Stability and change in autobiographical reasoning: A 4‐year longitudinal study of narrative identity development

Abstract

who completed the self-event connection coding. We would also thank Nick Jones for his logistical and administrative support of the Identity Pathways Project (IPP), Benjamin Le, project co-PI, for ongoing methodological and conceptual input on the project, and the support of our respective institutions -Haverford College and Western Washington University -where IPP was conducted. We also thank Annie Fast, Antonya Gonzalez, and Annie Riggs for comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript.

Early Impacts of College, Interrupted: Considering First-Year Students’ Narratives About COVID and Reports of Adjustment During College Shutdowns

“…Previous research has shown that narrative meaning-making is relevant for adults’ subsequent psychological adjustment and functioning across nonclinical settings (McLean et al, 2022), trauma-exposed settings (Booker et al, 2020), and clinical settings (Adler, 2012). Our results extend these findings by demonstrating that emerging adults’ narratives about current challenging experiences are related to their adjustment even while those events are unfolding.…”

“…Personal narratives allow for a phenomenological, ideographic examination of individual meaning-making (Adler et al, 2016) to illuminate what the current generation of college students is facing and reveal particularities of experiences in a diverse group of emerging adults. Substantial research shows that individuals who incorporate structure into their personal narratives, emphasize fundamental motivations in narratives, and integrate life reasoning into narratives have greater psychosocial adjustment, greater investment in processes of identity development, and fewer mental health risks (Booker, Fivush, & Graci, 2021;Booker, Hernandez, et al, 2021;McLean et al, 2020McLean et al, , 2022. As a global pandemic, COVID-19 disrupted everyone's lives and provided an unhappy opportunity to explore how narrative features about a shared cultural experience relate to functioning and well-being during a critical developmental transition, and how the process of meaning-making and its relations to identity and wellbeing may differ across diverse groups.…”

Creating something new from past experiences—The meaning of change in repeated narratives

“…However, in this special issue the analyses were not specifically focused on the meaning of change in repeated narratives. In most previous research on repeated narration, change is conceptualized as not repeating an event in the life story but instead replacing it with another event (e.g., Adler, 2019) or as structural changes in the way that a story is narrated (e.g., McLean et al, 2021). To our knowledge, there are three studies that partly address the meaning of change in repeated narration.…”

The role of repeated narration in identity development: The evaluation of the transition to college over time.

“…Although narrative identity is thought to be a component of personality and, thus, entails some stability across time and context, it is also a component of personality that has relative malleability (e.g., McAdams & Pals, 2006; McLean, Dunlap, et al, 2021). Furthermore, it is a component of personality that has a longer developmental timeframe compared to other aspects of personality, such as traits.…”

“…There are some data to suggest that those who fit with master narratives show more stability in narration over time, perhaps because following and adhering to existing scripts may shape a story as it is formed and facilitate the maintenance of its consistency with the cultural preference for hearing such stories (Drivdahl & Hyman, 2014; Köber & Habermas, 2017; McLean et al, 2019; Mitchell, 2021). Furthermore, adhering to such a script will likely result in a more positive evaluation of the experience because of the alignment with cultural expectations (see Berntsen et al, 2011; McLean, Dunlap et al, 2021; McLean et al, 2017). In contrast, not adhering to a master narrative can be experienced in more negative ways as one’s story is more likely to be unheard or rejected, with implications for psychosocial development and well-being (e.g., McLean et al, 2020; McLean & Syed, 2015).…”