An assisted autobiography: a qualitative method of psychological research

This study was primarily concerned with the idiographic domain of psychological research and focused on the description and interpretation of one person's life story. It involved a phenomenological life-history methodology which is a qualitative style of research based upon an alternative paradigm to that traditionally used in empirical psychological research. The specific method of this study was derived from several sources, viz, the research methods of phenomenological psychology, the life history method, and the approach of the assisted autobiography. As this research method involved a model of reciprocal participation, with researcher and subject acting as co-researchers, the interpersonal transactions which occurred during the project are described in detail. The data obtained through several in-depth interviews were compiled and edited to form the subject's autobiography. This document was then analysed thematically and the interpretations were related to two areas of the literature from nomothetic research domains. The autobiography verified and illustrated previous research findings and the latter clarified aspects of the personal narrative. Several issues raised in using this methodology and style of data analysis, including questions of reliability and validity, are discussed, and a number of shortcomings of this project are acknowledged.