“Everything that I’ve Done Has Always Been Multiethnic”: Biographical Work among Leaders of Multiracial Churches

2019 ◽  
Vol 80 (4) ◽  
pp. 478-495 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oneya Fennell Okuwobi
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Religious Leadership ◽  
Racial Injustice ◽  
Over Time

AbstractBiographical work is the process of shaping a cohesive life story by selectively giving meaning to past events. The resulting biographies are not simple recitations of life events but narratives that illuminate what is valued in a person’s social context and how the person makes sense of life events and experiences over time. Drawing on 121 interviews from the Religious Leadership and Diversity Project (RLDP), this article investigates biographical work among head clergy of multiracial churches. I find that pastors of multiracial churches pattern their biographies after two predominant formula stories, laying claim to being people who are experienced with diversity and/or experienced with racial injustice. These formula stories reveal institutionalized understandings of biographies acceptable for pastors of multiracial churches that cut across denominational lines. The biographies of these leaders also reveal a shift toward diversity and away from recognition of racial injustice that has implications for the racial structure.

Models of Personality Development in Emerging Adulthood

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael W. Pratt ◽  
M. Kyle Matsuba
Keyword(s):  
Emerging Adulthood ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Personality Development ◽  
Emerging Adult ◽  
Late Adolescence ◽  
The Self ◽  
Personal Goals ◽  
Integrative Framework ◽  
Over Time

Chapter 2 reviews research and theory on the life story and its development and relations to other aspects of personality. The authors introduce the integrative framework of McAdams and Pals, who described three levels in a broad model of personality: personality traits; personal goals, values, and projects; and the unique life story, which provides a degree of unity and purpose to the individual’s life. This narrative, which develops in late adolescence and emerging adulthood, as individuals become able to author their own stories, includes key scenes of emotional and personal importance to provide a sense of continuity, while remaining flexible and dynamic in incorporating changes in the self over time. The chapter ends with a description of Alison, an emerging adult from our Canadian Futures Study, who illustrates these levels and what they tell about personality development during this period.

scholarly journals Experienced Adversity in Life Is Associated With Polarized and Affirmed Political Attitudes

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 652-659 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Randles ◽  
Steven J. Heine ◽  
Michael Poulin ◽  
Roxane Cohen Silver
Keyword(s):  
Life Events ◽  
Positive Relationship ◽  
Political Attitudes ◽  
Secondary Analysis ◽  
National Sample ◽  
Adverse Life Events ◽  
Over Time

Many studies find that when made to feel uncertain, participants respond by affirming importantly held beliefs. However, while theories argue that these effects should persist over time for highly disruptive experiences, almost no research has been performed outside the lab. We conducted a secondary analysis of data from a national sample of U.S. adults ( N = 1,613) who were followed longitudinally for 3 years. Participants reported lifetime and recent adversities experienced annually, as well as their opinions on a number of questions related to intergroup hostility and aggression toward out-groups, similar to those used in many lab studies of uncertainty. We anticipated that those who had experienced adversity would show more extreme support for their position. There was a positive relationship between adversity and the tendency to strongly affirm and polarize their positions. Results suggest that adverse life events may lead to long-lasting changes in one’s tendency to polarize one’s political attitudes.

Comparability and Short-Term Stability of Techniques to Assess Extension of Thinking about One's Personal Future

1983 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 559-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Rakowski ◽  
Clifton E. Barber ◽  
Wayne C. Seelbach
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Life Event ◽  
Term Stability ◽  
The Future ◽  
Changes Over Time ◽  
Over Time

Three techniques for assessing extension of one's personal future (line-marking, open-ended report, life-events) were compared in a sample of 74 respondents. Two points of data collection were employed to examine short-term stability. At both administrations, correlations among indices suggested that techniques were only moderately comparable. Short-term stabilities were variable; correlations ranged from .42 to .79. Across subgroups of the sample, the direct, open-ended report of extension showed the greatest stability, while life-event extension showed the least. Apparently, extension of thinking about the future should be assessed by more than one technique to investigate potential relationships with other variables or changes over time in perspective about the future.

