Humans are natural storytellers. We make sense of our world and ourselves through stories. Stories help us understand the values and expectations of our families, communities, and cultures. They especially help us understand ourselves! The Narrative Lab is particularly interested in a certain kind of story linked to personal identity and psychological health, called narrative identity.
Narrative identity is the evolving, internal “story of self” humans use to make sense of how they came to be the people they are and are becoming. Most narrative identity researchers believe everyone has a narrative identity, and we can study narrative identity in order to better understand parts of the lived experience that may not be accessible through other psychological research methods. Researching the lived experience—or how individual people actually experience, know, and make meaning of their own lives—is crucial to deepening psychological science and advancing equity and dignity for all persons.
The Narrative Lab draws on narrative identity theory, qualitative and quantitative methods, and person-centered, community-engaged research approaches to conduct a diverse range of research, including:
- Basic research on phenomena related to flourishing, such as acceptance, resilience, and self-transcendence (feeling connected to something “bigger” than oneself)
- Intervention development related to improving well-being for those coping with very challenging life experiences, such as ongoing oppression or life-limiting illness
- Promoting ethics in research (e.g., inclusive, open science) and healthcare (e.g., humanistic approaches to palliative care)