Self-narrative focus in autobiographical events: The effect of time, emotion, and individual differences

Abstract

Individuals may take a self-narrative focus on the meaning of personal events in their life story, rather than viewing the events in isolation. Using the Centrality of Event Scale (CES; Berntsen & Rubin in Behaviour Research and Therapy, 44, 219-231, 2006) as our measure, we investigated self-narrative focus as an individual differences variable in addition to its established role as a measure of individual events. Three studies, with 169, 182, and 190 participants had 11, 10, and 11 different events varied across the dimensions of remembered past versus imagined future, distance from the present, and valence. Imagined future events, events more distant from the present, and positive events all had increased self-narrative focus, in agreement with published theories and findings. Nonetheless, CES ratings for individual events correlated positively with each other within individuals (r ~ .30) and supported a single factor solution. These results are consistent with a stable individual differences tendency toward self-narrative focus that transcends single events. Thus, self-narrative focus is both a response whereby people relate individual events to their life story and identity and an individual differences variable that is stable over a range of events. The findings are discussed in relation to narrative measures of autobiographical reasoning.

Memories of near-death experiences: are they self-defining?

“…44% of all reported SDMs included meaning making). Additionally, the difference in the prevalence of meaning making between NDE memories (51%) and other SDMs (41%) did not reach significance, which might suggest that autobiographical reasoning could partly depend on the individual rather than on the type of memory (Rubin et al 2018). The relatively low proportion of meaning making for NDEs is somewhat surprising given that it is considered crucial for psychological adjustment; indeed, the ability to reflect upon one’s life experiences has been associated with higher levels of socio-emotional maturity and is developed in psychotherapy to improve introspection abilities and build a unified self (Inder et al 2008).…”

Constructing the Past: the Relevance of the Narrative Self in Modulating Episodic Memory

“…This is in line with previous suggestions according to which self-narrativity allows us to get at individual cases (cf. Singer and Bluck 2001;Rubin et al 2019). Indeed in the SMS framework investigating individual differences would entail looking at the individual's goals and self-concept, and it is the life-story that integrates these over time (Conway, Singer and Tagini 2004).…”

“…Moreover, individual processing styles are closely related to the person's selfnarrative (Bouizegarene and Philippe 2016). Finally, Berntsen, Hoyle and Rubin's (2019) recent 'Autobiographical Recollection Test' puts a lot of emphasis on narrativity as a way of accounting for individual differences in autobiographical memory (see also Rubin et al 2019).…”

“…Indeed agents might narrate experiences to establish self-event connections, thereby clarifying how the event relates to the person and their goals, and enabling an integration into the self-narrative (cf. Pasupathi, Mansour & Brubaker 2007;Rubin et al 2019).…”

The Lègami/Legàmi Service—An Experience of Psychological Intervention in Maternal and Child Care during COVID-19

“…The model of the Lègami/Legàmi service’s psychological intervention considered the participation of users as a narrative experience [ 17 , 18 ], functioning to give meaning to the historic moment being lived and to the personal need of support. In this regard, it was possible to develop a mental organization of a personal biography [ 19 ], in which to rebuild one’s inner world in relation to the historic time of the COVID-19 pandemic and the time that followed.…”