Narrative inquiry is the study of life experiences and the process of gathering information for the purpose of research through storytelling (Creswell, 2013). The purpose of narrative inquiry is to increase understanding of issues related to learning and teaching through storytelling and retelling of an individual’s life story. The narrative approach is based on the premise that, as human beings, we have an understanding and meaning to our lives through stories and offers ways to simultaneously keep individuals and social lives in current view, while focusing on individual life experience account (Connelly & Clandinin,1990;Creswell, 2013). According to Connelly and Clandinin (1990), individually and collectively, humans are storytelling organisms,
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An individual’s identity reflects who they are, and also reflect the world in which they live. Individuals differ from each other with respect to their self-defining life stories in ways that are not unlike how they differ from each other on more conventional psychological characteristics such as traits, motives, intelligence, and so forth (Dodge, Ospina, & Foldy, 2005;McAdams, 2001). This gives researchers a more unique and narrowed view of an individual’s life experience in relation to a specific event and how it may correlate with others who have also experienced the same specific event, such as a chronic illness (Laranjeira, …show more content…
Being diagnosed with a chronic illness, such as cancer, can have critical outcomes that have negative effects of oneself (Laranjeira, 2013). To have a clear understanding of the negative effects, cancer narratives of illness experiences “can bridge the gap between cancer and the world of technology and treatment” (Kreuter et al., 2007;Laranjeira, 2013, p. 469). Although cancer is not a new illness, during the past decades, the cases of cancer have increased significantly, with attention on environmental problems, changes in lifestyles and work conditions (Dodge, Ospina, & Foldy, 2005;Laranjeira, 2013). Therefore, through cancer narratives, science can meet life experiences in an attempt to better understand and help patients to control their illness (Kreuter et al.,
An individual’s identity reflects who they are, and also reflect the world in which they live. Individuals differ from each other with respect to their self-defining life stories in ways that are not unlike how they differ from each other on more conventional psychological characteristics such as traits, motives, intelligence, and so forth (Dodge, Ospina, & Foldy, 2005;McAdams, 2001). This gives researchers a more unique and narrowed view of an individual’s life experience in relation to a specific event and how it may correlate with others who have also experienced the same specific event, such as a chronic illness (Laranjeira, …show more content…
Being diagnosed with a chronic illness, such as cancer, can have critical outcomes that have negative effects of oneself (Laranjeira, 2013). To have a clear understanding of the negative effects, cancer narratives of illness experiences “can bridge the gap between cancer and the world of technology and treatment” (Kreuter et al., 2007;Laranjeira, 2013, p. 469). Although cancer is not a new illness, during the past decades, the cases of cancer have increased significantly, with attention on environmental problems, changes in lifestyles and work conditions (Dodge, Ospina, & Foldy, 2005;Laranjeira, 2013). Therefore, through cancer narratives, science can meet life experiences in an attempt to better understand and help patients to control their illness (Kreuter et al.,