the opportunities for narrative within cancer care. We then reflect on the crucial role of meta-narratives of cancer as framings within which personal narratives can be both enabled and constrained. PMID:23347413

Narrative Organization Deficit in Lewy Body Disorders Is Related to Alzheimer Pathology

PubMed Central

Grossman, Murray; Irwin, David J.; Jester, Charles; Halpin, Amy; Ash, Sharon; Rascovsky, Katya; Weintraub, Daniel; McMillan, Corey T.

2017-01-01

Background: Day-to-day interactions depend on conversational narrative, and we examine here the neurobiological basis for difficulty organizing narrative discourse in patients with Lewy body disorders (LBD). Method: Narrative organization was examined in 56 non-aphasic LBD patients, including a non-demented cohort (n = 30) with Parkinson's disease (PD) or PD-Mild Cognitive Impairment PD-MCI,) and a cohort with mild dementia (n = 26) including PD-dementia (PDD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), with similar age and education but differing in MMSE (p < 0.001). We used a previously reported procedure that probes patients' judgments of the organization of brief, familiar narratives (e.g., going fishing, wrapping a present). A subgroup of 24 patients had MRI assessment of regional gray matter (GM) atrophy and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels of biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology, including beta amyloid (Aβ), total-tau (t-tau), and phosphorylated-tau (p-tau). Results: Mildly demented LBD patients had a significant deficit judging narratives compared to non-demented patients, but this deficit was not correlated with MMSE. Regression analyses instead related narrative organization to regions of frontal GM atrophy, and CSF levels of Aβ and t-tau associated with presumed AD pathology in these frontal regions. Conclusion: These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that CSF markers of AD pathology associated with frontal regions play a role in difficulty organizing narratives in LBD. PMID:28228714

Emohawk: Searching for a "Good" Emergent Narrative

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brom, Cyril; Bída, Michal; Gemrot, Jakub; Kadlec, Rudolf; Plch, Tomáš

We report on the progress we have achieved in development of Emohawk, a 3D virtual reality application with an emergent narrative for teaching high-school students and undergraduates the basics of virtual characters control, emotion modelling, and narrative generation. Besides, we present a new methodology, used in Emohawk, for purposeful authoring of emergent narratives of Façade's complexity. The methodology is based on massive automatic search for stories that are appealing to the audience whilst forbidding the unappealing ones during the design phase.

'I am not a tragedy. I am full of hope': communication impairment narratives in newspapers.

PubMed

O Malley-Keighran, Mary-Pat; Coleman, Mary

2014-01-01

Individual attitudes and more general attitudes in society can negatively influence the functioning of people with communication disorders according to the World Health Organisation's (WHO) International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) (2002). Personal narratives have been recommended as the best means to convey and understand a person's life experience and have been investigated extensively. Investigations of personal narratives of communication impairment in mass media continue to be relatively rare in the literature. Published narratives can enrich understandings of clients' experiences by elucidating available representations of lived experiences of communication impairment. To answer the following research questions: What types of personal narratives of communication impairments are currently being disseminated in Irish newspapers? How are experiences of communication impairments represented in these narratives? The study was qualitative, deploying inductive analysis and drawing on Frank's (1995) typology of illness narratives to analyse narratives that were published in two Irish national newspapers over a 12-month period. The results illustrate the under-representation of communication impairments in Irish newspapers as ten out of 51 narratives in the corpus pertained to conditions that may have associated communication impairments. None of the narratives related the lived experience of a person with communication impairment in depth. A combination of quest and chaos narrative types was identified in six out of the ten narratives. Three out of the ten narratives featured a combination of chaos and restitution narrative types. One narrative was identified as being entirely a quest narrative. Three narratives contained elements of restitution. Inductive analysis revealed six main themes in the data (two for each narrative type) with one sub-theme identified for each main theme. The six main themes are: positive stances, re

Media Narratives and Possibilities for Teachers' Embodied Concepts of Self

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Townsend, Jane S.; Ryan, Patrick A.

2012-01-01

Non-print media of radio, television, and film tell narratives about the image and practice of teachers, but how might these media narratives shape conceptions of teachers as well as teachers' conceptions of themselves? What elements of the media narratives do we incorporate and reject in the narratives that we construct about their professional…

Credibility judgments of narratives: language, plausibility, and absorption.

PubMed

Nahari, Galit; Glicksohn, Joseph; Nachson, Israel

2010-01-01

Two experiments were conducted in order to find out whether textual features of narratives differentially affect credibility judgments made by judges having different levels of absorption (a disposition associated with rich visual imagination). Participants in both experiments were exposed to a textual narrative and requested to judge whether the narrator actually experienced the event he described in his story. In Experiment 1, the narrative varied in terms of language (literal, figurative) and plausibility (ordinary, anomalous). In Experiment 2, the narrative varied in terms of language only. The participants' perceptions of the plausibility of the story described and the extent to which they were absorbed in reading were measured. The data from both experiments together suggest that the groups applied entirely different criteria in credibility judgments. For high-absorption individuals, their credibility judgment depends on the degree to which the text can be assimilated into their own vivid imagination, whereas for low-absorption individuals it depends mainly on plausibility. That is, high-absorption individuals applied an experiential mental set while judging the credibility of the narrator, whereas low-absorption individuals applied an instrumental mental set. Possible cognitive mechanisms and implications for credibility judgments are discussed.

A narrative method for consciousness research

PubMed Central

Díaz, José-Luis

2013-01-01

Some types of first-person narrations of mental processes that constitute phenomenological accounts and texts, such as internal monolog statements, epitomize the best expressions and representations of human consciousness available and therefore may be used to model phenomenological streams of consciousness. The type of autonomous monolog in which an author or narrator declares actual mental processes in a think aloud manner seems particularly suitable for modeling streams of consciousness. A narrative method to extract and depict conscious processes, operations, contents, and states from an acceptable phenomenological text would require three subsequent steps: operational criteria for producing and/or selecting a phenomenological text, a system for detecting text items that are indicative of conscious contents and processes, and a procedure for representing such items in formal dynamic system devices such as Petri nets. The requirements and restrictions of each of these steps are presented, analyzed, and applied to phenomenological texts in the following manner: (1) the relevance of introspective language and narrative analyses to consciousness research and the idea that specific narratives are of paramount interest for such investigation is justified; (2) some of the obstacles and constraints to attain plausible consciousness inferences from narrative texts and the methodological requirements to extract and depict items relevant to consciousness contents and operations from a suitable phenomenological text are examined; (3) a preliminary exercise of the proposed method is used to analyze and chart a classical interior monolog excerpted from James Joyce’s Ulysses, a masterpiece of the stream-of-consciousness literary technique and, finally, (4) an inter-subjective evaluation for inter-observer agreement of mental attributions of another phenomenological text (an excerpt from the Intimate Journal of Miguel de Unamuno) is presented using some mathematical tools

A narrative method for consciousness research.

PubMed

Díaz, José-Luis

2013-01-01

Some types of first-person narrations of mental processes that constitute phenomenological accounts and texts, such as internal monolog statements, epitomize the best expressions and representations of human consciousness available and therefore may be used to model phenomenological streams of consciousness. The type of autonomous monolog in which an author or narrator declares actual mental processes in a think aloud manner seems particularly suitable for modeling streams of consciousness. A narrative method to extract and depict conscious processes, operations, contents, and states from an acceptable phenomenological text would require three subsequent steps: operational criteria for producing and/or selecting a phenomenological text, a system for detecting text items that are indicative of conscious contents and processes, and a procedure for representing such items in formal dynamic system devices such as Petri nets. The requirements and restrictions of each of these steps are presented, analyzed, and applied to phenomenological texts in the following manner: (1) the relevance of introspective language and narrative analyses to consciousness research and the idea that specific narratives are of paramount interest for such investigation is justified; (2) some of the obstacles and constraints to attain plausible consciousness inferences from narrative texts and the methodological requirements to extract and depict items relevant to consciousness contents and operations from a suitable phenomenological text are examined; (3) a preliminary exercise of the proposed method is used to analyze and chart a classical interior monolog excerpted from James Joyce's Ulysses, a masterpiece of the stream-of-consciousness literary technique and, finally, (4) an inter-subjective evaluation for inter-observer agreement of mental attributions of another phenomenological text (an excerpt from the Intimate Journal of Miguel de Unamuno) is presented using some mathematical tools.

The Narrative Labyrinth of Violent Dying

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rynearson, E. K.

2005-01-01

This essay outlines the dynamics of retelling the violent death of a loved one and the narrative "dilemma" of vulnerable family members fixated on retelling. To counter this fixation, the author presents a mythic retelling of violent death (the Myth of Theseus) as narrative basis for developing a restorative retelling. The essay begins by…

Narrative Assessment for Cantonese-Speaking Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

To, Carol Kit-Sum; Stokes, Stephanie F.; Cheung, Hin-Tat; T'sou, Benjamin

2010-01-01

Background: This study examined the narrative skills of Cantonese-speaking school-age children to fill a need for a normative language test for school-age children. Purpose: To provide a benchmark of the narrative skills of Cantonese-speaking children; to identify which of the microstructure components was the best predictor of age; and to…

Narrative Language in Traumatic Brain Injury

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marini, Andrea; Galetto, Valentina; Zampieri, Elisa; Vorano, Lorenza; Zettin, Marina; Carlomagno, Sergio

2011-01-01

Persons with traumatic brain injury (TBI) often show impaired linguistic and/or narrative abilities. The present study aimed to document the features of narrative discourse impairment in a group of adults with TBI. 14 severe TBI non-aphasic speakers (GCS less than 8) in the phase of neurological stability and 14 neurologically intact participants…

Using narratives and storytelling to communicate science with nonexpert audiences

PubMed Central

Dahlstrom, Michael F.

2014-01-01

Although storytelling often has negative connotations within science, narrative formats of communication should not be disregarded when communicating science to nonexpert audiences. Narratives offer increased comprehension, interest, and engagement. Nonexperts get most of their science information from mass media content, which is itself already biased toward narrative formats. Narratives are also intrinsically persuasive, which offers science communicators tactics for persuading otherwise resistant audiences, although such use also raises ethical considerations. Future intersections of narrative research with ongoing discussions in science communication are introduced. PMID:25225368

The effect of narrative cues on infants’ imitation from television and picture books

PubMed Central

Simcock, Gabrielle; Garrity, Kara; Barr, Rachel

2011-01-01

Infants can imitate a novel action sequence from television and picture books; yet there has been no direct comparison of infants’ imitation from the two types of media. Varying the narrative cues available during the demonstration and test, we measured 18- and 24-month-olds’ imitation from television and picture books. Infants imitated from both media types when full narrative cues (Experiment 1; N = 76) or empty, meaningless narration (Experiment 2; N = 135) accompanied the demonstrations, but they imitated more from television than books. In Experiment 3 (N = 27), infants imitated from a book based on narration alone, without the presence of pictures. These results are discussed in relation to age-related changes in cognitive flexibility and infants’ emerging symbolic understanding. PMID:21883157

Core story creation: analysing narratives to construct stories for learning.

PubMed

Petty, Julia; Jarvis, Joy; Thomas, Rebecca

2018-03-16

Educational research uses narrative enquiry to gain and interpret people's experiences. Narrative analysis is used to organise and make sense of acquired narrative. 'Core story creation' is a way of managing raw data obtained from narrative interviews to construct stories for learning. To explain how core story creation can be used to construct stories from raw narratives obtained by interviewing parents about their neonatal experiences and then use these stories to educate learners. Core story creation involves reconfiguration of raw narratives. Reconfiguration includes listening to and rereading transcribed narratives, identifying elements of 'emplotment' and reordering these to form a constructed story. Thematic analysis is then performed on the story to draw out learning themes informed by the participants. Core story creation using emplotment is a strategy of narrative reconfiguration that produces stories which can be used to develop resources relating to person-centred education about the patient experience. Stories constructed from raw narratives in the context of constructivism can provide a medium or an 'end product' for use in learning resource development. This can then contribute to educating students or health professionals about patients' experiences. ©2018 RCN Publishing Company Ltd. All rights reserved. Not to be copied, transmitted or recorded in any way, in whole or part, without prior permission of the publishers.

The power of support from companion animals for people living with mental health problems: a systematic review and narrative synthesis of the evidence.

PubMed

Brooks, Helen Louise; Rushton, Kelly; Lovell, Karina; Bee, Penny; Walker, Lauren; Grant, Laura; Rogers, Anne

2018-02-05

There is increasing recognition of the therapeutic function pets can play in relation to mental health. However, there has been no systematic review of the evidence related to the comprehensive role of companion animals and how pets might contribute to the work associated with managing a long-term mental health condition. The aim of this study was to explore the extent, nature and quality of the evidence implicating the role and utility of pet ownership for people living with a mental health condition. A systematic search for studies exploring the role of companion animals in the management of mental health conditions was undertaken by searching 9 databases and undertaking a scoping review of grey literature from the earliest record until March 2017. To be eligible for inclusion, studies had to be published in English and report on primary data related to the relationship between domestic animal ownership and the management of diagnosable mental health conditions. Synthesis of qualitative and quantitative data was undertaken in parallel using a narrative synthesis informed by an illness work theoretical framework. A total of 17 studies were included in the review. Quantitative evidence relating to the benefits of pet ownership was mixed with included studies demonstrating positive, negative and neutral impacts of pet ownership. Qualitative studies illuminated the intensiveness of connectivity people with companion animals reported, and the multi-faceted ways in which pets contributed to the work associated with managing a mental health condition, particularly in times of crisis. The negative aspects of pet ownership were also highlighted, including the practical and emotional burden of pet ownership and the psychological impact that losing a pet has. This review suggests that pets provide benefits to those with mental health conditions. Further research is required to test the nature and extent of this relationship, incorporating outcomes that cover the range of

Narrative and the social construction of adulthood.

PubMed

Hammack, Phillip L; Toolis, Erin

2014-01-01

This chapter develops three points of elaboration and theoretical expansion upon Cohler's (1982) treatise on personal narrative and life course. First, we highlight Cohler's emphasis on an interpretive, idiographic approach to the study of lives and reveal the radicalism of this approach, particularly in its ability to interrogate the lived experience of social categorization. Second, we link Cohler's position directly to cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) and consider the link between inner and social speech through the idea of narrative engagement. Finally, following Cohler's life course perspective on human development, we suggest that adulthood is best conceived as a cultural discourse to which individuals orient their personal narratives through a dynamic process of narrative engagement rather than a clearly demarcated life stage. Emerging adulthood is linked to cultural and economic processes of globalization in the 21st century and challenges static notions of social roles traditionally associated with compulsory heterosexuality (e.g., marriage and parenthood). Narrative processes in emerging adulthood occur through both situated storytelling and the formation of a life story that provides coherence and social meaning, both of which have key implications for social stasis and change. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The political implications of epigenetics Emerging narratives and ideologies.

