The Life Story Interview

Robert Atkinson (Ph.D., Interdisciplinary Studies in Human Development, University of Pennsylvania) has been on the faculty of the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Southern Maine since 1987. His primary areas of teaching and scholarship are cross-cultural human development, multiple identities, culture, diversity, and consciousness, adolescent development, adulthood and psychospiritual development, and life stories, personal mythmaking, and storytelling. He is the director of the Center for the Study of Lives at USM, which has a growing archive of over 400 life stories, and recently served a two-year appointment (2002-2004) as the first Diversity Scholar for CEHD. In fall 2002, he was a faculty member in the Semester at Sea program of the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author, co-author, or editor of six books, including: The Beat of My Drum: An Autobiography, with Babatunde Olatunji (Temple University Press, 2005); The Life Story Interview (Sage, 1998); The Gift of Stories: Practical and Spiritual Applications of Autobiography, Life Stories, and Personal Mythmaking ( Greenwood, 1995); and, The Teenage World: Adolescent Self-Image in Ten Countries (Plenum, 1988). He has written over two dozen articles and essays for various magazines, journals, and reference works.

• PART ONE: CONTEXTS AND USES OF LIFE STORIESStories in ContextThe Life Story in Disciplinary ContextWhat a Life Story IsThe Classic Functions of StoriesThe Research Uses of Life StoriesGenerating Data from a Life StoryThe Art and Science of Life Story InterviewingPART TWO: PLANNING THE INTERVIEWThe Potential Benefits of Sharing a Life StoryBasic Interview GuidelinesThe Morals of the StoryPART THREE: DOING THE INTERVIEWGetting the Information You WantQuestions To AskPART FOUR: INTERPRETING THE INTERVIEWTranscriptionInterpretationPART FIVE: CONCLUSION