Coherent Narrative Research Articles

#Storytime: An analysis of COVID-19 origin narratives and conspiracies on TikTok

ABSTRACT This study delves into the construction, communication, and reception of crisis narratives on TikTok, specifically focusing on videos discussing the purported origins of COVID-19 via the hashtag #covidorigin. Employing a content analysis approach, this research examines patterns in content types and their relationship with public engagement metrics such as views, likes, comments, and shares. This study observed that popular TikTok videos discussing the origin of COVID-19 majorly incorporated at least one of the following: a first-hand narrative (a story in the first-person), a secondhand narrative (an account someone heard from other people), and/or an informational report (e.g., legislative documents, news reports, and book summaries). Additionally, while U.S. intelligence agencies have yet to reach a consensus on COVID-19’s origin, this research detected a surge in #covidorigin videos following a 2023 interview in which FBI Director Wray stated that COVID-19 likely originated from a laboratory incident in China. Overall, this study suggests the influential role public leaders and media sources have in disseminating COVID-19 information and the importance of coherent crisis narratives in shaping public understanding. It also considers the effects of content types and communication formats in terms of how the public engages with speculative claims online.

Cerebral hyperactivation across the Alzheimer’s disease pathological cascade

Abstract Neuronal dysfunction in specific brain regions or across distributed brain networks is a known feature of Alzheimer’s disease. An often reported finding in the early stage of the disease is the presence of increased functional MRI (fMRI) BOLD signal under task conditions relative to cognitively normal controls, a phenomenon known as “hyperactivation”. However, research in the past decades yielded complex, sometimes conflicting results. The magnitude and topology of fMRI hyperactivation patterns have been found to vary across the preclinical and clinical spectrum of Alzheimer’s disease, including concomitant “hypoactivation” in some cases. These incongruences are likely due to a range of factors, including the disease stage at which the cohort is examined, the brain areas or networks studied, and the fMRI paradigm utilised to evoke these functional abnormalities. Additionally, a perennial question pertains to the nature of hyperactivation in the context of Alzheimer’s disease. Some propose it reflects compensatory mechanisms to sustain cognitive performance while others suggest it is linked to the pathological disruption of a highly regulated homeostatic cycle that contributes to, or even drives, disease progression. Providing a coherent narrative for these empirical and conceptual discrepancies is paramount to develop disease models, understand the synergy between hyperactivation and the Alzheimer’s disease pathological cascade, and tailor effective interventions. We first provide a comprehensive overview of functional brain changes spanning the course from normal ageing to the clinical spectrum of Alzheimer’s disease. We then highlight evidence supporting a close relationship between fMRI hyperactivation and in vivo markers of Alzheimer’s pathology. We primarily focus on task-based fMRI studies in humans, but also consider studies using different functional imaging techniques and animal models. We then discuss the potential mechanisms underlying hyperactivation in the context of Alzheimer’s disease, and provide a testable framework bridging hyperactivation, ageing, cognition, and the Alzheimer’s disease pathological cascade. We conclude with a discussion of future challenges and opportunities to advance our understanding of the fundamental disease mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease, and the promising development of therapeutic interventions incorporating or aimed at hyperactivation and large-scale functional systems.

From childhood to adolescence: the growth of narrative macrostructure in heritage bilingual English speakers

ABSTRACT Narratives are crucial for investigating children’s spontaneous language, offering insights into linguistic changes from early childhood to adolescence. Despite the known improvement in narrative skills with age, research focusing on bilingual children older than 8 is sparse. This study explores narrative macrostructure, episodic complexity, and internal state terms expressing feelings and thoughts among bilingual children in preschool, primary, and secondary school, focusing on English as a heritage language. Narratives were elicited from fifty-nine English-Hebrew bilinguals aged 5–14, divided into three age-groups, using Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (Gagarina, N., D. Klop, S. Kunnari, K. Tantele, T. Välimaa, I. Balcˇiūnienė, U. Bohnacker, and J. Walters. 2014. “MAIN: Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives.” ZAS Papers in Linguistics 56:1–156), with language exposure data collected from parent questionnaires. Analyses of story grammar elements and episodic complexity revealed significant age-related differences in narrative macrostructure, with older children demonstrating more complex and coherent narratives. The length of exposure to the societal language did not significantly predict narrative outcomes, suggesting that narrative quality is not solely dependent on societal language exposure duration. This study provides valuable baseline data for typical narrative development in bilinguals and could aid in identifying Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) in bilingual populations.

