Narrative analysis: a method of psychosocial research for AIDS-affected people

Better methods of psychosocial research with people affected by AIDS are required; and narrative analysis may help to meet this need. It is based on the assumption that people create meaning in events by telling stories about them, and that these stories can be identified in interviews. The paper examines some conceptual issues underlying the method: the psychosocial functions of narratives, their structure, their embeddedness in interview responses, their linguistic macrofunctions and the concept of core narrative. An account of the method is provided, together with two alternative ways of doing it. Then the results of a small study of the value of the narrative analysis for the research interviews of HIV-infected men are reported, with the answering of questions about its consistency and usefulness and a brief account of the 12 narratives identified by the method. Some questions were answered in the affirmative but others were not. However, the narratives identified proved both vivid and useful. Evaluations of the study and of the method led to recommendations that narrative analysis be used to augment other methods in AIDS research.