The paper purports to present a method that allows to obtain and analyze letters written by older adults to their real or imaginary grandchildren. This enables an insight into their individual life experience. The study used a narrative paradigm. Letter texts were obtained from 128 older adults from Poland, both male and female. Data was analyzed with mixed methods combining qualitative content analysis (using inductive analytical categories described in originally created Coder Completion Sheet) with frequency count. The analysis allowed a systematic description of content (themes in wisdom legacy) and the differentiation of two major formal patterns in the letters: (1) the narrative mode (storytelling); (2) the argumentative mode (legacy without narrative examples: advice, warnings, and wishes). The outcomes demonstrate the letter technique may be recommended for future research in psychology, narrative gerontology and for used in applied psychology also.
The paper describes the case of a girl of 8 weeks, referred by her mother because of 'intolerable hysterical attacks' triggering maternal impulses of abuse. Maternal perception of her infant was distorted to the extent that the mother was re-experiencing encounters with her own intrusive and traumatizing mother in the face of her screaming child. She also perceived the infant's motor impulses as physical attacks on herself and expressed intense anxieties about her daughter's future aggressive potential.The infant was viewed by her mother as extraordinarily and dangerously greedy. Even neutral infantile vocalizations were perceived as manipulating and sadistic. She tried to ward off these anxieties by employing a rigid scheme of rules and obsessively controlling the father's and grandmother's interaction with the child. The mother feared being overwhelmed by the infant's needs if she were to yield to them in a exible way.The mother's background of early neglect and trauma is described, in the light of recent literature about the early intergenerational transmission of traumatic experiences, in order to demonstrate possible treatment modalities and the need to consider both protective and risk factors.
health psychology report • volume 3(2), 5 original article background Despite significant improvements in physical state after heart transplantation, the majority of adult patients struggle with continuous psychological distress. The aim of the study was to explore the lived experiences of adult heart transplant recipients in order to understand the inner background of these difficulties. participants and procedure Unstructured, in-depth interviews, based on the Life Story Interview of D. P. McAdams, were performed with 8 adults, aged between 50 and 60 years, who had undergone heart transplantation a year before the research was conducted. Interviews were tape recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analysed using narrative methods. results The central themes of the patients' lived experience were the illness itself and the feeling of being very different from others and from oneself remembered in the pastthe times before the transplantation. The experienced discordance between their inner world and the expectations to get better presented by other people (the family, health care workers, etc.) implies that these patients struggle with others' lack of understanding and therefore suffer from a lack of effective psychological support. conclusions This study shows that the life stories of patients after heart transplantation are in fact stories of their illness and the consequences it brought. It seems important to take this into consideration when constructing rehabilitation programmes for these patients in order to offer them the most effective support possible.
Narrative identity is recognized as a process and viewed in dynamic terms, as an entity subject to constant changes in the course of one's life. It is assumed that an increasing need to make changes in one's history of life emerges in middle adulthood. A generative script is revealed, containing a plan to become part of the lives of future generations. The process of creative integration of one's life story may gather momentum in late adulthood, when individuals explore their identity in the context of their life's work. In order to test the above assumptions, narratives of participants aged 65-80 years who were wives/mothers/grandmothers or husbands/fathers/grandfathers during their lives were analyzed. Six main themes characteristic of life stories in late adulthood were identified, along with groups of traits, behaviors and values which participants wished to pass on to subsequent generations. The narratives clearly featured a generative motivation and the need to integrate one's story.
The paper presents research conducted within the narrative psychology paradigm. Its main purpose was to explore the relationships between features of adolescents' identity narratives and their assessments of family functioning and themselves as family members. The choice of subject was motivated by current reports on identity formation difficulties in adolescence. Adolescents' narratives were subjected to quantitative and qualitative analysis. Associations between specific aspects of self-narratives and participants' perceptions of how their families functioned and how they functioned in the family system were evaluated. The results confirm the hypothesized relationships between the features of adolescents' narratives and evaluations of their families and self-assessments of their own functioning in those families. Multi-thematic, content-rich and positively evaluated self-narratives are associated with positive assessments of selected aspects of family functioning and adolescents' own functioning within the family. The following aspects of family assessment are significant: affective expression, level of emotional involvement in the family, level of control, family role performance and communication. Important factors in the self-assessment were: sense of competence in family role performance, assessment of one's communication, behavior control and affective expression.
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