Between deep comradeship and nationalism: The social dynamics of solidarity on the battlefield

AbstractThis article explores the social mechanisms that facilitate the transformation of micro‐level bonds into coherent nationalist narratives of solidarity. The aim is to explain the paradox: while the armed forces are highly nationalist institutions, most ordinary combatants detest nationalist rhetoric on the battlefield. Drawing on the interviews with the combatants who fought in the 1991–1995 wars in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina together with the analysis of the mass media reports, I examine how deep bonds of micro‐solidarity forged in the violent experiences are transformed into coherent nationalist discourses. I explore how social ties generated in the protracted face‐to‐face interactions can be enveloped by the specific social organisations and then ‘translated’ into nationalist ideologies that project deep comradeship as ‘national solidarities’. I aim to show that the direct war experience does not automatically generate strong bonds of national solidarity. Instead, nationalism is always a product of protracted coercive‐organisational, ideological and micro‐interactional work.

Conceptualising mass death through Palestinian texts amidst Gaza events 2023/24

ABSTRACT Following the Gaza events of 2023/24, this study examines how Palestinians understand mass death and mass destruction, exploring how can such a humanitarian catastrophe be framed within a coherent narrative. The focus is on the concept of sacrifice, analysed through a theoretical framework that distinguishes between meaningful sacrifices and absurd, meaningless deaths that categorises the victims as homo-sacer. Hence, this study aims to investigate the language and literature of the Palestinian people that regards to the 2023/24 Gaza events, and the way it re-conceptualises the mass death and destruction and its victims, between the concepts of sacrifice and homo-sacer. A sample of 120 literary and creative texts from the cultural magazine ‘Fusha for Palestinian Culture,’, 1 was examined using the methodology of thematic analysis. Four primary themes emerged from the texts: the active documentation, the speed and intensity of death and destruction, the form of death, namely handling of bodies and burial rituals, and lastly the implementation of myths from various traditions, including the duality of mythologising and demythologising Gaza and its inhabitants. I conclude that these four themes were elemental in the rhetoric process of sanctification of the mass and random death and destruction.

Clinical and Legal Considerations When Optimizing Trauma Narratives in Immigration Law Evaluations.

Asylum seekers in the United States face complex legal processes that require the construction of coherent and credible narratives to establish eligibility for legal status or immigration relief. In this article, we review clinical and legal considerations involved in optimizing trauma narratives in forensic psychiatric evaluations for immigration courts. We highlight significant challenges faced by asylum seekers, including the emotional impact of trauma and cultural factors affecting their ability to disclose their experiences, including the roles of symptoms and cultural and situational elements in disclosure and narrative development. We emphasize the importance of creating a therapeutic and empathetic environment to facilitate disclosure and partnering with interpreters across multiple culturally sensitive evaluations. We address the roles of common traumatic stressors in narrative development, including cultural challenges related to histories of torture, abduction, sexual violence, and human trafficking prevalent among asylum seekers, providing insights and guidance on each. Further, we address specific potential challenges to the forensic psychiatric evaluator during the narrative development process, such as transference, countertransference, malingering, and vicarious traumatization. We aim to provide guidance on the development of trauma narratives of asylees developed for both therapeutic and medico-legal effectiveness.

