The Autobiographical Author Through Time

Abstract

We examined continuity and change in the tendencies to construct a life story (i.e., narrative identity) that was redemptive or contaminated in nature. In Study 1, college freshmen and seniors wrote accounts of several autobiographical key scenes pertinent to narrative identity twice over a 3-year period. In Study 2, midlife adults provided, via a semistructured interview, key scenes twice over a 5-year period and also indicated whether their employment status had changed between assessments. Across studies, the rank-order consistency of redemptive and contaminated stories was moderate and low to moderate, respectively. In Study 1, the frequency of redemptive and contaminated stories increased throughout college. Furthermore, the frequency of contaminated stories decreased following graduation. In Study 2, changes in employment status corresponded with reduced redemptive imagery. These results suggest a possible narrative acculturation of young adults as well as a correspondence between changes in life circumstances and narrative identity.

Consistency and stability of narrative coherence: An examination of personal narrative as a domain of adult personality

“…For example, narrative themes of redemption (negative events bring about positive things) and contamination (positive events lead to negative things) are argued to be narrative features of adult personality (McAdams & McLean, 2013) and can be coded both from life narratives and specific event narratives (McAdams, Reynolds, Lewis, Patten, & Bowman, 2001;. Although some research does suggest stability over time (Dunlop et al, 2016), less is known about their consistency across narratives collected at a single time point, and it will be important for future research to replicate current stability findings.…”

“…To address this issue, narrative researchers have started to systematically study consistency, stability, and change in personal narratives in several ways: by examining (a) the selection or deselection of events/details included in repeated tellings of narratives (Bauer, Tasdemir-Ozdes, & Larkina, 2014;K€ ober & Habermas, 2017;Mackinnon, De Pasquale, & Pratt, 2016;McAdams et al, 2006;Strauman, 1996;Thorne, Cutting, & Skaw, 1998), (b) how the meaning or interpretation of events may change (Josselson, 2009), (c) the choice of central themes in the narrative (Dunlop, Guo, & McAdams, 2016;McAdams et al, 2006), and (d) the structure/organization of the narratives as an index of an individual's narrative style (McLean, Pasupathi, Greenhoot, & Fivush, 2017). While prior studies have shown somewhat modest stability in regard to selection of events (Bauer et al, 2014;K€ ober & Habermas, 2017;Mackinnon et al, 2016;McAdams et al, 2006;Strauman, 1996;Thorne et al, 1998), the meaning/interpretation of events (Josselson, 2000) and narrative themes (Dunlop et al, 2016;McAdams et al, 2006;Sengsavang, Pratt, Alisat, & Sadler, 2017) have shown relatively more stability. However, the consistency and stability of narrative organization, as indexed by narrative coherence, are largely unknown.…”

The life story from age 26 to 32: Rank‐order stability and mean‐level change

“…However, there was less compelling reason to predict gains in general positive tone in the life story from 26 to 32 (see Bauer & McAdams, 2010). Based on the plausible evidence that coherence and sophistication in life stories continued to show gains into young adulthood (Baddeley & Singer, 2007;Dunlop et al, 2016;K€ ober et al, 2015;, we predicted that complexity and CPR would show increases over this time period.…”

“…It is likely that other adult role transitions may also show such patterns of effects on the life story, for example, establishing vocational and romantic commitments (e.g., Dunlop et al, 2016;Shulman et al, 2016). Unfortunately, we were unable to examine the impact of these two other role adoptions here because of very limited changes in these statuses from age 26 to 32, as much of the sample had already achieved full-time work status and romantic partnerships by age 26 (about 75%).…”

“…Rank-order stability reveals individuals' relative placement over time on levels of personality features, whereas mean-level change describes normative changes in personality and refers to increases or decreases in the average level of a feature in a population (Roberts, Walton, & Viechtbauer, 2006). To date, there have only been a few longitudinal studies of life stories over time (e.g., Dunlop, Guo, & McAdams, 2016;K€ ober & Habermas, 2017;K€ ober, Schmiedek, & Habermas, 2015;Thorne, Cutting, & Skaw, 1998), none of which has focused specifically on the transition from emerging to young adulthood. As such, the primary aim of the present study was to examine the rank-order stability and mean-level change in narrative identity features during this transition period when the life story is beginning to be coherently crystallized, elaborated, and integrated into the wider personality.…”