Sharing of emotional memories with a listener: differences between adolescents and emerging adults

Research demonstrated a strong influence of personal narratives on emotions linked to memories. However, few studies considered shared narratives and the role of listener’s behavior, especially in adolescence and emerging adulthood. This paper aims to explore the impact of listening attitude on emotions related to memories in adolescents and emerging adults. A total of 157 participants were asked to choose a memory: in the experimental conditions (Attentive Listening, AL vs. Detached Listening, DL), they narrated it to a listener, in the Control Group, they internally reflected about it. Emotions linked to memory at the first time, to narrative/reflection, and to memory after 15 days were measured, as well as the perception of listener’s behavior. Results showed that participants perceived the differences of the listening, although adolescents perceived less listener’s detached stance. Moreover, among adolescents, positive emotions increased after narrative for both experimental conditions, instead, among emerging adults, only AL condition participants increased their positive emotions. Moreover, adults maintained the positive effects of narrative also after 15 days. Authors discussed the role of an empathic context and the adolescent egocentrism in shared narratives about personal memories.     

Evolving Narratives About Childhood Sexual Abuse: Challenging the Dominance of the Victim and Survivor Paradigm

This research project explored the ongoing process of constructing a narrative, following childhood sexual abuse. Twenty‐two men and women aged 25–70 were interviewed about their childhood sexual experiences with adults using narrative inquiry methodology. These experiences occurred in different social and historical contexts, when the theoretical understandings and treatment of the issue of child sexual abuse were significantly different from the present. Many factors made disclosure even more difficult then than it is now including: respect for authority; rigid gender roles; the taboo surrounding sexual issues; lack of supportive adults; and lack of language to describe what was happening. Participants told four differing narratives about their experiences: narratives of silence; narratives of ongoing suffering; narratives of transformation; and narratives of transcendence. These narratives were examined in relation to the changing social and historical context and the current dominance of the victim and survivor paradigm in the child sexual abuse literature.     

对高校双语教学的思考和认识

双语教学已经成为我国课程教学的发展趋势,开展双语教学是培养具有国际合作意识、国际交流能力和具有国际竞争力的外向型人才的客观要求。文章对数理统计双语教学的必要性以及在双语教学的实践中应该注意的问题进行了探讨,并提出了解决问题的方法。     

‘The domino effect’: pathways in and out of homelessness for autistic adults

Autistic adults may be at increased risk of homelessness due to the association between autism spectrum disorders and poor socio-economic outcomes. In particular, social vulnerability, unemployment, and difficulty interacting with services can be catalysts for homelessness, compounded by lack of diagnosis and appropriate support. This article presents the narratives of two autistic adults, known as ‘Max’ and ‘Peter’, who had experienced homelessness. They explain the factors which led them to become homeless and those that aided their rehabilitation. The article argues that whilst Max and Peter were susceptible to the socio-economic disadvantages which affect adults with autism in various ways, the resilience and determination displayed in their narratives countered traditional stereotypes of resistance to change. Furthermore, it is suggested that homelessness is not an outcome of autism, but of the disabling barriers autistic adults face throughout their lives.     

Barreras del Lenguaje: Children's Negotiation of Adult‐Created Exclusionary Practices*

This article explores the effects of language differences on dynamics among youth athletes. Fifteen hours of participant observation were conducted with a youth soccer team, supplemented by five interviews with the coach and with players’ parents. With a cohort consisting of a Spanish‐ and English‐speaking bilingual coach, one fully bilingual player and another partly bilingual player, two Spanish‐only‐speaking players, and four English‐only‐speaking players, there were opportunities for many different types of interactions. This article specifically focuses on how language differences served as a catalyst for the creation of exclusionary practices by the adults surrounding the team. However, these practices did not determine the team's culture; rather, there was both accommodation and resistance on the part of the players to those practices of exclusion that the adults had introduced.     

Young people,social change and the negotiation of moral authority

This paper presents some of the main findings of the study ‘Youth values: identity, diversity and social change’, focusing on the ways in which young people aged between 11 and 16 negotiate moral authority. It begins by discussing young people's perceptions of social change, identifying narratives of both progress and decline. The structure of young people's values are then briefly described, including differences relating to gender, location, social class and age. The factors that contribute to the legitimacy of moral authority in young people's eyes are explored through young people's accounts of school discipline, bullying, parenting and media violence. The paper draws on a range of data sources including questionnaires, focus group discussions, individual interviews and research assignments in which young people undertook their own interviews with adults. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Older adults' narratives about a flood disaster: Resilience, coherence, and personal identity

Older adults are a vulnerable group in a disaster and are more at risk of adverse effects as a result. This paper draws on the use of narrative theory in health and gerontology studies to examine how a disruptive disaster was storied. Narrative interviews were conducted with nine older adults aged over 65 years who had recently experienced a flood disaster. The participants' narratives about the disruptive event were integrated with past personal events that spanned more than seven decades. The disaster became a reference point for previous challenging experiences, which created biographical continuity, coherence and order over time. Furthermore, the disaster stories were about biography and identity, and showed how older adults made sense of the flood from a life-course perspective. The use of narrative approaches provides an insight into how the flood disaster was experienced, and reveals how four older adults storied their experiences of a significant life challenge.     