Analisis Media Statement Kasus Lion Air Penerbangan Jt-610 Boeing 737 Max 8 Dengan Pendekatan Storytelling Michael L. Kent

The focus of this study is on how Lion Air managed crisis communication following the Boeing 737 MAX 8 crash of Flight JT-610. The research delves into the use of storytelling in media statements as a strategy for crisis communication during the aftermath of the crash. It outlines Lion Air's goals in sharing information and engaging with the public and media in the midst of this crisis. The study utilizes a qualitative text analysis to scrutinize three specific media statements released during the crisis. By applying Michael L. Kent's storytelling elements, the analysis of the media statements concentrates on factors like emplotment, narrative theory, identification, form, and masterplots. The selected statements cover the immediate aftermath of the crash on October 29, 2018; a subsequent statement on March 13, 2019, addressing broader safety concerns surrounding the Boeing 737 MAX 8; and a final statement on October 26, 2019, summarizing findings from the National Transportation Safety Committee's investigation. The research findings suggest that employing storytelling through straightforward text in media statements, incorporating credible character depiction, structured narrative, empathy, and compelling storytelling, can notably influence an organization's reputation recovery and improvement. Well-crafted and timely media releases are essential as primary information sources for the media, especially in crisis scenarios where prompt and precise information dissemination is critical. This method ensures that information, though disseminated quickly, maintains relevant and impactful storytelling aspects. The study concludes that storytelling, characterized by humanistic, empathetic, and coherent narratives across media statements, can be effectively utilized by Lion Air to uphold consistent and narrative-focused communication with the public through the media.

Je možné psát jiné než nacionalistické dějiny umění?

The classical, formalist methods of art history seem to be inevitably intertwined with both the "great story" and with ethnic (racial) identifications of the artistic heritage. Even if the categories of "style" and "evolution" can be evaded, this would leave a ground plan in which national state was the basic matrix for writing the kind of coherent art historical narrative still in demand from both the general public and educational systems. Histories of the art of the Central European states, e.g. of Hungary and Slovakia, are burdened by the need to define their object, and not to fall into the trap of nationalism. This is methodologically much more difficult than is generally realised. Possible operations include, in the first instance, suspension of the idea of any essential ethnic regional identity. A necessary caution must be exercised in using the classical art historical methods employed for research into art from "anonymous epochs", since national, ethnic or racial identifications are ingrained deep in their texture.

ANALYSIS OF DEIXIS ON THE CHARACTERS IN BRAVE MOVIE

Deixis refers to the need for contextual information to understand certain words and phrases in an utterance. This research aims to analyze the types and functions of deixis in the movie Brave by using a qualitative descriptive approach. Data collection is done by watching the movie, reading the transcript, and categorizing the dialogue based on the type of deixis by using Levinsons method. Through dialog and gesture analysis, this study highlights how deixis is used strategically in the movie Brave to connect the storyline and guide the audience's interpretation. The findings are compared with previous research on deixis in song lyrics, newspapers and other movies, illustrating similarities and unique aspects in the context of Brave. This research emphasizes the role of deixis in enhancing narrative coherence and audience engagement, positioning it as an important tool in film analysis and storytelling. The research categorizes 60 instances of deixis into five types-person, time, place, discourse, and social deixis-with personal deixis identified as the most common among them.

Ibn Hazam,s Methodology and Resources in the Compendiums of the Prophet,s Biography

Ibn Hazm of Córdoba (d. 1064 CE) was a seminal figure in Islamic scholarship, particularly renowned for his contributions to the study of the Prophet Muhammad's biography (Sira). His approach to compiling and analyzing biographical accounts of the Prophet was characterized by a rigorous methodology and an extensive use of diverse resources. Ibn Hazm's methodology in the study of the Prophet's life involved a critical examination of sources, emphasizing the importance of authenticity and consistency. He meticulously scrutinized the chains of narration (isnad) and the content (matn) of various reports to assess their reliability. In his compendiums, Ibn Hazm drew upon a variety of resources, including earlier works by prominent scholars, oral traditions, and written texts. He employed a comparative approach, cross-referencing multiple accounts to reconcile discrepancies and establish a coherent narrative. His work also reflected his broader intellectual stance on the integration of historical and legal perspectives, providing a comprehensive view of the Prophet's life and its implications for Islamic jurisprudence and theology. Ibn Hazm's contributions remain influential in the study of Islamic historiography, offering valuable insights into early Islamic scholarship and the methodologies used to preserve and interpret the life of the Prophet Muhammad.

