Development of the Life Story in Early Adolescence

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina L. Steiner ◽  
David B. Pillemer
Keyword(s):  
Life Span ◽  
Early Adolescence ◽  
Life Stories ◽  
Developmental Psychology ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Single Event ◽  
Life Narrative ◽  
Novel Method ◽  
Causal Coherence

Life span developmental psychology proposes that the ability to create a coherent life narrative does not develop until early adolescence. Using a novel methodology, 10-, 12-, and 14-year-old participants were asked to tell their life stories aloud to a researcher. Later, participants separated their transcribed narratives into self-identified chapters. When life stories were assessed with measures of temporal and causal coherence, most participants in all age groups were able to tell a linear and coherent narrative. The 10-year-olds were more likely to start their narratives after birth and to use single event chapters in their stories, but they did not differ significantly from older participants in terms of the coherence or chronology of their chapters. This novel method for analyzing life narratives both supports and extends prior research on the development of life stories in adolescence.

Using Biographies of Adults over 65 Years of Age to Understand Life-Span Developmental Psychology

1997 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 116-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan M. Neysmith-Roy ◽  
Carmel L. Kleisinger
Keyword(s):  
Life Span ◽  
Adult Students ◽  
Personal Growth ◽  
Developmental Psychology ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Senior Citizen ◽  
Term Paper ◽  
Psychology Course ◽  
Traditional Term

Students in an undergraduate life-span developmental psychology course either wrote a traditional term paper or conducted a project that required interaction with a mentally alert adult over 65 years of age (senior citizen). Those who chose the project assisted a senior citizen in writing his or her own life story. Along with the life log, students submitted a paper demonstrating how their particular senior citizen experienced and worked through each of the life stages. By assisting their senior citizen to organize memories and interpret decisions that had shaped his or her life, the young adult students experienced those stages that they themselves had not yet lived through. Students evaluated the project positively as a theoretical learning experience and as a personal growth experience.

Remembering the Positive and Negative: Affective Themes as Predictors of Psychological Well-Being Across Adulthood

2021 ◽  
pp. 009141502110376
Author(s):  
Frederique Corcoran ◽  
Nicole Alea
Keyword(s):  
Personal Growth ◽  
Life Stories ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Positive Events ◽  
Psychological Well Being ◽  
Cross Cultural Differences ◽  
Middle Aged Adults

The current study explored the link between psychological well-being (PWB; self-acceptance, personal growth, and purpose in life) and affective themes, including redemption (positive endings for negative events), contamination (negative endings for positive events), and positive and negative affect (no change in affect) in the life stories of Caribbean adults ranging in age from 19 to 78 ( N = 105). How often the memory narrative was rehearsed, and whether or not the theme emerged after being cued in content-coded life story low, high, and turning point scenes were also considered. Affective theme alone did not predict PWB; however, when considering age, rehearsal, and cue, redemption and positive affect predicted personal growth. More work should cue meaning-making in specific ways for different age groups in order to understand why there were no associations for middle-aged adults. Efforts should also be made to understand cross-cultural differences in life stories and PWB.

A longitudinal study of global coherence in life narratives from age 8 to 70

2013 ◽  
Vol 28 (S2) ◽  
pp. 43-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Köber ◽  
T. Habermas
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Life Stories ◽  
Temporal Order ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Life Narratives ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Global Coherence ◽  
Narrative Performance ◽  
The Individual

When telling the own life story the individual is challenged to construct a coherent narrative, which is a cognitive and narrative performance. Not only the listener, but also the narrator wants to bring the multiple single events of his life into a coherent organization in order to demonstrate the own biographical development and to justify how one has become the person the one is at present. In a longitudinal study a total of 531 life narratives were collected in three waves. Since 2003 the participants of six age groups (presently 16, 20, 24, 28, 44 and 70 years old, 145 participants) told us their life stories every four years. We studied the development of global coherence of life narratives over almost the entire lifespan (8-70 years) by coding linguistic indicators at the level of propositions, by rating the global impression of listeners, by analyzing in terms of how well-formed the beginnings and endings of the life stories are and whether they follow a linear temporal order. The findings of the third wave replicate prior cross-sectional findings on development of global coherence in life narratives across adolescence and confirm them longitudinally. Temporal coherence is developed by midadolescence. By the age of 12, the majority of life narratives began with birth, ended in the present and followed mainly a linear temporal order. Regarding the overarching linear temporal macrostructure, it turned out that from age 20 on, the use of well-formed beginnings and endings and the maintenance of a comprehensible linear temporal order were well established. Causal-motivational coherence is developed by young adulthood and thematic coherence only in mid-adulthood.

