Social Contexts

and Responses to Risk

Network (SCARR)

Working Paper
2004/4

Introduction to
Biographical Research
Jens O. Zinn

Biographical Research

Zinn

Contact
Author:

Dr. Jens O. Zinn

Address: School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research
Cornwallis Building NE
University of Kent, Canterbury
Canterbury
Kent
CT2 7NF, UK
EMail:
j.zinn@kent.ac.uk
Tel.:

0044 (0)1227 462021

ESRC priority network Social Contexts and Responses to Risk (SCARR)

School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research (SSPSSR)
Cornwallis Building NE
University of Kent at Canterbury
Canterbury,
Kent CT2 7NF, UK
http://www.kent.ac.uk/scarr/

Biographical Research

Zinn

Biographical research is a wide field of different approaches und research

strategies with blurred boarders and overlapping areas. Therefore it seems
to be useful to orient oneself in this jungle of empirical strategies and
conceptual ideas. Since it is impossible to give an exhaustive overview I
sort out specific approaches of (biographical) research which have a
comparable clear theoretical-conceptual background and a developed
empirical instrument. It is not necessary that one follows a specific
approach absolutely, rather these approaches are examples to illustrate
different strategies which could be modified for your own purposes or
give you new perspectives how to modify your own approach.
My short introduction is narrowed to approaches using interviews to get
access to the relevant issues of research. There are also ethnographic field
studies and analysis of written text, for instance, autobiographical writing.
I have used three core questions to sort through the different approaches
of biographical research:
1. What is the main focus of research?
2. What is the aim of research?
3. What are the methods?
By answering these questions several aspects can be distinguished:
1. Three general streams of research:
- Narrative research as a generic approach.
- Biographical research on identity emphasizes a holistic-form
analysis.
- Biographical research on action modes emphasizes content analysis and it is
mostly concerned with specific issues.

2. For some researchers the central aim of research is to produce rich

descriptions (of persons) whereas others aim to conceptualise
structural types (action logics or how persons and structures are
interlinked). Each method of the following approaches could be
used to do both even though some researchers completely refuse
the possibility of generalizations.
3. On the level of research methods I distinguish between
approaches using a broad range of material as e.g. letters,
publications, autobiographical writing,
research which uses the Narrative Interview (Schtze 1976,
1983, compare Rosenthal 2004), and

Biographical Research

Zinn

semi-structured interview-strategies (e.g. problem centred

interview, Witzel 2000).

Narrative, identity and action

The term narrative research is commonly used for a huge area of diverse
research approaches and strategies. It could be used as a generic term of
all approaches interested in narrations (Lieblich et al. 1998, 2). Under this
general umbrella biographical research is situated. Sometimes a group of
researchers supports a quite specific approach and empirical instrument
against the overwhelming diversity in the area, so it is possible to isolate
some comparable homogenous research strategies. This is the case in the
kind of biographical research I will indicate in this paper.
First, I would like to demarcate (linguistic, psychological) narrative
research from other biographical research because of the limitation to the
produced narrations and the verbal expressed self-identity. In a so
characterized ideal type of narrative perspective there is no intention to
explain action or it is assumed that with the explanation of sense-making
(identity, personality) in general the action can be derived directly. The
research focuses on the structure of the text, the semantics used and the
sense/symbols transported by narratives, this includes questions of
identity-formation and the link between discourses and identities. Topics
of such research are, for instance, the strategic self-presentation (counter
narratives) or the symbolic construction of reality by narratives (Andrews
et al. 2004).
In the realm of narrative research there is also a lot of work on biography
and autobiographical self-representation. But the focus of this work is
mainly on the linguistic and symbolic level of identity-formation.
The two other approaches I would like to mention below are on the one
hand more interested on the biography as a whole in the sense of lifelong
biographical work and on the other hand on biographical action in the
sense of shaping the own life course. Whereas the first approach is
primarily concerned with holistic analysis of form and what is behind the
told story the latter focuses on context analysis and tends to examine
categorical questions.