PubMed

Robison, Shea K

2016-01-01

Epigenetics, which is just beginning to attract public attention and policy discussion, challenges conventional understanding of gene-environment interaction and intergenerational inheritance and perhaps much more besides. Does epigenetics challenge modern political ideologies? I analyzed the narratives of obesity and epigenetics recently published in the more liberal New York Times and the more conservative Wall Street Journal. For the years 2010 through 2014, 50 articles on obesity and 29 articles on epigenetics were identified, and elements in their causal narratives were quantitatively analyzed using a well described narrative policy framework. The narratives on obesity aligned with the two newspapers' reputed ideologies. However, the narratives on epigenetics aligned with neither ideology but freely mixed liberal and conservative elements. This small study may serve as a starting point for broader studies of epigenetics as it comes to affect political ideologies and, in turn, public policies. The narrative mix reported here could yet prove vulnerable to ideological capture, or, more optimistically, could portend the emergence of a "third-way" narrative using epigenetics to question atomistic individualism and allowing for less divisiveness in public-health domains such as obesity.

Narrative Performance of Gifted African American School-Aged Children From Low-Income Backgrounds

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

Purpose This study investigated classroom differences in the narrative performance of school-age African American English (AAE)-speaking children in gifted and general education classrooms. Method Forty-three children, Grades 2–5, each generated fictional narratives in response to the book Frog, Where Are You? (Mayer, 1969). Differences in performance on traditional narrative measures (total number of communication units [C-units], number of different words, and mean length of utterance in words) and on AAE production (dialect density measure) between children in gifted and general education classrooms were examined. Results There were no classroom-based differences in total number of C-units, number of different words, and mean length of utterance in words. Children in gifted education classrooms produced narratives with lower dialect density than did children in general educated classrooms. Direct logistic regression assessed whether narrative dialect density measure scores offered additional information about giftedness beyond scores on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test–Fourth Edition (Dunn & Dunn, 2007), a standard measure of language ability. Results indicated that a model with only Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test–Fourth Edition scores best discriminated children in the 2 classrooms. Conclusion African American children across gifted and general education classrooms produce fictional narratives of similar length, lexical diversity, and syntax complexity. However, African American children in gifted education classrooms may produce lower rates of AAE and perform better on standard measures of vocabulary than those in general education classrooms. PMID:25409770

Red balloon: approaching dreams as self-narratives.

PubMed

Androutsopoulou, Athena

2011-10-01

In this article, dreams are seen as stories within a self-narrative. Dream stories, like all other stories, are told in an effort to make sense of experiences. Here, dream content is linked to current concerns, some aspects of which are not given voice in waking. Dreams depict restricting themes but also openings in self-narratives. Several examples are provided of how dreams can be linked to early, middle, and late therapy phases associated with recognizing, challenging, revising, and maintaining a revising stance. It is further suggested that dream stories can be used to trace, facilitate, and evaluate the process of reconstructing self-narratives. Finally, a number of therapeutic interventions are briefly presented to facilitate the work of narrative-informed family therapists working with individuals, families, and groups. © 2011 American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy.

Evoking and Measuring Identification with Narrative Characters - A Linguistic Cues Framework.

PubMed

van Krieken, Kobie; Hoeken, Hans; Sanders, José

2017-01-01

Current research on identification with narrative characters poses two problems. First, although identification is seen as a dynamic process of which the intensity varies during reading, it is usually measured by means of post-reading questionnaires containing self-report items. Second, it is not clear which linguistic characteristics evoke identification. The present paper proposes that an interdisciplinary framework allows for more precise manipulations and measurements of identification, which will ultimately advance our understanding of the antecedents and nature of this process. The central hypothesis of our Linguistic Cues Framework is that identification with a narrative character is a multidimensional experience for which different dimensions are evoked by different linguistic cues. The first part of the paper presents a literature review on identification, resulting in a renewed conceptualization of identification which distinguishes six dimensions: a spatiotemporal, a perceptual, a cognitive, a moral, an emotional, and an embodied dimension. The second part argues that each of these dimensions is influenced by specific linguistic cues which represent various aspects of the narrative character's perspective. The proposed relations between linguistic cues and identification dimensions are specified in six propositions. The third part discusses what psychological and neurocognitive methods enable the measurement of the various identification dimensions in order to test the propositions. By establishing explicit connections between the linguistic characteristics of narratives and readers' physical, psychological, and neurocognitive responses to narratives, this paper develops a research agenda for future empirical research on identification with narrative characters.

Processing and memory of information presented in narrative or expository texts.

PubMed

Wolfe, Michael B W; Woodwyk, Joshua M

2010-09-01

Previous research suggests that narrative and expository texts differ in the extent to which they prompt students to integrate to-be-learned content with relevant prior knowledge during comprehension. We expand on previous research by examining on-line processing and representation in memory of to-be-learned content that is embedded in narrative or expository texts. We are particularly interested in how differences in the use of relevant prior knowledge leads to differences in terms of levels of discourse representation (textbase vs. situation model). A total of 61 university undergraduates in Expt 1, and 160 in Expt 2. In Expt 1, subjects thought out loud while comprehending circulatory system content embedded in a narrative or expository text, followed by free recall of text content. In Expt 2, subjects read silently and completed a sentence recognition task to assess memory. In Expt 1, subjects made more associations to prior knowledge while reading the expository text, and recalled more content. Content recall was also correlated with amount of relevant prior knowledge for subjects who read the expository text but not the narrative text. In Expt 2, subjects reading the expository text (compared to the narrative text) had a weaker textbase representation of the to-be-learned content, but a marginally stronger situation model. Results suggest that in terms of to-be-learned content, expository texts trigger students to utilize relevant prior knowledge more than narrative texts.

Behavioral, cognitive, and emotional coping strategies of women with endometriosis: a critical narrative review.

PubMed

Zarbo, Cristina; Brugnera, Agostino; Frigerio, Luigi; Malandrino, Chiara; Rabboni, Massimo; Bondi, Emi; Compare, Angelo

2018-02-01

Endometriosis is a disabling and long-term medical condition affecting quality of life and mental health. Behavioral, cognitive, and emotional coping strategies, emotional intelligence, and metacognition could in part explain the link between the disease and impaired psychological and life functioning. This critical narrative review aimed at examining the state of the art of the relationships between endometriosis and these factors. According to PRISMA principles, we performed a systematic search for quantitative and qualitative studies on multiple electronic databases as regards coping strategies, emotional intelligence, and metacognition in women with endometriosis. Studies were subjected to interpretative and critical narrative synthesis. A total of 9 papers were included in the review. Three main categories were identified in thematic analysis and resumed in the manuscript. Findings suggested that (a) pain is considered the major stressor; (b) they usually use both adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies; (c) women with endometriosis and related chronic pain seem to repress emotions more likely than healthy ones; (d) suppressing own emotions, pain catastrophizing, and having a passive coping style are related to higher self-reported pain; and (e) emotional and avoidance coping styles are associated to poor mental status, while positive coping strategies focusing on the problem or on emotions, detached and rational styles are associated to better mental health. Few studies with mixed results and some methodological flaws have focused on coping strategies in women with endometriosis. No studies focusing on metacognition or emotional intelligence were found. Methodological biases, suggestions for future research, and implications for clinical practice were discussed.

Gesturing towards Teaching: A Teacher's Narrative

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Krishnamurthy, Gopalakrishna

2012-01-01

This is a study of a 20 minute video recorded narrative of a participant-teacher at an inservice teacher education seminar in South India. My analysis involves the close observation of oral and visual elements of this narrative. I employ and deploy this as a telling case to study the conduct and consequences of teaching and educational relations…

Spoken Narrative Assessment: A Supplementary Measure of Children's Creativity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wong, Miranda Kit-Yi; So, Wing Chee

2016-01-01

This study developed a spoken narrative (i.e., storytelling) assessment as a supplementary measure of children's creativity. Both spoken and gestural contents of children's spoken narratives were coded to assess their verbal and nonverbal creativity. The psychometric properties of the coding system for the spoken narrative assessment were…

Oral Narratives in Monolingual and Bilingual Preschoolers with SLI

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rezzonico, Stefano; Chen, Xi; Cleave, Patricia L.; Greenberg, Janice; Hipfner-Boucher, Kathleen; Johnson, Carla J.; Milburn, Trelani; Pelletier, Janette; Weitzman, Elaine; Girolametto, Luigi

2015-01-01

Background: The body of literature on narratives of bilingual children with and without specific language impairment (SLI) is growing. However, little is known about the narrative abilities of bilingual preschool children with SLI and their patterns of growth. Aims: To determine the similarities and differences in narrative abilities between…

The Accuracy of Adult Narrative Reports of Developmental Trajectories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cohen, Patricia; Kasen, Stephanie; Bifulco, Antonia; Andrews, Howard; Gordon, Kathy

2005-01-01

This methodological investigation examines the accuracy of narrative-based scaled ratings covering several post high school years. Guided narratives by young adults described developmentally relevant behaviour and context for each month between ages 17 and the mid-20s. "Prospective" narratives covered shorter time periods in three interviews…

Clearing the air: protocol for a systematic meta-narrative review on the harms and benefits of e-cigarettes and vapour devices.

PubMed

MacDonald, Marjorie; O'Leary, Renee; Stockwell, Tim; Reist, Dan

2016-05-21

Under the shadow of the tobacco epidemic, the sale and use of e-cigarettes and other vapour devices is increasing dramatically. A contentious debate has risen within public health over the harms and benefits of these devices. Clearing the Air seeks to clarify the issues with a systematic review that informs the pressing regulatory and public health decisions to be made regarding these new products. Using an integrated knowledge translation approach, public health researchers and knowledge users will work collaboratively throughout the project. Our research questions are the following: (1) What are the health risks and benefits of vapour devices, and how do these compare to cigarettes? (2) What is the harm reduction potential of vapour devices for individuals, the environment, and society? (3) Does youth vapour device experimentation lead to cigarette use? (4) Can vapour devices be effective aids for tobacco cessation? and (5) What is the potential toxicity of second-hand vapour? We are using meta-narrative review to synthesize studies from diverse research traditions because of its capacity to address contestations around a topic. The project has six phases. In the planning phase, we finalized the research questions. In the search phase, we are locating academic publications and grey literature aided by a research librarian. The mapping phase involves categorizing these papers into research traditions to understand different perspectives on the evidence for each research question. In the appraisal phase, we will select and evaluate the relevant papers. Finally, in the synthesis phase, using analytic techniques unique to meta-narrative methodology, we will compare and contrast the evidence from different research traditions to answer our research questions, identifying overarching meta-narratives. In the final stage, the full team will draft recommendations to be disseminated through a variety of knowledge translation strategies. Meta-narrative synthesis has the

Using culture and psychology to counter the Taliban's violent narratives.

PubMed

Aggarwal, Neil Krishan

2017-08-01

Scholars, politicians, and policy-makers have increasingly pointed to the role of narratives in recruiting militants and justifying violence, highlighting the need for counter-narratives that promote peace. However, few have offered concrete guidelines on how to construct counter-narratives. This exploratory study uses prototype theory from social psychology to analyse Taliban narratives written in Arabic on the historical figure Maḥmūd of Ghaznī (971-1030), who is portrayed as a figure worthy of emulation. Key themes emerge from the Taliban's narratives: potential ingroup members are defined as Sunni Muslims who are committed to jihad; deviant Muslims must become Sunnis; non-Muslims must be converted and humiliated; and Taliban leaders should emulate Maḥmūd of Ghaznī's attributes. Contrasting the Taliban's narratives of Maḥmūd of Ghaznī with the historical record reveals themes that are culled empirically around which counter-narratives could be constructed.

Call it a monster for lack of anything else: narrative insight in psychosis.

PubMed

Roe, David; Hasson-Ohayon, Ilanit; Kravetz, Shlomo; Yanos, Phil T; Lysaker, Paul H

2008-12-01

Individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia often appear to be unaware of having an illness or actively reject their diagnostic label. It is unclear, however, how this lack of awareness relates to important outcomes. Broadening the definition of awareness to include "narrative insight" may clarify this issue. The objective of this study was to identify profiles of narrative insight and test how these relate to standardized measure of insight. Sixty-five individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders participated in an assessment that included the Scale of Unawareness of Mental Disorder (SUMD) and an in-depth semi-structured interview. Qualitative analysis revealed 5 central themes related to insight on the basis of which each interview was then rated. Cluster analysis of these ratings resulted in 4 profiles of narrative insight: (1) accepts illness/rejects label, (2) rejects illness/searches for a name (3) passive insight of illness and label, and (4) integrative insight. The SUMD differentiated between individuals assigned to profile 2 who showed low insight to their illness and those assigned to the other profiles of narrative insight, but could not differentiate between them. Results support the claim that illness narratives are multifaceted and that traditional measures of insight may not be sensitive to different ways in which people understand their illness.

The Development of Reference Realization and Narrative in an Australian Contact Language, Wumpurrarni English

PubMed Central

Disbray, Samantha

2016-01-01

The development of narrative skill has been investigated extensively in a wide range of languages, cross-linguistically and in multilingual settings (Berman and Slobin, 1994b; Severing and Verhoeven, 2001; Hickmann, 2004; Strömqvist and Verhoeven, 2004). The present study investigates the development of reference realization in narrative among Indigenous children in a remote urban township in Central Australia. The children, aged between 5 and 14 years, are speakers of a contact language, Wumpurrarni English. Language development is rarely investigated among speakers of minority languages, whose language development is often appraised in the majority language, with little attention to language performance in the speaker's home variety. The present study addresses this gap through a fine-grained qualitative analysis of the development of reference in narrative, drawing on a complex stimulus and a model of discourse strategy. The results show (a) a developmental trajectory similar to that found in other languages, with children aged eight and under producing simpler and less globally organized narratives than older speaker groups, and (b) vulnerability to the changing demands of the stimulus among these younger speakers. In addition, a subset of narrations were produced in “school variety,” a style more like Standard Australian English. The results for this set showed that the narrative content and global organization of the productions by 10- and 12-year-olds were more similar to the productions of younger children, than like-aged speakers, who narrated in their home variety. Analysis of speaker responses to two factors of complexity, the stimulus and code choice, illuminated mechanisms for discourse production and development, and suggest that constructing discourse requires co-ordination of an underlying schema and on-line construction of a particular story, through the deployment of linguistic devices in a particular narrative context. The analysis showed

Shifting the balance: the contemporary narrative of obesity.

