Magdalena Majewska
Developmental Psychology, Volume 24 Issue 2, 2019, pp. 43-60
https://doi.org/10.4467/20843879PR.19.009.10892Phenomenological-existential psychology assumes that the human identity consists of the subjectively experienced meanings, inscribed in the system of meanings and senses present in the world in which he or she lives. Human can defi ne and recognize his/her world of subjective meanings through narration and dialogue, and the form of self-narration refl ects the shape of his/her identity (Ricoeur, 1992; McAdams, 1993; Riessman, 2008; Gergen, Gergen, 2011). Analysis and interpretation of the story in terms of these meanings, which are manifestations of human subjectivity, seems to be the most effective when undertaken in the hermeneutic approach. The article indicates the advantages of this method, illustrating its effectiveness in relation to the analysis and interpretation of the stories of people in the senior age about life-important experiences. Self-narratives were obtained through a modifi ed version of the autobiographical-narrative interview according to the German sociologist Fritz Schütze (2007; Kaźmierska, Schütze, 2013). Content interpretation has been verifi ed by its evaluation by the subjects. The presented analysis of two out of ten self-narratives obtained allowed to discover the subjective world of meanings of the subjects, deepen the knowledge about the subjective nature of human life, as well as verify the effectiveness of the applied method.