Normative ideas of life and autobiographical reasoning in life narratives

Bohn, Annette

doi:10.1002/cd.286

Cited by 16 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Although the emotional intensity associated with an event is a stronger predictor for memory characteristics than positive versus negative valence (Talarico, LaBar, & Rubin, 2004), the emotional valence of an event also has some effects on subjective experience and memory performance , selfconcept and self-appraisals (Heine & Hamamura, 2007;Ross, Heine, Wilson, & Sugimori, 2005), and the imagination of future scenarios (Sharot, 2011) and future life stories (e.g., Bohn, 2011;Bohn & Berntsen, 2011). Regardless of valence, memories of emotional events are usually highly vivid.…”

Section: Positivity Bias In Autobiographical Memorymentioning

confidence: 96%

Event centrality of positive and negative autobiographical memories to identity and life story across cultures

Scherman

Salgado

Shao

et al. 2014

Memory

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The aim of this study was to investigate whether cultural differences exist in event centrality, emotional distress and well-being in a total of 565 adults above age 40 from Mexico, Greenland, China and Denmark. Participants completed questionnaires to determine their level of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression symptoms, and of life satisfaction. They also completed event centrality scales for their most positive and most negative life events. Across cultures, participants rated positive events as more central to their identity and life stories, compared with negative events. Furthermore, participants with higher levels of emotional distress rated negative events as more central to their identity and life story, compared with participants with lower scores. However, a converse pattern was not found for positive events. Finally, participants with higher scores of life satisfaction tended to rate positive events as more central and negative events as less central to their identity and life story, compared with participants with lower scores. It is concluded that across cultures, positive events are considered more central to identity and life story than negative events and that event centrality ratings tend to be affected in similar ways by higher versus lower levels of emotional distress or well-being.

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Section: Positivity Bias In Autobiographical Memorymentioning

confidence: 96%

Event centrality of positive and negative autobiographical memories to identity and life story across cultures

Scherman

Salgado

Shao

et al. 2014

Memory

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“…The ‘bump’ of positive life script events during young adulthood is found not only when older participants recall important events from their past lives, but also when younger individuals (including children) report events they expect will occur in the future, both for themselves and for normative others of varying ages (Berntsen & Rubin, , ; Bohn, , ; Bohn & Berntsen, , ). Thus, not only does the life script encompass past and current events, but it also provides a template for the events one can expect to experience in the future (Bohn & Berntsen, , ).…”

Section: Life Gets Better and Better: Cultural Life Script Theory Andmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life Gets Better and Better: Cultural Life Script Theory and Subjective Trajectories for Life Satisfaction

Shanahan

Busseri

2016

Eur J Pers

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Young adults typically believe that life gets increasingly satisfying over time. We examined the cultural life script as a source of these beliefs. In Study 1 (N = 1244), tabulation of previously published studies indicated that life script events are perceived as becoming increasingly positive over time between the ages of 10 and 30. Further, a specific series of 16 key life script events during this life stage was identified. These results were replicated in Study 2 (N = 100, M age = 21.14, 51% female) based on young adults' perceptions concerning life script events in their personal life stories. Further, the perception that life script events in one's personal life story were becoming increasingly positive over time was linked with more steeply inclining subjective life satisfaction trajectories (i.e. recollected past < current < anticipated future life satisfaction). In Study 3 (N = 261, M age = 18.5, 93.7% female), manipulating life script event information (number and positivity of events over time) within a personal life story had an additive impact on young adults' subjective life satisfaction trajectories. These findings reveal a robust connection between information contained with the cultural life script and the belief that life gets more and more satisfying over time.

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“…Four studies using two different methods show that this normative biographical knowledge is acquired between the ages 8 and 16 [Bohn & Berntsen, 2008Habermas, 2007;Saraiva, Habermas, Silva, & Henriques, in preparation; for a longitudinal example cf. Bohn, 2011]. There was also a tendency for the acquisition of the life script to correlate with the elaboration of beginnings and endings of life narratives [Bohn & Berntsen, 2008Habermas et al, 2009].…”

Section: Development Of Global Coherence Of the Life Storymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Equally, a developmental point of view is absent, as is any explicit thematic coherence. Bohn andBerntsen [2008, 2013] used a different rating scale to measure whether more than one episode was named, whether episodes were in chronological order, and whether they were evaluated, thus focusing mainly on global temporal coherence (see table 1 , section 2). About a third of their 9-year-olds provided only a single episode as a life narrative, and only 5-15% provided a good chronological order to the events.…”

Section: Development Of Global Coherence Of the Life Storymentioning

confidence: 99%

Getting a Life Takes Time: The Development of the Life Story in Adolescence, Its Precursors and Consequences

Habermas¹,

Reese²

2015

Human Development

120

136

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The life story is a special cognitive-communicative format which allows understanding persons from a biographical perspective through autobiographical reasoning and life narrating. Reviewing research on the development of the life story from the past 15 years, we clarify the conceptual and developmental specificity of the life story by comparing it to single event stories, and the specificity of autobiographical reasoning by comparing it to other forms of reasoning. To support the claim that the life story emerges only in adolescence, we review the earlier development of self and autobiographical remembering leading up to the life story. We outline the significance of autobiographical reasoning for bridging biographical ruptures, and we discuss the meaning of the cultural context for the development of the life story and its functionality. Finally, we suggest major developmental research questions that remain to be pursued.

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Normative ideas of life and autobiographical reasoning in life narratives

Cited by 16 publications

References 21 publications

Event centrality of positive and negative autobiographical memories to identity and life story across cultures

Event centrality of positive and negative autobiographical memories to identity and life story across cultures

Life Gets Better and Better: Cultural Life Script Theory and Subjective Trajectories for Life Satisfaction

Getting a Life Takes Time: The Development of the Life Story in Adolescence, Its Precursors and Consequences

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