PubMed

Shugart, Helene A

2011-01-01

In this essay, I assess the narrative of obesity as articulated in representative contemporary mainstream media fare--namely, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Biggest Loser, and Big Medicine. I contend that the emergent narrative of obesity across these programs signals a shift from the historically received narrative in light of its intersection with the concurrent culturally resonant narratives of addiction and self-actualization. In particular, the proposed "problem" and "solution" to obesity, both historically attributed to personal responsibility, appear to be shifting in favor of cultural explanations that describe obesity as symptomatic of and secondary to broader issues related to community, emotionality, and agency. This suggests novel cultural understandings, practices, and policies regarding the mounting "obesity epidemic."

Narrative skills in two languages of Mandarin-English bilingual children.

PubMed

Hao, Ying; Bedore, Lisa M; Sheng, Li; Peña, Elizabeth D

2018-03-08

Narrative skills between Mandarin and English in Mandarin-English (ME) bilingual children were compared, exploring cross-linguistic interactions of these skills, and influences of age and current language experience (input and output) on narrative performance. Macrostructure and microstructure in elicited narratives from 21 ME bilingual children were analysed. Language experience was collected by parent report and entered as a covariate. Repeated measures analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was conducted to compare the two languages. Children demonstrated better narrative performance in English than Mandarin, with a larger cross-linguistic difference in microstructure than macrostructure. Significant cross-linguistic correlations were only found in children with high Mandarin vocabulary. Age, associated with length of English exposure, only significantly correlated with narrative performance in English. Output had stronger correlations with narrative skills than input. Macrostructure may be less variable across languages than microstructure. Children may need to reach a threshold of vocabulary for cross-linguistic interactions of narrative skills to occur. The effect of age in English may be related to increased cumulative English experience. Children may experience a plateau in Mandarin due to insufficient Mandarin exposure. Stronger correlations between output and narrative skills may be attributed to the expressive nature of both.

The union of narrative and executive function: different but complementary

PubMed Central

Friend, Margaret; Bates, Raven Phoenix

2014-01-01

Oral narrative production develops dramatically from 3 to 5 years of age, and is a key factor in a child's ability to communicate about the world. Concomitant with this are developments in executive function (EF). For example, executive attention and behavioral inhibition show marked development beginning around 4 years of age. Both EF and oral narrative abilities have important implications for academic success, but the relationship between them is not well understood. The present paper utilizes a cross-lagged design to assess convergent and predictive relations between EF and narrative ability. As a collateral measure, we collected a Language Sample during 10 min of free play. Language Sample did not share significant variance with Narrative Production, thus general language growth from Wave 1 to Wave 2 cannot account for the predictive relations between EF and Narrative. Our findings suggest that although EF and Narrative ability appear independent at each Wave, they nevertheless support each other over developmental time. Specifically, the ability to maintain focus at 4 years supports subsequent narrative ability and narrative ability at 4 years supports subsequent facility and speed in learning and implementing new rules. PMID:24872811

Synthesis maps: visual knowledge translation for the CanIMPACT clinical system and patient cancer journeys.

PubMed

Jones, P H; Shakdher, S; Singh, P

2017-04-01

Salient findings and interpretations from the canimpact clinical cancer research study are visually represented in two synthesis maps for the purpose of communicating an integrated presentation of the study to clinical cancer researchers and policymakers. Synthesis maps integrate evidence and expertise into a visual narrative for knowledge translation and communication. A clinical system synthesis map represents the current Canadian primary care and cancer practice systems, proposed as a visual knowledge translation from the mixed-methods canimpact study to inform Canadian clinical research, policy, and practice discourses. Two synthesis maps, drawn together from multiple canimpact investigations and sources, were required to articulate critical differences between the clinical system and patient perspectives. The synthesis map of Canada-wide clinical cancer systems illustrates the relationships between primary care and the full cancer continuum. A patient-centred map was developed to represent the cancer (and primary care) journeys as experienced by breast and colorectal cancer patients.

Different Schools as Narrative Communities: Identity Narratives in Threefold

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ter Avest, Ina; Bakker, Cok; Miedema, Siebren

2008-01-01

The last decade identity is often and very fruitfully conceptualized as "narrative identity." Neither for individuals nor for groups is identity a given beforehand anymore. On the contrary, identity has to be constructed in an inductive way continuously. Three qualitative research methods are applied to explore in an inductive way the…

Archetypal Narratives in Career Counselling: A Chaos Theory Application

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pryor, Robert G. L.; Bright, Jim E. H.

2008-01-01

This paper seeks to extend previous work on narrative career counselling by considering the role of plot within clients' narratives. Seven archetypal narratives derived from the work of Booker (2004) are introduced that represent systems of meaning to provide insight into how individuals interpret their experience. These plots can be understood…

The Relationship between Oral and Written Narratives: A Three-Year Longitudinal Study of Narrative Cohesion, Coherence, and Structure

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pinto, Giuliana; Tarchi, Christian; Bigozzi, Lucia

2015-01-01

Background: The relationship between oral language and the writing process at early acquisition stages and the ways the former can enhance or limit the latter has not been researched extensively. Aims: The predictive relationship between kindergarten oral narrative competence and the first- and second-grade written narrative competence was…

Who speaks? Who looks? Who feels? Point of view in autobiographical narratives.

PubMed

Habermas, Tilmann

2006-04-01

In this paper, the author aims to substantiate Freud's claim that neurotic illness creates gaps in autobiographical narratives in terms of the narrator's stating and inducing perspectives. He sketches out the role of narrative perspective and the joint taking of a shared perspective by analyst and patient in psychoanalytic therapy. He introduces four ways of representing perspectives in narratives. Three degrees of narrative distortion are exemplified by three excerpts from life narratives and explored in terms of narrative perspective representation. The most comprehensive perspective representation is achieved in the first example by explicitly stating the present perspective of the narrator as well as the past perspective of the story's protagonist by use of mental verbs. In the second narrative, exclusive use of linguistic forms for inducing the protagonist's perspective both overwhelms the narrator and gives the listener an incomplete picture of what happened. Inconsistent motives, denial of responsibility and omission of detail render the third narrative even more difficult to follow. The author discusses the clinical significance of this exploratory analysis of perspectives in narratives in terms of claiming responsibility for one's past action and of level of defence mechanisms, and by highlighting the emotional impact on listeners, which the author suggests is the stronger the more perspectives are left out. He discusses analogies to countertransference. The analysis of narrative perspectives offers an approach for systematic research in psychoanalytic practice.

Source Credibility and the Biasing Effect of Narrative Information on the Perception of Vaccination Risks.

PubMed

Haase, Niels; Betsch, Cornelia; Renkewitz, Frank

2015-08-01

Immunization rates are below the Global Immunization Vision and Strategy established by the World Health Organization. One reason for this are anti-vaccination activists, who use the Internet to disseminate their agenda, frequently by publishing narrative reports about alleged vaccine adverse events. In health communication, the use of narrative information has been shown to be effectively persuasive. Furthermore, persuasion research indicates that the credibility of an information source may serve as a cue to discount or augment the communicated message. Thus, the present study investigated the effect of source credibility on the biasing effect of narrative information regarding the perception of vaccination risks. 265 participants were provided with statistical information (20%) regarding the occurrence of vaccine adverse events after vaccination against a fictitious disease. This was followed by 20 personalized narratives from an online forum on vaccination experiences. The authors varied the relative frequency of narratives reporting vaccine adverse events (35% vs. 85%), narrative source credibility (anti-vaccination website vs. neutral health forum), and the credibility of the statistical information (reliable data vs. unreliable data vs. control) in a between-subjects design. Results showed a stable narrative bias on risk perception that was not affected by credibility cues. However, narratives from an anti-vaccination website generally led to lower perceptions of vaccination risks.

The Narrative Impact of Active Video Games on Physical Activity Among Children: A Feasibility Study

PubMed Central

Baranowski, Tom; Hong, S Lee; Buday, Richard; Thompson, Debbe; Beltran, Alicia; Dadabhoy, Hafza Razak; Chen, Tzu-An

2016-01-01

Background Active video games (AVGs) capable of inducing physical activity offer an innovative approach to combating childhood obesity. Unfortunately, children’s AVG game play decreases quickly, underscoring the need to identify novel methods for player engagement. Narratives have been demonstrated to influence behaviors. Objective The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that a narrative would motivate increased AVG play, though a feasibility study that investigated the motivational effect of adding a previously developed narrative cutscene to an originally nonnarrative AVG, Nintendo Wii Sports Resort: Swordplay Showdown. Methods A total of 40 overweight and obese 8- to 11-year-olds equally divided by sex played the AVG. Half (n=20) were randomly assigned to a narrative group that watched the narrative cutscene before game play. The other half played the game without watching it. Results Children in the narrative group had significantly (P<.05) more steps per 10-second period (mean 3.2, SD 0.7) and overall (mean 523, SD 203) during game play compared with the nonnarrative group (10-second period: mean 2.7, SD 0.7; overall: mean 366, SD 172). Conclusions The AVG with narrative induced increased physical activity. Additional research is needed to understand the mechanisms through which narrative increases physical activity during AVG game play. PMID:27742605

Story and Discourse: Narrative Structure in Fiction and Film.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chatman, Seymour

The purpose of this book is to provide a reasoned account of narrative structure, the elements of storytelling, and their combination and articulation. As explained in the introductory chapter, the "what" of narrative is the story, its events (actions, happenings) and existents (characters and settings); the "way" of narrative is discourse, or…

Narrative organisation at encoding facilitated children's long-term episodic memory.

PubMed

Wang, Qi; Bui, Van-Kim; Song, Qingfang

2015-01-01

This study examined the effect of narrative organisation at encoding on long-term episodic memory in a sample of five- to seven-year-old children (N = 113). At an initial interview, children were asked to narrate a story from a picture book. Six months later, they were interviewed again and asked to recall the story and answer a series of direct questions about the story. Children who initially encoded more information in narrative and produced more complete, complex, cohesive and coherent narratives remembered the story in greater detail and accuracy following the six-month interval, independent of age and verbal skills. The relation between narrative organisation and memory was consistent across culture and gender. These findings provide new insight into the critical role of narrative in episodic memory.

Harnessing the Power of Story: Using Narrative Reading and Writing across Content Areas

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nathanson, Steven

2006-01-01

This article reviews research to examine how teaching and learning are improved with the use of narrative story materials. Stories help to focus the reader's attention and build personal connection, resulting in better retention and deeper subject-matter understanding. Four key advantages of narratives cited by D. T. Willingham are discussed. The…

The Value of Patient Narratives in the Assessment of Older Patients Presenting with Falls

PubMed Central

Wong, Carolyn; Hogan, David B.

2013-01-01

Background & Purpose Falls are a common and serious health problem experienced by older persons. The perception and interpretation of the fall experience can influence the long-term consequences of the event. In this pilot study, we explored whether there would be additional value in obtaining a patient narrative as part of the assessment of an older person who had fallen. Methods We conducted narrative interviews on a convenience sample of five older patients referred to the Calgary Fall Prevention Clinic (CFPC). Phenomena from the narratives were generated using original audio recordings. A focus group of four CFPC health professionals discussed similarities and differences between the narratives and the CFPC assessments conducted on these subjects without access to the narratives. Results Patient narratives revealed additional information about the person’s emotional response to their falls and overall health status, their strengths that could be utilized in implementing a care plan, and what they had done personally to prevent further falls. Conclusions Including patient narratives within standard fall-risk assessments could aid in understanding the emotional impact of falls on older patients and how they might respond to interventions. A challenge would be incorporating this within the time restraints of routine clinical practice. PMID:23737928

Impact of audio narrated animation on students' understanding and learning environment based on gender

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nasrudin, Ajeng Ratih; Setiawan, Wawan; Sanjaya, Yayan

2017-05-01

This study is titled the impact of audio narrated animation on students' understanding in learning humanrespiratory system based on gender. This study was conducted in eight grade of junior high school. This study aims to investigate the difference of students' understanding and learning environment at boys and girls classes in learning human respiratory system using audio narrated animation. Research method that is used is quasy experiment with matching pre-test post-test comparison group design. The procedures of study are: (1) preliminary study and learning habituation using audio narrated animation; (2) implementation of learning using audio narrated animation and taking data; (3) analysis and discussion. The result of analysis shows that there is significant difference on students' understanding and learning environment at boys and girls classes in learning human respiratory system using audio narrated animation, both in general and specifically in achieving learning indicators. The discussion related to the impact of audio narrated animation, gender characteristics, and constructivist learning environment. It can be concluded that there is significant difference of students' understanding at boys and girls classes in learning human respiratory system using audio narrated animation. Additionally, based on interpretation of students' respond, there is the difference increment of agreement level in learning environment.

Flipping the HSI Narrative: An HSI Positionality

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Núñez, Anne-Marie

2017-01-01

Historically, the predominant narrative framing Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) is that they are monolithic and underperforming, inscribed in a false dichotomy as "Hispanic-Serving" or merely "Hispanic-Enrolling" (Núñez, Hurtado, & Calderón Galdeano, 2015). Together, these narrative threads weave a deficit perspective…

Parallel Narrative Structure in Paul Harding's "Tinkers"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Çirakli, Mustafa Zeki

2014-01-01

The present paper explores the implications of parallel narrative structure in Paul Harding's "Tinkers" (2009). Besides primarily recounting the two sets of parallel narratives, "Tinkers" also comprises of seemingly unrelated fragments such as excerpts from clock repair manuals and diaries. The main stories, however, told…

Discovering Narrative Transportation in an Education Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miner, Eric F.

2014-01-01

Narrative transportation occurs when people become emotionally immersed in stories, such that they feel imaginatively conveyed into story worlds. This study investigated the lived experiences of students who encountered narrative transportation in a college classroom. It is of interest to psychologists and educational practitioners because…

"I just want my life back!" - Men's narratives about living with fibromyalgia.

PubMed

Sallinen, Merja; Mengshoel, Anne Marit

2017-10-26

Fibromyalgia is characterized by chronic widespread pain and an array of other symptoms. It is less common among men than among women and the results concerning the severity of men's symptoms are contradictory. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the impacts of fibromyalgia on men's daily life and work ability. The data were collected through life story interviews of five men with fibromyalgia. The results of a narrative analysis are presented in a form of two model narratives: "Adjusting the life to match the illness" and "Being imprisoned by the pain". The first narrative is a description of finding a balance between the illness and wellness, whereas the second is an account of debilitating symptoms, unsuccessful treatment, and rehabilitation interventions. The results suggest that adjusting one's activities may help to manage the symptoms and to support work ability in many cases but for some patients the experience of feeling healthy or pain free might be nothing but a fading memory. Narrative approach is well applicable to rehabilitation of patients with fibromyalgia: an illness narrative may help the patient and professionals to understand the situation better and to set realistic and relevant goals for rehabilitation. Implications for rehabilitation In addition to chronic pain, men with fibromyalgia suffer from daytime tiredness and cognitive challenges that substantially interfere with their work ability and daily functioning. Vocational rehabilitation interventions, including e.g., adjustments of work tasks and hours, should be started early on to support work ability. The results indicate that psychosocial support is needed to improve health related quality of life of patients with severe and complex symptoms, especially if return-to-work is not an option. Men with fibromyalgia seem to lack peer support both in face-to face groups and in on-line groups. "All-male" support groups could be explored in rehabilitation settings in the future. Using a

Syntax of emotional narratives of persons diagnosed with antisocial personality.

