Narratability Scale

Abstract

The Escala da Narrabilidade (ENa), known in English as the Narratability Scale, is an assessment instrument developed by Brazilian psychometricians and career psychologists João Paulo Koltermann and Maiana Farias Oliveira Nunes in 2023. Grounded in the Life Design Model (Savickas et al., 2009) and contemporary narrative psychology, the scale was constructed to measure career narratability—operationalized as an individual’s capacity to identify, structure, articulate, and communicate meaningful life-career episodes into a cohesive, continuous biographical narrative. The instrument’s operational foundation emerged from a dual methodological approach comprising semi-structured exploratory interviews with specialized practitioners in Professional and Career Guidance (Orientação Profissional e de Carreira [OPC]) and a systematic review of foundational international literature spanning narrative therapy, social constructionism, and vocational self-concept evolution (e.g., Gergen, 2009; Gonçalves et al., 2018; White, 2007). The development process initially generated an item bank of 55 items, which was subjected to rigorous content validation by an expert panel of seven doctoral- and master’s-level judges in psychology. Following qualitative and quantitative judge evaluations, 19 items were pruned due to thematic redundancy or insufficient content representation, yielding a refined 36-item pool that achieved an absolute inter-rater agreement rate of 98%. Subsequent semantic analysis with members of the Brazilian adult target population (ages 22 to 58) confirmed linguistic accessibility and conceptual comprehensibility, necessitating minor phrasing revisions for 21 items while preserving the entire 36-item corpus. Although factor analytic verification and empirical internal consistency indices remain reserved for subsequent empirical validation studies, the ENa represents a pioneering, culturally adapted psychometric instrument designed to support both career counseling interventions and scientific inquiry into narrative identity within modern, boundaryless career landscapes.

Keywords

Career Narratability, Life Design Model, Vocational Psychology, Narrative Identity, Career Development, Content Validity, Psychometrics, Semantic Analysis, Meaning-Making, Narrative Career Counseling

Authors

The Narratability Scale was developed by researchers affiliated with the Department of Psychology at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC) in Florianópolis, Brazil:

• João Paulo Koltermann, M.Sc., Ph.D. Researcher in Psychology, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC).
  
  ORCID: 0000-0002-8589-4722
  
  Email: [email protected]
• Maiana Farias Oliveira Nunes, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychological Assessment and Career Guidance, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC).
  
  ORCID: 0000-0001-8557-0133
  
  Email: [email protected]
  
  Correspondence Address: Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas, Departamento de Psicologia, Campus Universitário Reitor João David Ferreira Lima, Trindade, Florianópolis – SC, Brazil, CEP 88040-900.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Narratability Scale (ENa) is to systematically assess an individual’s career-specific narratability within professional counseling, organizational settings, and empirical vocational psychology research. In an economic era characterized by volatility, rapid technological upheaval, unpredictable transitions, and the dissolution of linear lifelong careers, modern workers can no longer rely on standardized, employer-driven vocational scripts. Instead, contemporary career practitioners emphasize self-construction, subjective adaptability, and identity narration. Within this context, the construct of narratability serves as a fundamental metacognitive and communicative competence that enables an individual to author and navigate their subjective career trajectory.

From a clinical and applied counseling perspective, the ENa addresses a critical diagnostic and evaluative void. Traditional vocational assessments focus heavily on static trait-factor matching, measuring stable interests, cognitive aptitudes, or broad personality profiles. While valuable, these psychometric paradigms often fail to capture the dynamic, meaning-making processes individuals require during destabilizing career crises, such as involuntary redundancies, mid-career transitions, retirement preparation, or entering an unstable labor market. By evaluating a client’s narratability, career counselors can ascertain the degree to which a client possesses narrative agency, temporal coherence, and the capacity to synthesize fragmented career episodes into an integrated self-narrative. Clients presenting low narratability may exhibit disjointed, incoherent life accounts marked by passive victimization, cognitive closure, or inability to foresee future vocational prospects. Identifying these specific narrative deficits provides counselors with actionable diagnostic data to tailor autobiographical, narrative-based interventions.

