Psychology Narrative assignment

Need 2-3 pages

1. First, identify a friend, family member, or another social acquaintance who has been living with, or caring for someone with, a chronic illness and is willing to share some of their story with you. Chronic illnesses can be physical or mental/behavioral. Importantly, please obtain verbal “informed consent” from this person by telling this person that you will be paraphrasing what they share and including their comments in a school assignment. Of course, please do not interview anyone who objects to having their information shared in this assignment and instead try to identify someone else. In addition, please do not include names, addresses, or other identifying information of the person you interview in this assignment. In other words, the person you interviewed should not be identifiable by anyone reading your assignment. If you cannot identify anyone to interview, consider finding someone’s account from a blog, memoir, video, or some other account in the public domain (include your source in the assignment).

Second, ask your interviewee to tell you from their perspective what it has been like to live with their chronic illness. At first, allow the person to talk freely without asking too many specific or close-ended questions. If the person has trouble thinking of what to say, you might ask open-ended questions such as, “How did you come to be diagnosed?” or “What was it like when you were first diagnosed?” You can also ask similar questions about what it was like to go through treatment, rehabilitation, etc.

Third, be sure to capture some basic information about your interviewee. This would include self-identified gender, age range (20’s, 30’s, 40’s, etc.), what chronic illness this person has, and how long this person has had the illness.

After you have gathered this information, summarize it in one page or less. Begin with one or two sentences describing the person’s demographics and then as best as you can document what your interviewee said in their own words.

Part 2 (101 points)

Complete a “narrative analysis.” Identify the following elements, in one to two pages:

• Who is the protagonist? Typically this will be the person you interview, but if you interview a caregiver, the patient may emerge as the protagonist.
• Who are the other important characters? Family members, friends, physicians and other clinicians/health care workers, etc. are typically included in one’s narrative.
• What is the plot? Oftentimes someone will tell their narrative in nonlinear form. Summarize the overall plot in a few sentences, similar to a TV or movie synopsis might be written.
• What is the main conflict? This may or may not be the diagnosis or the disease itself. It might some aspect of treatment, or need to stop school/work, or something else. Listen with an open mind and identify the conflict as your interviewee sees it.
• What caused the illness? Be sure to include any reference to potential causes that your interviewee references. This may or may not correspond to what a physician might say caused the illness, as we discussed in class. Explain your reasoning.
• What is the anticipated course of the illness? Is it curable, chronic but manageable, progressive/incurable, or relapsing/remitting? Again, describe this according to your interviewee’s narrative, not what a medical expert might say. Explain your reasoning.
• What strengths does your interviewee bring to this situation? Describe the ways in which your interviewee is coping effectively and identify specific coping styles/strategies. Also, consider personality-based forms of resiliency.
• Can you identify any barriers or other factors in your interviewee’s narrative that might slow or prevent a good adjustment over time? Be specific in your comments.