PubMed

Gawda, Barbara

2010-08-01

The aim of this study was to show some specificity of syntax of narratives created by persons diagnosed with antisocial personality. The author attempted to verify and supplement information that persons with antisocial personality have an incapacity for emotional language. Scores of 60 prisoners with high antisocial tendencies, 40 prisoners with low antisocial tendencies, and 100 men without the antisocial tendencies, were analyzed. The participants had to describe the situations of love, hate and anxiety inspired by the photographs. The narrative discourse was analyzed. The research was concentrated on syntactic elements. Comparisons between the three groups were conducted. The results show the differences between the antisocial inmates, non-antisocial inmates, and controls. In their emotional narratives, the antisocial individuals used more repetitions, pauses and negations. These linguistic characteristics are attributed to high activity, psychopathy and emotionality of persons diagnosed with antisocial personality.

Narrative in Exergames: Thoughts on Procedure, Mechanism, and Others

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

Abstract Narratives are stories with a beginning, middle, and end that provide information about the characters and plot. Exergames are videogames that require players to move or exercise. Narratives and exergames have seldom been examined together. Based on my review of the literature, there are five potential opportunities narratives could bring to exergames: Enhanced engagement with characters and with the plot, increased motivation, repeated play sessions, and better behavioral consequence. However, the rewards offered by these possibilities may be offset by the challenges they pose. These challenges include the difficulty in fully integrating narratives into the gameplay, the players' limited information processing capacity, difficulty in measurement, the lack of full understanding of the player–character identification process, and the narrative saturation effects. Innovative research is needed to bridge the two potentially important domains. PMID:26181676

What is narrative-based medicine?

PubMed Central

Zaharias, George

2018-01-01

Abstract Objective To raise awareness of narrative-based medicine (NBM) as a valuable approach to the consultation, which, if practised more widely by GPs, would convey considerable benefits to both patients and physicians. Sources of information Principally, the perspectives of 2 of NBM’s key proponents, Rita Charon and John Launer. Main message This first in a series of 3 articles outlines what NBM is and its benefits. In holding the patient story as central, NBM shifts the doctor’s focus from the need to problem solve to the need to understand. As a result, the patient-doctor relationship is strengthened and the patient’s needs and concerns are addressed more effectively and with improved health outcomes. Conclusion The healing power of narrative is repeatedly attested to but the scientific evidence is sparse. If NBM is to be incorporated more broadly in clinical practice, more research is needed to better define NBM’s role, understand the specific skills required for practice, and determine NBM’s outcomes with respect to illness and disease. PMID:29540381

American War Narratives: An Analytic Study and Linkage to National Will

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-05-26

War, the United States has engaged in numerous conflicts where national will has been tested and has had an impact on the conduct of military...capture the war narrative. As a result, when war is not officially declared, the omission of a formal declaration can impact on the war narrative... impact on the British and Hessian forces as evidenced by subsequent emigration patterns following the conclusion of the war. The Hessians were so

Visualization rhetoric: framing effects in narrative visualization.

PubMed

Hullman, Jessica; Diakopoulos, Nicholas

2011-12-01

Narrative visualizations combine conventions of communicative and exploratory information visualization to convey an intended story. We demonstrate visualization rhetoric as an analytical framework for understanding how design techniques that prioritize particular interpretations in visualizations that "tell a story" can significantly affect end-user interpretation. We draw a parallel between narrative visualization interpretation and evidence from framing studies in political messaging, decision-making, and literary studies. Devices for understanding the rhetorical nature of narrative information visualizations are presented, informed by the rigorous application of concepts from critical theory, semiotics, journalism, and political theory. We draw attention to how design tactics represent additions or omissions of information at various levels-the data, visual representation, textual annotations, and interactivity-and how visualizations denote and connote phenomena with reference to unstated viewing conventions and codes. Classes of rhetorical techniques identified via a systematic analysis of recent narrative visualizations are presented, and characterized according to their rhetorical contribution to the visualization. We describe how designers and researchers can benefit from the potentially positive aspects of visualization rhetoric in designing engaging, layered narrative visualizations and how our framework can shed light on how a visualization design prioritizes specific interpretations. We identify areas where future inquiry into visualization rhetoric can improve understanding of visualization interpretation. © 2011 IEEE

Returning to Work after Cancer: Quantitative Studies and Prototypical Narratives

PubMed Central

Steiner, John F.; Nowels, Carolyn T.; Main, Deborah S.

2009-01-01

Objective A combination of quantitative data and illustrative narratives may allow cancer survivorship researchers to disseminate their research findings more broadly. We identified recent, methodologically rigorous quantitative studies on return to work after cancer, summarized the themes from these studies, and illustrated those themes with narratives of individual cancer survivors. Methods We reviewed English-language studies of return to work for adult cancer survivors through June, 2008, and identified 13 general themes from papers that met methodological criteria (population-based sampling, prospective and longitudinal assessment, detailed assessment of work, evaluation of economic impact, assessment of moderators of work return, and large sample size). We drew survivorship narratives from a prior qualitative research study to illustrate these themes. Results Nine quantitative studies met 4 or more of our 6 methodological criteria. These studies suggested that most cancer survivors could return to work without residual disabilities. Cancer site, clinical prognosis, treatment modalities, socioeconomic status, and attributes of the job itself influenced the likelihood of work return. Three narratives - a typical survivor who returned to work after treatment, an individual unable to return to work, and an inspiring survivor who returned to work despite substantial barriers - illustrated many of the themes from the quantitative literature while providing additional contextual details. Conclusion Illustrative narratives can complement the findings of cancer survivorship research if researchers are rigorous and transparent in the selection, analysis, and retelling of those stories. PMID:19507264

Narratives About Mental Illnesses in China: The Voices of Generation Y.

PubMed

Tang, Lu; Bie, Bijie

2016-01-01

This study explores the cultured understanding of mental health and mental illnesses among members of Generation Y in China through a narrative approach. Five prominent narratives are identified through the analysis of stories about mental illnesses collected through semistructured interviews with college students. These five narratives feature the tragic genius, the psychotic criminal, the fragile victim, the antisocial recluse, and the homosexual. These narratives are gendered, in that women are the primary protagonists in the narrative about the fragile victim, while men are featured prominently in the narratives about the tragic genius, the psychotic criminal, and the antisocial recluse. Our study demonstrates that these narratives are based on, and will further reinforce, highly cultural-specific stereotypes and biases about mental illnesses in China. Theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed.

Protocol for a systematic review of the use of narrative storytelling and visual-arts-based approaches as knowledge translation tools in healthcare

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background The arts are powerful, accessible forms of communication that have the potential to impart knowledge by attracting interest and developing meaningful connections. Knowledge translation aims to reduce the ‘evidence-practice’ gap by developing, implementing and evaluating strategies designed to enhance awareness and promote behavior change congruent with research evidence. Increasingly, innovative approaches such as narrative storytelling and other arts-based interventions are being investigated to bridge the growing gap between practice and research. This study is the first to systematically identify and synthesize current research on narrative storytelling and visual art to translate and disseminate health research. Methods A health research librarian will develop and implement search strategies designed to identify relevant evidence. Studies will be included if they are primary research employing narrative storytelling and/or visual art as a knowledge translation strategy in healthcare. Two reviewers will independently perform study selection, quality assessment, and data extraction using standard forms. Disagreements will be resolved through discussion or third party adjudication. Data will be grouped and analyzed by research design, type of knowledge translation strategy (that is, a narrative or visual-arts-based approach), and target audience. An overall synthesis across all studies will be conducted. Discussion The findings from this research project will describe the ‘state of the science’ regarding the use of narrative storytelling and visual art as knowledge translation strategies. This systematic review will provide critical information for: (1) researchers conducting knowledge translation intervention studies; (2) nursing, medicine, and allied healthcare professionals; (3) healthcare consumers, including patients and families; and (4) decision makers and knowledge users who are charged to increase use of the latest research in

Protocol for a systematic review of the use of narrative storytelling and visual-arts-based approaches as knowledge translation tools in healthcare.

PubMed

Scott, Shannon D; Brett-MacLean, Pamela; Archibald, Mandy; Hartling, Lisa

2013-03-20

The arts are powerful, accessible forms of communication that have the potential to impart knowledge by attracting interest and developing meaningful connections. Knowledge translation aims to reduce the 'evidence-practice' gap by developing, implementing and evaluating strategies designed to enhance awareness and promote behavior change congruent with research evidence. Increasingly, innovative approaches such as narrative storytelling and other arts-based interventions are being investigated to bridge the growing gap between practice and research. This study is the first to systematically identify and synthesize current research on narrative storytelling and visual art to translate and disseminate health research. A health research librarian will develop and implement search strategies designed to identify relevant evidence. Studies will be included if they are primary research employing narrative storytelling and/or visual art as a knowledge translation strategy in healthcare. Two reviewers will independently perform study selection, quality assessment, and data extraction using standard forms. Disagreements will be resolved through discussion or third party adjudication. Data will be grouped and analyzed by research design, type of knowledge translation strategy (that is, a narrative or visual-arts-based approach), and target audience. An overall synthesis across all studies will be conducted. The findings from this research project will describe the 'state of the science' regarding the use of narrative storytelling and visual art as knowledge translation strategies. This systematic review will provide critical information for: (1) researchers conducting knowledge translation intervention studies; (2) nursing, medicine, and allied healthcare professionals; (3) healthcare consumers, including patients and families; and (4) decision makers and knowledge users who are charged to increase use of the latest research in healthcare settings.

Narrative Skills in Young Adults with High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rollins, Pamela Rosenthal

2014-01-01

In this study, the author investigated narrative performances of 10 high-functioning young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) across personal and storybook narratives. Narratives were elicited with genre-specific procedures and then transcribed and scored using the narrative scoring scheme (NSS). One-tailed paired-sample t tests were…

Narratives of Girls and Boys with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Gender Differences in Narrative Competence and Internal State Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kauschke, Christina; van der Beek, Bettina; Kamp-Becker, Inge

2016-01-01

Since gender differences in the symptomatology of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are not well understood, the current study examines the communicative skills of males and females with ASD. Narrative competence and internal state language (ISL) was investigated using narrations elicited by a wordless picture book. 11 girls and 11 boys with ASD and…

Intensification and Complexity in Teachers' Narrated Worklives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wiebe, Sean; MacDonald, Craig

2014-01-01

Reflecting on a previous study of teachers' narratives, this epistolary conversation follows ideas of intensification and complexity that emerged in the authors' return to the narrative accounts. Their conversation highlights representations of teaching as a struggle for recognition, personal happiness, and security-all within a system of…

Cajun, Creole, and African American Literacy Narratives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Greene, Nicole Pepinster

2005-01-01

This article examines students' narrative responses to reading professional literacy histories. Demonstrating the importance of narrative as a way of learning, it shows how elementary education majors of diverse backgrounds explore their relation with language in a traditional grammar class. Cajun, Creole, and African American students recover…

Myths of Monoculturalism: Narratively Claiming the Other

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dennis, Barbara

2016-01-01

This paper reports on monocultural education narratives associated with marginalizing newcomer English-as-a-New-Language learners and their families. These narratives emerged through a three-year long critical ethnography in the schools of a Midwest town (Unityville). The collective, social stories emerged as "story seeds" through…

Magical Thinking in Narratives of Adolescent Cutters

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gregory, Robert J.; Mustata, Georgian T.

2012-01-01

Adolescents sometimes cut themselves to relieve distress; however, the mechanism is unknown. Previous studies have linked self-injury to deficits in processing emotions symbolically through language. To investigate expressive language of adolescent cutters, the authors analyzed 100 narratives posted on the Internet. Most narratives (n = 66)…

Multimodal Narrative Inquiry: Six Teacher Candidates Respond

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morawski, Cynthia M.; Rottmann, Jennifer

2016-01-01

In this paper we present findings of a study on the implementation of a multimodal teacher narrative inquiry component, theoretically grounded by Rosenblatt's theory of transaction analysis, methodologically supported by action research and practically enacted by narrative inquiry and multimodal learning. In particular, the component offered…

Out of Place: Narrative Insights into Agoraphobia.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Capps, Lisa; Ochs, Elinor

1995-01-01

Explores how agoraphobia is realized through the activity of storytelling. Analyzes one agoraphobic woman's narrative to articulate the narrative structuring of a panic episode, the grammatical resources systematically recruited to portray panic as unaccountable and the protagonist as irrational and helpless, and a recurrent communicative dilemma…

Modeling biochemical transformation processes and information processing with Narrator

PubMed Central

Mandel, Johannes J; Fuß, Hendrik; Palfreyman, Niall M; Dubitzky, Werner

2007-01-01

Background Software tools that model and simulate the dynamics of biological processes and systems are becoming increasingly important. Some of these tools offer sophisticated graphical user interfaces (GUIs), which greatly enhance their acceptance by users. Such GUIs are based on symbolic or graphical notations used to describe, interact and communicate the developed models. Typically, these graphical notations are geared towards conventional biochemical pathway diagrams. They permit the user to represent the transport and transformation of chemical species and to define inhibitory and stimulatory dependencies. A critical weakness of existing tools is their lack of supporting an integrative representation of transport, transformation as well as biological information processing. Results Narrator is a software tool facilitating the development and simulation of biological systems as Co-dependence models. The Co-dependence Methodology complements the representation of species transport and transformation together with an explicit mechanism to express biological information processing. Thus, Co-dependence models explicitly capture, for instance, signal processing structures and the influence of exogenous factors or events affecting certain parts of a biological system or process. This combined set of features provides the system biologist with a powerful tool to describe and explore the dynamics of life phenomena. Narrator's GUI is based on an expressive graphical notation which forms an integral part of the Co-dependence Methodology. Behind the user-friendly GUI, Narrator hides a flexible feature which makes it relatively easy to map models defined via the graphical notation to mathematical formalisms and languages such as ordinary differential equations, the Systems Biology Markup Language or Gillespie's direct method. This powerful feature facilitates reuse, interoperability and conceptual model development. Conclusion Narrator is a flexible and intuitive systems

Using narratives to motivate climate science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stiller-Reeve, Mathew; Bremer, Scott; Blanchard, Anne

2015-04-01

of the situation in northeast Bangladesh. At no point did we decide on the pertinent climatic issues independently of the local people. The success of this interdisciplinary approach so far has depended on time, patience, and humility. In this presentation, we present the narrative approach we have initiated in TRACKS. We will look at some of local climate narratives from the full-scale survey, as well as the challenges and the research questions that resulted from the process. We will also discuss future perspectives of how we re-integrate the new climate science into the dialogue with the local people.

