Self-Narrative Elicitation in Counseling: An Exploration of the Usefulness of Selected Interview Methods

An important element of many forms of counseling is the narrative articulation of the client experience. This article aims to define self-narrative elicitation methods, to explore their use in counseling, and to present a quantitative empirical examination of narrative interview instructions. It examines whether the self-narrative inclination and selected situational factors influence the narrativity level of the utterances when elicited by different types of self-narrative instructions. The results show that the utterances produced by three different types of instructions (open-ended question; photo-elicitation; life-as-book metaphor) do not differ in narrativity level. The narrativity of utterances measured micro-analytically on the lexical level remains independent from the external factors (sequence, topic, type of instruction). Given the level of narrativity and length of response, the three instructions are close to each other. At the same time the narrativity is significantly influenced by self-narrative inclination. It is worth acknowledging personal features that can change the way the story is told in interviews and thus affect the counseling practice

Qualitative Content Analysis in Clinical Psychology to Explain the Pathomechanism of Personality Disorders

Die qualitative Inhaltsanalyse ist eine Methode zur systematischen Beschreibung qualitativer Daten mithilfe von regelbasierten Verfahren und menschlicher Interpretation. Unser Ziel in diesem Beitrag ist es, die methodischen Aspekte des Verfahrens im Bereich der klinischen Psychologie zu reflektieren. Im Folgenden gehen wir zunächst auf die Umsetzung qualitativer Inhaltsanalyse in der klinischen Psychologie ein und beschreiben die Vielfalt der in diesem Bereich anzutreffenden inhaltsanalytisch orientierten Studien. Besonderes Augenmerk richten wir dabei auf Kategoriensysteme. Anschließend stellen wir Probleme und Herausforderungen bei der Durchführung qualitativ-inhaltsanalytischer Studien in einem spezifisch klinischen Kontext dar, nämlich die erklärende Diagnose von Persönlichkeitsstörungen. Ausgehend von den Herausforderungen (Erkennen klinisch relevanter Informationen, Erklärung des Pathomechanismus, Zugang zu unbewussten inneren Prozessen, Rolle relationaler Informationen bei der Bewertung) zeigen wir mögliche Lösungen für die Phase der Datenaufbereitung und -analyse auf. Dazu gehören der ausgewogene Rekurs auf psychologische Theorien und die Identifizierung von Mustern in Daten und Kategorien zu Erklärungszwecken, die Analyse aktueller Prozesse zur Beurteilung der Dynamik des psychologischen Lebens (intrapsychisch und interpersonal) und der relationale Kontext, der aus der Reflexion von Kodierung als menschlicher Prozess gewonnen wird.Qualitative content analysis (QCA) is a method for systematically describing qualitative data with the use of rule-bound procedures and human-generated interpretation. With this article we aim to reflect on the methodical aspect of QCA in the field of clinical psychology. After introducing the implementation of QCA procedures in clinical psychology and the diversity of content analytic-informed studies encountered in this field with special attention to coding frames, we present the problems and challenges that arise when using QCA in a more specific clinical context, namely, explanatory assessment of personality disorders. Beginning with the challenges (detecting clinically relevant information, explaining the pathomechanism, access to unconscious internal processes, role of relational information in assessment), we give possible solutions for the stage of data preparation and analysis. These include the balanced use of psychological theory and identifying patterns in data and in categories for explanation purposes; momentary process analysis aimed at assessing the dynamics of psychological life (intrapsychic and interpersonal); and relational context obtained from reflection on coding as a human process

Social Suport in Socio-Therapy – Selected Issues

Socio-therapy is a form of psycho-pedagogical help directed at children and adolescents from the risk group or/and presenting the signs of disorders in psycho-social functioning. In the presented work it is assumed that a socio-therapeutic group is a social support context of delivering social support network, where helping factors are activated by the possibility of bonding, tightening social contacts and the sense of belonging to the group. There are many help-oriented social interactions in the socio-therapeutic group (functional social support). The following paper deals with selected aspects of social support in socio-therapy: 1) support as a response to developmental and other crises, 2) support in psychological problems, 3) support aimed at group dynamics and stages of group development, 4) support in self-help during group work and after the end of work, 5) support by creating conditions in offering help. The role of socio-therapists (and institutions where sociotherapy takes place) in the social support processes and areas were also analyzed.3222524314Studia Edukacyjn