Postmodern theory and politics: Perspectives on citizenship and social justice

In this paper we consider some contributions made by postmodern perspectives to theoretical and political questions of citizenship and social justice. Postmodern theory is often dismissed as a distraction from pressing questions of material inequality and economic and political exploitation. In the paper we distinguish between ‘ludic’ or ‘spectral’ postmodernisms and ‘oppositional’ or ‘resistance’ postmodernisms. We suggest that the latter provide theoretical resources for analysing the cultural construction of inequalities and struggles around social inclusion and exclusion. The paper is divided into three sections: in the first, three dominant narratives of modernization are addressed and their implications for concepts of citizenship and social inclusion noted; in the second, some postmodern challenges to these narratives are explored in order to disclose some of the key problems with modern paradigms of citizenship and social justice; in the third section we outline two postmodern approaches to the analysis of social struggles and their contributions to debates about citizenship.     

How is a sense of well-being and belonging constructed in the accounts of autistic adults?

This small-scale exploratory study sought to develop an understanding of the meaning of well-being and social belonging as represented within the narratives of adults on the autism spectrum. Employing an interpretivist approach facilitated the investigation of potential contributory factors to these lived experiences in order to inform further research regarding both this topic, and service provision for adults on the autism spectrum. The project involved a thematic analysis of issues of the magazine Asperger United (AU). Four broad main themes were identified: meeting personal needs, living with the consequences of an ‘othered’ identity, connection and recognition, and relationships and advocacy. Autistic adults reported many barriers to feeling that they belonged in a number of social spaces and the detrimental effect this had on their wellbeing. Fundamental to positive narratives of wellbeing, were feelings of connection and recognition from others and positive accepting relationships, with autistic-led spaces, particularly the Autscape conference, being frequently cited as of central significance in increasing feelings of wellbeing and belonging. This study has demonstrated a need for less focus on remediation and more on limiting the social isolation of autistic people.     

高职高专双语教学课程内容选取研究——以涉外旅游专业《英美文化》课程为例

双语教学是基于双语现象所产生的一种教学手段,目前在我国受到了一些院校的关注,高职高专一些专业也开展了双语教学的尝试。由于双语教学在我国主要在本科院校开展,课程内容、教学方法等很多方面与高职高专院校有较大差异。如何选取适用于高职高专院校的双语教学内容是讨论重点。本文主要围绕高职高专双语教学课程内容选取的原则及内容选取的基本过程开展,以涉外旅游专业《英美文化》课程为例,进行分析和推论。全文结合高职高专的院校特点、专业特征及学生差异,明晰了双语教学课程内容选取的原则及过程,体现了课程开展的针对性和实效性。     

Narratives and self-identity in later life: Two rural American older women

Older adults often draw on memories to construct stories about themselves that help them to retain and validate their self-identities, doing this within the cultural contexts that have shaped their lives. In this paper, we examine the life history narratives of two working class, rural American older women and the ways in which those narratives are similar despite one major difference: one has dementia. In both cases, major themes that are consistent with gender-based, working class, rural American cultural values are dominant, including closeness of family, hard work, ties to the land, and religious faith. In the first case, she reconstructs memories of her life in accordance with dominant cultural and personal values, downplaying the ways in which her experiences were “out of step” with these values. In the second case, her sense of identity remains and is expressed through her co-constructed memories although she is experiencing cognitive loss.     

Rebooting and Rerouting: Women's Articulations of Frayed Careers in Science,Engineering and Technology Professions

This paper expands on previous work about women's non‐linear and frayed careers by examining the experiences of women who have attempted to return to science, engineering and technology (SET) professions in the UK and Republic of Ireland after taking a career break. These women potentially offer an important perspective on gender and career, because of the deep‐rooted, gendered associations of science and technology with masculinity. Drawing on qualitative interviews with women SET professionals, the paper identifies three narratives — Rebooting, Rerouting and Retreating — which women use to talk about their careers. Some of these women present themselves as career changers, having often made compromises and trade‐offs, while others, who have returned to their substantive professions, focus on continuity in their career narratives. The precarious nature of their careers is also apparent and in some cases leads to opting out or retreating. The paper concludes by exploring how women's scientist and technical identities persist, even among those who had not returned to work, and are drawn on in narratives of return and career change.     

“Draw me everything that happened to you”: Exploring children's drawings of sexual abuse

The aim of the current paper is to explore the ways in which drawings facilitate children's narratives in investigative interviews regarding alleged sexual abuse. Although children often lack appropriate words or the ability to pinpoint the effects they experience, some children find drawing to be a natural, accessible language they can use for emotional expression. The use of three case studies and an analysis of children's narratives before, during and after drawing facilitated an assessment of the way in which drawing aided children's retrieval process. The discussion presents the contribution of using drawings when interviewing children about experiences of trauma.     