Implementing a Narrative Medicine Curriculum During the Internship Year: An Internal Medicine Residency Program Experience

PubMed Central

Wesley, Tiffany; Hamer, Diana; Karam, George

2018-01-01

Introduction Narrative medicine develops professional and communication skills that align with Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education competencies. However, little is known about a narrative medicine curriculum’s impact on physicians in training during residency. Implementing a narrative medicine curriculum during residency can be challenging because of time constraints and limited opportunity for nonclinical education. Methods Six sessions were implemented throughout one academic year to expose first-year internal medicine residents (interns) to narrative medicine. Attendance and participation were documented. At the end of the year, interns completed an open-ended survey to gauge their perception of their experience with the sessions. Results In total, 17 interns attended at least 1 narrative medicine session, and each session averaged 5.4 attendees. Thirteen eligible interns completed the survey. Thematic analysis identified 3 predominant themes: Mindfulness, physician well-being, and professionalism. Discussion Overall, the narrative medicine sessions were well attended and the curriculum was well received. This intervention demonstrates the value of a narrative medicine curriculum during medical resident training. Large prospective studies are necessary to identify the long-term benefits of such a curriculum. PMID:29702059

The use of narrative sampling in the assessment of social cognition: the Narrative of Emotions Task (NET).

PubMed

Buck, Benjamin; Ludwig, Kelsey; Meyer, Piper S; Penn, David L

2014-07-30

Social cognitive deficits in schizophrenia are well documented and related to functional outcome. Current social cognition measures are often not psychometrically validated, too heterogeneous for standardization, and focus principally on one domain of social cognition rather than the simultaneous activation of multiple domains. Also, few if any allow for personalization of stimuli and interpretation of personally evocative events. An alternative methodology that addresses these limitations is the analysis of samples of personal narratives. The present study evaluates the psychometric properties of a measure called the Narrative of Emotions Task (NET). The NET was used to assess the performance of participants with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and nonclinical controls. Use of the NET revealed significant impairments in the emotional narratives of participants with schizophrenia. Various NET indices were significantly related to current measures of theory of mind and emotion perception, as well as a social skills role-play, but were not related to measures of attributional style or clinician-rated functioning scales. Overall, the NET׳s psychometric properties justify further use of the narrative sampling method of social cognition assessment in this population. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

The use of narrative sampling in the assessment of social cognition: The Narrative of Emotions Task (NET)

PubMed Central

Buck, Benjamin; Ludwig, Kelsey; Penn, David L.

2014-01-01

Social cognitive deficits in schizophrenia are well documented and related to functional outcome. Current social cognition measures are often not psychometrically validated, too heterogeneous for standardization, and focus principally on one domain of social cognition rather than the simultaneous activation of multiple domains. Also, few if any allow for personalization of stimuli and interpretation of personally evocative events. An alternative methodology that addresses these limitations is the analysis of samples of personal narratives. The present study evaluates the psychometric properties of a measure called the Narrative of Emotions Task (NET). The NET was used to assess the performance of participants with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and nonclinical controls. Use of the NET revealed significant impairments in the emotional narratives of participants with schizophrenia. Various NET indices were significantly related to current measures of theory of mind and emotion perception, as well as a social skills role-play, but were not related to measures of attributional style or clinician-rated functioning scales. Overall, the NET's psychometric properties justify further use of the narrative sampling method of social cognition assessment in this population. PMID:24726270

Mothers' autobiographical memory and book narratives with children with specific language impairment.

PubMed

Tompkins, Virginia; Farrar, M Jeffrey

2011-01-01

This study examined the role that mothers' scaffolding plays in the autobiographical memory (AM) and storybook narratives of children with specific language impairment (SLI). Seven 4-5-year-old children and their mothers co-constructed narratives in both contexts. We also compared children's narratives with mothers to their narratives with an experimenter. Narratives were assessed in terms of narrative style (i.e., elaborativeness) and topic control. Mothers' elaborative and repetitive questions during AM and book narratives were related to children's elaborations, whereas mothers' elaborative and repetitive statements were not. Mothers produced more topic-controlling utterances than children in both contexts; however, both mothers and children provided proportionally more information in the book context. Additionally, children were more elaborative with mothers compared to an experimenter. Readers will be able to: (1) understand the importance of mother-child narratives for both typical and clinical populations; (2) understand how mother-child autobiographical memory and storybook narratives may differ between typical and clinical populations; and (3) consider the implications for designing narrative intervention studies for language impaired children. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Rumination and self-reflection in stress narratives and relations to psychological functioning.

PubMed

Marin, Kelly A; Rotondo, Elena K

2017-01-01

The longitudinal study aims to expand what is known about the costs and benefits of narrating stressful experiences by exploring changes in rumination within the narrative process and comparing it to changes in self-reflection. Rumination (e.g., brooding, self-criticism, and negative emotions) and self-reflection were measured in stress narratives of 56 college students. There were several goals: (1) examine changes in narrative rumination and narrative self-reflection over 3 days of writing, (2) examine the relations among the changes in narrative rumination variables and narrative self-reflection and (3) examine how changes in narrative rumination and narrative self-reflection relate to multiple measures of psychological functioning. Overall, individuals increased self-reflection over the 3-day writing task. Individuals who increased ruminative brooding across the 3 days of writing showed lower ego identity development (short term and long term) and self-esteem (short term), while increased self-criticism was positively correlated with identity distress (short term). Implications of the different aspects of narrative rumination, specifically in the context of stressful experiences, are discussed.

Binding and Unfolding: Towards the Linguistic Construction of Narrative Discourse.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bamberg, Michael; Marchman, Virginia

1991-01-01

Explores the relationship between linguistic and conceptual structuring of narratives, focusing on linguistic devices used by German and U.S. narrators to identify transitions in text structure. Identifies and outlines two types of narrative orientation: differentiating events and integrating events. (SR)

Developing Reading Comprehension with Moving Image Narratives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maine, Fiona; Shields, Robin

2015-01-01

This paper reports the findings from a small-scale exploratory study that investigated how moving-image narratives might enable children to develop transferable reading comprehension strategies. Using short, animated, narrative films, 28 primary-aged children engaged in a 10-week programme that included the explicit instruction of comprehension…

Narrative Skills of Children with Communication Impairments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Norbury, Courtenay Frazier; Bishop, Dorothy V. M.

2003-01-01

Background: Narrative assessment is sensitive to the communication impairments of children with specific language impairment and those with autistic spectrum disorders. Although both groups of children tend to show deficits in narrative, it is unclear whether these deficits are qualitatively different and how language and pragmatic ability may…

Enhancing the Personal Narrative Skills of Elementary School-Aged Students Who Use AAC: The Effectiveness of Personal Narrative Intervention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Soto, Gloria; Solomon-Rice, Patti; Caputo, Michele

2009-01-01

Children who use augmentative and alternative communication have been found to experience significant difficulties in the production of fictional and personal narratives. The important role of personal narratives in establishing personal and social identity has received substantial attention in developmental psychology but little attention in the…

Do Children and Adolescents Have Different Types of Trauma Narratives and Does It Matter? Reliability and Face Validation for a Narrative Taxonomy.

PubMed

Scheeringa, Michael S; Lilly, Megan E; Staiger, Allison B; Heller, Maren L; Jones, Edward G; Weems, Carl F

2017-06-01

The construction of trauma narratives is a major component of several psychotherapy approaches for trauma-related problems, but questions remain as to whether fully expressive narratives are necessary and whether it is detrimental to ask avoidant youths to tell their narratives repeatedly. Characteristics of trauma narratives during psychotherapy have not been examined in youths and this represents a salient gap in knowledge. This study aimed to begin filling this gap by identifying categories of trauma narratives and empirically validating them. Youths (N = 47) aged 7 to 18 years, who were involved in a randomized controlled trial, received cognitive behavioral therapy. Transcripts of all narrative exposure therapy sessions for each youth were rated. Four categories were identified and were named expressive, avoidant, fabricated, and undemonstrative. Interrater reliability for identifying these categories was good, and face validation of the categories was supported by statistically significant differences between categories on the number of data elements of the trauma events, negative emotion words, and positive emotion words. These promising findings indicate that different types of narrative styles can be reliably identified. There was strong evidence for reduction of posttraumatic stress symptoms in each of the categories (Cohen's d = 0.9 to 2.5). Favorable treatment outcomes for all categories suggest that more remembering is not always better and clients appeared to effectively deal with memories in different ways. Copyright © 2017 International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.

Emotions, narratives, and ethical mindfulness.

PubMed

Guillemin, Marilys; Gillam, Lynn

2015-06-01

Clinical care is laden with emotions, from the perspectives of both clinicians and patients. It is important that emotions are addressed in health professions curricula to ensure that clinicians are humane healers as well as technical experts. Emotions have a valuable and generative role in health professional ethics education.The authors have previously described a narrative ethics pedagogy, the aim of which is to develop ethical mindfulness. Ethical mindfulness is a state of being that acknowledges everyday ethics and ethically important moments as significant in clinical care, with the aim of enabling ethical clinical practice. Using a sample narrative, the authors extend this concept to examine five features of ethical mindfulness as they relate to emotions: (1) being sensitized to emotions in everyday practice, (2) acknowledging and understanding the ways in which emotions are significant in practice, (3) being able to articulate the emotions at play during ethically important moments, (4) being reflexive and acknowledging both the generative aspects and the limitations of emotions, and (5) being courageous.The process of writing and engaging with narratives can lead to ethical mindfulness, including the capacity to understand and work with emotions. Strategies for productively incorporating emotions in narrative ethics teaching are described. This can be a challenging domain within medical education for both educators and health care students and thus needs to be addressed sensitively and responsibly. The potential benefit of educating health professionals in a way which addresses emotionality in an ethical framework makes the challenges worthwhile.

The influence of narrative v. statistical information on perceiving vaccination risks.

PubMed

Betsch, Cornelia; Ulshöfer, Corina; Renkewitz, Frank; Betsch, Tilmann

2011-01-01

Health-related information found on the Internet is increasing and impacts patient decision making, e.g. regarding vaccination decisions. In addition to statistical information (e.g. incidence rates of vaccine adverse events), narrative information is also widely available such as postings on online bulletin boards. Previous research has shown that narrative information can impact treatment decisions, even when statistical information is presented concurrently. As the determinants of this effect are largely unknown, we will vary features of the narratives to identify mechanisms through which narratives impact risk judgments. An online bulletin board setting provided participants with statistical information and authentic narratives about the occurrence and nonoccurrence of adverse events. Experiment 1 followed a single factorial design with 1, 2, or 4 narratives out of 10 reporting adverse events. Experiment 2 implemented a 2 (statistical risk 20% vs. 40%) × 2 (2/10 vs. 4/10 narratives reporting adverse events) × 2 (high vs. low richness) × 2 (high vs. low emotionality) between-subjects design. Dependent variables were perceived risk of side-effects and vaccination intentions. Experiment 1 shows an inverse relation between the number of narratives reporting adverse-events and vaccination intentions, which was mediated by the perceived risk of vaccinating. Experiment 2 showed a stronger influence of the number of narratives than of the statistical risk information. High (vs. low) emotional narratives had a greater impact on the perceived risk, while richness had no effect. The number of narratives influences risk judgments can potentially override statistical information about risk.

The contribution of nurses to incident disclosure: a narrative review.

PubMed

Harrison, Reema; Birks, Yvonne; Hall, Jill; Bosanquet, Kate; Harden, Melissa; Iedema, Rick

2014-02-01

To explore (a) how nurses feel about disclosing patient safety incidents to patients, (b) the current contribution that nurses make to the process of disclosing patient safety incidents to patients and (c) the barriers that nurses report as inhibiting their involvement in disclosure. A systematic search process was used to identify and select all relevant material. Heterogeneity in study design of the included articles prohibited a meta-analysis and findings were therefore synthesised in a narrative review. A range of text words, synonyms and subject headings were developed in conjunction with the York Centre for Reviews and Dissemination and used to undertake a systematic search of electronic databases (MEDLINE; EMBASE; CENTRAL; PsycINFO; Health Management and Information Consortium; CINAHL; ASSIA; Science Citation Index; Social Science Citation Index; Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews; Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects; Health Technology Assessment Database; Health Systems Evidence; PASCAL; LILACS). Retrieval of studies was restricted to those published after 1980. Further data sources were: websites, grey literature, research in progress databases, hand-searching of relevant journals and author contact. The title and abstract of each citation was independently screened by two reviewers and disagreements resolved by consensus or consultation with a third person. Full text articles retrieved were further screened against the inclusion and exclusion criteria then checked by a second reviewer (YB). Relevant data were extracted and findings were synthesised in a narrative empirical synthesis. The systematic search and selection process identified 15 publications which included 11 unique studies that emerged from a range of locations. Findings suggest that nurses currently support both physicians and patients through incident disclosure, but may be ill-prepared to disclose incidents independently. Barriers to nurse involvement included a lack of

Rural and Urban Teaching Experiences: Narrative Expressions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Preston, Jane P.

2012-01-01

This qualitative exploration of rural and urban teaching experiences encapsulates the experiences of 8 Western Canadian teachers. A literature review outlines the benefits and challenges of rural and urban education. Stemming from narrative inquiry data, I present the study's results in the form of two composite stories, which depict the lived…

The effect of narrative cues on infants' imitation from television and picture books.

PubMed

Simcock, Gabrielle; Garrity, Kara; Barr, Rachel

2011-01-01

Infants can imitate a novel action sequence from television and picture books, yet there has been no direct comparison of infants' imitation from the 2 types of media. Varying the narrative cues available during the demonstration and test, the current experiments measured 18- and 24-month-olds' imitation from television and picture books. Infants imitated from both media types when full narrative cues (Experiment 1; N = 76) or empty, meaningless narration (Experiment 2; N = 135) accompanied the demonstrations, but they imitated more from television than books. In Experiment 3 (N = 27), infants imitated from a book based on narration alone, without the presence of pictures. These results are discussed in relation to age-related changes in cognitive flexibility and infants' emerging symbolic understanding. © 2011 The Authors. Child Development © 2011 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.

Anxieties of communication: the limits of narrative in the medical humanities.