Biographical Research

Zinn

Narrative research
Since narrative research is a generic term diverse qualitative approaches
overlap with the notion of narrative research. Especially the empirical
approaches of discourse analysis, ethnomethodology, conversation
analysis and others might be partly quite similar to the self-image of
narrative research. Here Im referring to a research perspective which
explicitly assigns itself as a narrative approach.
! The main issue of narrative research, which is regularly discussed,
concerns the conversational constitution of a narration in the
process of the interview by interviewer and interviewee (e.g.
Lucius-Hoene/Deppermann 2000, 202).
! Since a told story and identity is interpreted as something strongly
linked together the processes of personality construction (and
development) in the interview is also a main topic (e.g. LuciusHoene/Deppermann 2000, 220).
! Additionally, research focuses on the discourses or voices which
could be identified in a story and where an interviewee positions
oneself (e.g. Wortham 2000, compare, for instance, the journal
Narrative Inquiry).
! Narrations are often discussed in the context of power and
empowerment. This concerns the situation in an interview as well
as the general discourses the interviewees refer to (e.g. Gluck/Patai
1991).
It is useful to differ the huge amount of narrative research with the help of
to dimensions. First, it can be distinguished whether the approaches
follow a holistic or a rather categorical view. Secondly, the approaches
differ in the concern on questions of content or form. Combining these
two dimensions, four areas of research result:
! holistic-content (In this view the focus is the interview as a whole.
Specific narrations in an interview have to be interpreted with
regard to the whole interview),
! holistic-form (In this perspective the structure of complete
interviews or life stories has to be analysed. The way of selfpresentation in single sections of the interview is interpreted in the
context of the whole interview),
! categorical-content (The text is structured by categories and the
content of categories are analysed and compared) and

Biographical Research

Zinn

! categorical-form (The analysis focuses on discrete stylistic or

linguistic characteristics of defined units of the narrative.).
Often narrative research refers to more than one area but regularly an
approach prefers a certain perspective. A helpful and practical overview
about these perspectives give Lieblich and colleagues (1998, 12ff.).
To become more familiar with the narrative approach it might also be
helpful to look at the book of Hollway and Jefferson (2000) Doing
qualitative research differently. They emphasize the importance of open
questions and free narrations for discovering the gestalt of personal
patterns of subjectivity. They also show the importance of reflecting
about the position of the interviewer and its personal experiences
influencing the relation to the interviewee and the interview as a whole.
Even though I am not a supporter of psychoanalysis I think the book
gives a lot of good hints for qualitative research interviewing and
common mistakes which could and should be avoided. Since the material
that is used to illustrate the methodological issues belongs to a study on
fear of crime it is close to the problematic of our quantitative
questionnaire and some of the projects research questions.
A number of publications in the series The Narrative Study of Lives
edited by Josselson and Lieblich might be also of interest.
References
Gluck, Sherna Berger / Patai, Daphne 1991: Womens Words. The Feminist Practice of Oral
History. New York; London: Routledge.
Hollway, Wendy / Jefferson, Tony 2000: Doing qualitative research differently. Free
association, narrative and the interview method. London et al.: Sage.
Josselson, Ruthellen / Lieblich, Amia (eds.) The Narrative Study of Lives (diverse volumes).
Thousand Oaks; London; New Delhi: Sage
Lieblich, Amia / Tuval-Mashiach, Rivka / Zilber, Tamar 1998: Narrative research: reading,
analysis and interpetation. Thousand Oaks; London; New Delhi: Sage.
Lucius-Hoene, Gabriele/Deppermann, Arnulf 2000: Narrative identity empiricized: A
dialogical and positioning approach to autobiographical research interviews. In: Narrative
Inquiry 10, 1, 199-222.
Wortham, Stanton 2000: Interactional positioning and narrative self construction. In:
Narrative Inquiry 10, 1, 157-184.

