Quotes and Notes: Atkinson (2007)
Atkinson, R. (2007). The life story interview as a bridge in narrative inquiry. In D. J. Clandinin (Ed.), Handbook of narrative inquiry: Mapping a methodology (pp. 224-245). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
Two uses of life story include:
- ideographic, or the use of the life story for “individual or personal” purposes
- nomothetic, or the use of the life story for “university, collective, or social purposes”
According to Atkinson, there are connections between life story and the following terms, but they are distinctly different: life narratives, the study of lives, personal documents, personal history, life history, oral history, and narrative study of lives. He describes the life story interview as
designed to help the storyteller, the listener, the reader, and the scholar to understand better how life stories serve the four functions of bringing us more into accord with ourselves (psychological), others (sociological), the mystery of life (spiritual), and the universe around us (philosophical)” (p. 225)
Atkinson describes how McAdams has used life stories for “understanding better the formation of identity and the role of generativity in individual lives” (p. 226) and claims that first person narratives (not just life stories) are “an effective means for gaining and understanding of how the self evolves over time” (p. 226).
Noting the application of the life story in many fields (education, anthropology, and sociology, to name a few), Atkinson quotes himself from 1998 (p. 8), defining life story as
A life story is the story a person chooses to tell about the life he or she has lived, told as completely and honestly as possible, what is remembered of it, and what the teller wants others to know if it, usually as a result of a guided interview by another….A life story is a fairly complete narrating of one’s entire experience of life as a whole,, highlighting the important aspects
Life stories are atheoretical; but they can become theoretical when a researcher sets out to analyze and interpret through various theoretical frameworks. As a bridge, the life story:
- connects two ends of a continuum from unique to universal; both are contained in life stories
- connects two ends of a continuum from ideographic and nomothetic; (this continuum would have the ideographic, (autobiography and personal documents) on one end and nomothetic (life history, oral history, and biography) on the other end; the life story sits somewhere between the two
- connects telling and experiencing
- whole to part (individual stories collected = life story)
Issues arise concerning memory and Atkinson asserts that we must be more concerned with “trustworthiness” than “truth” (p. 239).