The Science of Stories

An Introduction to Narrative Psychology

The Science of Stories: An Introduction to Narrative Psychology

Price: $26.95add to cart

About the Book

The Science of Stories explores the role narrative plays in human life. Supported by in-depth research, the book demonstrates how the ways in which people tell their stories can be indicative of how they construct their worlds and their own identities.

Based on linguistic analysis and computer technology, Laszlo offers an innovative methodology which aims to uncover underlying psychological processes in narrative texts. The reader is presented with a theoretical framework along with a series of studies which explore the way a systematic linguistic analysis of narrative discourse can lead to a scientific study of identity construction, both individual and group.

The book gives a critical overview of earlier narrative theories and summarizes previous scientific attempts to uncover relationships between language and personality. It also deals with social memory and group identity: various narrative forms of historical representations (history books, folk narratives, historical novels) are analyzed as to how they construct the past of a nation.

The Science of Stories is the first book to build a bridge between scientific and hermeneutic studies of narratives. As such, it will be of great interest to a diverse spectrum of readers in social science and the liberal arts, including those in the fields of cognitive science, social psychology, linguistics, philosophy, literary studies and history.

Reviews

"Lazlo has put together one of the most intellectually compelling books on narrative psychology that has been written. This book should be studied by scholars across all the social sciences and humanities." - James W. Pennebaker, University of Texas at Austin, USA

"This book combines an excellent overview and expansion of the field of narrative psychology. Its scholarship is outstanding: it is comprehensive, integrative, and advances the state of the art. It is a text that I would use for my own research and that I would definitely recommend to my students." - Sandra Jovchelovitch, London School of Economics, UK

Table of Contents

1. The Place of Narrative in Psychology. 2. Foundations of Narrative Psychology. 3. Narrative Psychology and Postmodernism. 4. Narrative Psychology's Contribution to the Second Cognitive Revolution. 5. On Representation. 6. Theory of Social Representations. 7. Identity and Narrative. 8. Language and Soul. 9. Narrative Psychological Content Analysis. 10. The Computerization of Content Analysis in Narrative Psychology. 11. Reliability and Validity Studies of the Narrative Content-Analytic Programs. 12. Social Memory and Social Identity: The Social Psychology of History. 13. National Identity in the Mirror of Folk History. 14. Roots and Perspectives of Scientific Narrative Psychology. Appendix. References.

About the Author(s)

János Lászó is professor of social psychology at the Institute for Psychology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest and the University of Pécs, where he is currently head of the Institute of Psychology and of the Doctoral School in Psychology.

Customers who bought The Science of Stories also bought:

cover of Applied Data Analytic Techniques For Turning Points ResearchApplied Data Analytic Techniques For Turning Points Research
  • Edited by Patricia Cohen

This innovative volume demonstrates the use of a range of statistical approaches that examine "turning points" (a change in direction, magnitude, or meaning) in real...

more information about Applied Data Analytic Techniques For Turning Points Research

 

RSS iconNew Book Titles

The Single WomanThe Single Woman

A Discursive Investigation

  • By Jill Reynolds

The increase in numbers of single people has been described as one of the greatest social phenomena of western society. Most women will spend periods...

Published April 25th 2008 by Routledge.

Self ContinuitySelf Continuity

Individual and Collective Perspectives

  • Edited by Fabio Sani

This volume is the first to bring together the fast-growing research on self-continuity from multiple perspectives within and beyond social psychology.

The book covers individual and...

Published April 15th 2008 by Psychology Press (formerly published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates).

see more about new books…

Sign Up For Special Book OffersSign Up For Special Book Offers

We're now offering exclusive online discounts for our email alerts subscribers.

To make sure you receive details of pre-publication offers, exclusive online discounts on selected items, and book news please subscribe to our email alerts, choosing the subject areas you're interested in. You'll be sent an email with a link to click to confirm your subscription.

If you use any anti-spam software please make sure you add "webmaster@psypress.com" to your list of allowed senders otherwise you won't receive your discount offers!

sign up for email alerts for new books...

info

We're currently displaying the books available for customers from the United States.

If you're not in the United States please:

change your preferences.

Copyright © Psychology Press, an informa business 2008.