| Author: | Zhuang, Jie |
| Title: | Co-constructing narrative identities : life stories of Chinese couples living with Parkinson’s disease |
| Advisors: | Ku, Hok Bun (APSS) |
| Degree: | DSW |
| Year: | 2025 |
| Department: | Department of Applied Social Sciences |
| Pages: | xviii, 309 pages : color illustrations |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | This research employed an integrated theoretical framework, combining narrative identity, illness narratives, and narrative gerontology theories, to explore autobiographical reasoning and the development of wisdom in the life stories of Chinese couples living with Parkinson's disease. The construction of narrative identities in both personal and couple dimensions, and how their life stories are shaped by and encounter master narratives and audience reactions, is focused on. A relational perspective is applied to the theoretical framework, with an emphasis on how their life stories are intertwined and how they co-construct their life stories. Purposive sampling was applied. Thirty-five research participants were recruited for this study: 14 couples for dyadic interviews, and six individuals with Parkinson's disease and one spousal caregiver for individual interviews. A semi-structured, in-depth interview was used to collect data, with observations and field notes serving as supplementary methods. Life story meaning-making and thematic analysis are applied for data analysis. Results demonstrate a dialectic process of deconstructing, reconstructing, and constructing new narrative identities of Chinese couples living with Parkinson's disease. In the personal dimension, people with Parkinson's disease elaborated on the self-identity deconstruction as uncertainty, a comprehensive loss of control, and double restriction. They reconstruct active agencies through the wisdom of regaining self-control and retaining self-determination. They construct a new self-identity: from frail to frail yet full of strength through the wisdom of fostering self-harmony, exploring self-creativity, keeping self-challenging, striving for self-transcendence, and learning external interdependence. Maintaining self-worth is a core value in constructing one's self-identity. In the couple dimension, the deconstruction of narrative identities of couples living with Parkinson's disease from a dual perspective encompasses intimacy challenges, communication challenges, family role reconfiguration, and illness expectations of certainty and uncertainty. Couples integrate illness into their whole life, and they reconstruct shared identity through the wisdom of confrontation, coexistence, and transformation with the illness. They co-construct a new "partnership" identity through the wisdom of mutual attunement, supporting partners' agency, collaboration, mutual respect, and mutual support. They co-construct a new "companionship" identity through the wisdom of transforming marital relationships, creating new connections and bonds, constructing shared social support, empathetic caring for others, and jointly preparing for the future. In social and cultural dimensions, master narratives and audience reactions deepen the deconstruction of narrative identities of couples living with Parkinson's disease, who experience social incapacitation and double-deprived identities of invisible disability. They co-construct resistance and the re-legitimation of identity and co-construct collective identity to contend with master narratives, and cultivate new audiences towards a collective identity. From a personal to a relational perspective, this research provides a new, culturally tailored, and integrated theoretical paradigm to gain a deeper understanding of the construction of narrative identities among couples living with Parkinson's disease, highlighting the significant roles of autobiographical reasoning, the development of wisdom, and relational perspective. This research recommends five key aspects for practical implications: the humble and not-knowing way we listen to life stories, a relational perspective, reframing narrative identities, challenging master narratives, and the ongoing co-construction of new identities for audiences. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8675.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 2.51 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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