Autobiographical narrative interview

In the theoretical part of the thesis, the life-story acquisition and analysis as research methods are presented. The autobiographical narrative interview is presented most extensively; i.e., the definitions, characteristics, methodological approaches, the specific implementation, as well as different options for analysis. The narrative approaches based on hermeneutics are explained in most detail. Furthermore, the positions of the narrator, the listener and the interpreter of the life story are taken into consideration. The advantages, as well as the pitfalls, limitations, and doubts of this approach are defined. In the last chapter of the theoretical part, attention is given to the following content elements of the biography, or life story: the protective and the risk factors influencing an individual's development, the concept of psychological resilience, and coping strategies. In the empirical part of the thesis, the findings are moved from theory to practice. Two autobiographical narrative interviews were carried out. For a reconstructive hermeneutic analysis of the autobiographical narrative interviews, the verbatims were subjected to qualitative analysis, using a four-level eclectic model which I designed for this purpose on the basis of different analysis methods presented in the theoretical part of the thesis. In phase one, a comprehensive analysis gives an illustration of the life course of the two participants in the form of a timeline. In phase two of the analysis, it is ascertained for the first participant that his protective factors are related to successful withdrawals into extrafamilial education and are derived from his personality as well as from the environment. The participant's risk factors are derived from a dysfunctional biological family, as well as from peer unpopularity. The participant's source of psychological resilience is the participant's personality, as well as the supportive environment (a youth home and voluntary organisations). The participant substitutes the dysfunctional coping strategies from the past with the more functional ones. It is evident from the biography of the second participant that her protective factors are related to entering into a functional partner relationship with the participant's current husband, whereas the risk factors are related to the participant's biological family, to experiencing deficiencies, as well as to unprocessed traumatic experiences. The source of the participant's psychological resilience is the participant's personality, as well as the supportive environment (grandfather and grandmother in the past; the husband and his family in the present). The participant's coping strategies are lying and hiding facts. These are elicited by the shame of economic deficiencies. Phase three of the analysis presents an in-depth sequential analysis, where latent meanings of participants' statements are searched for and explained. In the biography of the first participant, the process of the participant's identity change can be seen throughout; this being based on the participant's enhanced self-image. In the biography of the second participant, it was revealed that the participant wants to process her past and sort her present experiences in a way completely contrary to the behaviour of her parents; this being seen in all basic life transitions (partner relationship, parenthood, provision for family, responsibility towards education and work). In the analytical summary, important findings on each participant were collected. In the last phase, which consists of the comparative analysis, these findings were then compared