4. Social and interpersonal aspects of ageing

2016 ◽  
pp. 66-86
Author(s):  
Nancy A. Pachana
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Role Changes ◽  
Technological Advances ◽  
Societal Context ◽  
Over Time

How we interact with others, with the physical and social environment, as well as how well we cope with life events, role changes, and positive and negative stresses all affect how we age. Later life is also intimately connected to, and affected by, circumstances and decisions earlier in life. Social support and engagement are critical for physical and emotional well-being. ‘Social and interpersonal aspects of ageing’ explores ageing in a social and societal context. The ways in which older adults engage with younger cohorts and their contribution to their family, communities, and society more broadly have changed over time and have also been affected by social and technological advances.

Incoherence matters

2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 283-300
Author(s):  
Anselma Gallinat
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Regime Change ◽  
Life Stories ◽  
Life Story ◽  
East Germany ◽  
State Socialism ◽  
German Unification ◽  
Narrative Coherence ◽  
Value System

Life-stories are usually seen as showing considerable coherence even where they include turning points. More recent work has in contrast noted that “living” or “small narratives” do not follow this rule but contrastingly enable the pondering of unresolved life-events helping to develop understanding. This potential is particularly valuable in contexts of fundamental regime-change where changes of the value-system, such as after transition from state socialism to democracy, pose considerable challenges to narrative coherence. The article suggests reconsidering the question of coherence in life-stories and draws on two examples of individuals who experienced life in East Germany and German unification to argue that struggles for coherence in the life-story can be indicative of the lack of wider shared frameworks for the understandings of national events and historical problems.

Cognitive Development

2013 ◽  
pp. 446-476
Author(s):  
David F. Bjorklund
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Cognitive Development ◽  
Intentional Control ◽  
Contemporary Research ◽  
Developmental Science ◽  
Exogenous Factors ◽  
Development Proceeds ◽  
Behavior And Cognition ◽  
Over Time ◽  
The Way

In this overview, I focus on contemporary research and theory related to five “truths” of cognitive development: (1) cognitive development proceeds as a result of the dynamic and reciprocal transaction of endogenous and exogenous factors; (2) cognitive development involves both stability and plasticity over time; (3) cognitive development involves changes in the way information is represented, although children of every age possess a variety of ways to represent experiences; (4) children develop increasing intentional control over their behavior and cognition; and (5) cognitive development occurs within a social context. Cognitive development happens at a variety of levels, and developmental scientists are becoming increasingly aware of the need to be cognizant of this and the interactions among the various levels to produce a true developmental science.

Between loneliness and belonging: narratives of social isolation among immigrant older adults in Canada

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Sharon Koehn ◽  
Ilyan Ferrer ◽  
Shari Brotman
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Social Isolation ◽  
Life Events ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Structural Approach ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Structural Forces ◽  
Linked Lives ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Immigrant And Refugee

Abstract Research points to a higher risk for social isolation and loneliness among new immigrant and refugee older adults. Our article draws from a research project that explored the everyday stories of ageing among 19 diverse immigrant older adults in Canada. To capture their experiences of loneliness and social isolation, we use four illustrative cases derived from a structural approach to life-story narrative. To these we apply the intersectional lifecourse analytical lens to examine how life events, timing and structural forces shape our participants’ experiences of social isolation and loneliness. We further explore the global and linked lives of our participants as well as the categories of difference that influence their experiences along the continua of loneliness to belonging, isolation to connection. Finally, we discuss how an understanding of sources of domination and expressions of agency and resistance to these forces might lead us to solutions.

Individuality and habits in institutional economics

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 791-809
Author(s):  
Heath Spong
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Institutional Economics ◽  
Individual Development ◽  
Self Concept ◽  
Structure Framework ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Over Time

AbstractIn this paper a sophisticated conception of individuality is developed that extends beyond simple heterogeneity and is consistent with the approach of institutional economics. Studies of human biological and psychological development are used to illustrate the foundations of human individuality and the impact of the social environment on individual development. The link between the social environment and ongoing agential properties is established through the role of habits, which provide some continuity to individual personalities over time and assist them in navigating the social context they inhabit. Reflexivity is established via an agency-structure framework that endows individuals a changeable self-concept and an ability to interpret their relationship to the social context. The coordination of different individuals is explained not simply through reference to institutional structure, but also through the agent-level properties of shared habits. While reducing differences between individuals to one of degrees, shared habits are shown to be particularly important in the context of agent-sensitive institutions. Finally, the potential for different institutional experiences to impact the reflexivity of individuals is explored.

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