How Stories Make Sense of Personal Experiences: Motives that Shape Autobiographical Narratives

Abstract For many generations, works of art have been a source for experiencing beauty. They add to the wealth of our culture because they convey universal themes and values. In this study, we treat paintings as a stimulus for personal story-telling. The purpose was to explore the affective quality of personal meanings present in autobiographical narratives. Our findings show that subjective ratings of the beauty of figurative paintings are linked with the quality and theme of personal experiences recalled in response to viewing them, but not related to the length of the story. ‘Beautiful’ pictures elicit descriptions of desirable experiences associated with passive contemplation and satisfied self-enhancement motive. ‘Non-beautiful’ pictures call to mind difficult experiences linked with frustration. The experts formulated longer self-narratives inspired by paintings rated beautiful in comparison to laypersons, and laypersons formulated longer self-narratives inspired by paintings rated not beautiful in comparison to experts. The results are discussed in connection to the nature of the aesthetic experience and specificity of personal maenings.

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The construction of self and others: A study of the identity construction in I am Malala

Liberal Arts and Social Sciences International Journal (LASSIJ) ◽

10.47264/idea.lassij/5.1.39 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 597-610

Author(s):

Asifa Qasim ◽

Sage Lambert Graham

Keyword(s):

Identity Construction ◽

Point Of View ◽

Autobiographical Narratives ◽

Linguistic Features ◽

Self And Other ◽

Social Customs ◽

The Social ◽

Personal Experiences ◽

Construction Of Self ◽

Religion And Ethnicity

Autobiographical memoirs incorporate personal experiences of an individual and the cultural structures for recognizing lives and identities. They mediate between actions and point of view of an author to display the identity of self and others. The language of autobiographical narratives situates characters in relation to one another to distinguish between self and other. This study examines the approach adopted by Malala for her identity construction in her autobiography, explicating the ways she maintains or challenges the social customs through these ideologies. It analyses linguistic features employed by Malala for identity construction and ideological distinctions between the victims and the perpetrators, stigmatized and non-stigmatized in her story. Malala appears in her tales as an author with authority, as well as a victim of intolerance and abuse, according to the findings; however, her identity is often fluid and changing through acquiring the roles of victim, figure, and author, and depicting her characters in parallel roles. She positioned characters in her story by making overt and covert contrasts within reported events. Her narrative shows a contentious case of discrimination in which both the victim and the perpetrator are Pashtun Muslims from Pakistan of the same race, religion, and ethnicity.

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Twitter Usage Using Common Reference to Tinnitus

American Journal of Audiology ◽

10.1044/2020_aja-19-00055 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 29 (2) ◽

pp. 206-217

Author(s):

Jianyuan Ni ◽

Monica L. Bellon-Harn ◽

Jiang Zhang ◽

Yueqing Li ◽

Vinaya Manchaiah

Keyword(s):

Nonprofit Organizations ◽

Temporal Trends ◽

Temporal Analysis ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

For Profit ◽

Common Reference ◽

Personal Experiences ◽

Twitter Users ◽

Sectional Analysis ◽

Share Information

Objective The objective of the study was to examine specific patterns of Twitter usage using common reference to tinnitus. Method The study used cross-sectional analysis of data generated from Twitter data. Twitter content, language, reach, users, accounts, temporal trends, and social networks were examined. Results Around 70,000 tweets were identified and analyzed from May to October 2018. Of the 100 most active Twitter accounts, organizations owned 52%, individuals owned 44%, and 4% of the accounts were unknown. Commercial/for-profit and nonprofit organizations were the most common organization account owners (i.e., 26% and 16%, respectively). Seven unique tweets were identified with a reach of over 400 Twitter users. The greatest reach exceeded 2,000 users. Temporal analysis identified retweet outliers (> 200 retweets per hour) that corresponded to a widely publicized event involving the response of a Twitter user to another user's joke. Content analysis indicated that Twitter is a platform that primarily functions to advocate, share personal experiences, or share information about management of tinnitus rather than to provide social support and build relationships. Conclusions Twitter accounts owned by organizations outnumbered individual accounts, and commercial/for-profit user accounts were the most frequently active organization account type. Analyses of social media use can be helpful in discovering issues of interest to the tinnitus community as well as determining which users and organizations are dominating social network conversations.

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What Does a Doctoral Degree in Rehabilitation Counseling Bring to Speech-Language Pathology Programs?

Perspectives on Issues in Higher Education ◽

10.1044/ihe15.2.63 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 15 (2) ◽

pp. 63-69

Author(s):

Joseph P. Agan

Keyword(s):

Rehabilitation Counseling ◽

Doctoral Degree ◽

Interdisciplinary Studies ◽

Master's Level ◽

Speech Language Pathology ◽

Research And Teaching ◽

Personal Experiences ◽

Language Pathology ◽

Interdisciplinary Study ◽

The Impact

In this paper, I will describe the potential contributions of interdisciplinary studies combining speech-language pathology and rehabilitation counseling in the preparation of future speech-language pathologists (SLPs). I will provide a brief introduction to the field of rehabilitation counseling and consider it from an SLP’s perspective. Next, I will describe some of my own personal experiences as they pertain to the intersecting cultures of work and disability and how these experiences influenced my practice as a master’s level SLP eventually leading to my decision to pursue a doctoral degree in rehabilitation counseling. I will describe the impact of this line of interdisciplinary study on my research and teaching. Finally, I will present some arguments about why concepts relevant to rehabilitation counseling are important to the mindset of SLPs.

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Stakeholder Perspectives on the Stigma of Suicide Attempt Survivors

Crisis ◽

10.1027/0227-5910/a000413 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 38 (2) ◽

pp. 73-81 ◽

Cited By ~ 31

Author(s):

Lindsay L. Sheehan ◽

Patrick W. Corrigan ◽

Maya A. Al-Khouja ◽

Keyword(s):

Suicide Attempt ◽

Health Professionals ◽

Attempted Suicide ◽

Community Based Participatory Research ◽

Public Stigma ◽

Suicide Method ◽

Community Based ◽

Stakeholder Perspectives ◽

Personal Experiences ◽

Prejudice And Discrimination

Abstract. Background: Past scholarly efforts to describe and measure the stigma surrounding suicide have largely viewed suicide stigma from the perspective of the general public. Aims: In the spirit of community-based participatory research (CBPR), the current study brought together a diverse stakeholder team to qualitatively investigate the suicide stigma as experienced by those most intimately affected by suicide. Method: Seven focus groups (n = 62) were conducted with suicide attempt survivors, family members of those who died by suicide, and suicide loss therapists. Results: Themes were derived for stereotypes (n = 30), prejudice (n = 3), and discrimination (n = 4). People who attempted suicide were seen as attention-seeking, selfish, incompetent, emotionally weak, and immoral. Participants described personal experiences of prejudice and discrimination, including those with health professionals. Conclusion: Participants experienced public stigma, self-stigma, and label avoidance. Analyses reveal that the stigma of suicide shares similarities with stereotypes of mental illness, but also includes some important differences. Attempt survivors may be subject to double stigma, which impedes recovery and access to care.

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