Narrative Identität und Positionierung

Der Beitrag schlägt das Konzept der 'Positionierung' als Instrument zur empirischen Erforschung narrativer Identitäten auf der Basis von autobiographischen Erzählungen vor. Es wird dafür argumentiert, dass die Perspektive der Positionierung einen materialgestützten und materialadäquaten Zugang zu Prozessen der Identitätskonstitution in mündlichen Stegreiferzählungen bietet, da es die identitätsrelevanten darstellerischen wie performativen Handlungen von Erzählern zu rekonstruieren erlaubt. Dabei wird zwischen verschiedenen Ebenen und Bezügen unterschieden: Selbst- und Fremdpositionierungen, Positionierungen dargestellter Figuren innerhalb der Erzählzeit und von Erzähler und Zuhörern in der erzählten Zeit sowie die Relation zwischen erzählenden und erzähltem Ich. Diese Differenzierungen erlauben nicht nur eine detaillierte Rekonstruktion unterschiedlicher Facetten und Verfahren der Herstellung narrativer Identität, sie eröffnen auch psychologisch und soziologisch aufschlussreiche Einblicke in die Relationen zwischen Identitätsentwürfen auf den verschiedenen Ebenen.The paper proposes the use of 'positioning' for the empirical study of narrative identities using autobiographical narratives. Positioning is seen as an especially adequate way of conceiving of identities in narratives, because it allows for a reconstruction of discursive actions by which identities are accomplished, be it by description or by action. In the paper, several layers of positioning in narratives are distinguished: Self- vs. other-positioning, positioning of and between narrated characters vs. processes of positioning between teller and addressees, relations between narrated self and narrating self. These distinctions provide for a detailed reconstruction of various facets and practices of the local accomplishment of narrative identities. Moreover, positioning analysis can offer valuable insights into the relations and tension

Die Krankheitserzählung auf dem Prüfstand der Praxis

Tagungsbericht zur internationalen Tagung „Illness Narratives in Practice“, Institut für Psychologie der Universität Freiburg im Breisgau, 26./27. Juni 201

Web-Based Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Patients often seek other patients’ experiences with the disease. The Internet provides a wide range of opportunities to share and learn about other people’s health and illness experiences via blogs or patient-initiated online discussion groups. There also exists a range of medical information devices that include experiential patient information. However, there are serious concerns about the use of such experiential information because narratives of others may be powerful and pervasive tools that may hinder informed decision making. The international research network DIPEx (Database of Individual Patients’ Experiences) aims to provide scientifically based online information on people’s experiences with health and illness to fulfill patients’ needs for experiential information, while ensuring that the presented information includes a wide variety of possible experiences. Objective: The aim is to evaluate the colorectal cancer module of the German DIPEx website krankheitserfahrungen.de with regard to self-efficacy for coping with cancer and patient competence. Methods: In 2015, a Web-based randomized controlled trial was conducted using a two-group between-subjects design and repeated measures. The study sample consisted of individuals who had been diagnosed with colorectal cancer within the past 3 years or who had metastasis or recurrent disease. Outcome measures included self-efficacy for coping with cancer and patient competence. Participants were randomly assigned to either an intervention group that had immediate access to the colorectal cancer module for 2 weeks or to a waiting list control group. Outcome criteria were measured at baseline before randomization and at 2 weeks and 6 weeks Results: The study randomized 212 persons. On average, participants were 54 (SD 11.1) years old, 58.8% (124/211) were female, and 73.6% (156/212) had read or heard stories of other patients online before entering the study, thus excluding any influence of the colorectal cancer module on krankheitserfahrungen.de. No intervention effects were found at 2 and 6 weeks after baseline. Conclusions: The results of this study do not support the hypothesis that the website studied may increase self-efficacy for coping with cancer or patient competencies such as self-regulation or managing emotional distress. Possible explanations may involve characteristics of the website itself, its use by participants, or methodological reasons. Future studies aimed at evaluating potential effects of websites providing patient experiences on the basis of methodological principles such as those of DIPEx might profit from extending the range of outcome measures, from including additional measures of website usage behavior and users’ motivation, and from expanding concepts, such as patient competency to include items that more directly reflect patients’ perceived effects of using such a website. Trial Registration: Clinicaltrials.gov NCT02157454; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02157454 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6syrvwXxi

Narratives of sex-segregated professional identities

This article highlights the significance of small story analysis for the identification of positioning acts which function as rhetorical warrants for career choices and trajectories. It analyses stories told by Speech and Language Therapists (SLTs) investigating the tensions expressed in the negotiation and performance of their gendered professional identities. Identity work is achieved via accountability and orientation to: past and present self; interlocutors within the interaction; and “master narratives” about gendered work. Small stories act as a medium of professional identity construction, rapport-building and as a site of contestation, employed to (re)appraise the social order, particularly with respect to “women’s” and “men’s” work. Gendered discourses are shown to impact on the amount of men entering the SLT profession and the specialisms and progression routes that men and women pursue. The analysis points to the reproductive, pervasive and regulatory power of gendered discourses on individuals’ experience of their subjectivity and professional identity