From an empirical research perspective, the ENa provides an operationalized instrument to explore hypotheses within the Life Design paradigm. It facilitates the investigation of how narrative skills interact with established constructs such as career adaptability, vocational self-efficacy, workplace well-being, tolerance for ambiguity, and identity capital. Moreover, the scale provides a quantitative metric capable of functioning as a pre- and post-intervention outcome indicator, allowing researchers to evaluate the empirical efficacy of narrative career counseling protocols, Life Design dialogues, and reconstructive career interventions.

Psychological Construct

The psychological construct evaluated by the instrument is Career Narratability (Narrabilidade de Carreira). Historically situated at the intersection of narrative psychology, social constructionism, and vocational self-concept theory, narratability refers to the multifaceted psychological capacity to translate lived vocational experiences into a coherent, meaningful, and forward-looking autobiographical story.

Career narratability is not merely verbal fluency or storytelling eloquence. Rather, it represents an integrative cognitive, reflexive, and communicative competency consisting of several interconnected dimensions:

1. Temporal Continuity and Chronological Synthesis

This facet involves the individual’s ability to bridge their past experiences, present situation, and anticipated future goals. In career terms, an individual exhibiting temporal continuity does not perceive their professional history as an arbitrary sequence of disconnected jobs; instead, past trials, occupational choices, and educational milestones are understood as developmental steppingstones that meaningfully inform their present identity and ground future aspirations.

2. Thematic Coherence and Meaning-Making

Thematic coherence pertains to the capacity to identify recurring life themes, underlying values, and subjective motives across disparate life arenas. Grounded in the conceptualizations of Savickas (2005, 2012), this dimension evaluates how well a person identifies the “why” behind their actions, integrating micro-stories of specific workplace challenges into a macro-narrative of personal growth, purpose, and social contribution.

3. Narrative Agency and Intentionality

Narrative agency represents the degree to which an individual authors their story from an active, intentional perspective rather than acting as a passive recipient of external circumstance. It mirrors the narrative therapy paradigm formulated by Michael White and David Epston, evaluating whether the narrator positions themselves as a protagonist equipped with choice, adaptability, and personal accountability, even in the face of systemic barriers or occupational adversity.

4. Reflexive Re-authoring and Cognitive Flexibility

This dimension captures the capacity to deconstruct stagnant, problem-saturated career narratives and reconstruct alternative accounts. As explicated by narrative change models (e.g., Gonçalves et al., 2018), narratability necessitates the identification of “innovative moments”—experiences that contradict dominant negative self-attributions—enabling the individual to integrate unforeseen opportunities, overcome career grief, and author adaptive vocational paths.

5. Communicative Articulation and Dialogical Interaction

Because identity is socially constructed through language (Gergen, 2009), narratability encompasses the interpersonal ability to articulate one’s vocational story clearly to relevant stakeholders, such as interviewers, colleagues, mentors, and family members. It reflects the pragmatic competence required to communicate one’s professional worth and self-concept persuasively across social contexts.

Theoretical Framework

The conceptual scaffolding of the Narratability Scale rests on three theoretical pillars: the Life Design Model, Social Constructionist Narrative Psychology, and the Theory of Narrative Change and Innovative Moments.

The Life Design Model

The primary architectural basis for the ENa is the Life Design Model for career intervention, conceptualized by Mark Savickas and an international consortium of vocational scholars (Savickas et al., 2009). Life Design emerged as a 21st-century response to the restructuring of global labor markets, transitioning vocational guidance away from mechanistic person-environment matching toward lifelong adaptability, intentionality, and narrative identity construction. According to Savickas (2012), career is fundamentally an interpretive narrative that individuals impose on their vocational behaviors to generate purpose and direction. The Life Design framework conceptualizes clients as authors of their lives; thus, narratability serves as the foundational psychological vehicle through which individuals form autobiographical continuity, resolve career disequilibrium, and design satisfying occupational trajectories.

Social Constructionist Narrative Psychology

The theoretical framework is further informed by the social constructionist epistemology advanced by Kenneth J. Gergen (2009) and the narrative therapy principles originated by Michael White (2007). In this tradition, self-identity is not viewed as an internal, static mental trait discovered through psychological introspection, but as a relational, discursively produced narrative artifact. White’s narrative therapy emphasizes that people make sense of their lives through culturally situated stories. When individuals encounter vocational deadlocks, they frequently become entrapped in “problem-saturated” storylines (e.g., “I am a failure because I lost my employment”). Developing narratability enables individuals to externalize these restrictive beliefs, uncover overlooked competencies, and co-construct alternative identity narratives characterized by agency and relational interconnectedness.

