Transformation in narrative thought during adolescence: The structure and content of story compositions.

Abstract

Mount Royal CollegeNarrative understanding has been identified as a primary mode of human thought that informs us about the nature, causes, and consequences of human actions and interactions and, as such, underlies social knowledge. The development of narrative thought was investigated by analyzing the structural complexity and social-psychological understanding displayed in the story compositions of 151 adolescents aged 10 to 18 years. A clear developmental progression was observed in structural complexity in terms of plot structure and the construction of flashbacks. Also observed was a clear developmental trend in social-psychological content from an intentional understanding of human behavior in terms of immediate feelings, thoughts, and goals to an interpretive understanding in terms of personal history, long-standing psychological traits, and broader contextual factors. Gender differences were also noted, with girls outperforming boys on some measures.

Stories of family, stories of self: Developmental pathways to interpretive thought during adolescence

“…Whereas Habermas and colleagues (Habermas & de Silveira, 2008;Habermas, & Paha, 2001;Habermas, Ehlert-Lerche, & de Silveira, 2009) have termed the cognitive process autobiographical reasoning, given the life story focus of their research, we have termed the process interpretive narrative thought (following Bruner, 1986), given the broader focus of our research, which comprises a range of domains, including fi ctional story composition and comprehension (Genereux & McKeough, 2007;McKeough, 1992;McKeough & Genereux, 2003), family stories, social reasoning and social decision making (McKeough & Griffi th, 2010), and life stories (Sanderson & McKeough, 2005) of Canadian youth. More specifi cally, by applying Case' s neo-Piagetian theory to the domain of fi ctional composition (Case, 1985), we have (a) mapped out the foundational structures of intentional thought that are in place by late childhood, (b) identifi ed a qualitative shift to interpretive thought in early adolescence, and (c) described the increasing complexity of interpretive thought throughout adolescence.…”

Science success, narrative theories of personality, and race self complexity: Is pace represented in the identity construction of African American adolescents?

“…Several researchers have adopted narrative theories of personality in research on the identity of adolescents (Habermas & Bluck, 2000;McKeough & Genereux, 2003); however, these theories have been largely underutilized to date. Yet narrative theories of personality have utility for understanding three psychological issues related to identity that are important for understanding individuality, one of the goals of personality psychology.…”

Comment les jeunes élèves apprennent-ils à jongler avec les occurrences de références en production narrative : une étude en temps réel

“…Ce développement se traduit par des modifications importantes de structuration et d'organisation du contenu de la narration (cf. McKeough et Genereux, 2003). D'une part, cela se manifeste par une utilisation différenciée des marques référentielles pour marquer le contraste information connue/nouvelle (Vion, Piolat et Colas, 1989) ou pour distinguer le protagoniste principal du protagoniste secondaire (par exemple : savoir que le défini permet d'opposer ce qui est connu à ce qui ne l'est pas, d'assurer la continuité référentielle).…”