The narrative perspective emerging in psychology since the mid-1980s is threatened by a lingering Cartesianism in how theorists and clinicians approach human beings as storied selves. But, a deliberate effort to engage the narrative perspective in closer dialogue with biological understandings of human activities may challenge continuing Cartesian influences and offers advantageous points of departure for both stances. Areas of intersection may include: (a) biological constraints represented by working memory, speed of processing, and similar functions as they served to shape various cultural adaptations including narrative; (b) the interaction of physical gesture with narrative emplotment which underlies what Sarbin has termed "embodied emotion"; (c) physical and social worlds approached as ecological or environmental challenges which are met by the tactical and strategic use of narrative; and (d) evolutionary mechanisms shaping the form and function of narrative production.
The decision to develop a separate adolescent form of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (i.e., the MMPI-A) raised questions about continued use of 20 original items that seemed unnecessarily ambiguous in content when employed with younger students (Ss). The responses of 362 academically gifted boys, aged 14 to 17 years, from an urban Catholic high school were compared on the experimental 704-item Form TX of the MMPI and a form containing 20 rewritten and 9 control items. The psychometric properties of the rewritten items indicated the same or better performance than that on the original versions while improving the items' face validity and reducing item ambiguity. Responses from 321 Ss to a follow-up questionnaire suggested eliminating offensive or irrelevant items and reducing the test's length would increase acceptance of the MMPI-A.
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