Storytelling with disability and broken narratives

This Current Issues piece is a primarily creative piece of writing that takes as its starting point the concept of broken narratives. In writing with her own disability, the author, a wheelchair user, offers a series of broken narratives through which she actively seeks to create her own narrative coherence. In so doing, she expresses some of her thoughts and feelings about disability that she struggles to articulate verbally and directly.

Freedom Fighter and Location: a Different Story of Partisan Commander Petras Bartkus

The subject of the research in this article is the locations of the partisan warfare determined by the historical events of mid-20th century. The main aim of the research is to highlight the diversity and abundance of the locations of the partisan warfare based on the field data, oral history, archival documents and historical literature. In order to outline the significance of these locations, the case of Petras Bartkus, member of the presidium of the Council of the Movement of the Struggle for Freedom of Lithuania, was selected. The story starts at his birthplace in Pakapurnys Village (Raseiniai District) in 1925 and ends in 1991 in the cemetery of the town of Radviliškis, where the remains of those who had perished in Užpelkių Forest on 13 August 1949 were buried. The partisan warfare theatre connects various locations of the partisan warfare and allows us to speak about a coherent and homogeneous theatre rather than its individual episodes (bunkers and individual locations of the battles, places of death, etc.). Within the area divided by the war, some locations with encoded values and memories about them emerged, which have been included in the general narrative of the fights for freedom and stand out as places of historical memory. Archival and field studies make it possible to expand and provide more details to the space in which Bartkus operated, and subsequently to bring people back into the coherent historical partisan warfare narrative. The text lists the locations visited by Bartkus (and there are certainly more of them) and their diversity and abundance supports the thought that the landscape of freedom fights has been unduly diminished. The text mentions 37 places which are better known or which have been identified and 10 more general places, most of which are directly linked to Bartkus’ activities. They can be allocated to 13 different groups, such as his birthplace, camps, bunkers, shelters, locations of the archives, farmsteads of supporters, contact points, places of meetings, battles, places of death and desecration of dead bodies, and places of burial. Bartkus’ case study brings back an important perception of space during the years of the partisan war, which, after the restoration of an independent state, was generally reduced to the perception consisting of the places of death and burial. A rather comprehensive discussion of Barkus’ life provides supporting details to the environment in which freedom fighters operated, diversity of locations, their change depending on the person’s rank and time of operational activities. Bartkus’ example shows that the perception of the locations of the partisan warfare, which have so far been described as possible locations, but not necessarily existing locations, should be reconsidered. Where possible, the priority should be given to partisan documents, oral history, and field studies, while the documents of the Soviet security structures must be used for the search of additional information.

Deconstructing the Downward Spiral: Anthology as Coherence in the Book of Judges

Abstract Many conceive of the shape of the book of Judges as a downward spiral with each leader getting worse, culminating in the horrific events of Judg 19–21. Proponents of this reading suggest that the judges can be evaluated by how closely they imitate their predecessors and the so-called judges cycle in Judg 2:11–19. In this article, I provide a historical survey to show that this interpretation originates during the literary turn in biblical studies and argues for a coherent literary reading in contrast to the source-critical approaches of the twentieth century. Since then, however, the downward spiral has become a cliché. Using eight tests, I argue that this reading is not substantiated through close textual analysis, and therefore Judges is better understood as a creatively curated anthology of stories set in a particular moral-literary world. The book demonstrates an ideological cohesion between the narratives but resists descriptions of linear progression along a particular theme (e.g., moral deterioration). Each of the main narratives (3:7–21:28) can be read on its own terms without the meaning being overdetermined by position or structure. Instead, Judges finds its narrative and ideological coherence through its anthology because each story is set within the same moral universe/narrative world.

