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.