My partner’s stories: relationships between personal and vicarious life stories within romantic couples

Panattoni, Katherine; Thomsen, Dorthe Kirkegaard

doi:10.1080/09658211.2018.1485947

Cited by 22 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Patients with BPD more often lost sight of the parents’ perspective when reflecting on the parents’ life stories, which could also explain the similar patterns in the life stories. Similarities between personal and close others’ life stories are also found among healthy samples and may reflect that individuals use their personal life stories to understand and interpret their close others’ lives and vice versa (Lind & Thomsen, ; Panattoni & Thomsen, ; Thomsen & Pillemer, 2017a). In the present study, it was not possible to distinguish between similarity due to self‐other confusion and similarity due to normal processes involved in understanding a close other's life story.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Thus, the more positively individuals describe chapters and causal connections in their personal life stories, the more positively they also describe their parents’ life stories (Lind & Thomsen, ). Themes of agency and communion show a similar pattern; the more a person describes themes of agency and communion in the personal life story, the more these themes also predominate in the description of a romantic partner's life story (Panattoni & Thomsen, ). The relationship between personal life stories and life stories for close others probably reflect dual processes where individuals use their own life stories to reflect on and understand the other person's life story, while at the same time using the other person's life story to reflect on and understand their own life story (Thomsen & Pillemer, 2017a).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Personal and parents’ life stories in patients with borderline personality disorder

Lind

Thomsen

Bøye

et al. 2019

Scandinavian J Psychology

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2019). Personal and parents' life stories in patients with borderline personality disorder. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 60, 231-242.Patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) display disturbances in understanding self and others. We examined whether these disturbances extended to how patients described their personal and parents' life stories and to measures of identity, alexithymia, empathy, and emotional intelligence. Thirty BPD patients and 30 matched control participants described personal and parents' life stories and completed measures of identity disturbance, alexithymia, empathy, and emotional intelligence. Compared to the controls, patients with BPD described their personal and their parents' life stories more negatively and with fewer themes of agency and communion fulfillment. Patients and controls showed equally complex reasoning about their personal life stories, but patients displayed less complexity and more self-other confusion, when reasoning about their parents' stories. Patients also differed from controls on identity disturbance, alexithymia, and empathy. The results suggest that patients' storied understanding of themselves and others are disturbed and should be taken into account to better understand BPD.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Personal and parents’ life stories in patients with borderline personality disorder

Lind

Thomsen

Bøye

et al. 2019

Scandinavian J Psychology

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“…Story sharing among family members is a common daily activity (e.g., Bohanek et al, ), suggesting that studies of vicarious life stories among family members may be even more likely to demonstrate the predicted associations between personal and vicarious life stories. To address some of these issues, we are currently conducting studies examining relations between meaning making in personal life stories and meaning making in vicarious life stories for mothers and friends' mothers (Thomsen, Panattoni, Allé, & Pillemer, ). These studies will help establish whether similarities between life stories depend on the relationship between the individual and the close other or whether similarities reflect a general narrative style employed by individuals when constructing life stories for other persons.…”

Section: Theoretical Implications and Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

I Know My Story and I Know Your Story: Developing a Conceptual Framework for Vicarious Life Stories

Thomsen

Pillemer

2016

Journal of Personality

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Vicarious life stories are mental representations of other people's life stories. We propose a conceptual framework that situates the study of vicarious life stories at the crossroads between personality and social cognition, identifies their potential functions, and describes possible connections between vicarious and personal life stories. Two preliminary studies compared chapters and specific memories in personal and close others' life stories in two groups of student participants. Ages associated with chapters and specific memories in personal and vicarious life stories showed similar temporal distributions. Emotion ratings of both personal and vicarious life story chapters were related to personality traits and self-esteem, although relations were more consistent for personal chapters. In conclusion, personal and vicarious life stories share important similarities. Mental models of other people include vicarious life stories that serve to expand the self as well as facilitate understanding of others.

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Section: Narrative Methodologies In the Study Of Romantic Relationshipsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, little is known about the degree to which the autobiographical stories independently provided by couple members align, and whether compatibility in stories is relevant for the subsequent development of their romantic relationships. Such a focus is timely given recent research interest in vicarious life stories about the partner (i.e., the life stories one knows of the partner) and the role of the stories' similarity (Panattoni & Thomsen, 2018), as well as work exploring the stability and consistency of relationship memories (Drivdahl & Hyman, 2014). Furthermore, in prioritizing participants' current romantic relationships, researchers have paid little attention to (i) the manner in which individuals' story their entire love lives and (ii) the romantic narratives constructed by single individuals e.g., Dunlop et al, 2019;Dunlop et al, 2017).…”

Section: Untapped Potentialmentioning

confidence: 99%

The narrative identity approach and romantic relationships

Bühler

Dunlop

2019

Social & Personality Psych

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Narrative identity is an internal and evolving life story in which the narrator integrates conceptions of the personal past, present, and presumed future within a coherent story‐based framework. Carrying a number of personal and social implications, this construct represents a psychological resource. We contend that, like life itself, one's history within the romantic domain as well as one's current romantic relationship(s) are often viewed using story‐based frameworks. As such, we argue that the greater adoption of the narrative identity approach within the close relationships literature would complement and extend current assessment paradigms used to study romantic relationships. In this article, we outline the conceptual and methodological background of the narrative identity approach. This is followed by a brief review of extant research using narrative methodologies in the study of romantic relationships. Finally, a series of current and future research directions are presented that rest at the nexus between the narrative identity approach and the study of romantic relationships. We conclude that the more extensive integration of the narrative identity approach within the close relationships literature would contribute to the understanding of such relationships. This is a story worth telling.

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My partner’s stories: relationships between personal and vicarious life stories within romantic couples

Cited by 22 publications

References 51 publications

Personal and parents’ life stories in patients with borderline personality disorder

Personal and parents’ life stories in patients with borderline personality disorder

I Know My Story and I Know Your Story: Developing a Conceptual Framework for Vicarious Life Stories

The narrative identity approach and romantic relationships

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