A New Narrative for Psychology focuses on how we study and think about persons and the goals of psychological understanding. By critiquing contemporary variable-centered and statistical methods, this book investigates what these approaches leave unexplored by presenting a cutting-edge perspective for theorizing and studying the thorny problem of human meaning making.

Brian Schiff is Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychology and Director of the George and Irina Schaeffer Center for the Study of Genocide, Human Rights and Conflict Prevention at the American University of Paris. A graduate of The University of Chicago's Committee on Human Development, Schiff's research uses narrative in order to examine the meeting place between person, social relationships and culture. He is editor of Rereading Personal Narrative and Life Course, New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, and co-editor of Life and Narrative: The Risks and Responsibilities of Storying Experience.

• Acknowledgements


• Dedication


• PART ONE


• Introduction: What's the Problem?


• Chapter 1: Out of Context


• Chapter 2: Out of the Head


• PART TWO


• Chapter 3: Turning to Narrative


• Chapter 4: How Narrating Functions


• Chapter 5: Making It So...


• PART THREE


• Chapter 6: Interpreting Interpretations


• Chapter 7: Interpreting Ben's Survival


• Chapter 8: Interpretation in Practice


• Chapter 9: Reasoned Interpretations


• Conclusion: Unity in Psychology?


• References