We are the masters of our lives : how do the meanings we give to our experiences influence us in our lives

Abstract

The aim of this dissertation was to find out how the meaning we give to the experiences in our lives can influence us in our everyday life, in particular in our relationships. I studied three particular cases, of persons who where long-term fostered (non-kinship fostering), since they were young. Using a narrative social constructionist approach, I tried to elicit the meaning each person gave to their own particular experiences, through the storying of these experiences. This is the main concept of this approach - that we give meanings to our experiences by attributing a narrative to them. Each case was explored separately, thus I interviewed each person three times so as to gain more insight into their experiences. This helped me to get a more thorough understanding of these narratives and also to see how each individual might have been influenced by these narratives and what effect these narratives had in their relationships.