Life stories
Life stories are individual stories (not belonging to collectivity) that are perceived as "historical", according to the criteria used for this classification.
Apart from a type of narration, they constitute an intensive method of research. This method is biographical material on concrete individuals, normally narrated by themselves. Daniel Bertaux distinguishes "life story" and life history": the former concept refers to the oral narrative that someone offers about ones life; the second refers to the studies about a particular person and it includes medical, law reports, psychological tests, etc. No other research method can provide us with so many details about the evolution of the person´s beliefs and attitudes throughout history. Life stories are particularly valuable when what interests the researcher are the connections between psychological development and social processes. A much more literary type of life story than scientific type, is the life album. It consists of a selection of the most relevant vital moments of the informant. The biographical narration is accompanied by abundant gaphical, audiovisual, documentary material.
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