PubMed

McKechnie, Claire Charlotte

2014-12-01

This paper aims to provide an initial response to Angela Woods's endeavour to '(re)ignite critical debates around this topic' in her recent essay 'The limits of narrative: provocations for the medical humanities' (Medical Humanities 2011). Woods's essay challenges the validity of the notion of the narrative self through her discussion and use of Galen Strawson's seminal 'Against narrativity' (2004). To some extent in dialogue with Woods, this article will examine three exploratory concepts connected with the topic. First, it will explore ways in which we might seek to re-place narrative at the centre of the philosophy of good medicine and medical practice by reassessing the role of the narratee in the narrative process. Second, it will reconsider the three alternative forms of expression Woods puts forward as non-narrative--metaphor, phenomenology and photography--as narrative. Finally, and connected to the first two areas of discussion, it will reflect on ways in which narrative might be used to interpret illness and suffering in medical humanities contexts. What I hope to show, in relation to Woods's work on this subject, is that in order to be interpreted (indeed interpretable) the types of non-narrative representation and communication she discusses in fact require a narrative response. We employ narratology to engage with illness experience because narrative is so fundamental to meaning-making that it is not just required, it is an inherent human response to creative outputs we encounter. This is a quite different approach to the question of narrativity in the medical humanities, and it is therefore related to, but not entirely hinged upon, the work that Woods has done, but it is intended to spark further discussion across the emergent discipline. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

The Secret between Storytelling and Retelling: Tea, School, & Narrative

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yu, Jie

2014-01-01

In this paper, I will tell two of my personal stories to try to explore the secret or opaque space between the original telling and retelling of stories in narrative inquiry. Based upon my difficult struggles with the two stories of tea, school, and narrative, I suggest that narrative inquiry has to be a complex loop of relationship, reflexivity,…

Linguistic and pragmatic aspects of narration in Finnish typically developing children and children with specific language impairment.

PubMed

Mäkinen, Leena; Loukusa, Soile; Laukkanen, Päivi; Leinonen, Eeva; Kunnari, Sari

2014-06-01

This study investigates narratives of Finnish children with specific language impairment (SLI) from linguistic and pragmatic perspectives, in order to get a comprehensive overview of these children's narrative abilities. Nineteen children with SLI (mean age 6;1 years) and 19 typically developing age-matched children participated in the study. Their picture-elicited narrations were analysed for linguistic productivity and complexity, grammatical and referential accuracy, event content, the use of mental state expressions and narrative comprehension. Children with SLI showed difficulties in every aspect of narration in comparison to their peers. Only one measure of productivity, the number of communication units, did not reach statistical significance. Not only was linguistic structure fragile but also pragmatic aspects of storytelling (referencing, event content, mental state expressions and inferencing) were demanding for children with SLI. Results suggest that pragmatic aspects of narration should be taken into account more often when assessing narrative abilities of children with SLI.

Narrative pedagogy in midwifery education.

PubMed

Gilkison, Andrea

2013-09-01

Narrative pedagogy is an approach to midwifery education which can promote strategies for teaching and learning which effectively prepare graduates for the complex nature of midwifery practice. Knowledge and skills are fundamental to midwifery practice, but knowing about how to use them is the art of practice. Teaching and learning midwifery skills and competencies is straight forward in comparison to teaching and learning about the art of midwifery, yet both are essential for safe practice. Narrative pedagogy may be one way that enhances undergraduate midwifery students' learning about the art of practice.

Cancer Survivorship in the Age of YouTube and Social Media: A Narrative Analysis

PubMed Central

Hunt, Yvonne; Folkers, Anna

2011-01-01

Background As evidenced by the increasing popularity of YouTube (www.youtube.com), personal narratives shared through social media are an area of rapid development in communication among cancer survivors. Identifying the thematic and linguistic characteristics of YouTube cancer stories can provide a better understanding of this naturally occurring communication channel and inform social media communication efforts aiming to use personal stories to reach individuals with serious illnesses. Objective The objective of our study was to provide an in-depth description of authentic personal cancer stories. Through a linguistically based narrative analysis of YouTube stories, the analysis explicates the common attributes of these narratives. Methods Informed by narrative theories, we conducted an iterative, bottom-up analysis of 35 YouTube videos identified by the search terms “cancer survivor” and “cancer stories”. A list of shared thematic and linguistic characteristics was identified and analyzed. Results A subnarrative on the cancer diagnosis was present in 86% (30/35) of the stories under analysis. These diagnostic narratives were characterized by dramatic tension, emotional engagement, markers of the loss of agency or control, depersonalized reference to the medical personnel, and the unexpectedness of a cancer diagnosis. The analysis highlights the themes of story authenticity and emotional engagement in this online communication medium. Conclusions Internet advances have enabled new and efficient exchange of personal stories, including the sharing of personal cancer experience among cancer survivors and their caregivers. The analytic results of this descriptive study point to the common characteristics of authentic cancer survivorship stories online. Furthermore, the results of this descriptive study may inform development of narrative-based communication, particularly in maintaining authenticity and emotional engagement. PMID:21247864

Analyzing women's roles through graphic representation of narratives.

PubMed

Hall, Joanne M

2003-08-01

A 1992 triangulated international nursing study of women's health was reported. The researchers used the perspectives of feminism and symbolic interactionism, specifically role theory. A narrative analysis was done to clarify the concept of role integration. The narrative analysis was reported in 1992, but graphic/visual techniques used in the team dialogue process of narrative analysis were not reported due to space limitations. These techniques have not been reported elsewhere and thus remain innovative. Specific steps in the method are outlined here in detail as an audit trail. The process would be useful to other qualitative researchers as an exemplar of one novel way that verbal data can be abstracted visually/graphically. Suggestions are included for aspects of narrative, in addition to roles, that could be depicted graphically in qualitative research.

Affecting Socially Constructed Beliefs through Narrative Simulation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCrary, Nancye

This project explores the use of narrative to mediate the delivery of information on the effects of harmful discrimination in a simulated environment that is intended to arouse empathy and inspire reflection. It focuses on the potential of instructional narrative simulation to change biased beliefs about homosexuality. "This just is!"…

A Narrative Inquiry of International Adoption Stories

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pryor, Christin; Pettinelli, J. Douglas

2011-01-01

The international adoption entrance story is an unexplored topic in the adoption literature. The stories that families tell of beginning life with their new children has important implications for the development of an autobiographical narrative of an adopted child. A coherent autobiographical narrative is vital for healthy childhood development.…

Self-Efficacy and Music Teaching: Five Narratives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Vries, Peter

2017-01-01

This article examines generalist primary (elementary) school teachers' self-efficacy in teaching music. Five teachers, each with five years teaching experience, were interviewed for the study. Using this interview data narratives were constructed for each of the five teachers. These narratives focused on what factors contributed to the level of…

Migrating Narratives: Pedagogical Possibilities for Relating Difference

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Galea, Simone

2012-01-01

The use of narratives in making oneself known to others has various political and ethical aims. Narrative is considered to be effective in revealing the particular knowledge of differently positioned persons that have been subjugated. It is hoped that through these subjects' representations of their differently situated lives and selves, dominant…

Evoking and Measuring Identification with Narrative Characters – A Linguistic Cues Framework

PubMed Central

van Krieken, Kobie; Hoeken, Hans; Sanders, José

2017-01-01

Current research on identification with narrative characters poses two problems. First, although identification is seen as a dynamic process of which the intensity varies during reading, it is usually measured by means of post-reading questionnaires containing self-report items. Second, it is not clear which linguistic characteristics evoke identification. The present paper proposes that an interdisciplinary framework allows for more precise manipulations and measurements of identification, which will ultimately advance our understanding of the antecedents and nature of this process. The central hypothesis of our Linguistic Cues Framework is that identification with a narrative character is a multidimensional experience for which different dimensions are evoked by different linguistic cues. The first part of the paper presents a literature review on identification, resulting in a renewed conceptualization of identification which distinguishes six dimensions: a spatiotemporal, a perceptual, a cognitive, a moral, an emotional, and an embodied dimension. The second part argues that each of these dimensions is influenced by specific linguistic cues which represent various aspects of the narrative character’s perspective. The proposed relations between linguistic cues and identification dimensions are specified in six propositions. The third part discusses what psychological and neurocognitive methods enable the measurement of the various identification dimensions in order to test the propositions. By establishing explicit connections between the linguistic characteristics of narratives and readers’ physical, psychological, and neurocognitive responses to narratives, this paper develops a research agenda for future empirical research on identification with narrative characters. PMID:28751875

Narratives of Focal Brain Injured Individuals: A Macro-Level Analysis

PubMed Central

Karaduman, Ayşenur; Göksun, Tilbe; Chatterjee, Anjan

2017-01-01

Focal brain injury can have detrimental effects on the pragmatics of communication. This study examined narrative production by unilateral brain damaged people (n= 36) and healthy controls and focused on the complexity (content and coherence) and the evaluative aspect of their narratives to test the general hypothesis that the left hemisphere is biased to process microlinguistic information and the right hemisphere is biased to process macrolinguistic information. We found that people with left hemisphere damage’s (LHD) narratives were less likely to maintain the overall theme of the story and produced fewer evaluative comments in their narratives. These deficits correlated with their performances on microlinguistic linguistic tasks. People with the right hemisphere damage (RHD) seemed to be preserved in expressing narrative complexity and evaluations as a group. Yet, single case analyses revealed that particular regions in the right hemisphere such as damage to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), the anterior and superior temporal gyrus, the middle temporal gyrus, and the supramarginal gyrus lead to problems in creating narratives. Our findings demonstrate that both hemispheres are necessary to produce competent narrative production. LHD people’s poor production is related to their microlinguistic language problems whereas RHD people’s impaired abilities can be associated with planning and working memory abilities required to relate events in a narrative. PMID:28347806

Internalizing Narrative Text Structure Impacts Student Writing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weih, Timothy G.

2005-01-01

This article describes an investigation with a class of seventh graders to determine what impact the study of traditional literature would have on their narrative writing. The classroom teacher emphasized the narrative structure of the traditional literature genre by prompting his students to respond both orally and in writing with their thoughts…

The Relative Ease of Writing Narrative Text.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kellogg, Ronald T.; And Others

A study investigated whether the narrative writing task is more compatible with the structure of conscious thought than are other writing tasks. If so, composing a narrative text should demand less cognitive effort, occur more fluently, and yield a more coherent document than composing persuasive or descriptive texts. Sixteen college students were…

Narrative in Young Children's Digital Art-Making

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sakr, Mona; Connelly, Vince; Wild, Mary

2016-01-01

Digital technologies have material and social properties that have the potential to create new opportunities for children's expressive arts practices. The presence and development of oral narratives in young children's visual art-making on paper has been noted in previous research, but little is known about the narratives children create when they…

Suggested Guidelines for Writing Reflective Case Narratives: Structure and Indicators

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Becker, Karin L.; Renger, Ralph

2017-01-01

Reflective case narratives are a practical mechanism for conveying lessons learned for practice improvement. Their ability to transform experience into knowledge in a colloquial, narrative style positions reflective case narratives as a powerful learning tool with pedagogical benefits for the evaluation community. However, one criticism of…

Skeleton Keys: Teaching the Fiction of Narrative Truth.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Felter, Douglas P.

1994-01-01

Describes the way one English teacher used a variety of stories to introduce students to the conventions of narrative fiction. Shows how students can be taught how great narrative artists manipulate the emotions of their audiences. (HB)

The evolutionary nature of narratives about expansion and sustenance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Raupach, M. R.

2014-12-01

The 200 years since the start of the industrial era has been a period of rapid and almost unbroken economic growth in much of the world, based upon exponentially increasing use of energy and water resources and the atmospheric commons. It is axiomatic that exponential growth cannot continue forever on a finite planet, leading to an emerging collision between the presently irresistible force of economic growth and the immovable reality of the finitude of Planet Earth. This has led to the a contest between two broad narratives about humans and their planet in the 21st century, an "expansion" narrative framed around the paramount need for economic growth, and a "sustenance" narrative framed around the paramount need to protect an increasingly fragile natural world. Many features of recent public discourse, including the acceleration of the news cycle and the echo-chamber effect of interactive social media, have driven these narratives to become progressively more mutually antagonistic and incompatible. Here I explore the idea that narratives (in the sense of stories that empower actions) are meme sequences that evolve through diversification, selection and adaptation. This memetic evolution can be understood and, to some extent, influenced. An analogy might be with the influence exerted by human selection over centuries on the gene pool of domesticated animals and plants. In shaping our shared future, the evolutionary contest between "expansion" and "sustenance" narratives is just as important as the dynamics of the natural world. The future therefore depends upon the evolution of more subtle and resilient narratives about human-earth interactions. A selection test for these narratives is their ability to empower a transition to a society that lives within the means of a finite planet and improves global wellbeing at the same time. My own recent experience is that scientists alone are not very good at shaping narratives to pass this fitness test, and the participation

[Identity and narration: autobiographical quests].

PubMed

Arfuch, Leonor

2013-01-01

This paper aims to tackle the subtle relation between autobiographical narratives and identity construction, from a non essentialist conception of identity. In a perspective that articulates philosophy of language, psychoanalysis, semiotics and literary critique, we posit the concept of biographical space as an analytical instrument to make a critical update of the reconfiguration of identities and subjectivities in contemporary culture, marked by the predominance of the biographical, the private and a kind of "public intimacy". This look is more symptomatic than descriptive: it intends to account for the rise of auto/biographical narratives and life-stories, from canonic genres to their multiple derivations in the media, social networks and the most diverse artistic practices, a phenomenon that seems to reaffirm the notion of narrative identities by Ricoeur. Our analysis here, from an ethic, aesthetic and political point of view, will focus on two visual arts experiences that have recently taken place for the first time in Buenos Aires: Christian Boltanski's and Tracey Emin's, solo exhibitions, each of them with a different biographical approach.

Memory for self-generated narration in the elderly.

PubMed

Drevenstedt, J; Bellezza, F S

1993-06-01

The story mnemonic technique, an effective encoding and retrieval strategy for young adults, was used as a procedure to study encoding and recall in elderly women. Experiment 1 (15 undergraduate and 14 elderly women) showed the technique to be reliable over 3 weeks and without practice effects in both age groups. In Experiment 2, 67 elderly women (mean age = 72 years) were found to make up 3 distinctive subgroupings in patterns of narration cohesiveness and recall accuracy, consistent with pilot data on the technique. A stepwise multiple regression equation found narration cohesiveness, an adaptation of the Daneman-Carpenter (1980) working-memory measure and vocabulary to predict word recall. Results suggested that a general memory factor differentiated the 3 elderly subgroups.

Neural Mechanism Underling Comprehension of Narrative Speech and Its Heritability: Study in a Large Population.

