Continuity and Change in the Life Story: A Longitudinal Study of Autobiographical Memories in Emerging Adulthood
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Date
2006-10
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Blackwell Publishing, Inc.
Abstract
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 positive
stories and showed (2) greater levels of emotional nuance and self-differentiation
and (3) greater understanding of their own personal development
in the 4th year of the study compared to the 1st year. The study is
the first to demonstrate both temporal continuity and developmental
Description
Keywords
Continuity, Change, Longitudinal Study, Autobiographical Memories, Emerging Adulthood