Lectures 19 and 20: Life Narrative Flashcards
According to McAdams, what do you need to know someone really well?
- 3 levels of personality:
- Traits: Big 5
- Personal concerns:
- Big 3 Motives
- Identity and Intimacy status
- Attachment style
- Autonomy
- Life Narrative
What is the Life Narrative of a person?
- The life story of a person is the most unique aspect of an individual. It is special because it integrates many aspects of a person.
- From slides:
- The internalized and evolving story of the self that the person consciously and unconsciously constructs to bind together the many different aspects of the self.
What are the basic aspects of a story?
- A story needs:
- set in a particular time and place
- characters who act on their own beliefs and desires
- beginning, middle and end
- suspense
- curiosity
What else can affect our life stories?
Cultural and historical factors
At what age do you start constructing your Life Story?
At around 13, 14 or 15 years of age
What is McAdams Life Story Model of Identity?
The person defines herself by constructing an autobiographical story of the self. (Not necessarily conscious process)
How can we make sense of someone?
The Life Story provides unity and coherence.
What is more important, facts about a person of the meaning on a person’s characteristics?
Facts are not as important as the meaning. For example, McAdam’s dad told him that when he was born, there was 50-50 chance for him to die. McAdams considered himself very lucky and felt like life was fragile. Years later his mom said that his dad didn’t say anything of the sort.
What are the key points of McAdams Model?
- The process begins actively in young adulhood
- Important aspects of the life story are derived from earlier developmental periods
- Early story telling (5 years old)
- Causal and thematic coherence (older)
What is the role of parents in the development of the Life Story?
By asking their children about their day, they give them the chance to practice story telling.
What is the cultural script according to McAdams?
- 0 to 14 years of age
- Children and adolescents learn what a human life typically contains
- Sequence and stages:
- birth, schooling, leaving home, working, marriage, etc.
- Sequence and stages:
- The script depends on the culture
What is the Narrative process?
From adolescence through young adulthood, we construct identity by experiencing events, narrating, editing those narrations, experiencing new events and narrating again, and on and on.
Selves create stories and stories create selves.
How do story change in adulthood?
- Midlife:
- generativity
- Late life:
- story review
- resolution
- Integrity vs despair
How can story telling help people with Alzheimer’s?
Storytelling can e a way of giving people with dementia a low-stress way to communicate.
It can give caregivers a chance to reconnect with their loved ones.
From what age range, does most of the stories come from?
Ages 16 to 25
What is the reminiscence bump?
It’s the fact that we remember more events from late adolescence and early adulthood than any other period.
In a study, 50-year-old participants were asked to answer 20 “I am…” statements and to pick 10 memories of each of the 20. They were asked how old they were in the memory and the M=23
Why do we have a reminiscence bump?
Neurocognitive development
18 - 24 years old is when we are at our maximum capacity of remembering and organizing.
As our Life Stories content change with our Psychosocial stages, what other characteristics do our stories gain?
The story becomes more finely nuanced, more complex and more differentiated. It includes other characters, their backstory, their characteristics and their motivations.
Are there cultural differences in out Life Stories?Give an example
- yes In a study comparing Americans and Asians:
What if you are not a storyteller?
You are, and you are better storyteller than you think
Is storytelling quantifiable?
The field is currently struggling with this.
How much can the story change in adulthood?
It can change dramatically.
According to McAdams, what can help with your Life Story?
Keeping a diary
What is narrative identity?
The internalized and evolving story of the self that the person consciously and unconsciously constructs to bind together the many different aspects of the self.
What does the Life Story must have?
- Meaning and purpose
- Unity to experiences over time and across situations
What links does the narrative identity has to the Big 5 traits?
- According to McAdams, only 4 out of the Big 5 traits have a link with the narrative identity of an individual
- C
- A
- N
- O
How does consciousness gets reflected in the narrative identity?
- The individual expresses joy in work accomplishments
How does agreeableness gets reflected in narrative identity?
The individuals show joy in social accomplishments.
The individual includes other people in their stories.
How does Neuroticism get reflected in narrative identity?
the individual expresses many negative emotions and their story have contamination plots/stories.
What is a contamination story?
According to McAdams, a contamination story starts with a really positive note and ends in a very negative note.
What is a redemption story?
According to McAdams, a redemption story starts with a negative note and ends in a positive note such that the negative was necessary to get to the good.
How does open mindedness gets reflected in narrative identity?
The individual is often creative and their stories are complex and have a higher level of coherence.
What is the relation of narrative identity to the Level 2 of personality?
- It is related to:
- The Big 3 motives
- The Psychosocial stages
- Attachment
- Autonomy
How are narrative identity and the big 3 motives related?
The motives are reflected or mentioned in the story.
How are the psychosocial stages and the narrative identity related?
The Psychosocial stage at which the individual is, will be the main theme of the story.
How are attachment and narrative identity related?
If the individual is securely attached, their stories will be more optimistic.
How are autonomy and narrative identity related?
The higher the autonomy, the more active the individual is in their story. If they are a passive agent, their autonomy is relatively low.
In McAdam’s book, chapter 10, they show the Life Story interview. Describe it.
- 7 components:
- Life chapters
- pick 8 episodes
- high point
- low point
- turning point
- earliest memory
- important childhood, adolescent, adult episodes
- Extra important episode
- pick 8 episodes
- Life challenge
- Main characters
- Future plot
- Personal ideology
- Life theme
- Life chapters
What are the key features of a story?
- Genre
- Ideological setting
- Imagery
- Themes
- Characters
- Key Scenes
- Ending (implied)
Say as much as you remember from Koestner’s mother’s story…
- Escape from the Youth camp
- Meeting dad at 16
- Moving to NY and working as a maid at 18
From McAdams book, chapter 8, what are the common dimensions of narrative identity?
- Agency
- Communion (experiences and interpersonal connections)
- Redemption
- Contamination
- Coherence
- Complexity
- Meaning making
Describe agency
Individual’s autonomy, achievement, mastery, and ability to influence the course of his or her own life
Describe coherence
- Causal
- linking life events to one’s developing a sense of self
- Thematic
- evaluative or reflective connections between episodes in the story
What qualities should the story have?
- coherence
- openness
- credibility
- differentiation
- reconciliation
Which of the qualities do you expect a Narcissist not to have in their story?
Credibility
Name two things that can make use change our life story?
- Big events
- Psychoterapy
According to McAdams, what effect does psychotherapy have on the narrative identity?
- Psychotherapy represents an opportunity to refine and strengthen your life story narrative
How does counselling or psychotherapy help?
- Common factors:
- Therapeutic alliance
- Autonomous motivation
- Narrative disclosure
- It is collaborative
- Helps you find your voice
- helps you tell your story
How do we study ego development?
We ask the participants to complete sentences such as:
- Change is…
- My mother and I…
- What gets me into trouble is…
- Rules are…
Agency themes are significantly associated with what?
Improved mental health
What are some keypoints about Narrative identity?
- We are constructing an autobiography
- We can evaluate it in literary terms
- The Life Story can be change (big events, psychotherapy)
- The Life Story contributes to well-being