PubMed

Babajani-Feremi, Abbas

2017-09-01

Comprehension of narratives constitutes a fundamental part of our everyday life experience. Although the neural mechanism of auditory narrative comprehension has been investigated in some studies, the neural correlates underlying this mechanism and its heritability remain poorly understood. We investigated comprehension of naturalistic speech in a large, healthy adult population (n = 429; 176/253 M/F; 22-36 years of age) consisting of 192 twin pairs (49 monozygotic and 47 dizygotic pairs) and 237 of their siblings. We used high quality functional MRI datasets from the Human Connectome Project (HCP) in which a story-based paradigm was utilized for the auditory narrative comprehension. Our results revealed that narrative comprehension was associated with activations of the classical language regions including superior temporal gyrus (STG), middle temporal gyrus (MTG), and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) in both hemispheres, though STG and MTG were activated symmetrically and activation in IFG were left-lateralized. Our results further showed that the narrative comprehension was associated with activations in areas beyond the classical language regions, e.g. medial superior frontal gyrus (SFGmed), middle frontal gyrus (MFG), and supplementary motor area (SMA). Of subcortical structures, only the hippocampus was involved. The results of heritability analysis revealed that the oral reading recognition and picture vocabulary comprehension were significantly heritable (h 2  > 0.56, p < 10 - 13 ). In addition, the extent of activation of five areas in the left hemisphere, i.e. STG, IFG pars opercularis, SFGmed, SMA, and precuneus, and one area in the right hemisphere, i.e. MFG, were significantly heritable (h 2  > 0.33, p < 0.0004). The current study, to the best of our knowledge, is the first to investigate auditory narrative comprehension and its heritability in a large healthy population. Referring to the excellent quality of the HCP data, our

The Slave Narrative: An Image of Excellence.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Malden, Cynthia L.

Through the narratives of North American slaves a vivid picture of their lives, struggles, hopes, and aspirations emerges. The slave narrative arose as a response to, and a refutation of, claims that blacks could not write. Slave writings were often direct extensions of speech. Through a process of imitation and repetition, the black slave's…

Autobiographical Narration as a Tool for the Empowerment of Older Adults' Subjective and Psychological Wellbeing in Nursing Homes.

PubMed

Biassoni, Federica; Cassina, Giada; Balzarotti, Stefania

2017-09-20

Conceiving narration as a resource to promote older people's wellbeing, the present work aimed to implement a narrative-based intervention to empower the subjective and psychological wellbeing of older adults living in nursing homes. Twenty-one nursing-home residents took part in a narrative training experience consisting of three weekly interview sessions. During each interview, a psychologist helped the participants to construct an autobiographical narrative about their present life in the nursing home based on a Deconstruction-Reconstruction technique. Subjective and psychological wellbeing variables were assessed before and after the intervention. Subjective but not psychological wellbeing increased over the course of the intervention. The participants reported to appreciate the intervention. Although preliminary, the results suggest that brief narrative training based on narrative therapy can positively affect nursing-home residents' subjective wellbeing. Brief narrative interventions implementing deconstruction-reconstruction techniques are feasible for long-term care residents.

Work Transitions as Told: A Narrative Approach to Biographical Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hallqvist, Anders; Hyden, Lars-Christer

2013-01-01

In this article, we introduce a narrative approach to biographical learning; that is, an approach that considers autobiographical storytelling as a practice through which claims about life history are performed and negotiated. Using insights from narrative theory, we highlight evaluations in those narratives and suggest their crucial role in…

Narratives of psychiatric malingering in works of fiction.

PubMed

Kuperman, V

2006-12-01

This paper argues that the representation of psychiatric malingering in literary and cinematographic narratives informs societal stereotypes, and thus influences the clinical phenomenology of malingering. The study aims to identify sociocultural models of malingering in contemporary Western society based on the narrative analysis of about 60 fictional and non-fiction texts. Two behavioural patterns derived from the Foucauldian categories folly and madness are recognisable in naïve conceptualisations of fake insanity. Fabricated significations of deviation originate in grand societal narratives rather than in medical discourse, and construct characters such as animal like underdeveloped simpletons or detached, irrational, violent madmen. Each pattern stems from its own archaic conceptual basis and dictates a distinct framework for strategies of malingering. The semiotic structure of artistic narratives of malingering is discussed in comparison with the symptomatology of existing psychiatric models.

Narrative Centrality and Negative Affectivity: Independent and Interactive Contributors to Stress Reactions

PubMed Central

Rubin, David C.; Boals, Adriel; Hoyle, Rick H.

2014-01-01

Reactions to stressful negative events have long been studied using approaches based on either the narrative interpretation of the event or the traits of the individual. Here, we integrate these two approaches by using individual differences measures of both the narrative interpretation of the stressful event as central to one’s life and the personality characteristic of negative affectivity. We show that they each have independent contributions to stress reactions, and that high levels on both produce greater than additive effects. The effects on posttraumatic stress symptoms are substantial for both undergraduates (Study 1, n = 2,296; Study 3, n = 488) and veterans (Study 2, n = 104), with mean levels for participants low on both measures near floor on posttraumatic stress symptoms and those high on both measures scoring at or above diagnostic thresholds. Study 3 included three measures of narrative centrality and three of negative affectivity to demonstrate that the effects were not limited to a single measure. In Study 4 (n = 987), measures associated with symptoms of posttraumatic stress correlated substantially with either with measures of narrative centrality or measures of negative affectivity. The concepts of narrative centrality and negative affectivity and the results are consistent with findings from clinical populations using similar measures and with current approaches to therapy. In broad non-clinical populations, such as those used here, the results suggest that we might be able to substantially increase our ability to account for the severity of stress response by including both concepts. PMID:24294867

The Measles Vaccination Narrative in Twitter: A Quantitative Analysis.

PubMed

Radzikowski, Jacek; Stefanidis, Anthony; Jacobsen, Kathryn H; Croitoru, Arie; Crooks, Andrew; Delamater, Paul L

2016-01-01

The emergence of social media is providing an alternative avenue for information exchange and opinion formation on health-related issues. Collective discourse in such media leads to the formation of a complex narrative, conveying public views and perceptions. This paper presents a study of Twitter narrative regarding vaccination in the aftermath of the 2015 measles outbreak, both in terms of its cyber and physical characteristics. We aimed to contribute to the analysis of the data, as well as presenting a quantitative interdisciplinary approach to analyze such open-source data in the context of health narratives. We collected 669,136 tweets referring to vaccination from February 1 to March 9, 2015. These tweets were analyzed to identify key terms, connections among such terms, retweet patterns, the structure of the narrative, and connections to the geographical space. The data analysis captures the anatomy of the themes and relations that make up the discussion about vaccination in Twitter. The results highlight the higher impact of stories contributed by news organizations compared to direct tweets by health organizations in communicating health-related information. They also capture the structure of the antivaccination narrative and its terms of reference. Analysis also revealed the relationship between community engagement in Twitter and state policies regarding child vaccination. Residents of Vermont and Oregon, the two states with the highest rates of non-medical exemption from school-entry vaccines nationwide, are leading the social media discussion in terms of participation. The interdisciplinary study of health-related debates in social media across the cyber-physical debate nexus leads to a greater understanding of public concerns, views, and responses to health-related issues. Further coalescing such capabilities shows promise towards advancing health communication, thus supporting the design of more effective strategies that take into account the complex

Narrative performance of gifted African American school-aged children from low-income backgrounds.

PubMed

Mills, Monique T

2015-02-01

This study investigated classroom differences in the narrative performance of school-age African American English (AAE)-speaking children in gifted and general education classrooms. Forty-three children, Grades 2-5, each generated fictional narratives in response to the book Frog, Where Are You? (Mayer, 1969). Differences in performance on traditional narrative measures (total number of communication units [C-units], number of different words, and mean length of utterance in words) and on AAE production (dialect density measure) between children in gifted and general education classrooms were examined. There were no classroom-based differences in total number of C-units, number of different words, and mean length of utterance in words. Children in gifted education classrooms produced narratives with lower dialect density than did children in general educated classrooms. Direct logistic regression assessed whether narrative dialect density measure scores offered additional information about giftedness beyond scores on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Fourth Edition (Dunn & Dunn, 2007), a standard measure of language ability. Results indicated that a model with only Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Fourth Edition scores best discriminated children in the 2 classrooms. African American children across gifted and general education classrooms produce fictional narratives of similar length, lexical diversity, and syntax complexity. However, African American children in gifted education classrooms may produce lower rates of AAE and perform better on standard measures of vocabulary than those in general education classrooms.

Pragmatics abilities in narrative production: a cross-disorder comparison.

PubMed

Norbury, Courtenay Frazier; Gemmell, Tracey; Paul, Rhea

2014-05-01

We aimed to disentangle contributions of socio-pragmatic and structural language deficits to narrative competence by comparing the narratives of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; n = 25), non-autistic children with language impairments (LI; n = 23), and children with typical development (TD; n = 27). Groups were matched for age (6½ to 15 years; mean: 10;6) and non-verbal ability; ASD and TD groups were matched on standardized language scores. Despite distinct clinical presentation, children with ASD and LI produced similarly simple narratives that lacked semantic richness and omitted important story elements, when compared to TD peers. Pragmatic errors were common across groups. Within the LI group, pragmatic errors were negatively correlated with story macrostructure scores and with an index of semantic-pragmatic relevance. For the group with ASD, pragmatic errors consisted of comments that, though extraneous, did not detract from the gist of the narrative. These findings underline the importance of both language and socio-pragmatic skill for producing coherent, appropriate narratives.

The making of autobiographical memory: intersections of culture, narratives and identity.

PubMed

Fivush, Robyn; Habermas, Tilmann; Waters, Theodore E A; Zaman, Widaad

2011-10-01

Autobiographical memory is a uniquely human form of memory that integrates individual experiences of self with cultural frames for understanding identities and lives. In this review, we present a theoretical and empirical overview of the sociocultural development of autobiographical memory, detailing the emergence of autobiographical memory during the preschool years and the formation of a life narrative during adolescence. More specifically, we present evidence that individual differences in parental reminiscing style are related to children's developing autobiographical narratives. Parents who structure more elaborated coherent personal narratives with their young children have children who, by the end of the preschool years, provide more detailed and coherent personal narratives, and show a more differentiated and coherent sense of self. Narrative structuring of autobiographical remembering follows a protracted developmental course through adolescence, as individuals develop social cognitive skills for temporal understanding and causal reasoning that allows autobiographical memories to be integrated into an overarching life narrative that defines emerging identity. In addition, adolescents begin to use culturally available canonical biographical forms, life scripts, and master narratives to construct a life story and inform their own autobiographical narrative identity. This process continues to be socially constructed in local interactions; we present exploratory evidence that parents help adolescents structure life narratives during coconstructed reminiscing and that adolescents use parents and families as a source for their own autobiographical content and structure. Ultimately, we argue that autobiography is a critical developmental skill; narrating our personal past connects us to our selves, our families, our communities, and our cultures.

Assessment of narrative writing by Persian-speaking students with hearing impairments.

PubMed

Zamani, P; Soleymani, Z; Mousavi, S M; Akbari, N

2018-02-16

Previous studies have highlighted that narrative skill is critical to the development of the literacy skills by children. Children with cochlear implants (CI) and hearing aids (HA) may have problems in narrative development compared to peers with healthy hearing (HH). There is no exact data about the narrative writing ability of Persian-speaking students who are hearing-impaired. This study was undertaken to compare the microstructure and macrostructure scores for narrative writing of Persian-speaking students who are hearing-impaired and peers with HH. This was a cross-sectional descriptive-analytical study. The subjects were recruited from elementary schools in the city of Tehran. A total of 144 elementary school students were participated. The written narratives were elicited using a wordless pictorial storybook story. Three-way ANOVA with post hoc adjusted Bonferroni test was applied to determine the main effects and interactions of grounded variables on the microstructure and macrostructure components of narrative writing. No significant differences were observed in the macrostructure components of narrative writing between hearing-impaired and HH students. Factors analysis showed that the 4th grade HH students had significantly the highest scores, and the 3rd grade HA students had significantly the lowest scores in microstructure components of narrative writing. The findings revealed that hearing-impaired students similarly to their HH peers can transmit the main idea (macrostructure) of narrative writing, but show critical difficulties when using complete grammatical elements (microstructures) to form sentences to convey the idea in the narrative. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The Teaching of Tragedy: Narrative and Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gibbons, Andrew

2013-01-01

"The plague" narrates the stories of a group of men whose lives interconnect around the experience of exile during the event of a plague. This article selects and summarizes themes from each of their stories. The purpose of these selections is to present an interpretation of Camus' narratives that can be juxtaposed to an analysis,…

Construction of Narrative Identity Based on Paintings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garwolinska, Katarzyna; Oles, Piotr K.; Gricman, Anna

2018-01-01

This article presents a new method for encouraging clients to articulate and explore their narrative identities. The method combines the advantages of perception of art and of construction of narrative identity. It is inspired by McAdams 'Life Story Interview' and Hermans and Hermans-Jansen's Self-Confrontation Method. The material is a set of 100…

Taking a narrative approach to grief research: finding meaning in stories.

PubMed

Gilbert, Kathleen R

2002-04-01

This article explores the concepts of narrative as story, of storytelling, and of the narrative approach to qualitative research. Within this, I will also examine the social nature of narrative and the implications of this for research. I will look at the process of conducting a narrative study and the implications for participation in such a project and for the researcher investigating a phenomenon through this frame. In particular, the need to create stories to make order of disorder and find meaning in the meaningless is particularly relevant to the study of grief. In looking at the process of conducting a narrative study, questions about what can be analyzed and how it might be presented, some strengths and limitations of the narrative approach, and ethical questions also are considered.

A characterization of verb use in Turkish agrammatic narrative speech.

PubMed

Arslan, Seçkin; Bamyacı, Elif; Bastiaanse, Roelien

2016-01-01

This study investigates the characteristics of narrative-speech production and the use of verbs in Turkish agrammatic speakers (n = 10) compared to non-brain-damaged controls (n = 10). To elicit narrative-speech samples, personal interviews and storytelling tasks were conducted. Turkish has a large and regular verb inflection paradigm where verbs are inflected for evidentiality (i.e. direct versus indirect evidence available to the speaker). Particularly, we explored the general characteristics of the speech samples (e.g. utterance length) and the uses of lexical, finite and non-finite verbs and direct and indirect evidentials. The results show that speech rate is slow, verbs per utterance are lower than normal and the verb diversity is reduced in the agrammatic speakers. Verb inflection is relatively intact; however, a trade-off pattern between inflection for direct evidentials and verb diversity is found. The implications of the data are discussed in connection with narrative-speech production studies on other languages.

Algebraic Semantics for Narrative

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kahn, E.

1974-01-01

This paper uses discussion of Edmund Spenser's "The Faerie Queene" to present a theoretical framework for explaining the semantics of narrative discourse. The algebraic theory of finite automata is used. (CK)

Healthcare Providers' Responses to Narrative Communication About Racial Healthcare Disparities.

