What Do You Want Us to Know?: Learning From Life Stories to Improve Veterans’ Healthcare Experiences

My Life My Story (MLMS) is a national Veterans Health Administration (VA) life story interview program that aims to provide more humanistic care for veterans by focusing on the patient as a person. Our project took place at the Pittsburgh VA Healthcare System and had 3 main goals: (1) describe themes that emerge in MLMS interviews from the prompting question, what do you want your healthcare provider to know about you?; (2) identify topics of importance to veterans and suggest ways for healthcare providers to explore them; and (3) foster a culture at the Pittsburgh VA that places not only the health but also the personal triumphs, hardships, and aspirations of veterans at the center. Veterans provided verbal consent to have their previously recorded stories used in this study. Stories were coded and then analyzed for patterns and themes. A total of 17 veterans participated in our study. Themes that emerged from the stories include (1) Early Hardships; (2) Economic Disadvantage; (3) Polaroid Snapshots; (4) Around the World; (5) Haunted by Combat; (6) Life-altering Moments; (7) Homecoming; (8) Romantic Beginnings & Obstacles; (9) Inequity across Gender & Race; and (10) Facing Mortality. This study's findings underscore the need to address the traumas associated with military service, as well as the challenges faced with re-integration into civilian life, when working with veterans. The MLMS interviews explored in this study can help clinicians identify topics of importance to veterans, strengthen their relationships with their patients, and improve the care that veterans receive.

Family Cookbooks – Objects of Family Memory

The article proposes an analysis of family cookbooks from the perspective of memory studies. Its main goal is to show that these are objects that shape family memory, helping to preserve and transmit it from one generation to the next. The first section outlines the theoretical framework, discussing the multiple layers of content and meaning in homemade cookbooks, the similarities between them and scrapbooks, as objects that can elicit voluntary (or involuntary) memories. Other theoretical issues that are essential for the problem in question are also examined: the complex relationships between individual memory and family memory, the layers that make up family memory, how family meals shape family memory, and recipe books seen as Proustian devices. The second part proposes a case study that explores the particular way in which the aspects discussed in the theoretical section are illustrated by two recipes notebooks belonging to a woman who was born in a Romanian town in 1944. As regards the research methodology, the case study is based on a life-story interview and the qualitative analysis of the two notebooks.

“Finding my Blackness, Finding my Rhythm”: Music and Identity Development in African, Caribbean, and Black Emerging Adults

This study examines how music functions in relation to identity development for African-, Caribbean- and Black-identified emerging adults who have immigrated to Canada. Eleven ACB-identified emerging adults, recruited from music schools, community, and student organizations took part in semi-structured interviews adapted from McAdams’ Life Story Interview protocol to focus on music practices and memories. Thematic Analyses results suggest that transitioning to life in Canada necessitated learning new meanings of being and “becoming” Black. Participants described the influence of music on negotiating identity in a Canadian context. They described using music to resist racist and hegemonic narratives of Canadian Black identity, to connect to and celebrate their embodied Black identities, and establish self-continuity and coherence across histories and generations to connect with spiritual memories, land, and ancestors. We conclude by suggesting implications of this work for practice and developing research methodologies that resist whiteness.

Changes in Age Stereotypes in Adolescent and Older Participants of an Intergenerational Encounter Program

This intervention study explored the effects of a newly developed intergenerational encounter program on cross-generational age stereotyping (CGAS). Based on a biographical-narrative approach, participants (secondary school students and nursing home residents) were invited to share ideas about existential questions of life (e.g., about one’s core experiences, future plans, and personal values). Therefore, the dyadic Life Story Interview (LSI) had been translated into a group format (the Life Story Encounter Program, LSEP), consisting of 10 90-min sessions. Analyses verified that LSEP participants of both generations showed more favorable CGAS immediately after, but also 3 months after the program end. Such change in CGAS was absent in a control group (no LSEP participation). The LSEP-driven short- and long-term effects on CGAS could be partially explained by two program benefits, the feeling of comfort with and the experience of learning from the other generation.

Aspects of voice in the use of positioning in polyphonic storytelling: Ventriloquial moves within a biographical interview

This article investigates the rhetorical use of voices and ventrilocution in occasioned storytelling. We explore the use of external voicing in the narration, arguing that to understand voice as an argumentative resource, it is important to include both material and metaphoric aspects of voice. Our article explicates the differences and relations between these two aspects in a polyphonic life story interview. The material voice involves the acoustic sphere of communication: prosody, intonation and tone, whereas the metaphoric voice is commonly understood as a marker of subjectivity or group interests. We juxtapose the latter ‘representative’ interpretation of voice by applying Richard Walsh’s recent theory of metaphorical levels of the voice. Our material consists of a biographical interview with a 92-year-old woman accompanied in the situation by her daughter. The daughter interferes in the interview by telling competing stories about the family past. To unravel the rhetorical moves in the interview, we apply the concept of ventriloquism and the theory of narrative positioning. Our analysis demonstrates how the purposeful use of the material voice transports and signifies metaphoric voices as characters, actors and identities are negotiated in turn-by-turn unfolding narration.