Biographical research
The two explicitly biographical approaches I would like to mention can
be distinguished by their fundamental assumption about the method of
interviewing and the main object of research.
The first approach emphasises the reconstruction of the single case and
the development of the personality in the life course. The present self6

Biographical Research

Zinn

representation has to be analysed by the central difference of experienced

life history and the narrated life story. This approach is particularly
interested in the things not mentioned in an interview but existing under
the surface of the self-presentation.
The second approach emphasises problem specific action modes and is
more concerned with the systematic comparison of different action modes
than general personality structures. Additionally, it is doubted whether
controlled access to past experiences by means of todays biographical
narrations is possible. For this reason the current self-presentations or
action-modes are the object of research rather than the reconstruction of
life-long accumulation of experiences. This approach is not so much
concerned with the untold things and the things people like to hide, but
with the semantics used to describe their (biographical) actions.

Biographical identity biographical structuring

The biographical research, which focuses on biographical identity or
biographical structuring (Fischer-Rosenthal 2000, 114ff.), assumes that
the link between structure and individuals could only be understood
sufficiently by analysing the development of the individual personality in
the life course. Thus the excessive analysis of the single case is
emphasized and the discovery of the issues not mentioned in the
interview is important for a sufficient case analysis.
This approach is strongly linked to phenomenology and A. Schtzs
work. The core idea is that during the life course individuals accumulate
diverse biographical experiences into a coherent description of their life
course. These experiences are present in our knowledge we use in
everyday life, biographical decision-making as well as in the story we
present in an interview-situation. Our self-representations or biographical
stories are linked to these experiences they are not totally free from our
past. The link into the past gives us the possibility to do research on the
past life history and the development of the todays self out of the present
perspective.
Against this background this research tries to assess the difference
between experienced life history (our past experiences) and narrated life
story (how we interpret our life from the current point of view) in order to
show how their current biography or self-description is determined by the
past experiences.

Biographical Research

Zinn

Method
Against the theoretical background mentioned, the empirical research
strategy aims at the case structure as the central aim of analysis. It is
assumed, that the link between social context and individual could be best
analysed by single cases and their individual experiences. This approach
is strongly bound to the excessive analysis of the holistic form and
content of single cases. Thus they try to do justice to the person and ones
personal experience. While some researchers are still seeing the only way
of research in excessive analysis of ungeneralizable single cases, others
are much more open for generalizations (Rosenthal 2004) but still stick to
the analysis of the single case as point of origin.
The central form of interviewing in this approach is the Narrative
Interview introduced by Schtze (1976, 1983) in the German discourse.
For a useful and short description how this method has to be carried out
compare Rosenthal (2004, 50ff.).
The core structure of the interview is a division in a first step of free
narration and a second step of further questioning. In the first step the
interviewee is asked, by means of an initial opening question, to give a
full extempore narration of events and experiences from their own lives.
The ensuing story, or main narrative, is not interrupted by further
questions but is encouraged by means of nonverbal and paralinguistic
expressions of interest and attention. The idea of this procedure is to
prevent uncontrollable affects on the interviewees process of
remembering and self-presentation. Thus, the interviewee has space to
emphasise what is important and to structure the narration on his/her own
terms.
In the second part of the interview the period of questioning the
interviewer initiated, with narrative questions, more elaborate narrations
on topics and biographical events already mentioned. In addition the
interviewer asks about issues that had not been addressed. (Rosenthal
1993, 60)
The biographical case reconstruction of an interview follows the steps:
Analysis of the (objective) biographical data
Text and thematic field analysis (structure of self-presentation;
reconstruction of the life story; narrated life).
Reconstruction of the life history (lived life as experienced).
Microanalysis of individual text segments.
Contrastive comparison of life history (experienced life) and life story
(narrated life).
8

Biographical Research

Zinn

Development of types and contrastive comparison of several cases.

