Authors
Dan P McAdams, Jack J Bauer, April R Sakaeda, Nana Akua Anyidoho, Mary Anne Machado, Katie Magrino‐Failla, Katie W White, Jennifer L Pals
Publication date
2006/10
Journal
Journal of personality
Volume
74
Issue
5
Pages
1371-1400
Publisher
Blackwell Publishing Inc
Description
If a person's internalized and evolving life story (narrative identity) is to be considered an integral feature of personality itself, then aspects of that story should manifest some continuity over time while also providing evidence regarding important personality change. Accordingly, college freshmen and seniors provided detailed written accounts of 10 key scenes in their life stories, and they repeated the same procedure 3 months and then 3 years later. The accounts were content analyzed for reliable narrative indices employed in previous studies of life stories: emotional tone, motivational themes (agency, communion, personal growth), and narrative complexity. The results showed substantial continuity over time for narrative complexity and positive (vs. negative) emotional tone and moderate but still significant continuity for themes of agency and growth. In addition, emerging adults (1) constructed more emotionally …
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