What does narrative analysis primarily investigate?

Narrative analysis primarily investigates the stories individuals tell and their constructed meanings. This qualitative research method focuses on understanding how narratives shape people’s experiences and identities, revealing the complexity of human interactions and the ways in which meaning is constructed through storytelling. By analyzing narratives, researchers can explore how individuals make sense of their experiences and the cultural, social, and psychological contexts that influence these stories.

This approach highlights the subjective nature of human experience, emphasizing that narratives go beyond mere facts to encompass emotions, interpretations, and cultural frameworks. In doing so, narrative analysis provides insights into personal and collective identities, the influence of context on storytelling, and the significance of narratives in communication and meaning-making processes.

In contrast, the other options focus on quantitative aspects of research or different types of analysis. For example, investigating quantitative relationships or statistical significance pertains to quantitative analysis, which involves measuring and analyzing numerical data, rather than understanding personal stories. Non-verbal communication in social contexts addresses aspects of interpersonal interactions that do not involve written or spoken language, which diverges from the core focus of narrative analysis on verbal narratives and their interpretation.