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. 2020 May;25(6):738-754.
doi: 10.1177/1359105317731823. Epub 2017 Sep 26.

Narrative meaning making and integration: Toward a better understanding of the way falling ill influences quality of life

Iris Hartog  1   2 , Michael Scherer-Rath  2 , Renske Kruizinga  1 , Justine Netjes  1 , José Henriques  1 , Pythia Nieuwkerk  1 , Mirjam Sprangers  1 , Hanneke van Laarhoven  1
Affiliations

Narrative meaning making and integration: Toward a better understanding of the way falling ill influences quality of life

Iris Hartog et al. J Health Psychol. 2020 May.

Abstract

Falling seriously ill is often experienced as a life event that causes conflict with people's personal goals and expectations in life and evokes existential questions. This article presents a new humanities approach to the way people make meaning of such events and how this influences their quality of life. Incorporating theories on contingency, narrative identity, and quality of life, we developed a theoretical model entailing the concepts life event, worldview, ultimate life goals, experience of contingency, narrative meaning making, narrative integration, and quality of life. We formulate testable hypotheses and describe the self-report questionnaire that was developed based on the model.

Keywords: biographical disruption; contingency; interpretation; life events; life goals; meaning making; narrative integration; quality of life; worldview.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Theoretical model: narrative meaning making of life events. The dominant relationships and feedback loops are highlighted.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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