PubMed

Burgess, Diana J; Bokhour, Barbara G; Cunningham, Brooke A; Do, Tam; Gordon, Howard S; Jones, Dina M; Pope, Charlene; Saha, Somnath; Gollust, Sarah E

2017-10-25

We used qualitative methods (semi-structured interviews with healthcare providers) to explore: 1) the role of narratives as a vehicle for raising awareness and engaging providers about the issue of healthcare disparities and 2) the extent to which different ways of framing issues of race within narratives might lead to message acceptance for providers' whose preexisting beliefs about causal attributions might predispose them to resist communication about racial healthcare disparities. Individual interviews were conducted with 53 providers who had completed a prior survey assessing beliefs about disparities. Participants were stratified by the degree to which they believed providers contributed to healthcare inequality: low provider attribution (LPA) versus high provider attribution (HPA). Each participant read and discussed two differently framed narratives about race in healthcare. All participants accepted the "Provider Success" narratives, in which interpersonal barriers involving a patient of color were successfully resolved by the provider narrator, through patient-centered communication. By contrast, "Persistent Racism" narratives, in which problems faced by the patient of color were more explicitly linked to racism and remained unresolved, were very polarizing, eliciting acceptance from HPA participants and resistance from LPA participants. This study provides a foundation for and raises questions about how to develop effective narrative communication strategies to engage providers in efforts to reduce healthcare disparities.

The CANopen Controller IP Core: Implementation, Synthesis and Test Results

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Caramia, Maurizio; Bolognino, Luca; Montagna, Mario; Tosi, Pietro; Errico, Walter; Bigongiari, Franco; Furano, Gianluca

2011-08-01

This paper will describe the implementation and test results of the CANopen Controller IP Core (CCIPC) implemented by Thales Alenia Space and SITAEL Aerospace with the support of ESA in the frame of the EXOMARS Project. The CCIPC is a configurable VHDL implementation of the CANOPEN protocol [1]; it is foreseen to be used as CAN bus slave controller within the EXOMARS Entry Descending and Landing Demonstrato Module (EDM) and Rover Module. The CCIPC features, configuration capability, synthesis and test results will be described and the evidence of the state of maturity of this innovative IP core will be demonstrated.

Development and Validation of the Narrative Quality Assessment Tool.

PubMed

Kim, Wonsun Sunny; Shin, Cha-Nam; Kathryn Larkey, Linda; Roe, Denise J

2017-04-01

The use of storytelling in health promotion has grown over the past 2 decades, showing promise for moving people to initiate healthy behavior change. Given the increasingly prevalent role of storytelling in health promotion research and the need to more clearly identify what storytelling elements and mediators may better predict behavior change, there is a need to develop measures to specifically assess these factors in a cultural community context. The purpose of this study is to develop and preliminarily validate a narrative quality assessment tool for measuring elements of storytelling that are predicted to affect attitude and behavior change (i.e., narrative characteristics, identification, and transportation) within a cultural community setting using a culture-centric model. Reliability and validity of these scales were assessed with repeated administrations among 74 Latino men and women with a mean age of 39.6 years (SD = 11.47 years). The confirmatory factor analysis in addition to internal consistency tests revealed preliminary evidence for reliability and validity of the narrative characteristics, identification, and transportation scales. Cronbach's alpha ranged from .92 to .94. Items revealed adequate factor loadings (.85-.98) and good model fit. The new scales provide the first step in moving the assessment of narrative quality into a culturally relevant context for evaluation of story use in health promotion. The results present valuable information for nurse researchers to guide the development and testing of culturally grounded storytelling interventions' potential to predict attitude and behavior change for patients.

Leadership and followership in the healthcare workplace: exploring medical trainees’ experiences through narrative inquiry

PubMed Central

Gordon, Lisi J; Rees, Charlotte E; Ker, Jean S; Cleland, Jennifer

2015-01-01

Objectives To explore medical trainees’ experiences of leadership and followership in the interprofessional healthcare workplace. Design A qualitative approach using narrative interviewing techniques in 11 group and 19 individual interviews with UK medical trainees. Setting Multisite study across four UK health boards. Participants Through maximum variation sampling, 65 medical trainees were recruited from a range of specialties and at various stages of training. Participants shared stories about their experiences of leadership and followership in the healthcare workplace. Methods Data were analysed using thematic and narrative analysis. Results We identified 171 personal incident narratives about leadership and followership. Participants most often narrated experiences from the position of follower. Their narratives illustrated many factors that facilitate or inhibit developing leadership identities; that traditional medical and interprofessional hierarchies persist within the healthcare workplace; and that wider healthcare systems can act as barriers to distributed leadership practices. Conclusions This paper provides new understandings of the multiple ways in which leadership and followership is experienced in the healthcare workplace and sets out recommendations for future leadership educational practices and research. PMID:26628525

Medical Student Professionalism Narratives: A Thematic Analysis and Interdisciplinary Comparative Investigation

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background Professionalism development is influenced by the informal and hidden curriculum. The primary objective of this study was to better understand this experiential learning in the setting of the Emergency Department (ED). Secondarily, the study aimed to explore differences in the informal curriculum between Emergency Medicine (EM) and Internal Medicine (IM) clerkships. Methods A thematic analysis was conducted on 377 professionalism narratives from medical students completing a required EM clerkship from July 2008 through May 2010. The narratives were analyzed using established thematic categories from prior research as well as basic descriptive characteristics. Chi-square analysis was used to compare the frequency of thematic categories to prior research in IM. Finally, emerging themes not fully appreciated in the established thematic categories were created using grounded theory. Results Observations involving interactions between attending physician and patient were most abundant. The narratives were coded as positive 198 times, negative 128 times, and hybrid 37 times. The two most abundant narrative themes involved manifesting respect (36.9%) and spending time (23.7%). Both of these themes were statistically more likely to be noted by students on EM clerkships compared to IM clerkships. Finally, one new theme regarding cynicism emerged during analysis. Conclusions This analysis describes an informal curriculum that is diverse in themes. Student narratives suggest their clinical experiences to be influential on professionalism development. Medical students focus on different aspects of professionalism depending on clerkship specialty. PMID:21838887

A narrative synthesis of the impact of primary health care delivery models for refugees in resettlement countries on access, quality and coordination

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Introduction Refugees have many complex health care needs which should be addressed by the primary health care services, both on their arrival in resettlement countries and in their transition to long-term care. The aim of this narrative synthesis is to identify the components of primary health care service delivery models for such populations which have been effective in improving access, quality and coordination of care. Methods A systematic review of the literature, including published systematic reviews, was undertaken. Studies between 1990 and 2011 were identified by searching Medline, CINAHL, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Scopus, Australian Public Affairs Information Service – Health, Health and Society Database, Multicultural Australian and Immigration Studies and Google Scholar. A limited snowballing search of the reference lists of all included studies was also undertaken. A stakeholder advisory committee and international advisers provided papers from grey literature. Only English language studies of evaluated primary health care models of care for refugees in developed countries of resettlement were included. Results Twenty-five studies met the inclusion criteria for this review of which 15 were Australian and 10 overseas models. These could be categorised into six themes: service context, clinical model, workforce capacity, cost to clients, health and non-health services. Access was improved by multidisciplinary staff, use of interpreters and bilingual staff, no-cost or low-cost services, outreach services, free transport to and from appointments, longer clinic opening hours, patient advocacy, and use of gender-concordant providers. These services were affordable, appropriate and acceptable to the target groups. Coordination between the different health care services and services responding to the social needs of clients was improved through case management by specialist workers. Quality of care was improved by training in cultural sensitivity and

Mothers' Autobiographical Memory and Book Narratives with Children with Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tompkins, Virginia; Farrar, M. Jeffrey

2011-01-01

This study examined the role that mothers' scaffolding plays in the autobiographical memory (AM) and storybook narratives of children with specific language impairment (SLI). Seven 4-5-year-old children and their mothers co-constructed narratives in both contexts. We also compared children's narratives with mothers to their narratives with an…

Telling Stories, Saving Lives: Creating Narrative Health Messages

PubMed Central

Frank, Lauren B.; Murphy, Sheila T.; Chatterjee, Joyee S.; Moran, Meghan B.; Baezconde-Garbanati, Lourdes

2017-01-01

Increasingly, health communication practitioners are exploring the use of narrative storytelling to convey health information. For this study, a narrative film was produced to provide information about the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and cervical cancer prevention. The storyline centered on Lupita, a young woman recently diagnosed with HPV who informs her family about HPV and the availability of the HPV vaccine for her younger sister. The objective was to examine the roles of identification with characters and narrative involvement (made up of three dimensions: involvement, perceived relevance, and immersion) on perceived response efficacy, perceived severity, and perceived susceptibility to HPV and behavior (discussing the HPV vaccine with a health care provider). A random sample of 450 European American, Mexican American, and African American women between the ages of 25 to 45 living in the Los Angeles area was surveyed by phone before, two weeks after, and six months after viewing the film. The more relevant women found the narrative to their own lives at two weeks, the higher they perceived the severity of the virus and the perceived response efficacy of the vaccine. Also at two weeks, identifying with characters was positively associated with perceived susceptibility to HPV but negatively associated with perceived severity. At six months, identification with specific characters was significantly associated with perceived threat and behavior. These findings suggest that different aspects of narrative health messages should be manipulated depending on the specific beliefs and behaviors being targeted. Implications for narrative message design are discussed. PMID:25470440

Telling stories, saving lives: creating narrative health messages.

PubMed

Frank, Lauren B; Murphy, Sheila T; Chatterjee, Joyee S; Moran, Meghan B; Baezconde-Garbanati, Lourdes

2015-01-01

Increasingly, health communication practitioners are exploring the use of narrative storytelling to convey health information. For this study, a narrative film was produced to provide information about the human papillomavirus (HPV) and cervical cancer prevention. The storyline centered on Lupita, a young woman recently diagnosed with HPV who informs her family about HPV and the availability of the HPV vaccine for her younger sister. The objective was to examine the roles of identification with characters and narrative involvement (made up of three dimensions: involvement, perceived relevance, and immersion) on perceived response efficacy, perceived severity, and perceived susceptibility to HPV and behavior (discussing the HPV vaccine with a health care provider). A random sample of 450 European American, Mexican American, and African American women between the ages of 25 and 45 years, living in the Los Angeles area, was surveyed by phone before, 2 weeks after, and 6 months after viewing the film. The more relevant women found the narrative to their own lives at 2 weeks, the higher they perceived the severity of the virus and the perceived response efficacy of the vaccine to be. Also at 2 weeks, identifying with characters was positively associated with perceived susceptibility to HPV but negatively associated with perceived severity. At 6 months, identification with specific characters was significantly associated with perceived threat and behavior. These findings suggest that different aspects of narrative health messages should be manipulated depending on the specific beliefs and behaviors being targeted. Implications for narrative message design are discussed.

Debiasing affective forecasting errors with targeted, but not representative, experience narratives.

PubMed

Shaffer, Victoria A; Focella, Elizabeth S; Scherer, Laura D; Zikmund-Fisher, Brian J

2016-10-01

To determine whether representative experience narratives (describing a range of possible experiences) or targeted experience narratives (targeting the direction of forecasting bias) can reduce affective forecasting errors, or errors in predictions of experiences. In Study 1, participants (N=366) were surveyed about their experiences with 10 common medical events. Those who had never experienced the event provided ratings of predicted discomfort and those who had experienced the event provided ratings of actual discomfort. Participants making predictions were randomly assigned to either the representative experience narrative condition or the control condition in which they made predictions without reading narratives. In Study 2, participants (N=196) were again surveyed about their experiences with these 10 medical events, but participants making predictions were randomly assigned to either the targeted experience narrative condition or the control condition. Affective forecasting errors were observed in both studies. These forecasting errors were reduced with the use of targeted experience narratives (Study 2) but not representative experience narratives (Study 1). Targeted, but not representative, narratives improved the accuracy of predicted discomfort. Public collections of patient experiences should favor stories that target affective forecasting biases over stories representing the range of possible experiences. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Critical Narrative Analysis: The Interplay of Critical Discourse and Narrative Analyses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Souto-Manning, Mariana

2014-01-01

In this article, I question the micro-macro separation in discourse analysis, the separation of personal and institutional discourses. I apply a mostly macroanalytic perspective (critical discourse analysis [CDA]) to inform a predominantly microanalytic perspective (analysis of conversational narratives) and vice versa. In the combination of these…

EFFECTS OF USING ONLINE NARRATIVE AND DIDACTIC INFORMATION ON HEALTHCARE PARTICIPATION FOR BREAST CANCER PATIENTS

PubMed Central

Wise, Meg; Han, Jeong Yeob; Shaw, Bret; McTavish, Fiona; Gustafson, David H.

2008-01-01

Objectives To determine the effects of online narrative and didactic information on breast cancer patients’ healthcare participation and the interaction effects of race. Methods Sample: 353 breast cancer patients (111 African Americans) using an eHealth program with narratives (audiovisual and text) and didactic information (text only). Measures: healthcare participation scale (0, 4 months), online information use. Analyses: hierarchical regression. Results Narrative (β = .123, p <.01) and didactic (β = .104, p <.05) information use had independent and positive effects on healthcare participation. Effects of both were significantly greater for African Americans. Conclusions Findings are consistent with and advance prior research on online learning processes and outcomes for breast cancer patients: (1) Benefits accrue with using a variety of online learning tools; and (2) African Americans use and benefit more from online narrative and didactic information than do Caucasians. Practice implications eHealth programs should provide both didactic and narrative information—especially for African Americans and might consider making greater use of interactive and audiovisual formats. As patients increasingly use of the web for cancer information, clinicians should provide lists of web high quality resources that provide both narrative and didactic information. PMID:18201859

Game Design Narrative for Learning: Appropriating Adventure Game Design Narrative Devices and Techniques for the Design of Interactive Learning Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dickey, Michele D.

2006-01-01

The purpose of this conceptual analysis is to investigate how contemporary video and computer games might inform instructional design by looking at how narrative devices and techniques support problem solving within complex, multimodal environments. Specifically, this analysis presents a brief overview of game genres and the role of narrative in…

Voices of Identity in a Chicana Teacher's Occupational Narratives of the Self

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Galindo, Rene

2007-01-01

The research area of teacher narrative inquiry has identified links between the personal and professional identities of teachers. Although teacher narrative inquiry takes narrative texts as its data, insufficient attention has been given to the functions of narratives as forms of discourse that are utilized in the construction of identity. In the…

Teaching Contested Narratives: Identity, Memory and Reconciliation in Peace Education and Beyond

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bekerman, Zvi; Zembylas, Michalinos

2012-01-01

In troubled societies narratives about the past tend to be partial and explain a conflict from narrow perspectives that justify the national self and condemn, exclude and devalue the 'enemy' and their narrative. Through a detailed analysis, Teaching Contested Narratives reveals the works of identity, historical narratives and memory as these are…

Recombination Narratives to Accompany "A-LM French One," First Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coughlin, Dorothy

Supplementary recombination narratives intended for use with the 1961 edition of the text "A-LM French One" are designed to help students learn to manipulate basic textual materials. The sample narratives correlate with Units 4-14 of the text. The teacher is urged to make use of the overhead projector when using the narratives for the…