Resolved or unresolved, that is the question: a case-study approach to discourse about abuse, trauma and maltreatment among mothers with mild intellectual disabilty

ABSTRACT Mary Main played a key role for this study, in which we used an idiographic approach to examine discourse about abuse, trauma, and maltreatment (ATM) among eight mothers with a mild intellectual disability (ID), whose children had been assigned a secure (the “B-group”) or disorganized (the “D-group”) attachment classification. Thematic analysis yielded six ATM discourse themes: openness; coherence; presence of trauma in consciousness; support; agency in response to crisis; and self-concept and caregiving self-efficacy. Mothers in the B-group provided coherent narratives, were open with the interviewer, had memories of seeking and receiving support, and reflected freely and autonomously on their experiences. Contrastingly, the mothers in the D-group expressed a guarded, closed-off stance towards ATM, difficulties seeking support, helplessness in response to crisis, and poor self-concept and -efficacy. Their adverse experiences were nonetheless highly present in consciousness, albeit in unintegrated forms. Our findings suggest that the D-group mothers may be unresolved with respect to loss/abuse

Gender differences and the association between the phenomenological characteristics of autobiographical memories and psychopathic traits in a university student sample

ABSTRACT The study aimed to analyse the relationship between the dimensions of the triarchic model of psychopathy (meanness, boldness and disinhibition) and the phenomenological characteristics of Autobiographical Memory (AM) in a sample of university students, examining potential gender differences. Participants (N = 260; 55.4% women; aged 18-25) performed an AM task, followed by the Autobiographical Memory Characteristics Questionnaire and the Triarchic Psychopathy Measure. We found gender differences, with men scoring higher than women in meanness and disinhibition as well as in precision, accessibility, sharing and narrative coherence of AM. Correlations showed that boldness was negatively related to the valence and emotional intensity of the memory. Meanness was positively associated with precision, sensory details, accessibility, sharing, narrative coherence, distancing and preoccupation with emotions and negatively with recollection. Disinhibition was positively related to precision, sensory details and accessibility and negatively to intensity, distancing and preoccupation with emotions. Our results suggest that psychopathic traits could predict certain characteristics of AM, highlighting the predictive value of meanness, especially regarding memory quality characteristics (e.g., precision), as well as disinhibition, concerning the emotional content (e.g., preoccupation with emotions). Our results contribute to understanding psychopathy through an autobiographical perspective, showing how psychopathic traits may shape how people remember personal events.

The Trump effect: the perpetuation of populism in US–China trade

Abstract Our article analyses the enduring influence of Donald Trump's populist narrative on United States–China trade policies under Joe Biden's administration. We extend the literature on the effect of populism and populist leaders by examining what happens after a populist leader leaves office, and to what extent an expectation of populism perpetuates a populist narrative despite a change in leadership. In the case of US–China trade, the Biden administration that followed Trump's has carried on with a populist trade narrative and protectionist policies towards China, despite predictions that the US would return to ‘normal’ economic relations after Trump left office. Through textual analysis of speeches by both administrations, we identify a narrative coherence between Trump's nationalist–populist discourse and the trade rhetoric of the Biden administration, revealing a legacy of narrative expectation that constrains policy choices. Our findings demonstrate how Trump's populist framework persists, shaping White House discourse and policy decisions in the economic realm even after he has left office, and we showcase the enduring effect of populist language in political spheres.

Narrating lives across 16 years: Developmental trajectories of coherence and relations to well-being in a lifespan sample.