Coping strategies used by LGB older adults in facing and anticipating health challenges: A narrative analysis

ABSTRACT

Given that lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) older adults face notable health disparities compared to their heterosexual counterparts, there is a need for understanding how LGB adults cope with health challenges in late life. The current study analyzes narratives from nine LGB adults age 65 and older living in an urban area in the Southeast United States. Participants spoke of coping strategies related to health promotion behaviors, shifting perspectives of health and body, trusting in spirituality for comfort, and accepting the end of life. We discuss implications for social services professionals who work with older LGB adults and for future research.     

Digital media,ageing and faith: Older Sri Lankan migrants in Australia and their digital articulations of transnational religion

To date, older adults have received little attention in the newly emerging technological narratives of transnational religion. This is surprising, given the strong association of later life with spiritual and religious engagement, but it likely reflects the ongoing assumption that older adults are technophobic or technologically incompetent. Drawing on ethnographic interviews with older Sinhalese Buddhist migrants from Sri Lanka, living in Melbourne, this paper explores the digital articulations of transnational religion that arise from older migrants’ uses of digital media. We focus on how engagements with digital media enable older Sinhalese to respond to an urgent need to accumulate merit in later life, facilitating their temporal strategies for ageing as migrants. We argue that these digital articulations transform both the religious imaginary and the religious practices that validate and legitimize a life well-lived.     

Emotion Language and Social Power: Homosexuality and Narratives of Pain in Church

This paper examines the narratives of pain in two religious groups to explore how the everyday concept of emotional pain can work to obscure differences between opposing sides. It shows how these narratives can effectively help to reproduce social hierarchies, even as actors seek to challenge them. Specifically, by examining church debates about homosexuality, it shows how putatively heterosexual actors on both sides use languages of pain to justify welcoming gays into the church, albeit on very different terms, while creating particular feeling rules for gay men and lesbians (Hochschild 1979, 1983). By comparing these two sides we see how narratives of pain (and the shared assumptions behind them) effectively help to reproduce the sexual hierarchy some members seek to subvert.     

The ‘green green grass of home’? Return migration to rural Ireland

There have been calls recently to challenge some of the orthodoxies of counterurbanisation. This paper contributes to this by highlighting the complexity of rural in-migration processes, through a focus on rural return migration. There has been a significant increase in return migration to the Republic of Ireland (ROI) since 1996. The paper is based on the life narratives of some of the 1980s generation of emigrants who have recently returned to live in Ireland. It focuses on those Irish return migrants who spent a substantial part of their lives in the large urban centres of Britain and the US, and are currently living in rural Ireland. Their narratives of return are explored in terms of discourses of rurality, in particular through notions of a rural idyll and belonging/not belonging. It is argued that return migrants draw on classic counterurbanisation discourses in their narratives of return, but that these are interwoven with notions of family/kinship. Furthermore, the idyllisation of rural life is complicated by aspects of the specificity of the position of the return migrant. It is suggested that rural return migrants are positioned somewhere between locals and incomers, reflecting the complexity of Irish rural repopulation processes, and that the phenomenon of rural return complicates accepted understandings of counterurbanisation.     

Narratives of Socialization: Perceptions of Parental Influence After Childhood Divorce

Despite substantial research on the consequences of parental divorce, no studies have investigated offspring discourse about parents’ influences. This study draws on a sample of university students and uses a grounded theory approach to identify four types of socialization narratives. These narratives include (a) fear of unintentional modeling, (b) absence of effective modeling, (c) determination to avoid parental mistakes, and (d) fear of self- or partner change. For the first three types, young adults link perceptions of relationship socialization to a specific parental trait or relationship pattern. The fourth type reflects generalized conclusions about human change over the life course.     

Caring or Vulnerable Children? Sibling Relationships When Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence

Drawing on qualitative interviews with the children about how they and their siblings have responded to intimate partner violence, this paper explores processes of victim positioning. In their narratives, some children positioned themselves in line with notions of vulnerable victims, while others positioned themselves as caregivers or changed their positions vis‐à‐vis their siblings. In their stories, they assigned and assumed positions in interaction with their siblings. Receiving sibling support and care was in the narratives related to the quality of the sibling relationship, the shared experiences of violence and the age order.     

The meeting of two narratives

The post-modern paradigms, particularly regarding the nature of reality, are fast coloring our ideas regarding our client's truths. We now have an expanded understanding about the flexibility and dynamic nature of truth, and therefore of clients' narratives. Another narrative, however, that must be taken fully into account is the narrative of the therapist. In fact, what we have in a clinical hour is the meeting and blending of two narratives, that of the client and that of the therapist. This paper summarizes some of the recent thinking regarding narrative, and the nature of truth, as well as pointing to implications for clinical practice.