Narrative Competence as an Area of Teaching and Assessment in Education

The article presents an analysis of the concept of narrative competence and its educational connotations. Narrative competence is increasingly recognized as the key area of an individual’s language skills. Definitions and differences between the aspects of narrative activity are described. Stages of development of narrative competence in relation to the general phenomena of development are selected and presented. The development of methods of stimulating the narrative competence in the educational process is indicated. Finally, analyzed are general issues related to the development of narrative skills at school: building “narrative” relationships and new ways of assessing learning outcomes.3721123613Studia Edukacyjn

Selected Issues Concerning Descriptive Diagnosis in Socio-Therapy – Theoretical Aspects and Links with Socio-therapists’ Professional Functioning

The matter of psychological diagnosis in socio-therapy is a relatively new area of theoretical reflection and empirical research. The piece of research presented here deals with socio-therapists’ perspective and regards developing the picture of the psychological problems of groups participants and the consequences of the described manner of perceiving problems in socio-therapists’ professional functioning. It was explored what kind of descriptive diagnosis is made by socio-therapists and certain general tendencies in identifying the relational problems were observed (e.g. more frequent observing the problems with adults or the child with itself), as well as the participants and their families (mainly the problems with learning, ADHD at children and violence and alcoholism in families). The co-occurrence of the individual’s and family’s problems identified here corresponds to other clinical psychology studies of children and teenagers (especially co-occurence of fear disorders, ADHD of the disorders of learning in the alcoholic family environment). The relations between the tendencies to recognize particular problems and the subgroups of these problems (relational and nozological aspects) and professional functioning of the socio-therapists were described. It has been noticed that the severity of diagnoses is related to a greater amount of negative feelings in professional works and there are no significant relations between identifying the problems and a hope for a professional success. The results have been discussed in the context of the light on socio-therapy as psycho-pedagogical help.331651879Studia Edukacyjn

Style socjoterapeutycznej pracy grupowej z dziećmi i młodzieżą z perspektywy czynników pomocowych

Social therapy is a group form of psycho-pedagogical help directed at children and adolescents from risk groups or/and presenting the signs of disorders in psycho-social functioning. The help includes intentional activating helping factors applying group processes. The study includes: an empirical investigation of helping factors, distinguishing the styles of socio-therapeutic group-work, the comparison of the styles with emotional and cognitive functioning of social therapists’ and their professional background. Three socio-therapeutic styles were distinguished: 1) ‘social therapist-focused style’ (N = 22), 2) ‘active group-focused style’ (N = 21); 3) low activation of all groups of factors with a slight stress on C – ‘passive group-focused style’ (N = 32). Interestingly, those groups differed significantly in terms of some aspects of professional experience of the social therapists as well as their hopeful thinking, pathway thoughts and agency but did not differ in terms of emotions that accompanied their work.3119521811Studia Edukacyjn

“Let me tell you what I think about online psychological help.” A thematic analysis of voluntary opinions collected at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic

IntroductionThe COVID-19 pandemic shifted many aspects of life from face-to-face to an online form, including psychological help. Many people had to face the choice of adjourning contact with a psychologist or shifting it to the Internet. This study aimed to develop an understanding of attitudes and opinions toward relatively new phenomenon in Poland – online psychological help.MethodSeventy two (N=72) statements about relationship between COVID-19 pandemic and online psychological help from (potential) patients were included in this research. The statements were collected from a community sample via open-ended question for volunteers added to an online survey conducted regarding an existing project. The statements were exclusively written responses to the following question: If you want to provide us with something about the relationships between the COVID-19 pandemic and online help/psychotherapy, please let us know below. By reason of exploratory character of our study and general phenomenological philosophical approach and constructionist approach, a thematic analysis method was used to analyze the data.ResultsThe analysis led us to identify three general themes with sub-themes that refer to meaningful aspects of online psychological help: 1. Online psychological help situates in the shadow of face-to-face help, 1.1. It frustrates the needs, especially the need for psychological contact, 1.2. It contributes to negative emotions, 1.3. It is sometimes better than the face-to-face help; 2. Online psychological help is a solution during the COVID-19 pandemic, 2.1. It provides a sense of continuity during lockdown, 2.2. It is a means to adapt to exceptional circumstances, 3. The concerns about the credibility and effectiveness of online psychological help.DiscussionThe results show (potential) patients’ attitudes (including emotions, thoughts, and concerns) toward online psychological help. The perspective presented here could be beneficial to professionals. A better understanding of client/patient attitudes will allow for more accurate customization of the online help and sensitize psychologists to the emotions that may occur about online psychological help. It could also be beneficial for patients to understand how other people would feel about online psychological help and develop ones’ own self-awareness of the attitudes toward online psychological help

