narrative psychology

a field in psychology that investigates the value of stories and storytelling in giving meaning to individuals’ experiences—shaping their memory of past events, their understanding of the present, and their projections of future events—and in defining themselves and their lives. The term was introduced by Theodore R. Sarbin, whose edited volume Narrative Psychology: The Storied Nature of Human Conduct (1986) defined narrative as an integral feature in the scientific enterprise; he referred to narrative as a “root metaphor” for psychology—that is, a metaphor for examining and interpreting human behavior. Numerous other people in personality and social psychology, memory research, and other areas of inquiry have subsequently contributed to this field.

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Psychology term of the day

January 11th 2025

polypharmacy

n. the simultaneous use of a variety of drugs of the same or different classes with the intent of producing a more robust therapeutic response. Polypharmacy for mental disorders may, for example, involve the administration of two or more antidepressants in the hope that agents with different mechanisms of action will produce greater clinical improvement than that seen with any one drug alone. Polypharmacy is often criticized because of the lack of well-controlled studies supporting its use and the greater likelihood of adverse drug interactions when two or more drugs are used simultaneously. However, for those individuals unsuccessfully treated with several trials of monotherapy, or for whom monotherapy achieves suboptimal results, polypharmacy may be therapeutically indicated and appropriately managed.