Narrative research
It has been suggested that one of the clearest channels to explore and understand the inner world of individuals is through their verbal accounts and stories about their lives and reality. However, we need to remember that a life story is just one version of reality, as perceived by the individual at a certain time and in a certain context. As suggested by Baumeister & Newman (1994):
First, people interpret experiences relative to purposes, which may be either objective goals or subjective fulfillment states. Second, people seek value and justification by constructing stories that depict their actions and intentions as right and good. Third, people seek a sense of efficacy by making stories that contain information about how to exert control. Fourth, people seek a sense of self-worth by making stories that portray themselves as attractive and competent (p. 676).
Narrative research starts out with a research question, but usually not with a priori hypotheses. It requires self-awareness and self-discipline in order to continue examining the narrative from different perspectives (Lieblich et al., 1998). The analysis of relationships could be performed in a variety of creative ways, but commonly begins with text that expresses aspects of the human relationship and afterwards initiates a conversation between the phenomenological account and a psychological understanding (Josselson et al., 2007). That will be the structure also in this study.