Perfectionistic Individuals' Understanding of How Painful Experiences Have Shaped Their Relationship to Others

Background: Perfectionism is increasing over time and associated with various mental health problems. Recent research indicates adverse childhood experiences may play a role in the development of perfectionism. In addition, perfectionism is marked by interpersonal problems with implications for treatment outcome.Aim: This study aimed to fill an important gap in the predominantly quantitative literature field by exploring how individuals with perfectionism understand the relationship between painful experiences and how they relate to others.Method: Nine individuals with perfectionism were interviewed using McAdam's life-story interview. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the interviews.Results: Four themes emerged: “A childhood with big responsibilities,” “I am still the responsible one,” “Keeping others at a distance to protect the inner self,” and “Achieving physical distance to get a fresh start.” These themes are grouped into two overarching themes: “You can't always trust people” and “A distancing from others.”Conclusion: Findings highlight taking responsibility and social distancing serve an important function for perfectionistic individuals in response to painful relational events. We discuss how themes of control and agency impact individuals' relationship to mental health and turning toward others for help. The findings provide greater complexity to understanding perfectionism as a “barrier to treatment.”

Onderzoek naar de levensloop van ouderen: ervaringen met het McAdams-levensverhaalinterview

Studying the life courses of older people: The McAdams life-story interview Research among older people often focuses on the present. Nevertheless, life course research can help to understand how certain behavior and feelings take shape and evolve throughout the course of life, and how life events at a younger age can influence conditions, behaviors and feelings in later life. In this article, we focus on the McAdams life story interview method, which we applied in three different studies. We describe the different steps, reflect on the main pitfalls in the implementation of this approach and explain how we attempted to avoid them. The experiences and reflections of both the participants and the researchers are discussed.

Możliwości wykorzystania wskaźników adaptacyjnych narracji autobiograficznych w pracy z osobami z diagnozą schizofrenii paranoidalnej

Niniejszy artykuł prezentuje wyniki badań z zakresu psychologii klinicznej zrealizowane z wykorzystaniem perspektywy oraz metodologii narracyjnej. Zdrowie psychiczne w ujęciu narracyjnym definiowane jest jako zdolność do tworzenia życiowej opowieści spełniającej określone kryteria formalne (Stemplewska-Żakowicz, Zalewski, 2010). Głównym celem badań było scharakteryzowanie – z perspektywy psychologii narracyjnej – autonarracji tworzonych przez osoby z diagnozą schizofrenii paranoidalnej oraz uchwycenie tzw. zdrowych/ adaptacyjnych wskaźników narracji autobiograficznych (beneficial life stories indicators). W badaniu wzięło udział 9 pacjentów z rozpoznaniem schizofrenii paranoidalnej w fazie remisji. Narracje autobiograficzne osób badanych pozyskane zostały w odpowiedzi na bodziec narracyjny: „Proszę o opowiedzenie mi historii swojego życia”, rozpoczynający wywiadna temat historii życia (The Life Story Interview) autorstwa Dana P. McAdamsa (1985, 2006). Rekonstrukcja strategii tworzenia opowieści o własnym życiu przez osoby badane pozwoliła określić stopień przystawalności narracji autobiograficznych osób chorych na schizofrenię do kryteriów sprzyjających zdrowiu narracji. Wyniki badań ujawniły także wewnętrzne zróżnicowanie historii życia pacjentów w obrębie całej grupy. Przytoczone w artykule kryteria oraz ich konceptualizacja w odniesieniu do opowieści o życiu konstruowanych przez pacjentów psychiatrycznych może stanowić podstawę teoretyczną dla różnicowania autonarracji charakterystycznych dla prawidłowego funkcjonowania jednostki. Wskaźniki te pełnią również potencjalnie rolę wskazówek dla klinicystów, psychiatrów oraz psychoterapeutów pracujących z pacjentami psychotycznymi. Ponadto identyfikacja zakłóceń bądź deficytów występujących na poziomie narracji autobiograficznych umożliwia wgląd w fenomenologię choroby z punktu widzenia osoby jej doświadczającej, co zaś wzbogaca psychologiczne strategie wyjaśniania zjawisk psychicznych zachodzących w osobach badanych o kategorię ich rozumienia.