Summary

The majority of the most influential theories in the field of psychology had their origins in biography and life story research. Historically, biography and life story research has been a form of single case study research, although more contemporary research uses multiple cases as well as critical life episodes collected from a large number of participants. The goal of this research method can be theory development or testing theory and the development of general concepts about persons and lives. Steps followed in biography and life story research vary across researchers; a few scholars have developed data collection tools, analytic methods, and coding schemes that are guided by thematic content analysis and are widely available on the Internet.

As the field of psychology rethinks its core curriculum, undergraduate education, and the adoption of the goal to produce psychologically literate citizens among all liberal arts majors (see Halpern, 2009), the inclusion of biography and life story methods should be considered. As described in this chapter, biography and life story research provides a rich understanding of human agency, intentionality, human experiences, and lives. This is the heart of psychology as a human and social science and is particularly important given the centrality of understanding lives for all the professions in which these students are preparing to work. It will be the novice biography and life story scholars of today from across all disciplines who will ensure that these research designs are included and valued within researchers' methodological tool kit. As society becomes even more scientifically, technologically, and economically complex and diverse, this approach for understanding lives, culture, and meaning will become increasingly in demand (see Mack, Rankins, & Winston, in press). The question will be, Who will be ready to answer the call for more biography and life story research?