Reflective and Agentive Functions of Narrative Writing: a Qualitative Study on the Narratives of University Students

There is a lively debate in the literature on reflective processes and on the necessity to view them as consisting with differing levels of complexity. Within a semiotic and psychodynamic perspective, we present a conceptualization on reflective processes which distinguishes between reflection and reflectivity and articulates their relationship with narrative devices. The study analyzes 224 narratives of critical events written by 77 underachieving university students that took part in group training courses during the INSTALL European project. The corpus was subjected to a qualitative analysis of narrative function, with the aim of detecting narrative functions of reflection, reflectivity and agency, the latter being considered as an interconnected construct to the reflective process. The functions were discussed both on the basis of how the narrators reacted to the discontinuity in their self-image caused by the critical event, and based upon different types of narrative coherence (chronological, causal, thematic, autobiographical). The results highlighted that narratives with a reflection function, attribute the discontinuity generated by the event to the self, and show a causal coherence; those whose function is reflectivity interpret the discontinuity attributing it to the self in relation to others and present a thematic coherence; those of agency ascribe the discontinuity to a potential selves in action, and are characterized by an autobiograph- ical coherence. The implications of the study will be discussed with reference to the value of narrative writing in promoting reflective-agentive processes.