Theory of Innovative Moments and Meaning Reconstruction

Finally, the scale incorporates insights from the narrative change research formulated by Gonçalves and colleagues (2018). Their research demonstrates that meaningful psychotherapeutic and counseling progression occurs when individuals identify “innovative moments” (exceptions to the dominant problem narrative) and integrate these moments into an expanded, high-level narrative reconceptualization. The operationalization of narratability in the ENa reflects this dynamic, assessing the respondent’s cognitive-narrative plasticity to assimilate disruptive career disruptions into an enriched biographical framework.

Validity

Validity evidence for the Narratability Scale was established using systematic content and semantic validation procedures, aligning with the international standards articulated by the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (AERA, APA, & NCME).

1. Initial Item Generation and Theoretical Grounding

The scale development began with an inductive-deductive phase designed to establish high construct representativeness. The authors conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with practicing psychologists specialized in Professional and Career Guidance (OPC) to capture the applied, clinical manifestations of narrative challenges in career counseling. Simultaneously, an exhaustive theoretical synthesis of international literature (Gergen, 2009; Gonçalves et al., 2018; Savickas et al., 2009; White, 2007) was conducted. This mixed-method exploratory step led to an initial pool of 55 items reflecting the conceptual breadth of career narratability.

2. Expert Content Validation (Judges Panel)

The 55 preliminary items were submitted to an independent expert panel consisting of seven judges, all holding Master’s or Doctoral degrees in Psychology with specialized publications and professional experience in psychometrics, psychological assessment, and career counseling. The expert judges independently analyzed each item along several criteria:

• Relevance and Representativeness: Whether the item directly captured essential facets of career narratability.
• Clarity and Phrasing: Linguistic accessibility, precision, and freedom from ambiguity or cultural bias.
• Theoretical Alignment: Concordance with the principles of the Life Design Model and narrative psychology.

Following this panel review, 19 items were eliminated due to theoretical overlap, insufficient alignment with the core construct, or consensus recommendations from the judges. The remaining 36 items were retained, reaching an absolute agreement percentage of 98% among the judges, providing strong initial evidence for content validity.

3. Semantic Analysis with Target Population

To establish ecological validity and ensure that items were readily understood across diverse educational and demographic backgrounds, a semantic analysis was conducted with a convenience sample of adults from the general Brazilian population, ranging from 22 to 58 years of age. Participants evaluated the instructional clarity and item phrasing. Based on respondent feedback:

• 15 items were approved directly without modifications, having demonstrated immediate linguistic clarity.
• 21 items underwent minor stylistic and lexical refinements to optimize comprehension, eliminate syntactical ambiguity, and maintain vernacular accessibility.
• 0 items were removed during this phase, finalizing the instrument at 36 operational items.

Reliability

In the initial instrument development and content validation study published by Koltermann and Nunes (2023), empirical statistical estimates of reliability—such as Cronbach’s alpha, McDonald’s omega ($\omega$), or test-retest stability coefficients ($r_{tt}$)—were not reported. The primary methodological scope of the 2023 foundational paper was explicitly circumscribed to qualitative item design, expert content adjudication, and semantic population testing.

Consequently, definitive psychometric reliability metrics remain to be established in subsequent large-scale empirical studies. Standard psychometric best practices dictate that subsequent validation phases must administer the 36-item protocol to representative, diverse adult samples across Brazil to compute:

• Internal consistency coefficients for the global scale and any underlying sub-dimensions (targeting $lpha ge .80$ and $\omega ge .80$).
• Temporal stability via test-retest protocols across 4- to 8-week intervals to evaluate score stability in the absence of life-career interventions.
• Item-total correlations to verify that each of the 36 items contributes coherently to the aggregate narratability construct.

Factor Analysis

Data pertaining to exploratory factor analysis (EFA) or confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were not published in the initial instrument development report by Koltermann and Nunes (2023). Because the published study prioritized the qualitative, content-oriented genesis of the scale, empirical modeling of the instrument’s latent dimensional structure remains an ongoing psychometric initiative.

