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