Structured interview in historical research : a roposed research procedure

Tekst przedstawia procedury i techniki metody badawczej ukierunkowanej na „wywołanie źródła historycznego”, co rozumiane jest jako przygotowany i zrealizowany w rygorze naukowym udział badacza w stworzeniu przez świadka historii takiego materiału wspomnieniowego, który mógłby być nośnikiem informacji i zostałby poddany rudymentarnej analizie historycznej. W tekście przedstawiono zdefiniowane założenia i kolejne etapy postępowania badawczego.The text presents the procedures and techniques involved in a research method aimed at “evoking a historical source”, which is understood as a researcher’s prepared and academically rigorously implemented participation in the creation by a witness to his-tory of such recollective material that might be a carrier of information and that might be subject to rudimentary historical analysis. The text presents defined assumptions and subsequent stages of the proposed research procedur

Mental Relationship Patterns as Predicators of the Relationship Status of Studying Women

The article analyses relationship patterns as predictors of relationship status (having vs not having a partner) among female university students. Inner relationship patterns were identified on the basis of written statements on significant relations. The statements were obtained through the Relationship Anecdotes Paradigm (RAP), which allows the acquisition of autobiographic records of narrative nature on personally significant interpersonal relations. The results of the analysis based on the concept of Core Conflictual Relationship Theme (CCRT) helped predict whether a respondent has a partner thanks to only one category of relationship patterns – the desire of the self to feel well and comfortably, to have a sense of stability, to feel happy and self-satisfied, triggered in the context of referring to a significant interpersonal relation in the narratives. The other aspects of the patterns – responses of the other to the self’s desire and the response of the self to the reactions of the other – do not markedly affect the prediction of the relationship status

The self-narrativity level of the utterances and the usefulness of the narrative-eliciting instructions

Autonarracja (jako relacjonowanie własnego doświadczenia) jest dla psychologa istotnym źródłem informacji diagnostycznych, ponieważ w autonarracji odzwierciedla się indywidualny sposób nadawania znaczenia rzeczywistości (wewnętrznej i zewnętrznej), który konstytuuje poczucie tożsamości. Wydaje się ważne określenie użyteczności metod (instrukcji) wywoływania autonarracji pod względem ich potencjału w zakresie stymulowania wypowiedzi o wysokim poziomie narracyjności. Istnieją czynniki (intrapersonalne i sytuacyjne), które mogą modyfikować efekty instrukcji autonarracyjnych. Jednym z intrapersonalnych czynników jest tzw. inklinacja narracyjna – dyspozycyjna tendencja do opowiadania o sobie w konwencji opowieści. W referowanych badaniach podjęto się próby określania poziomu narracyjności w tekstach, zebranych za pomocą trzech różnych instrukcji autonarracyjnych w wywiadach (1. pytania otwartego, 2. rozmowy o przyniesionej fotografii, 3. metafory życia jako książki) od osób o różnym poziomie inklinacji autonarracyjnej. Teksty poddano ilościowej analizie treści w celu określenia wskaźników oraz poziomu narracyjności. Badania między innymi sugerują, że psycholog stosujący instrukcje autonarracyjne, nie powinien abstrahować od wpływu inklinacji narracyjnej na użyteczność instrukcji generowania autonarracji.Self-narrative (as reporting one’s own experience in a narrative form) is a significant source of information for a psychologist, because the self-narrative reflects an individual pattern of meaning-making, which is constitutive for sense of identity. It is claimed that the usefulness of methods (instructions) aimed at generating self-narrative should be assessed. The most useful the instruction is, the highest level of narrativity it produces. It might be assumed, that there are some factors (intrapersonal and situational), which may modify the effects of self-narrative elicitation instructions. One of the intrapersonal factors is the self-narrative inclination – a dispositional tendency to story-telling about one’s own experience. The presentation concerns the estimation of narrativity levels in the texts produced by the participants during three different self-narrative elicitation instructions (1. open-ended question; 2. photo-elicitation interview; 3. life-as-book metaphor). The participants differed in the self-narrative inclination level. Texts were quantitatively content-analyzed in search for narrativity indices and narrativity levels. Briefly speaking, the peace of research suggests, that the psychologist should not disregard the impact of self-narrative inclination on the usefulness of self-narrative elicitation instructions