Chapters in Narratives: Evidence From Oral Histories of the First Year in College

Abstract Thirty college students provided 20-min oral accounts of their first year in college. One week later, each participant divided a typed transcript of his or her memory narrative into self-defined chapters. Two independent coders also "chapterized" all 30 narratives according to their own self-defined criteria. There was considerable agreement among coders and participants in both the number of chapters per narrative and the location of chapter breaks within the narrative. The chapters were approximately the same length as written individual memories obtained in earlier questionnaire studies using similar subjects. In follow-up interviews about the chapterizing process, men were more likely than women to define memory chapters by topics, whereas women were more likely than men to define chapters by emotions. Although the overall incidence of specific memo-ries in the oral histories was low, specific memories were overrepresented in opening chapters and they tended to occur in close proximity to each other throughout the narratives. The memory chapter appears to be a useful and meaningful unit for detailed analysis of extended narratives. (Psychology)