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Narratology, Cultural Psychology, and Counseling Research
Lisa Tsoi Hoshmand
Lesley University
Narratological research is defined in relation to narrative theory and a cultural psychology perspective.
Narrative concepts and methodology are explained, including the configural mode of understanding and
principles of narrative analysis. Examples of application in psychological and counseling research are
presented, with a discussion of issues of validity and voice. Suggestions are made on how narrative
studies are to be evaluated. It is concluded that narratological research, with its focus on meanings and
the storied nature of human life, can be especially useful in discovery research on identity development
and the experience of counseling and life transitions.
This article addresses the narrative paradigm for research, with
a focus on narratology, narrative theory, and cultural psychology.
In view of the fact that most qualitative research involves the
collection and analysis of narrative data, the term narratology is
used here to distinguish inquiry approaches that are informed by
narrative theory and cultural psychology from other forms of
qualitative research presented in this special issue. Granted that
there are similarities between the various qualitative research par-
adigms, with a general philosophical preference for a social con-
structionist view of knowledge, qualitative inquiry can be largely
inductive and not necessarily guided by narrative theory. Narrative
inquiry, however, can be regarded as being on a continuum with
the type of knowing involved in counseling practice when we
listen for meanings and patterns in what clients say about them-
selves and their lives.
One of the goals of this article was to explicate narrative theory
and to locate it in the perspective of cultural psychology. Another
was to discuss the implications of narrative theory and narratology
for domains relevant to counseling. It should be stated at the outset
that there is no unified narrative theory, but rather narrative con-
cepts and principles that can be applied when conducting qualita-
tive research. In exploring the possibilities of a narrative frame-
work for the human sciences and its potential value in counseling
research, it is recognized that narratological approaches to psycho-
logical research are still evolving. Narratological inquiry is in need
of further definition under shared philosophical assumptions and
communal standards. As I explain subsequently, narrative perspec-
tives entail particular ontological assumptions about the nature of
narrative accounts and human discourse in context. Being a qual-
itative methodology, it should not be expected to reflect the level
of standardization as in experimental research.
I begin here with the multidisciplinary literature on narrative
study, as it offers definitions of a narrative, narrative concepts, and
perspectives on interpretive validity and other issues in narrative
inquiry.
The History of Narratology and Narrative Theory
Narratology is a term historically used to refer to the study of
narratives in the literary field, though other disciplines in the
humanities (such as history) and the social sciences (such as
cultural studies) also are associated with the study of narratives.
The term narratology is used here as a way of distinguishing a
mode of qualitative inquiry and data analysis that is informed by
narrative theory, set apart from other qualitative research that
involves narrative data but not a narrative perspective per se.
The history of narratology and narratological analysis can be
found in sources such as Prince (1997) and D. Herman (1999).
Theorizing on narratives has evolved from classical poetics to the
postclassical, and from structural to more contextualist and func-
tional models in the poststructual and postmodern period (Gibson,
1996). Narrative theories have addressed fictional narratives in
literary studies as well as historical, sociological, and cultural
analyses of narratives, extending to cyberage narratology. Each
period of narrative theorizing has been modified by ideological
and theoretical critique, as in the case of the influence of feminist
narratology (Mezei, 1996). The various theoretical models devel-
oped over time coexist in spite of philosophical shifts in paradigms
of knowledge and changes in the actual landscape of scholarly
inquiry (Richardson, 2000).
The narrative theorists and philosophers who have shaped nar-
ratological inquiry are too numerous to reference exhaustively
here. Of particular interest are Foucault (1971), who approached
narrative as a social, cultural, and political practice; Ricoeur
(1984 –1989), who emphasized the temporal nature of human
existence as lived and illuminated in narrative coherence; Bakhtin
(1984), who introduced the concept of multiple voices in the form
of polyphonic text; MacIntyre (1981), who argued for narrative as
the primary structure for identity and human action; and Gadamer
(1994), who offered the concept of interpretive horizons in con-
junction with a dialogical process of narrative understanding.
These theorists have influenced narrative work across the disci-
plines—in terms of narrative perspectivity (L. Herman, 2003;
Nunning, 2001; Stanzel, 1988; van Peer & Chatman, 2001) and the
understanding of narratological stances (Dixon & Bortolussi,
2001), as well as the critical analysis of discourse as a form of
social practice (Scheuer, 2003). With the narrative turn in philos-
ophy and the emergence of interpretive social science (Clifford &
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Lisa Tsoi
Hoshmand, Division of Counseling and Psychology, Lesley University, 29
Everett Street, Cambridge, MA 02138. E-mail: lhoshman@lesley.edu
Journal of Counseling Psychology Copyright 2005 by the American Psychological Association
2005, Vol. 52, No. 2, 178–186 0022-0167/05/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/0022-0167.52.2.178
178
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