The redemption and contamination research form: exploring relations with narrative identity, personality traits, response styles, and life satisfaction

Dunlop, William L.; Wilkinson, Dulce; Harake, Nicole; Graham, Laura; Lee, Daniel

doi:10.1080/09658211.2020.1828926

Cited by 14 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…The one exception to this was for emotional stability: People who perceived that the event changed them because it was negative, stressful, and reputationally damaging tended to decline in emotional stability both before and after the event. This result is in line with other research that has correlated event characteristics with measured personality change and found that events perceived as more negative were associated with decreases in emotional stability (Haehner et al, 2021; Sutin et al, 2010), and research that has linked contamination narratives to lower emotional stability and life satisfaction (Dunlop et al, 2020). It suggests a commonsensical linkage central to clinical psychology, where lasting event-related increases in anxiety and depression are often attributed to stressful, negative, and interpersonally frictional characteristics of that event (Ormel et al, 2013).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Subjective experiences of life events match individual differences in personality development.

Schwaba,

Denissen,

Luhmann

et al. 2023

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

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The last 2 decades have witnessed increased research on the role of life events in personality trait development, but few findings appear to be robust. We propose that a key to resolving this issue is incorporating individuals' subjective experiences into the study of event-related development. To test this, we developed and administered a survey about event-related personality change to a representative Dutch sample (N = 5,513, Ages 16-95) and linked their responses to 12-year trajectories of measured Big Five development. Most participants (63%) believed that a life event impacted their personality in the past 10 years, on average 5 years presurvey. These participants, even those who experienced the same event, had markedly heterogenous perceptions of how their traits changed and why each event affected their personality. In preregistered analyses, we examined participants' individual personality trajectories before and after the event that they identified as most impactful. Across events, retrospective perceptions of event-related personality change were significantly correlated with short-term and long-term postevent personality trajectories across Big Five traits (mean rs = .22, .28) and preevent trajectories in all traits except agreeableness (mean r = .16). We also found correspondence between perceived and measured development in analyses of the two most commonly reported personality-changing events: health problems and death of a loved one/family member. Finally, we explored associations between personality development and perceived change-inducing event characteristics. Using these findings, we argue that future research into event-related personality development should de-emphasize mean-level change to focus on individuals' varied experiences of whether, when, how, and why life events have affected their personality.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Subjective experiences of life events match individual differences in personality development.

Schwaba,

Denissen,

Luhmann

et al. 2023

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

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“…Among these many thematic and structural features, two dualities (four constructs in total) may be signaled out based on their prevalence and conceptual heft (e.g., Adler, 2012;Dunlop et al, 2020b;McAdams et al, 2001;Wiggins, 1991Wiggins, , 2003. The first is agency and communion.…”

Section: Assessing Narrative Identitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Within narrative identity, redemptive stories often manifest in terms of motifs such as illness to health, suffering to salvation, and rags to riches (see McAdams, 2006). Typically (but not exclusively, see Dunlop et al, 2020b;Perlin & Fivush, 2021), researchers have implemented a dichotomous coding system in which it is determined whether a given life chapter (Dunlop et al, 2018) or key scene (i.e., McAdams et al, 2001) is or is not a redemptive story or contaminated story.…”

Section: Assessing Narrative Identitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…If the metaphor of "_____ as story" carries the range necessary to consider persons through whole cultural communities (e.g., Hammack, 2011;McAdams, 2013), then we may right ask if there are certain dimensions or features of narrative that hold rele vance, irrespective of whether we are dealing with stories that exist within the person through the macrosystem. On the basis of both historical precedent (e.g., Hammack, 2011;McClelland, 1965) and conceptual relevance (e.g., Dunlop et al, 2020b;Wiggins, 1991), here we consider four thematic features of narratives, represented by two dualities, that are prime candidates for such systematic and paradigmatic intermingling: agency and communion and redemption and contamination. Due to their utility across various levels of analysis (more on that below), these thematic features provide researchers interested in intranational variability in narrative identity with a common lens to view stories within proximal and distal systems.…”

Section: The Content Of Stories From the Person To The Macrosystemmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

On stories, conceptual space, and physical place: Considering the function and features of stories throughout the narrative ecology

Dunlop

Westberg

2022

Personal. Sci.

Self Cite

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Life stories, or narrative identities, are psychosocial constructions that work to establish a sense of self-continuity through time and across contexts. These stories, which represent a distinct personality domain and assessment paradigm, both inform and are informed by the stories pertaining to constructs within more distal systems (e.g., dyads, households, states, nations, cultures). To this end, we consider the ways in which study of narrative identity may be enhanced by extending the conceptual bounds of its assessment paradigm, to better account for the varied stories within and across these ecological systems. We argue that: a) like narrative identity, stories throughout the narrative ecology function to build and maintain continuity, and b) there are thematic features of narrative identity that transcend divides between these systems including: agency & communion and redemption & contamination. These premises work to focus study of self, society, and story.

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“…Another limitation is that content-coding, as well analyzing each life story scene separately, can lead, as was the case in the current study, to unusable data, like our high points. Future work might want to consider using continuous indicators of the extent to which memories contain affective themes (redemption: e.g., Weston et al, 2016) or even self-report measures (e.g., Dunlop et al, in press) so that more concrete comparisons with existing studies might be possible (e.g., McAdams et al, 2001). However, we recommend using the same method of analysis (content-coding or self-report Likert-scale measures) across affective themes, particularly if exploring age group differences (Alea et al, 2004).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Remembering the Positive and Negative: Affective Themes as Predictors of Psychological Well-Being Across Adulthood

Corcoran

Alea

2021

Int J Aging Hum Dev

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The current study explored the link between psychological well-being (PWB; self-acceptance, personal growth, and purpose in life) and affective themes, including redemption (positive endings for negative events), contamination (negative endings for positive events), and positive and negative affect (no change in affect) in the life stories of Caribbean adults ranging in age from 19 to 78 ( N = 105). How often the memory narrative was rehearsed, and whether or not the theme emerged after being cued in content-coded life story low, high, and turning point scenes were also considered. Affective theme alone did not predict PWB; however, when considering age, rehearsal, and cue, redemption and positive affect predicted personal growth. More work should cue meaning-making in specific ways for different age groups in order to understand why there were no associations for middle-aged adults. Efforts should also be made to understand cross-cultural differences in life stories and PWB.

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The redemption and contamination research form: exploring relations with narrative identity, personality traits, response styles, and life satisfaction

Cited by 14 publications

References 47 publications

Subjective experiences of life events match individual differences in personality development.

Subjective experiences of life events match individual differences in personality development.

On stories, conceptual space, and physical place: Considering the function and features of stories throughout the narrative ecology

Remembering the Positive and Negative: Affective Themes as Predictors of Psychological Well-Being Across Adulthood

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