Based on the theoretical blueprint derived from the Life Design Model and narrative therapy paradigms, upcoming structural equation modeling and factor analytic research is anticipated to evaluate competing latent models, including:

• Unidimensional Model: Positing career narratability as a broad, single-factor metacognitive competence.
• Multidimensional Correlated Model: Positing distinct, interacting narrative factors (e.g., Temporal Coherence, Thematic Continuity, Personal Agency, Narrative Articulation).
• Bifactor Model: Incorporating a dominant general narratability factor alongside specific sub-constructs accounting for unique variance in storytelling and autobiographical meaning-making.

Future structural investigations will require adequate participant-to-item ratios ($N ge 360$ to $500+$ respondents) to establish robust goodness-of-fit indices (CFI $ge .95$, TLI $ge .95$, RMSEA $le .06$, and SRMR $le .08$).

Instrument / Measurement Tool

• Full Instrument Name: Escala da Narrabilidade (ENa)
• English Translation: Narratability Scale
• Authors: João Paulo Koltermann and Maiana Farias Oliveira Nunes
• Publication Year: 2023
• Instrument Type: Original psychometric inventory / structured assessment questionnaire
• Administration Format: Self-report inventory or structured interview protocol administered by a trained psychologist/counselor
• Number of Items: 36 items (derived from an initial pool of 55 items)
• Language Available: Brazilian Portuguese (official original version)
• Target Population: General adult population (males and females, ages 18 to 64 years; developmental sample included adults aged 22–58)
• Construct Assessed: Career-Specific Narratability (cohesive articulation of meaningful life events, temporal biographical continuity, narrative agency, and career identity construction)
• Context of Application: Career counseling, vocational guidance, outplacement programs, human resource development, and academic research in life-design psychology
• Scoring and Item Nature: The instrument is an inventory/questionnaire composed of 36 items. Full psychometric scoring algorithms and normative tables await publication following large-scale national standardization trials.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Narratability Scale was finalized and published in 2023. It is designed as a non-commercial scientific instrument aimed at advancing vocational psychology research and clinical career counseling practices. There are no commercial fees associated with utilizing the instrument for non-profit academic research, university teaching, or clinical evaluation.

However, because the scale is an original copyrighted assessment tool, researchers and practitioners wishing to access, administer, translate, or adapt the complete 36-item questionnaire must obtain formal permission from the primary research team. Inquiries regarding permissions, administrative protocols, and collaborative psychometric validations should be directed to the corresponding author:

Prof. Dr. Maiana Farias Oliveira Nunes
Departamento de Psicologia, Centro de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas
Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC)
Trindade, Florianópolis – SC, Brazil, CEP: 88040-900
Email: [email protected]

References

• Gergen, K. J. (2009). Relational being: Beyond self and community. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195305388.001.0001
• Gonçalves, M. M., Ribeiro, A. P., Mendes, I., Alves, D., Silva, J., Rosa, C., Oliveira, J. T., Batista, J., & Stiles, W. B. (2018). Three narrative-based coding systems for tracking client change: Innovative moments, ambivalence, and narrative ambivalence. Psychotherapy Research, 28(5), 708–722. https://doi.org/10.1080/10503307.2016.1247216
• Koltermann, J. P., & Nunes, M. F. O. (2023). Construção e evidências iniciais de validade de conteúdo da Escala da Narrabilidade [Construction and initial evidence of content validity of the Narratability Scale]. Revista Brasileira de Orientação Profissional, 24(1), 87–97. https://doi.org/10.26707/1984-7270/2023v24n108
• Savickas, M. L. (2005). The theory and practice of career construction. In S. D. Brown & R. W. Lent (Eds.), Career development and counseling: Putting theory and research to work (pp. 42–70). John Wiley & Sons.
• Savickas, M. L. (2012). Life design: A paradigm for career intervention in the 21st century. Journal of Counseling & Development, 90(1), 13–19. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1556-6676.2012.00002.x
• Savickas, M. L., Nota, L., Rossier, J., Dauwalder, J. P., Duarte, M. E., Guichard, J., Soresi, S., Esbroeck, R. V., & van Vianen, A. E. (2009). Life designing: A paradigm for career construction in the 21st century. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 75(3), 239–250. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2009.04.004
• White, M. (2007). Maps of narrative practice. W. W. Norton & Company.

Items of the Scale