Essentials of Narrative Analysis

A crisp, clear, and pragmatic orientation to narrative research in psychology. Every student beginning narrative research should have this book firmly in hand. An excellent introduction that explains why narrative is so critical to the future of psychological research. - Brian Schiff, PhD, author of A New Narrative for Psychology, American University of Paris, Paris, France Using clear examples and easy to grasp language, the authors demonstrate narrative analysis methods and also ask researchers to think in new ways. They demonstrate how to balance the small details of a person amp rsquo s life with attention to the bigger picture-the person as they exist in history, social locations, and inequality. Psychologists across many fields can learn from this guidebook how to study people in context. - Sara McClelland, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology and Women’s & Gender Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States

Ruthellen Josselson, PhD, is a professor of clinical psychology at Fielding Graduate University, Santa Barbara, California. She was formerly a professor at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a visiting professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a visiting fellow at Cambridge University. She is a cofounder of the Society for Qualitative Inquiry in Psychology and editor of the American Psychological Association (APA) journal Qualitative Psychology. She received the Henry A. Murray Award and the Theodore R. Sarbin Award from APA and the Distinguished Contributions to Qualitative Inquiry Award from APA Division 5 (Quantitative and Qualitative Methods). On the basis of interviews she has conducted over 35 years, she has written three books exploring women’s identity longitudinally: Finding Herself, Revising Herself, and most recently, Paths to Fulfillment: Women’s Search for Meaning and Identity. Many of her other books (The Space Between Us, Best Friends, Playing Pygmalion) are based on interviews, and she has authored many journal articles and book chapters that explore the theory and practice of qualitative inquiry. Recently, she authored Interviewing for Qualitative Inquiry: A Relational Approach. She has conducted workshops on qualitative inquiry in France, Norway, Finland, Israel, and England, as well as in the United States. She was a member of the APA task force that produced the “Journal Article Reporting Standards for Qualitative Research.”

Phillip L. Hammack, PhD, is a professor and chair of psychology and director of the Sexual and Gender Diversity Laboratory at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He was trained as an interdisciplinary social scientist in the Committee on Human Development at the University of Chicago, where he received his doctorate. Dr. Hammack has been a leader in the movement to promote narrative theory and methods and to legitimize qualitative inquiry in psychology. Among his widely cited work is the paper “Narrative and the Cultural Psychology of Identity,” published in Personality and Social Psychology Review, and the book Narrative and the Politics of Identity, published by Oxford University Press. Dr. Hammack is also editor of The Oxford Handbook of Social Psychology and Social Justice and of the Oxford University Press Series on Sexuality, Identity, and Society. He is associate editor of Qualitative Psychology, the official journal of the Society for Qualitative Inquiry in Psychology. Dr. Hammack is the recipient of several early career awards and prestigious fellowships, including a William T. Grant Scholar Award and a fellowship from the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. His current research focuses on gender, sexual, and intimate diversity, centering the use of narrative and other qualitative methods.