The ability to narrate a life coherently develops first in adolescence, but little is known about its course across adulthood and into old age. Also, the potential association of life narrative coherence with well-being has never been studied. Our aim was to investigate lifespan development of coherence and associations with well-being using data from the longitudinal MainLife study. A total of 172 urban Germans (8-80 years; 87 females) narrated their lives up to six times across 16 years (N = 803 brief entire life narratives). Most were highly educated, and the proportion of a migration background was typical for the local population. Life narratives were rated for three types of global coherence (temporal, causal-motivational, and thematic) and coded for two types of autobiographical arguments (stability maintaining and change engendering). Multilevel models were used to investigate their lifespan development and relations to well-being. While most life narrative measures increased up to emerging adulthood and then remained stable, thematic coherence continued to increase into middle adulthood. Only change-engendering autobiographical arguments slowly decreased from midlife onward. Unexpectedly, neither autobiographical arguments nor global coherence correlated significantly with well-being. Data exploration suggested an association between thematic coherence and self-continuity. We conclude that life narrative coherence may only be related to well-being if samples include cases with more extreme noncoherence (e,g., clinical disorders). Our findings add to understanding the development of the life story across the lifespan, especially in older age, and suggest studying relations of coherence, self-continuity, and well-being specifically in life crises and in clinical samples. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Do Attachment, Educator Characteristics and Youth-Educator Relationship Matter in 6-Month Changes of Institutionalized Adolescents?

This longitudinal study involved youths in residential care due to previous adverse experiences and their educators, aiming to investigate the role of youths and educators' attachment, educators' psychopathology, and the quality of youth-educator relationship on change scores of youths' symptoms and youth-educator relationship security over 6 months. Participants were 36 institutionalized youths (Mage = 16.50 ± 2.13) and their 25 main educators (Mage = 38.48 ± 5.75), assessed at baseline (T1) and 6 months later (T2). Youths were assessed in total, internalizing and externalizing problems via a multi-informant approach, and educators in psychopathology levels. Attachment representations of youths and educators were assessed through validated attachment interviews (Friends and Family Interview and Adult Attachment Interview), and both separately rated the youth-educator relationship. (1) Most cases remain stable over 6 months. (2) Educator narrative coherence and the quality of youth-educator relationship at baseline were correlated but not predictive of change in youths' symptoms. (3) Youths' higher attachment disorganization at baseline was the unique predictor of 14% variance of positive change in the youth-educator relationship security perceived by the youth. (4) Youth attachment avoidance uniquely predicted 37% of positive change variance in the youth-educator relationship security perceived by educators. In conclusion, attachment-based assessment of youths and educators can inform intervention to foster youth improvement.

From Great Books to World Literature: Anthologies as Institutional Supplements Around 1900 and Today

Abstract: At the turn of the twentieth century, Great Books anthologies and essay collections began to create a coherent narrative of the world's literature, one that usually ended with the teleological arrival of its imagined reader: Euro-American man. This essay reads four such publishing projects—Charles Dudley Warner's Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern (1896), Henry Cabot Lodge's The Best of the World's Classics (1909), John Macy's The Story of the World's Literature (1925), and Charles W. Eliot's The Harvard Classics (1909)—in order to argue that justifications of their selections constitute a theorization of the relationship between the one (text, editor, or imagined reader) and the many (possible texts, editorial boards, or national citizenry). In this way, these anthologies are meta-institutional texts, generating theories that can help us understand how contemporary world literature anthologies might reimagine their role as mediating between the representative and the universal.

Defining and measuring quality in students’ mathematical writing: a systematic literature review

AbstractMathematical communication, encompassing writing in, about, and for mathematics, is a critical competency. Defining excellent mathematical writing standards, however, remains challenging. To address this, we conducted a systematic review of 48 scholarly works on quality in mathematical writing. Our findings reveal mathematical writing for different purposes under scrutiny, including general mathematical writing, proof writing, reflective writing, expository writing, and descriptive writing during problem solving. To assess quality, researchers explore a variety of facets, such as syntax and semantics. Progression pathways vary, with both quantitative and qualitative evaluations—analysing text structure, writing style, and the use of different semiotic elements. It seems that in mathematics education, a consensus on quality measurement remains elusive. Proof writing is a notable exception. Among reviewed articles examining proof writing, a common set of standards emerges and provides valuable guidance. We propose that mathematical writing, perhaps especially in the context of reporting solutions in problem solving, can draw from proof writing standards. ‘Good’ mathematical writing would then require students to focus on (1) defining assumptions and assigning variables; (2) producing a coherent narrative, including relevant calculations (semantic issues); (3) using correct language, representations, and mathematical symbols (syntax issues); and (4) attending to what is appropriate in the context.