(Rosenthal 2004, 54ff.)
For a short but helpful description of this approach compare Rosenthal
(2004).
References
Fischer-Rosenthal, Wolfram 2000: Biographical work and biographical structuring in
present-day societies. In: Chamberlayne, Prue / Bornat, Joanna / Wengraf, Tom (eds.): The
Turn to Biographical Methods in Social Science. London New York: Routledge.
Rosenthal, Gabriele 2004: Biographical Research. In: Seale, Clive / Gobo, Giampietro /
Gubrium, Jaber F. / Silverman, David (eds.): Qualitative Research Practice. London
Thousand Oaks New Delhi: Sage.
Rosenthal, Gabriele 1993: Reconstruction of Life Stories. Principle of Selection in
Generating Stories for Narrative Biographical Interviews. In: Josselson, Ruthellen / Lieblich,
Amia (eds.): The Narrative Study Lives. Newbury Park London New Delhi: Sage.
Schtze, Fritz 1976: Zur Hervorlockung und Analyse von Erzhlungen thematisch relevanter
Geschichten im Rahmen soziologischer Feldforschung. In: Arbeitsgruppe Bielefelder
Soziologen (ed.): Kommunikative Sozialforschung. Mnchen: Fink, 159-260.
Schtze, Fritz 1983: Biographieforschung und narratives Interview. In: Neue Praxis 3, 283294.

Action research content analysis

The kind of research I call biographical action research likewise
evaluates the single cases as the biographical identity approach. But
biographical action research is more concerned with action modes in
specific societal areas or how individuals respond to certain problems
than with the reconstruction of the whole identity. Additionally, the
approach is quite critical about the possibility to get access to the past
experiences by todays interviews. The research focuses on actions in
situations which could be understood in situational logics. Thus the
object is rather on general observable or mentioned action logics than on
the development of the underlying personality structure during the life
course. This approach is less concerned with the hidden personal
problems but sees the interviewee as an emancipated person which
expresses its own experiences.
Such a procedure is normally assigned to content analysis. But this is
problematic because content analysis is quite a general term that
comprises a much wider area of diverse techniques of analysis (also
quantitative/standardised methods).
Biographical action research starts with observable meaningful actions.
Referring to grounded theory (Strauss/Corbin 1990) the idea is the
9

Biographical Research

Zinn

systematic comparison of meaningful actions. Not the personality but

how different actions and action logics come together or are linked to
specific contexts is the significant question of this kind of research.
That does not mean that a persons options to behave in a social context is
determined by the social context, nor that is determined by past
experiences, rather that there is a limited number of meaningful actions
observable in specific social contexts and innovations are always
possible. The aim of research is not to derive a persons action from their
personal structure but identifying different ways of how people behave in
different contexts and against the background of different interpretations
of their context.
Method
The technique of how to interview for example in the Problem
Centred Interview (Witzel 2000) is normally more structured than in
the Narrative Interview. The idea of an interview situation with a
minimum of uncontrolled influence by the interviewer as in the Narrative
Interview is replaced by the idea of the belief in the significance of a
trustful interview situation where the interviewee tries to explain the own
perspective and the interviewer tries to understand what the interviewee
wants to express. One important assumption is, that the normal situation
in which persons present themselves are situations of communication and
not a monolog.
But there are still the techniques used in qualitative interviews as open
questioning which should provoke narratives or reflecting what we have
already understood to strengthen the relationship between interviewer and
interviewee.
There is no clear distinction between a first narrative step of the interview
and a second step with questions, rather it is a kind of talk systematised
by further questions covering different issues in the field of researchinterest. An in advance formulated guide of questions and significant
issues is important for the systematic evaluation of the interviews
(compare for a short introduction: Witzel 2000).
Since the aim of action research is the comparison of a high number of
different action modes used by different persons regarding specific
problem-situations many researchers use computer-assisted strategies of
data analysis (compare Kelle 2004).

10

Biographical Research

Zinn

References
Kelle, Udo 2004: Computer-assisted qualitative data analysis. In: Seale, Clive/ Gobo,
Giampietro/ Gubrium, Jaber F./ Silverman, David (eds.): London Thousand Oaks New
Delhi: Sage, pp. 473-489.
Strauss, Anselm L. / Corbin, Juliet 1990: Basics of qualitative research: grounded theory
procedures and techniques, Newbury Park, Calif. - London: Sage.
Witzel, Andreas (2000, January). The problem-centered interview [27 paragraphs]. Forum
Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research [On-line Journal], 1(1).
Available at: http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs-texte/1-00/1-00witzel-e.htm .

11