Parents have lives, too!

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 130-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magdalena Budziszewska ◽  
Janina Pietrzak
Keyword(s):  
Early Adolescence ◽  
Life Stories ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Narrative Structure ◽  
Text Structure ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Narrative Form ◽  
Temporal Perspective ◽  
Story Structure ◽  
Narrative Story

The ability to tell one’s own, culturally valid life story emerges in adolescence — the process that has been metaphorically termed “getting a life”. Between early adolescence and the verge of adulthood, autobiographical stories gain broader temporal perspectives and show greater complexity. But do adolescents use the same narrative story structure when talking about their close ones, such as their parents? We analysed 348 texts written by adolescents and early adults concerning their parents. We demonstrated that, with age, communication changes from a descriptive, present tense format to complex life stories. We used specific indicators of narrative form: text structure, intentionality, temporal perspective, and point of view. Results indicate that early adults are more likely than are younger individuals to use narrative structure and content in their communication. We conclude that, by the end of adolescence, parents are increasingly given their own life stories in the voices of their children.

Conflict Monitoring Across the Life Span

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 124-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Czernochowski
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Life Span ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Conflict Detection ◽  
Response Conflict ◽  
Conflict Monitoring ◽  
Subsequent Performance ◽  
Additional Control ◽  
Performance Response ◽  
Conflict Detection And Resolution

Errors can play a major role for optimizing subsequent performance: Response conflict associated with (near) errors signals the need to recruit additional control resources to minimize future conflict. However, so far it remains open whether children and older adults also adjust their performance as a function of preceding response conflict. To examine the life span development of conflict detection and resolution, response conflict was elicited during a task-switching paradigm. Electrophysiological correlates of conflict detection for correct and incorrect responses and behavioral indices of post-error adjustments were assessed while participants in four age groups were asked to focus on either speed or accuracy. Despite difficulties in resolving response conflict, the ability to detect response conflict as indexed by the Ne/ERN component was expected to mature early and be preserved in older adults. As predicted, reliable Ne/ERN peaks were detected across age groups. However, only for adults Ne/ERN amplitudes associated with errors were larger compared to Nc/CRN amplitudes for correct trials under accuracy instructions, suggesting an ongoing maturation in the ability to differentiate levels of response conflict. Behavioral interference costs were considerable in both children and older adults. Performance for children and older adults deteriorated rather than improved following errors, in line with intact conflict detection, but impaired conflict resolution. Thus, participants in all age groups were able to detect response conflict, but only young adults successfully avoided subsequent conflict by up-regulating control.

Vocational Development in Emerging Adulthood

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael W. Pratt ◽  
M. Kyle Matsuba
Keyword(s):  
Turning Point ◽  
Life Stories ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Emerging Adult ◽  
Vocational Development ◽  
Data Set ◽  
The World ◽  
Key Concepts

Chapter 6 reviews research on the topic of vocational/occupational development in relation to the McAdams and Pals tripartite personality framework of traits, goals, and life stories. Distinctions between types of motivations for the work role (as a job, career, or calling) are particularly highlighted. The authors then turn to research from the Futures Study on work motivations and their links to personality traits, identity, generativity, and the life story, drawing on analyses and quotes from the data set. To illustrate the key concepts from this vocation chapter, the authors end with a case study on Charles Darwin’s pivotal turning point, his round-the-world voyage as naturalist for the HMS Beagle. Darwin was an emerging adult in his 20s at the time, and we highlight the role of this journey as a turning point in his adult vocational development.

The Life Span Development of Generativity

2020 ◽  
pp. 365-384
Author(s):  
Michael W. Pratt ◽  
M. Kyle Matsuba ◽  
Heather L. Lawford ◽  
Feliciano Villar
Keyword(s):  
Life Span ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Family Background ◽  
Personality Development ◽  
Adult Life ◽  
Stage Model ◽  
Life Domains ◽  
Adult Life Span ◽  
Life Span Development ◽  
Cultural Variations

This chapter addresses the development of generativity, Erikson’s conception of the midlife strength in his eight-stage model of personality development. Following Erikson, the authors define generativity as care for next generations and set it in the context of both personality theory and life span development. Specifically, the authors draw on the framework of McAdams that characterizes personality as composed of three sequentially developing levels: actions, goals/motives, and the narrative life story (a mature form of narrative that provides the self with a sense of meaning and identity). The authors then review research on generativity as expressed from adolescence to later adulthood, which indicates that it is a relevant construct across this entire period in a variety of life domains. They also consider factors influencing generativity levels, including family background and cultural variations. Throughout the chapter, the authors consider the connections of generativity to morality across different facets of personality and stages of the adult life span.

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